Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson is viewing bowl practices as a chance to improve.

Is he also looking at it as a chance to state his case for the starting quarterback job — next season?

With sophomore Ryan Mallett pondering whether to return to Arkansas or head off to the NFL, there’s a little more attention being paid to the Razorbacks’ other quarterbacks. I had the chance to talk to both Wilson and freshman Brandon Mitchell today and they had plenty to say.

For starters, Wilson said he has been getting a good chunk of first-team repetitions the past couple days.

“(Thursday) I got quite a bit,” Wilson said. “Today I got most all of them. I was happy with it. You have to just continue to get better.”

Mitchell, who came back to the team after a brief stint with the football program, said he’s gotten more reps, too.

“(Thursday) I did most of the ones and then I got the twos,” Mitchell said. “Today I went half of twos and went with all the rookies after practice. I got a lot of ones and stuff like that.”

Practices aren’t open for us to check out exactly how the work is being divided, but it’s certainly interesting. One side could say this is proof that Mallett might be leaning toward the NFL. But Arkansas has been experimenting with a lot of different things in bowl practices, moving some players to defense and checking out other younger players a little more than usual as they prepare for 2010.

I asked both quarterbacks about Mallett and what they think he’ll do at the end of the season. They didn’t take a guess.

But both said they’d be ready to step in and replace Mallett if necessary.

“When my opportunity comes, I’m going to make the most of it and be prepared when it does come,” Wilson said.

Said Mitchell: “If he decides to leave, I enjoyed everything I learned from him. If he stays, I’m going to keep learning from him.”

I’ll have much more on Wilson and Mitchell in tomorrow’s papers.