ANDY SHUPE Northwest Arkansas Times Arkansas freshman center Seth Oxner snaps the ball to freshman quarterback Nathan Dick during practice at the UA practice field.

Wade Grayson and Seth Oxner traded places in a Razorback snap and traded places again.

Sophomore Grayson of Harrison switched from backup guard to backup center.

Redshirt freshman Oxner of Monticello traded from backup center to backup guard.

Then with Grayson both muffing a few snaps but playing well at guard, new head coach Bobby Petrino and new offensive line coach Mike Summers moved them back to their original positions with plans still to work them at the ones they had earlier switched.

" We are just trying to double-train some of these guys to create more depth, " new Arkansas offensive line coach Mike Summers said. " We will continue to crosstrain them. It means we can take the six best players, that the sixth- or seventhbest isn't limited to just one spot. It's a good thing for our depth. "

Grayson is ahead having played last year when both were true freshmen while Oxner of Monticello redshirted.

Grayson's exper ience enables him to recognize defensive fronts and make the calls a center must make to the linemen better than Oxner and as a guard, he started ahead of current senior Mitch Petrus for one game last year and ran first-team ahead of Petrus for a while in August under Petrino. Petrus and DeMarcus Love return as starting guards.

" We are going to have to use three guards throughout the season, and certainly Grayson is going to be one of them, " Petrino said.

However, Grayson found it no snap instantly to be the backup center to senior Rimington Award winner Jonathan Luigs.

" When he has trouble snapping, they put me in, " Oxner said. " The thing is he can do the calls and not snap but I can snap but not do calls. If you put us together, we'll be all right. "

That's why both are on the cross-training crash course.

The regime of former Razorback coach Houston Nutt last year had projected both Grayson and Oxner to redshirt as most freshman offensive linemen do.

However they went from choosing Oxner to redshirt to having to redshirt him. Oxner underwent knee surgery in the spring of 2007 tearing his ACL in a Monticello student-faculty basketball game.

Bet he hasn't picked up a basketball since.

" Actually I have, " Oxner said. " But just a shootaround. No dunking this time. "

Oxner's knee went clunk on a dunk.

He rehabbed hard, impressing the previous staff with his toughness just to practice while redshirting.

Meanwhile, Grayson, 6-4, 292, precocious and unflappable, so impressed former offensive line coach Mike Markuson that Grayson lettered. He was played off the bench in the season opener and played five games total including a start against Tennessee-Chattanooga. The one midseason UTC start ahead of Petrus reminded Grayson of the practice in August when he suddenly practiced on the first team and Petrus the second.

" I guess the coaches were trying to make Petrus work a little harder, " Grayson said. " The coaches last year did the same thing and it worked for them. "

Grayson seems pretty unflappable which impresses Petrino and Summers.

" I like his demeanor, " Summers said. " He's a real even-keeled personality. He doesn't get too high or low. "

A steady hand at center is about as important at center as it is at quarterback.

" They only got 2, 3 or 4 seconds to identify a front and make a call, " Summers said. " Some guys can handle it and some can't. He can. I like his blocking skills. He does a real good job in the run game and he's developing as a pass-protector. "

Summers is impressed with Oxner's 6-4, 300-pound potential at guard - especially given Seth's great gains in the weightroom.

" Seth is a real strong physical kid and has a passion to be a good player, " Summers said. " He's a little out of control at times but he has worked hard to hit his landmarks and take the correct steps and technically develop his game. I wanted to see his ability without having to put the ball between his legs and just let him go block and I have been real impressed with that. "

Come 2011, Petrino and Summers will lament Grayson played as a true freshman and won't be around to swap notes with Oxner.

It will be worth it to Grayson, though. Joe Grayson, Wade's grandfather, wouldn't have seen him play had Wade redshirted in 2007.

" He passed away the day of the spring game, " Wade Grayson said. " So he did get to see me play last fall. That was one thing that hit me hard that first game I did get to play. I was trying to play for him that game and every game after that. "