FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick was thankful for the protection he received during the Razorbacks ’ 46-26 victory over Troy.

Darren Mc-Fadden and Felix Jones were pleased with the room they were provided to run on their way to a combined 280 rushing yards against the Trojans.

And Arkansas’ rebuilt offensive line was happy to oblige, leading the way as the Razorbacks pulverized Troy’s experienced defense for 507 total yards and 350 rushing yards.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” senior guard Robert Felton said.

“I feel like they did a real good job, because we didn’t have any quarterback sacks on the first team,” McFadden said.

Said Dick: “They did a fantastic job back there giving us some time to do some things. You couldn’t really ask any more out there.”

Arkansas enters into its open weekend with the nation’s No. 4 rushing attack, the same position it held after the 2006 season.

“That’s pretty good up front when you put up those numbers,” Felton said.

“This is no knock on Troy, but it was expected. Now SEC play starts. We’ll get a good test at Alabama.”

Offensive line coach Mike Markuson said he knows there is work to be done before next Saturday’s SEC opener at Alabama. Replacing three starters is not that easy.

“There was some good, some bad,” Markuson said. “We’re concentrating on fundamentals this week. We had about seven mental errors [against Troy ] we’ve got to get cleaned up.”

The errors were issues the average fan wouldn’t catch.

“Just taking the right steps, getting our hands in, just kind of technical stuff,” said preseason All-SEC center Jonathan Luigs.

“Things that it takes to beat good opponents is that kind of technique, and we’ve just got to get used to doing that on the game field so we can do it against Alabama and teams from the SEC.”

Luigs and Felton, the returning starters, were joined by firsttime starters Jose Valdez and Nate Garner at tackle and Mitch Petrus at guard.

“It seemed like [the new starters ] were a little bright-eyed, had some nerves,” Luigs said.

“Over the course of the game, they adjusted to the speed.” Luigs, sounding like a coach, voiced his biggest complaint over the quantity of field goals Arkansas settled for: 4.

“We were able to move the ball between the 20 s, [and ] it was just kind of punching it in and rolling those sixes is what we need to improve on.”

Said Valdez: “We’re happy with the win, but Coach Markuson is big with the fundamentals and we have to get better if we want to be a great line.”

Valdez was flagged for a false start in the game, though several Razorbacks appeared to move on the play. “What happened, we were in the WildHog, and Darren said ‘Hut, ”’ Valdez said.

“ Luigs was still making calls, but we heard ‘Hut,’ and we jumped.” There might have been a false start on that play, but for the Arkansas offensive line as a group the start fell right into the Razorbacks’ norm.