By Otis Kirk

FAYETTEVILLE -- Sam Pittman is set to enter his fourth season at Arkansas and on Wednesday he met with the media to provide a preview prior to Friday's first practice.

Arkansas will enter the 2023 season with 40 new players and five new on-field assistant coaches. The Hogs will open the season Saturday, Sept. 2, in Little Rock against Western Carolina which is an FCS team. Last season. the Hogs opened against Cincinnati which was coming off a trip to the playoffs. Pittman was asked if the difference in opponents changes how he prepares his team fo the season?

"I don't think so," Pittman said. "I hope not. We're trying to approach camp on us and us getting better. 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. 

"Honestly, we didn't play well against the teams that we were favored to beat. So, we lost that chip at times. So, we have to coach that way and feel that way and all those things. So, we just have to get back to old Arkansas football. We started that in January, but I really like where we are at. I like the hunger of the team and things of that nature. We'll have to see, but I don't think it will affect us much because we have a lot of work to do on ourselves."

While how he prepares the team for Sept. 2 won't change some other things have. 

"Well, we’ve changed different periods," Pittman said. "Certainly the emphasis that we’ve had from last year — whether it be third down, whether it be short-yardage, whether it be getting off the field on defense, our goal-line package, our third-play-fourth versus two-play-three — those things are in our practice schedule. We have also done a little bit different with our ball security period. We’re doing more bubble stuff. We’re doing more half-line pass. We’re doing some things in that part of it, along with fastball starts, trying to get our team a little more physical and try to start that a little earlier in practice."

The Razorbacks won't play a true home SEC game until Saturday, Oct. 21, when Mississippi State rolls into Fayetteville. The Texas A&M game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington is a designated home game for Arkansas. But the Hogs will have gone to LSU, faced the Aggies on neutral field, traveled to Ole Miss and then Alabama before hosting the Bulldogs. The schedule does ease up after that with a bye week following Mississippi State before the final road game at Florida. All four non-conference games are home counting the one in Little Rock. Auburn and Missouri also come to Fayetteville in November. Does the early brutal four-game stretch make winning the seven home games maybe even more important?

"Yeah, it’s a big deal for us," Pittman said. "You know, they ran bleachers the other day with the emphasis on our seven opponents. That was a really good job by Ben (Sowders) and his staff. But no, I think winning at home… obviously, there’s a lot of things you don’t have to do when you’re playing at home. And it’s travel and sleeping and different things. Even though we’re sleeping in a different area, at home you go on a Friday night and you don’t stay at your house, but you’re familiar with your surroundings and things of that nature. 

"So, it’s a big deal for us. We’re just going to try to win one at a time. I know that’s coach speak, but that’s really what we’re doing. If we can win and get better each week, I really like our schedule. I really do. It’s different than playing two, three top 25 teams and all that. And we have high respect for who we’re playing, but it’s different. It gives us a chance if we play well to build up into something nice, but we’ve got to take it one at a time, and we know that."

The first practice will be Friday morning at 6:30 a.m. after originally being slated for 2 p.m.

"But we’re excited about getting it going," Pittman said. "It’s going to be hot, we understand that. We have adjusted our times. We’re going to go in the a.m. With it being over 100 degrees over the next three days, we’re going to have practice in the a.m. We know we’re in condition, we’ve been conditioning in the heat all summer. We’re trying to have some really good practices, so we have plenty of time to get them acclimated to the heat heat, but right now we’ve decided to change our first few practices to the a.m."