FAYETTEVILLE — Chris Wade’s welcome to big-time college football came on one of his first snaps as an Arkansas Razorback.

In the 2006 opener against Southern California, Wade came in as a reserve and moments later found himself on his back when USC’s Ryan Powdrell, 6-0, 249 pounds, power drilled Wade to the grass at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

“ I was going in and he came straight at my earhole, ’’ Wade said. “ He caught me off guard and just looked at me and let me know I was in the real deal.

“ I was like, OK, and I came back the next play and rocked his world. ’’

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Wade, 6-5, 258 pounds, has followed a winding road from his high school days at Broken Arrow (Okla. ) High School to the brink of making his first start at defensive end for the Razorbacks.

Wade’s first starting assignment is a tricky one: Keep containment on Troy quarterback Omar Haugabook in Saturday’s season opener.

“ I have to keep pressure on that quarterback, ’’ Wade said. “ I heard he’s pretty fast and he likes to shake a little bit.... I mean, I’m fast, he’s fast, whatever it takes. ’’

Wade played defensive end, tight end and sometimes receiver at Broken Arrow, but defense was his favorite spot.

“ Most of the time, I really liked hitting, ’’ he said. “ I didn’t like getting hit, I liked laying the hit. ’’

Wade signed with Missouri out of high school but did not make a qualifying score on his ACT and wound up at Northeast Oklahoma A&M, where he earned junior college second-team All-America honors as a sophomore.

As Wade’s football notoriety increased, so did the number of schools recruiting him.

“ I de-committed [from Missouri ] and it came down to Kansas State and Arkansas, ’’ Wade said. “ I took a visit to K-State and didn’t like that very well, so I talked to my dad [Preston Thomas ] — I’m always looking to my dad for answers and stuff — and he said, ‘You need to go to Arkansas.’

“ You’ve got a heck of a coach, Tracy Rocker, and a heck of a defensive coordinator, Coach [Reggie ] Herring, and they know what they’re talking about. ’’

There was talk of redshirting Wade last season to allow him to get stronger and make adjustments to the speed of the game, but he ended up playing in all 14 games.

“ We needed him, we had to play him, and he did fine, ’’ Rocker said. “ He came off the bench [for Jamaal Anderson’s spot ] and we rested some guys. Now, he’s the guy. ’ ’

Wade accounted for 15 tackles, 1 sack and 3 tackles for loss during Arkansas’ run to the SEC West championship.

Rocker extolled the work ethic he saw from Wade during the winter program and the off-season, calling him “ a great kid, a great worker. ’ ’

Herring said the time to evaluate Wade will come when the lights go on Saturday.

“ He’s a guy right now that’s been put into a starting position and we’ll see if he can keep up the position, let’s see if he can own it, ’’ Herring said. “ We’ve got a policy around here: You’ve got to earn it every day.... He’s a new guy to be a starter.

“ That’s what we’ve got to find out Saturday, not what he’s done in the past month. ’’

Wade was thought to be holding a starting job only until Marcus Harrison returned from the rehabilitation on his surgically repaired knee. But with Harrison’s arrest over the weekend on a felony charge of possession of a controlled substance along with other misdemeanors, Wade could be holding down the job for a while.

“ My parents and my cousins back home have been like, ‘Hey, you got the starting position, keep it. Let’s go, it’s time to roll. It’s your last year, make things happen,’ ’’ Wade said.

Just try to keep an eye out for raging fullbacks.