FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas is a prohibitive favorite over Alabama A&M on Saturday in the season opener for both teams.
Sam Pittman has an experienced team, but will have several new faces at wide receiver. On the depth chart, the Razorbacks listed CJ Brown, Jalen Brown and O'Mega Blake with the first unit.
"You could certainly put Monte Harrison in there as well. In my opinion, he's really had a good fall camp just because of the plays that they've made, the consistency that those guys have made, and more probably as important as anything, the speed of Jalen Brown. We want to get it on the field as fast as we possibly can, but we do believe that there's more than those three. But C.J. probably was the most consistent guy that we had. Him and Monte, they were probably the most consistent guys we had. And Raylen (Sharpe), with him, being out and being hurt, that would have something to do with that as well."
CJ Brown, a sophomore from Bentonville, is set to start at the slot. Pittman explained the reasoning behind that.
"We talked about it as a staff and we think that might be his spot, you know," Pittman said. "He runs good option routes and is a good blocker as well. Raylen, we expect him to play Saturday and he was back last week, the latter part of last week practicing as well."
Two transfers are penciled in to start at the cornerbacks. Stanford's Julian Neal, 6-2, 200, and Oklahoma's Kani Walker, 6-2, 201, top the depth chart.
"They’re big and they probably, well they were the most consistent guys," Pittman said. "Actually, Kani and Julian, we think are really good corners and have size. Again, probably just the most consistent guys. Jaheim, we’re very, very positive about Jaheim Singletary, as well. Then you go, probably (Keshawn) Davila would be the next, along with Selman Bridges. But those two guys were the best two corners that we had throughout fall."
Pittman feels he is 10-deep on the offensive line which is a huge step-up from previous seasons.
"Yeah, big-time," Pittman said. "We’re also going to have to get E’Marion Harris a few reps at left tackle because we haven’t done that yet. We’ve moved him to right guard and right tackle, but I think we’re going to have to look at him a little bit at left tackle, as well. But just to have that depth is big-time. There’s a difference with depth and size, too, and we have the size now that can handle the size that we’re going to see each and every week. Eric’s (Mateos) done a great job with that group. Even though some of them didn’t play with us last year, they played for somebody else. They played. It wasn’t like, even bringing in some of the guys last year that started for us, they hadn’t played much ball at their previous school. These guys here have, so I’m real confident that we’ll be ready. Even though Alabama A&M, schematically, they play a lot of 0 coverage, a lot of internal blitzes, they do some things. A lot of movement on their D-line. They do some things that will certainly test our offensive line, but with the veteran guys we have up there, very confident in them and confident in at least nine to 10 deep there."
The kickoff is set for 3:15 on Saturday afternoon and televised on the SEC Network.