FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas defensive coordinator Reggie Herring knew there would be growing pains with the Razorbacks’ revamped defense.

For much of the second quarter on Saturday night, he just had to grin and bear them.

“I think, as everybody saw, the second quarter was a great indication of our inexperience,” Herring said after Arkansas’ 46-26 victory over Troy. “The second quarter, we got exposed.”

Troy quarterback Omar Haugabook did most of the undressing, completing 9 of 19 passes for 164 yards and 1 touchdown — with an interception — during a second quarter in which the Trojans rallied to within 23-17 against the heavily favored Razorbacks.

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The problems for the Arkansas defense in the second quarter were threefold. Foremost was a largely green secondary trying to play zone coverages against a Troy offense spreading the field with four or five receivers on practically every play.

“Zone coverage was horrendous,” Herring said.

A handful of ill-timed penalties didn’t help Arkansas’ cause. Backup cornerbacks Dallas Washington and Shedrick Johnson both kept alive Troy drives that eventually ended in touchdowns.

“I mean, we were interfering on balls thrown out of bounds,” Herring said.

Mix in an ineffective pass rush from Arkansas’ front four, and the Razorbacks defense left Herring with a pained expression as he left the field at halftime. But after canceling the zone schemes in favor of man-to-man coverage and taking the pulse of his players, Herring was encouraged.

“They kept their composure,” Herring said. “They could’ve panicked, but they didn’t, so that was a good sign.”

A better sign was Arkansas using the man coverages and a fifth pass-rusher to shake up Haugabook and eliminate any thoughts of a Troy upset. Haugabook completed just 4 of 19 passes in the third quarter, when Arkansas stretched its lead to 37-20.

“We just wanted to come out and get back to the basics,” senior cornerback Matterral Richardson said. “We knew the game was on the line and we knew our offense was moving the ball, so we just wanted to return the favor. We’re a team, and we wanted them to know they could depend on us.”

What the Razorbacks defense can count on as it prepares for its next game, Sept. 15 at Alabama, is a lot of film study and work on correcting the mistakes that allowed Troy to gain chunks of yardage during the second quarter.

“We got our feet wet. Now we’ve got an open date and we’ve got to get ready for the varsity team of Alabama,” Herring said. “We’ve got to get better and we will get better.”

That means tightening the zone coverages that were so loose Saturday. Richardson said being able to use zone coverages is critical once SEC play begins because one-dimensional schemes are too easy for offenses to attack.

“The SEC is the next best thing to the NFL... and if you play all zone, offensive coordinators will come up with zone-busters,” Richardson said. “If you play all man, they’ll have man-busters.

“ We play man. That’s what we do. But we just want to be able to mix it up a little bit.”

Otherwise, the growing pains could become unbearable.