College Football Preview 2024 | Page 11

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PREVIEW | 8.25.2024

“ I came back here to support Coach Pittman and winning,” Petrino said.“ I appreciate him a lot when he did send [ the message ],‘ This is Coach Pittman and I want to talk to you.’ The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I’ m like,‘ That’ s going to happen, really?’”

His employment took special authorization from UA System President Donald Bobbitt and sent shockwaves throughout the college football world. It stole headlines as memories of Petrino’ s triumph and fall from over a decade prior resurfaced.

Petrino, in the same“ what’ s fair is fair” attitude Pittman enters the season with, understands the criticism.

“ I’ m not really sure what words to use on it, but my beliefs are it’ s OK for people to disagree, have different thoughts, have different opinions,” Petrino said.“ I grew up where this is in the United States of America. Everybody can have their own thoughts, their own religion, their own feelings on everything. And you know what, that’ s OK.”

The task for Petrino at Arkansas is clear: Reinvigorate one of the SEC’ s worst offenses from last year.

“ We hired him because he’ s a brilliant offensive mind,” Pittman said.“ It’ s his offense. That’ s just what it is. I’ m always going to have input on what my feelings are of things. But he’ s the offensive coordinator, and that’ s what he was hired to do.”

Within the first month of Petrino’ s return, he hand-picked a new quarterback from the NCAA transfer portal. Boise State transfer Taylen Green will replace threeyear starter KJ Jefferson, who transferred to Central Florida.

“ Hit the transfer portal, and [ Petrino ] called me every morning,” Green said.

Record: 4-8

2023 RESULTS

“ Sometimes I wasn’ t up, and he would text me. But I took that as that meant a lot to me. He made me a priority. That meant a lot.”

Pittman said there would be a battle for quarterback in spring practices between Green, last year’ s backup Jacolby Criswell and rising sophomore Malachi Singleton. However, the transfer separated himself from the pack early into the spring schedule.

Petrino left no doubt during a news conference nine practices in.

“ He’ s earned that himself from the minute he got here— how he’ s conducted his business, how he leads, how he studies, how hard he goes, and in all the mat drills that we did, he’ s the first guy winning on the races,” Petrino said.“ He’ s done a nice job on that.” Newness is a theme across the offense. Petrino proteges Ronnie Fouch and Kolby Smith were hired to be the wide receivers and running backs coaches, respectively. The three have worked in tandem to teach a new playbook.

Green highlights five transfers who are

2024 ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS SCHEDULE

*— SEC game #— at War Memorial Stadium, Little Rock &— at AT & T Stadium, Arlington, Texas Flex— Game time flexible

projected starters.

Alongside him are Utah transfer running back Ja’ Quinden Jackson and a trio of offensive linemen: left tackle Fernando Carmona( San Jose State), center Addison Nichols( Tennessee) and right tackle Keyshawn Blackstock( Michigan State).

The additions have resulted in a culture change.

“ Taylen Green came in and took the team,” Pittman said.“ Once he earned the starting spot, he took the team. It wasn’ t anything about‘ me, me, me,’ it was about‘ us, us, us.’ Carmona, Blackstock, Nichols— those guys are guys that are team-oriented.” Not only was there a shake-up on the offensive line with personnel, but a coaching change as well. The Razorbacks hired offensive line coach Eric Mateos away from Baylor. He replaced Cody Kennedy, who left for the same position at Mississippi State. The Razorbacks, and perhaps more jarringly a Pittman-coached team, had an identity crisis on the offensive line last season. Jefferson was constantly under duress due to lack of pass protection and Arkansas could not run the ball because of poor blocking.

The struggles, specifically at both tackle spots, are spots Pittman thinks have been fixed through the portal. The unit will be under a microscope with improvements needed in 2024.

“ Talent-wise, we had to do better recruiting,” Pittman said.“ We [ had ] to get better there. We wanted to attack— we had to go out and get two tackles.”

Perhaps lost in the muck of a letdown 2024 season was defensive improvement.

Under first-year defensive coordinator Travis Williams, the Razorbacks allowed

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