FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas is preparing for Saturday against No. 17 Texas in Austin.

Texas (7-3, 4-2) and Arkansas (2-8, 0-6) will kickoff at 2:30 p.m. and televised on ABC. In the 23-22 loss to LSU, Arkansas was without running back Braylen Russell and defensive end Charlie Collins. Bobby Petrino updated their status for Saturday.

"Charlie I think is going to be good this week," Petrino said. "He worked really, really hard last week to get ready to play, got out and got some practice in. We took him on the trip thinking that he would be ready and he wasn’t. So he should be good to go.

"Braylen was a weird… He ran into our fullback and was out for the game with a concussion protocol."

Russell, a former standout at Benton High School, is third on the team with 55 carries for 286 yards and 5 touchdowns. He has caught 4 passes for 27 yards. Will he be available for Texas?

"I don’t know," Petrino said. "You know, we’ll see how that goes. It just happened in a non-contact drill and he ran in and hit his own guy. We’ll just see how he comes back from it."

With Larry Worth sitting out the first half against LSU due to a targeting call against Mississippi State it allowed the coaches to get true freshman JJ Shelton into the game more.

"He got welcomed to SEC football," Petrino said. "He was a little sore yesterday, a little bit beat up. But I thought they did a pretty good job putting that package together and working the package that we had to get more speed on the field. He competed extremely hard, made some good plays. I think he is really sore, thought. It’s his first SEC game."

Shelton played linebacker at Dallas (Texas) South Oak Cliff and was the Dallas Morning News' Defensive Player of the Year. At 6-1, 202, will he be a linebacker or safety in the future?

"No, he's not a linebacker," Petrino said. "That's a dime package, so he's in there playing that spot in just that dime package where you take a hog, which used to be called nickel. Now everyone wants to call them their nickname, but it used to be a nickelback. Some people call it a star. I think that's when it was a bigger guy. We at one time called it... What did we call it? Cinco. Cinco was the greatest player that ever lived. Jerico Nelson. Man, did he know how to play Cinco. That's his position more than a linebacker."

Petrino and the staff have played a lot of younger players more than the previous coach. Former Harding Academy linebacker Wyatt Simmons had three tackles and blocked a punt. Courtney Crutchfield caught his first pass that went for 26 yards.

"Yeah, I think it's something that Courtney earned [with how he’s been] practicing," Petrino said. "And he's shown it like for the last three weeks, and I made a decision to make sure that you rotate him in and give him reps, and he came up with a really nice catch, big play for us. But he's been practicing really well, no question about it. (Nigel) Pringle, you know, we had a young man get sick and not be able to play, and I thought he stepped in there and competed hard, and he's been practicing better, too, and doing a good job.

Cam’s (Settles) been playing really well all year long on special teams. Doing a real nice job for us. Really unselfish guy, you know, had the opportunity to continue to play on special teams and turn the redshirt away. He’s going to be a really good football player. What he possesses is the ability to protect the quarterback, and that gets you on the field a lot more. I’d like to see him carry the ball more."

Petrino talked about the blocked punt with Simmons and Caleb Wooden.

"Yeah, it looked like Wyatt got it, and then Wooden picked it up and scored," Petrino said. "But they were both there, so it's hard to tell if it hit both their arms or didn't."