There’s going to be a lot of unproven players on the Arkansas two-deep when the season kicks off on Sept. 2 against Western Carolina in Little Rock.
Sure, we know what KJ Jefferson and Rocket Sanders and Christopher ‘Pooh’ Paul and guys like that can do.
But a good majority of the wide receiver room? Guys on the defensive line and linebacker and even some in the secondary? They’ve got some questions to answer.
Playing the Catamounts and then Kent State and BYU before league play starts will hopefully, in Arkansas’ case, translate to a 3-0 start.
Each of the last two seasons, the Razorbacks have started 3-0. And they did it last year playing a ranked Cincinnati team coming off a College Football Playoff appearance and then squaring off against a pesky South Carolina team before facing Bobby Petrino’s Missouri State.
They had to play a ranked Texas the year before that. There isn’t a marquee name in the first three weeks this year, unless you consider BYU a marquee name (I don’t think anyone does).
“We’re trying to approach camp [about] us getting better,” Pittman said. “We still have a lot of new faces, and that’s not only on the kids, but the coaching staff.
“Most of our guys were with us through spring ball with our new staff, but we still have quite a few that we have to figure out if they’re going to help us or not this year, too.”
Because what comes after those three games is a gauntlet for anyone. At LSU, Texas A&M in Jerry World, at Ole Miss and at Alabama.
Like former interim Arkansas coach and long time defensive coordinator Joe Kines once said, “in the SEC, they slit your throat and drink your blood.”