PITTMAN taking on big picture at practice.

FAYETTEVILLE — Firstyear University of Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman was asked whether he had to fight off the urge to jump into the middle of the offensive line group during his first practice as a major college head coach Monday.

Pittman had been some combination of offensive line coach, assistant head coach, or tackles and tight ends coach for 26 consecutive years before taking the reins of the Razorbacks in December.

“Well, if I didn’t have Brad Davis it’d probably be hard, but since I have him, I know what a fine coach he is, and it’s not so hard,” Pittman said. “It was fun, to be honest with you. I made it to every individual drill and wrote down some notes about what I’d like to change about different drills and things of that nature.”

Davis, recruited to the University of Oklahoma as a player by Pittman more than 20 years ago, worked with Pittman at North Carolina in 2008 before the reunion this season. Davis has been in the SEC the past three years, in 2017 at Florida and the last two seasons at Missouri.

Pittman noted one big difference moving from assistant coach to head coach during practice, and he pointed it out during a video conference last week.

“The practice goes a lot longer than it does as an assistant because [as an assistant] you’re watching so many different things, and you’re so ingrained in what you’re doing that the practice seems to go a lot faster than it did today,” Pittman said. “It was only two-and-a-half hours from start to finish. It shouldn’t have been that long, but it seemed like it was a long time.

Six-pack abs

Tailback Rakeem Boyd is listed at 6 feet, 206 pounds on the camp roster published last week, a slight drop from the 213 pounds he was listed at during the 2019 season.

“I mean, last year I was a little chunky,”

Boyd said.

“This year

I think I’m seeing a fourpack, I think

I’m seeing a six-pack, and

I’ve never seen one of those before on my body.

“My body has been different. So I think I’m just ripping up or something. It’s a different strength program, and I love these guys.”

Big ‘dog’ Hogs

Arkansas is a super-sized underdog for it season opener against Georgia, the No. 4 team in the USA Today coaches preseason poll.

The Bulldogs, who return many key members off one of the best defenses in the nation in 2019, are a 24-point favorite as determined by BetOnline.

‘Surprise’ Hogs

During the SEC Network’s schedule unveiling show Monday, analyst Laura Rutledge gave Arkansas the nod as her “surprise” team.

“I like Sam Pittman a lot, and I think the fact that Barry Odom is the defensive coordinator is huge, and maybe overlooked a little bit, too,” she said.

Rutledge also noted the Razorbacks had not won a conference game since 2017, saying, “They can only go up from here for Arkansas. Watch out for Arkansas this year. Let’s see what happens.”

Long odds

Arkansas is given the longest odds in the SEC to win both the conference and their division, according to BetOnline.

The Razorbacks are a 500-1 shot to win the SEC, double that of Vanderbilt’s 250-1 as the second-highest odds. The best odds are given to Alabama at 10-13, while Georgia is 5-2, Florida is 11-2, defending CFP and SEC champion LSU is 132, Texas A&M is 12-1 and Auburn is 14-1.

Arkansas is a 100-1 shot to win the West, with Alabama listed at 5-12, LSU at 3-1, Auburn at 6-1 and Texas A&M at 9-1.

Another step

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, speaking on the SEC Network during the league’s schedule release Monday, tried not to get ahead of himself in touting the importance of the day.

“It’s another step in the journey,”

Sankey said.

“But that’s where we are. Our teams began practice today. We support a healthy environment.

Each one are important steps. Today is just one of those that’s a little bit more public than some of the others.”