FAYETTEVILLE — When Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt says he can’t wait to begin spring football practice, he’s not kidding.

Both of this week’s workouts begin before sunrise, including today’s 5: 20 a. m. practice in helmets and shorts. Wednesday, the Razorbacks will gather in Walker Pavilion at 5 a. m.

Why so early ? Speaking engagements for Nutt and members of his staff, coupled with class commitments for the players, prevent later scheduling as the Razorbacks return to the practice field for the first time since a 17-14 loss to Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl ended their season at 10-4.

Today’s practice is also the first with offensive coordinator David Lee, who replaces Gus Malzahn, now at Tulsa. Malzahn resigned abruptly from the Razorbacks staff in January. Nutt is looking at spring practice as an opportunity to put a controversy-filled off-season behind him, while building on the success of 2006, which included running back Darren McFadden winning the Doak Walker Award and finishing runner-up for the Heisman Trophy.

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“You always look forward to spring practice,” Nutt said at a Monday news conference. “It’s a great time for teaching and learning and getting people better.

“ I can’t wait. I can’t wait, even when it’s 5: 20 in the morning. I can’t wait.”

Arkansas will dive right in to tweaking its passing game, something that has become a familiar spring practice theme during Nutt’s tenure. Nutt said the team will focus on implementing the ideas of Lee, a former Dallas Cowboys assistant now in his third stint with the Razorbacks. Lee is expected to focus on additional pass protection packages and the use of play-action passing to complement the Razorbacks’ running game, which featured a pair of 1, 000-yard rushers in McFadden and junior Felix Jones.

“It’s fundamentals. Fundamentals. Fundamentals,” Nutt said. “Offensively, the thing that we want to do is really try to put a lot of emphasis on our passing game.”

Consistency in the passing game has been a problem for the Razorbacks, who have ranked no higher than 62 nd nationally in passing since quarterback Clint Stoerner left following the 1999 season. Arkansas ended both the 2005 and 2006 seasons ranked 108 th in passing out of 117 Division I schools. Nutt continued to stress that this year will be different.

He pointed to the experience of Dick at quarterback and the potential for additional receiving threats to emerge alongside senior Marcus Monk. Dick completed 65 of 132 passes for 991 yards with 9 touchdowns against 6 interceptions.

“When [Stoerner ] was a freshman and sophomore, there were some struggles,” Nutt said. “Casey Dick is going to be a junior, a year older. I think that makes a lot of difference. He’ll get a lot of reps this spring. I think he has a few more veteran receivers that can help with Marcus Monk. I think that will be the difference.”

With Arkansas spending its second consecutive spring learning new terminology and philosophies in the passing game, Nutt has asked defensive coordinator Reggie Herring to “go all out” with his defensive packages in hopes of immediately pressuring a largely untested group of receivers, a stilldeveloping quarterback and an offensive line that must fill three starting spots.

“It’s about executing under pressure,” Nutt said. “Everybody is pretty good when it’s a nice, vanilla defense.”

That all-out approach comes with a caveat, though. Dick is the only scholarship quarterback on campus until the fall, and walk-on Nathan Emert enters the spring at No. 2. Former starting quarterback Robert Johnson will remain at flanker, where he is penciled in as a starter.

“We won’t let them tee off on [Dick ], but he is going to have to feel the pressure,” Nutt said.

That no-holds-barred approach should also benefit the defense as it prepares for life without end Jamal Anderson and cornerback Chris Houston, two possible firstround NFL draft picks.

A search for replacements begins this morning but won’t conclude for another month.

Arkansas plans to conduct the remainder of its 15 allotted spring practices following spring break, which runs March 19-23. Practice is expected to resume Monday, March 26, and will conclude with a spring game on April 14 in conjunction with RazorFest, a free event to raise awareness for Champions for Kids.