After not practicing much on Monday, running back Trevor Etienne was back on the field for Tuesday workouts. According to head coach Kirby Smart, he is pushing toward playing in Saturday’s game No. 16 Ole Miss (3:30 p.m., ABC).

Etienne is recovering from a rib injury he suffered in the second quarter of Saturday’s 34-20 win over Florida.

“He's been great. He did some extra conditioning, taking some reps,” Smart said after practice. “He’s been in a black shirt, but he's toughing it out. You'll have to figure out all the things he can and can't do. It was hard to say after the Monday practice, he didn't do much. He was still stiff and sore. He ran around a little bit, loosened up, and then he did some more stuff today. He took some reps.”

Ettiene’s return would certainly qualify as a boost for the offense of the Bulldogs, who leaned on freshman Nate Frazier and former walk-on Cash Jones after Etienne left the game.

Both Frazier and Jones scored touchdowns for the Bulldogs, as did freshman running back Dwight Phillips II, who ran in from short yardage on his first college carry in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

Smart hinted there may be more in store for Phillips, one of the fastest players on the team.

“He can do some more things. He's a bright kid. He’s really smart. He's 193 pounds or something. He's a kid that's getting better each and every day, and he's growing a lot,” Smart said. “He wasn't here in the spring, so he didn't get to go through spring, and he hasn't played in an offense quite this style. He's growing. What's crazy is you tell him something once, and he remembers it, and he does a good job with learning.”

…Smart said there’s no secret why Ole Miss has the league’s top run defense (82.22 yards per game).

“Big humans. Large, fast humans and immovable objects with twitch and twist,” Smart said. “They're fast and big. You want to see a good defense, look at fast and big, and they got both.”

…Smart said right guard Tate Ratledge (tightrope surgery) made it through Saturday’s game OK, albeit very sore.

“We had two guys really sore and hurting in there. Micah (Morris) and Tate both were really tough, tough guys,” Smart said. ‘You can see on the tape they pushed through some injuries and played with some great toughness.”

… It’s still unclear if Anthony Evans III will be able to resume his duties as punt returner this weekend. But if he isn’t, Smart said Malaki Starks will continue to handle the role.

“It's going to be a matter of whether Anthony's healthy enough to. I think Malaki's going to do nothing but get better and get more confidence. He's done it before in his life. He hasn't done it in a game. So, that game changed a little bit,” Smart said. “We weren't asking him to do that at the point that they lost their quarterback. We got wind. We had a couple of opportunities. We wanted to play safe on the punt return team and make sure we defended the fake. We didn't set up returns. So, there were probably some yards there, but we were not asking him to do that.”

…Smart lamented the depth of his entire team when asked a question about his squad’s depth at wide receiver.

“I've told you 100,000 times. Y'all can ask me that question every day. We don't have enough depth at any position. I don't know one coach that will tell you, ‘I got the greatest depth in the world. We're great there,’” Smart said. “I don't feel good about our depth. I don't feel great about our depth at snapper. I don't feel great about our depth at holder. I don't feel great about our depth at field goal protection. I don't feel good about our depth at wide receiver or anything because I don't ever think you have enough to practice the way you need to practice.”

…Ole Miss wide receiver Tre Harris almost has 1,000 yards receiving and Smart acknowledges he’s going to be a challenge.

“Vertical speed, size. You got somebody that big and that size, I mean, he can take a hitch and go to the house. He can take a post and go to the house. He is a dangerous player, and you see it on tape. Like, I mean, it's amazing what they've done without this guy now,” Smart said “I mean because they've been explosive. And we do those explosive plays and put it up on the chart of all the SEC teams every week. And it's like, theirs is like a dang slot machine just going up. They've done it with and without him, which is a credit to their offensive staff and their players.”

…Smart responded to a question about his team leadership, which he says is very good.

“I think we've had player-led teams since I've been here. The degree of which that is might vary, but I've been very pleased with the player leadership of this team. I meet with those guys on a regular basis, and they hold each other accountable, which is probably the most important thing,” Smart said. “They try to hold other players to the standard. And look, Nate (Frazier) made a mistake. He's not a bad kid. He's a good kid. He made an emotional mistake. He knows that. And his players, his brothers, let him know that and I think that's important.”