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After watching game from stands, suspended Arkansas QB Cole Kelley reinstated

Arkansas freshman Cole Kelley was arrested earlier this month. (AP Photo/Thomas Graning, File)
Arkansas freshman Cole Kelley was arrested earlier this month. (AP Photo/Thomas Graning, File)

Cole Kelley watched his teammates play from the stands on Saturday.

Kelley, Arkansas’ redshirt freshman quarterback, was indefinitely suspended earlier this month after an arrest for suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Razorbacks coach Bret Bielema said that Kelley is back with the team as of Monday, two days after he watched the team drop a tough one to Mississippi State from the student section.

“I thought the definition of Cole happened Saturday,” Bielema said per HawgSports.com. “I didn’t know if he was going to be at that game. I think all the time, ‘How is a player going to respond?’ That probably showed me how much he loves his guys.”

The 6-foot-7, 268-pound Kelley took over as the team’s starting quarterback while Austin Allen was sidelined with a shoulder injury and has thrown for 1,038 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions while completing 57.6 percent of his passes. Allen returned to the field Saturday and Bielema would not divulge if Kelley, who saw action in certain packages when Allen was healthy early in the year, would play this weekend in the season finale against Missouri on Friday.

The Missouri game could be Bielema’s last at Arkansas. The Razorbacks are 4-7 on the season, giving Bielema a 29-33 overall record during his five seasons with the program.

Bielema was hired away from Wisconsin by athletic director Jeff Long. Long, one of Bielema’s biggest supporters, was fired last week in another sign that Bielema’s days in Fayetteville are numbered.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!