FAYETTEVILLE -- One week ago today, there were reports that all of major college football was preparing to pump the brakes on the 2020 fall season.
Today, SEC teams entered the final weekend before the start of camp practices Monday, and University of Arkansas first-year Coach Sam Pittman is elated.
"I can tell you that we're excited about practice starting," Pittman said on a video chat Friday. "I think the kids are excited. There's a lot that goes into coaching, but they name you coach so you can get players out there and try to make them better and things of that nature.
"So you can feel the excitement of our team, our staff, and everybody in our building. We're really excited to go see a little bit more about our players."
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The Razorbacks, coming off back-to-back 2-10 seasons, will have many highly scrutinized position battles, particularly on defense, but the quarterback situation will draw much of the publicity. At that spot, graduate transfer senior Feleipe Franks would seemingly have an edge over returning younger players in KJ Jefferson, John Stephen Jones and Jack Lindsey, as well as incoming freshman Malik Hornsby.
"I think he's going to be really, really sharp once we get going on Monday, so excited to see him and the rest of the guys," offensive coordinator Kendal Briles said of Franks. "Hopefully Feleipe will be what we think he is. There's still going to be competition, but I would say it's going to be his job to lose."
Pittman and his staff are thankful the opportunity to start real practicing is on the horizon. After an initial small outbreak of positive covid-19 tests after players reported in June, the Razorbacks' publicly announced update had trickled to just a couple in quarantine per Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek as of a couple of weeks ago.
The SEC, Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences have elected to push forward with football among the Power 5 leagues, along with the Sun Belt, the American Athletic and Conference USA from the Group of Five.
Pittman said he had his doubts about practice starting up when he heard the reports the Big Ten and Pac-12 were punting on fall football.
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"Well, it didn't help me," Pittman said of those announcements. "Once you saw the Big Ten and the Pac-12 decide not to do it, then you're going, 'Well, are we going to follow suit?'
"But we were made well aware a long time ago that we felt like we were as ahead or equal with anybody in knowledge of the covid in our testing plans. So I always felt like there was going to be an opportunity to play, and I felt like we'd hang on as long as possibly any conference. To this point, that's what we've done."
Pittman appeared on Friday's video chat separately but along with Briles and defensive coordinator Barry Odom, who was asked what he thought about knowing he'd be the acting head coach if Pittman contracts the virus.
"Well, No. 1, Coach Pittman is not going to get it," Odom said. "I can tell he's not going to get it. But also, credit to him for the things he's done organizationally on planning and ... moving our program forward every step of the way. He's done a heck of a job.
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"I think -- knock on wood -- that's not going to happen, but if something like that were to happen, the staff is so great, I would be able to continue to do the things we need to do on defense, and then obviously Kendal and I would spend a lot of time going into that game on the management of what that'd look like. You have to plan for everything, I understand that. I don't really know that we change that much.
"I am fortunate that I've got in-game experience of sitting in that chair for the last four years. I think we'd be able to manage, and it wouldn't happen without the staff we have here in place, for sure."
Briles said the Smith Football Center is rigged for virus protection, and everyone in the building has taken safety measures seriously in what he called a "no-nonsense" manner.
"You come in this office, really any part of it, the players are all-mask, the coaches are all-mask," he said. "We wear masks all day, and I know a lot of other colleagues that are in the same position we are that aren't doing the same.
"With the players, we feel like this is the safest place we can be. Everything we can do to make it as safe as you can, we have done it."
The Razorbacks have been engaged in walk-throughs without pads that they take at a slower speed. On Monday, things will start to change.
"The speed," Pittman said. "Instead of a walk, we'll be able to go full speed. The NFL teams do it all the time. We just have to certainly teach them how to practice against each other with no pads on. We're going to have a full two-hour practice from the time flex starts until it's over.
"Our guys are going to be able to cover. They're going to be able to throw and catch. They're going to be able to do some things, at least some of those things they could do on their own.
"But now we're able to coach them and able to see what we can do. It's going to be an exciting day on Monday, because it's the first time we've ever seen our kids go full speed. It's exciting to even think about. It'll just be an amped-up version of some of the things we've been doing to be honest with you."
Odom, pressed for what base defensive alignment the Razorbacks will start in, said it would be a four-man front.
"I've been very multiple every place that I've been in every year, and that won't change this year," he said. "We've already got the scripts done for Monday, at least defensively. We'll have a four-down look, but within that first series we'll be able to get into a number of different looks with those guys. It'll be interchanging."