ROGERS -- Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema got a kick out of his peers slotting the Razorbacks at No. 20 in the USA Today coaches preseason poll released Thursday.
Bielema knows how far the program has come since he inherited a 4-8 team after the 2012 season.
"What's kind of fun is you know a year ago we weren't in contention and the year before that we had no chance of being ranked in anything," Bielema said during his speaking engagement at the Mercy Coaching Summit at the John Q. Hammons Convention Center. "It means a lot to me because it's the coaches poll.
"And I didn't vote, so I didn't sway the vote in any way."
The Razorbacks, coming off a 7-6 season that featured three lopsided victories in their final four games, were the fifth-highest rated team in the SEC West in the poll.
Alabama is No. 3 in the poll, behind top-ranked Ohio State and No. 2 TCU, followed by other SEC teams in No. 7 Auburn, No. 9 Georgia, No. 13 LSU, No. 15 Ole Miss, the No. 20 Razorbacks, No. 23 Missouri and No. 25 Tennessee. Mississippi State and Texas A&M were the top two vote getters among other teams receiving votes. Arkansas will play all of the other ranked SEC teams with the exception of Georgia, as well as Mississippi State and Texas A&M this fall.
The Razorbacks and Tennessee were the only teams with seven victories in 2014 in the poll.
Bielema said the way Arkansas finished the season -- defeating No. 17 LSU, No. 8 Ole Miss and Texas by a combined 78-7, along with a 21-14 loss at Missouri -- he isn't shocked to see the preseason publicity.
"I thought we'd probably be ranked in it," he said. "It's a sign of good things, but like I said, we're more into postseason polls than preseason polls."
Later, addressing the audience at the Kendrick Fincher Hydration for Life luncheon, Bielema reiterated that the Razorbacks are trying to keep the preseason attention in perspective.
"The preseason polls are just a bunch of things to write about," he said. "Our kids are going to say, if you interviewed one of them right now, they'd say, 'That's great, we appreciate it, but we want to be in the postseason polls.' "
The Razorbacks who attended SEC media days with Bielema earlier this month in Hoover, Ala., were asked about the preseason attention being heaped on the Hogs.
"The preseason stuff is cool, but Coach B will attest to this, it's all about the postseason awards," quarterback Brandon Allen said. "I don't think there's a player on our team that really cares about preseason accolades or anything. It's all about what we accomplish during the season, and then about postseason accolades."
Arkansas had not appeared in the coaches' poll since being ranked No. 21 on Sept. 9, 2012, a season which began with the Razorbacks at No. 10 in the preseason poll.
SEC coaches voting in the poll this season are Auburn's Gus Malzahn, LSU's Les Miles, Missouri's Gary Pinkel, Georgia's Mark Richt, Alabama's Nick Saban, South Carolina's Steve Spurrier and Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin.
Arkansas finished up its summer workouts with strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert and his staff Tuesday, then the coaches took the team to a local restaurant to celebrate Wednesday.
"I'm excited," Bielema said. "I thought our guys finished the right way."
The Razorbacks report for fall camp Wednesday and will conduct their first practice in shorts Thursday.
Sports on 07/31/2015