Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

10/19/2010 at 9:18pm

FAYETTEVILLE — Ryan Mallett was back at practice on Tuesday, three days after sustaining a concussion. Mallett could be seen wearing full pads and throwing passes to teammates during individual and team portions of the workout during the open periods of practice.

Mallett said there are no lingering effects from the injury.

“I’m 100 percent, ready to go,” Mallett said.

Mallett was injured in the second quarter when hit hard by Auburn defensive tackle Nick Fairley. Arkansas scored two plays later with 9:43 left, but Mallett appeared to be “woozy” and wasn’t allowed back into the game by team medical personnel.

Offensive coordinator Garrick McGee said he noticed something was wrong with Mallett after a stoppage of play in the second half. Mallett said his head hit the turf hard on the play.

Even so, Mallett said he lobbied to get back into the game, but was not cleared and he watched from the sidelines.

“I didn’t ever black out or not know where I was,” Mallett said of last Saturday’s hit. “I was just feeling kind of woozy and talked to the coaches and trainers and we figured it out and they brought me out. I wanted to go back in. They wouldn’t let me.”

Mallett, who has thrown for 1,844 yards and 14 touchdowns, also answered questions about his left shoulder. He had surgery on his non-throwing shoulder in the offseson and appeared to take a hard hit to his shoulder on the play that apparently led to the concussion. A reporter asked Mallett about "speculation" his shoulder is damaged.

“My left shoulder is not bad,” Mallett said. “I hit my head pretty good off the ground. That’s what happened. There can be all this speculation, whatever. It happens here and it’s always going to be like that.”

McGee said he doesn’t foresee any additional issues with Mallett. There were no noticable issues Monday stemming from the head injury.

“He’ll be fine. He has no symptoms any more,” McGee said. “He’s focused. He understands the Tuesday part of the game play. He watched a lot of film yesterday. He’ll be ready to go.”

Teammates didn’t notice any difference. Tight end D.J. Williams said Mallett’s performance was business as usual.

“Ryan was fine. He was the same old Ryan, nothing anybody needs to worry about,” Williams said. “He’s the great player that he was and still is.”

Dennis Johnson Update
Running back Dennis Johnson was spotted riding a stationary bike during practice. Johnson has been out since undergoing surgery to repair an internal injury following the Louisiana-Monroe game.

It isn’t likely Johnson will return this season, but he is making progress.

Quotable
“That’s hard to do. He’s with Verizon. I’m AT&T. You don’t really get, what’s that called, mobile-to-mobile? Something like that. I know I can’t afford to pay for the minutes.”
—Tight end D.J. Williams on if he still keeps in touch with former Arkansas coach Houston Nutt, who is now at Ole Miss.

Tagged: Nick Fairley, Auburn Tigers, Ryan Mallett, Bobby Petrino, Arkansas Razorbacks