SEC team preview: Arkansas Razorbacks

Hogs stuck in a rut

Arkansas running back Rakeem Boyd (5) takes a handoff from quarterback Feleipe Franks during practice Friday, Aug. 21, 2020, in Fayetteville.

What to make of Arkansas Razorbacks football in 2020?

The national analysts don't think much of the Razorbacks' prospects, as betting sites have set the team's over/under win total for the altered 10-game, all-conference schedule at somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 victories.

The SEC is contemplating conducting a media poll to select a preseason All-SEC team and predicted order of finish, projections that were put off when the league wiped out its media days scheduled for Atlanta in July due because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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First in a series previewing the 2020 SEC football season.

An educated guess is the University of Arkansas under first-year Coach Sam Pittman would be picked last in the SEC West, where the Hogs have resided alone each of the past three years.

The Razorbacks understand they're fighting from the back of the pack with their third head coach in four seasons, but they sound determined to break out in 2020.

"This is the best opportunity because looking at where we're slated, and looking at what we've done the last two years, and looking at who we've got, it's the greatest opportunity in the nation," junior wide receiver Mike Woods said.

"At the end of the day, we're playing with a chip on our shoulder," junior cornerback Montaric Brown said.

Pittman's term as offensive line coach at Arkansas from 2013-15 included the best seasons at the school (2014-15) since Bobby Petrino's Harley-Davidson wreck on April Fool's Day 2012. His lineage speaks to strong recruiting and successful work at North Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma and most recently Georgia, which went 44-12 the past four seasons under Kirby Smart and played for the College Football Playoff national title in 2017 after winning the SEC.

Pittman has steered clear of making sweeping promises of the "Left lane, hammer down" ilk.

Instead, he has talked about wanting to instill toughness and confidence into a program that has been kicked around for a few years.

"We can breathe confidence, we can breathe work ethic from us as a staff, and communication to our players," Pittman said at his introductory news conference.

Pittman has repeated the statement that he and the coaching staff "believe" in the players.

"I want to see how tough of a program we are," Pittman said. "I want to see how disciplined we are. We're going to put them through tough practices, and I want to see how we react.

"I feel like I know how we're going to react. That we're going to dig down and come roaring back the next play. But we have to test our football team in practice to see what we have. We can't wait until Saturdays to find out."

Pittman and his staff have talked about inheriting a receptive group that will do what it takes to rebound in the SEC.

"I think that's one of the biggest things that I see from this football team is that they're eager to do right, they're eager to please, they want to learn, they want to get better," offensive coordinator Kendal Briles said. "They're easy to coach because they're wanting to be successful. We're going to help to allow them to do that."

In defensive coordinator Barry Odom, the Razorbacks have a four-year head coach who has learned to analyze things from a bigger picture.

Asked about developing consistency on defense, Odom discussed a variety of ways to do it, ending with "understanding of the mental toughness that it takes throughout the course of a four-quarter game to withstand."

"The other team is going to have good players," Odom said. "They are going to make some plays. I am going to make some bad calls, and our guys have to make me right. It's the trust in each other, but also knowing that happens throughout the week and it's been building since January for us, and it's going to continue."

Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek said he felt some of the candidates he talked to about the vacant head coaching job were not cut out to take on the challenge of rebuilding the Razorbacks. Pittman stood out because he embraced the difficult task and convinced Yurachek he wanted to be at Arkansas. Still, Yurachek understands Pittman has not been a major college head coach.

"You can say that the Southeastern Conference maybe is a tough place to cut your teeth as a head coach," Yurachek said. "But I don't think Kirby Smart was a head coach before he got the job at Georgia if my memory serves me correctly, and he's done a pretty good job there."

The Razorbacks have gone through three practices thus far during "camp," and will don full pads for the first time on Tuesday.

A little tote board ledger would come in handy to assess where Arkansas stands in a season that, if played in its entirety, promises to be the strangest since World War II.

On the plus side, the Razorbacks hired a positive coach in Pittman who badly wanted to be in Fayetteville, is an ace recruiter and who has assembled a quality staff.

However, Pittman is also a first-year coach who inherited a team that went 2-10 two years running and has a 19-game SEC losing streak.

On the upside, Arkansas returns a 1,133-yard back in Rakeem Boyd; three top wideouts in Treylon Burks, Trey Knox and Woods; four offensive line starters; and graduate transfer quarterback Feleipe Franks from Florida.

And yet, the offense has so much making up to do under Briles, who is in his first season in the SEC. The Razorbacks ranked 111th in the nation with 340.1 yards per game last year, 228 fewer yards per game than College Football Playoff champion LSU, which sported the nation's top offense.

Arkansas had a solid running attack with Boyd as the focal point, and yet it was 85th in the nation at 147 yards per game. The Razorbacks were 49th with 4.7 yards per carry, good for ninth in the SEC, and have most of the talent back that produced that solid figure.

Pittman and offensive line coach Brad Davis are thought to be in the upper echelon of men who recruit and develop offensive linemen, so most analysts expect a swift upgrade in performance on the front, where center Ty Clary, tackles Myron Cunningham and Dalton Wagner, and guard Ricky Stromberg are returning starters. Stromberg is getting a strong look at center in camp as the Razorbacks try to assess their top five, top eight and top 10 linemen.

On defense, Odom said the Razorbacks will be flexible enough to run multiple fronts, depending on how they would like to attack the large array of Spread offenses they'll face.

There is returning experience at linebacker with Bumper Pool, Grant Morgan and Hayden Henry, and in the secondary with starting cornerbacks Brown and Jarques McClellion, and starting safety Joe Foucha.

The Razorbacks were not a strong pass-rushing team last year, and they lost key figures McTelvin Agim, T.J. Smith, Gabe Richardson and Jamario Bell from that unit. Dorian Gerald's healthy return at end would is a key factor to the front becoming more disruptive.

Pittman and Odom both said the defensive line had been a pleasant surprise during winter conditioning and spring drills. Newcomers Xavier Kelly, Julius Coates, Blayne Toll and Andy Boykin will need to contribute along with more experienced players such as Jonathan Marshall, Isaiah Nichols and Mataio Soli.

The Razorbacks are more than a three-touchdown underdog for their Sept. 26 season opener at home against Georgia, and there's a chance they will not be favored in any game at all if they get off to a rough start.

That underdog approach is fine with the Razorbacks.

"The people making these rankings ain't with us every day," Woods said. "They don't see what we go through. They don't see how we lead our team."

Added Brown, "They don't see the grind behind the closed doors. So we're just working and we'll prove them wrong. We're really not worried about the outside."