FAYETTEVILLE -- Bobby Petrino participated in the SEC Teleconference on Wednesday and spoke on various topics.

Among the questions for him was about any players taking advantage of the NCAA rule that allows them 30 days to enter the transfer portal following a head coach firing.

"Ah, no," Petrino said. "We had everybody in the weight room all day yesterday, lifting, and everybody out on the practice field. Everybody attended meetings on time. I think they all understand, and that was one of the things I tried to address with them right off the off the bat, there's actually no benefit to go into the transfer portal right now. The only thing that can hurt is you. You know, financially, and no ability to go in and play right away, and no video on tape to make your transition if you're going to transfer somewhere marketable. So, there's really no reason for anyone to go into the transfer portal. And I think once I laid it out that way for the players, they understood it."

Petrino also talked about Monday's team meeting to address them after Sam Pittman was fired.

"We had a team meeting Monday and I thought it went very well," Petrino said. "We got a lot on the table. There’s some actually some hurt feelings, obviously with Coach Pittman not being here any more and a couple of the defensive guys not being here anymore. And I understand that. And the players understand they need to move on and have a great finish to the next nine weeks so they can be marketable. Whether that’s going into the NFL, staying here or transferring, they need to have a very, very productive nine weeks, as do I and the assistant coaches. So we’ve just been trying to focus on that. We went out yesterday and I felt like we had a good practice. There was great attitude out there. Guys were going full speed. We’ve still got a lot of things to work on, a lot of things to get better at but the effort and attitude was there and I was encouraged by what I saw."

In addition to Pittman being fired, so were three defensive coaches including coordinator Travis Williams. Petrino was asked if he's tinkering with the defensive scheme?

"Yeah, I don’t know if tinker is the right word," Petrino said. "I think what we’re working on is things we have in the system that we can make our base and get players to understand it better, get players to play faster, get all 11 guys on the field to do their job every single play and have it all work together. There was a lot of defense in, there was a lot of assignment errors and confusion and we’re really working hard at making sure that goes away and we can get lined up, get in a great stance, get our eyes where they belong and play together as a unit."

With Chris Wilson being named the defensive coordinator and Che Hendrix helping Kenny Perry with the secondary Petrino was asked who is coaching the linebackers?

"We’ve got a couple young guys who have been working there and obviously Coach Wilson is splitting some time between the D-line and the linebackers," Petrino said. "We’ve got two young graduate assistants who are helping him, so right now between the two positions we’ve got three guys and him overseeing it.

"Sometimes it’s really good to meet together with the front and the linebackers. One of our huge things we’re working on right now is our run fits, so the ability to install that, watch the video, see how it all works together, is not a bad thing. It’s kind of a good thing to have them all in the same room and go through those run fits."

With one hire left to make is Petrino looking for someone to coach the linebackers or defensive line?

"I’m working hard on it and we’ve been working on it now for a couple of days," Petrino said. "I think I’ve got the guy I want but I haven’t had the stamp OK, move ahead, let’s go yet. But working hard on it."

With four coaches gone from last Saturday, Petrino is having to do a balancing act of challenging the players and comforting them.

"You know, I don’t really know what the balancing act is," Petrino said. "I know that I tried to let them understand that everybody in the room is feeling some of the things that have hurt and don’t feel right. It’s something that… I came here to coach the quarterbacks, coordinate the offense. I came here because Coach Pittman was a man that reached out to me and developed a really close friendship with him and respect him tremendously, and I woke up and now he’s no longer here. So I have the same feelings a lot of people in the room had. We have to understand it, and then you try to go out and do something positive for somebody and then you get back to doing what’s important to you before it happened. So, that’s kind of how I’ve always handled a crisis. Make sure you mourn properly. Make sure you do something positive for somebody, and then get back to what was important to you before."

Arkansas and Petrino will face Tennessee on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 3:15 p.m. and televised on the SEC Network.