FAYETTEVILLE — Now that football has started, is Bobby Petrino different ?

Not really.

At exactly 8: 30 Tuesday morning, Petrino walked into the Raymond Miller Room in the Broyles Athletic Center, took his seat at the podium, made a brief opening statement and then opened the floor to questions.

He wasn’t a minute early or a minute late, and exactly 20 minutes after he started, he was finished.

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Petrino is that organized and pays that much attention to detail.

Saying he runs a tight ship would be like saying the offense is going to be more wide open this season.

Petrino is the CEO of the Arkansas Razorbacks football program, and he sweats every detail personally.

He was honest and direct with his comments and answers, explaining such things as there will always be contact in practice, how older players are expected to help teach the younger players for the sake of team unity and even addressing tight ends and special teams.

In fact, word was an initial special teams depth chart had been drawn after the first day of practice — with a decision to come on return men — right down to the PAT / field-goal block teams.

When his time was up, he left, but he returned and sat in the back of the room and listened to his brother Paul, the offensive coordinator, and Willy Robinson, the defensive coordinator, give 10 minutes to answering questions.

Within seconds after that part of media day ended, he took a couple of minutes to visit with some media guys who were discussing skin cancer, and Petrino even said he had his own battles of growing up before sunscreen.

Then, it was down the stairs to the old indoor workout facility where he fulfilled every interview request, but at the same time, he was working, too.

Media members were asked to have their pictures made — it was not required — and the word was it was so Petrino and his staff could learn the face of each media person.

If that was the case, it would only make sense because the media numbers seem to grow each year, and since taking the head-coaching job at Arkansas, Petrino has not spent a great deal of time with the state media.

In some ways, Petrino is old school, delegating and directing and making the tough decisions, but he’s also hands-on.

When Ernest Mitchell had his problem in June, the first person he went to see was Petrino, which should carry a little weight on Mitchell’s side of the justice scale.

The punishment might remain private, but when asked about Mitchell’s recent problem, Petrino’s voice changed noticeably. He added that Mitchell was running with the twos and threes, meaning second and third teams.

Before Mitchell, Petrino handed out two-game suspensions to Freddy Burton and Marques Wade when school guidelines called for a one-game suspension. There is a sense he is not going to be handing out third and fourth chances on a regular basis.

Petrino is so precise in his movements and what he says that he seems somewhat methodical, but after watching the first practice and listening to him Tuesday, there is a rhyme and reason for everything he does, and the end result will be, someday, winning football.

It should be noted, too, that during the first practice on Monday players and assistant coaches hustled from drill to drill. No doubt this will continue.

Mostly, what Petrino did Tuesday — and this will most likely continue, too — was talk about the players.

He makes them the focus.

He talked about some guys who had been impressive and some who needed work.

He admitted the Razorbacks need some freshmen to play like veterans, and that’s one of the reasons he has older players teaching younger players.

All things considered, Petrino isn’t much different this week than he was a month ago.

He’s a football coach 24-7.