[Tuck4Bama]

It's no fun to lose, but football still is a game prefaced on being fun to play.

Prompted by a comment from special teams / tight ends coach James Shibest, Arkansas coach Houston Nutt drove that point home to his Razorbacks to start Thursday's light practice in shorts.

Arkansas suffered a heartbreaker Saturday at Alabama where the Hogs rallied from down to 31-10 to lead 38-31 then lose 41-38 with eight seconds left. The Razorbacks held their last real practice Thursday, other than today's walkthrough, for Saturday's 5 p.m. ESPN 2-televised SEC game with Kentucky at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Right after the team stretched, safeties coach Chris Vaughn, a former player for Nutt at Murray State, raced 30 yards to make a perfect form tackle on a tackling dummy with Shibest and team managers in hot pursuit celebrating the tackle.

" We just wanted to show them the game is still fun, " Nutt said. "

Somebody makes a play, it's about enthusiasm. It's about passion. I haven't seen enough of that lately. Just think it's important they know it's still a fun game and tell your teammates about it when they make a big play.

" Shibest noticed watching film that Michael Grant made a big play and not one came up and said, ' Good job ! ' So we used the coaches to emphasize it. "

Of course the real jumping for joy would come if moving Grant from safety to corner while Kevin Woods replaces Grant at safety shores up a Razorback pass defense that got beat on the corner by Alabama.

WholeHogSports.com - UA FOOTBALL PRACTICE : Arkansas coaches looking for ways to keep football fun for Razorbacks heading int...