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Arkansas is less than a week away from opening the 2019 season against Portland State. It will be the first ever meeting between the Hogs and the Vikings.

The Vikings went 4-7 last year, finishing 10th in Big Sky play. They have starters returning on both sides of the ball, including a stud tight end. Razorback Head Coach Chad Morris is excited to play against an experienced FCS team with nothing to lose.

“Portland State is experienced,” Morris said. “They’re one of the more experienced teams. They have eight offensive and nine defensive starters back, and they have nothing to lose. They’re coming here and they’re going to be ready to go. They’re going to be pulling tricks out, specials out. I think that we’re going to get their absolute best.”

You don't need to do a roster star comparison to know that Arkansas has talent that's head and shoulders above the Vikings but Morris knows good execution is better than stars any day.

“As I’ve said before, many times last year, its about how well we can execute, how well we can play to our potential one play at a time in game one,” Morris said. ”It doesn’t matter who we play. It’s always how we play. I’m excited to watch this team play. I want to see us play fast and physical. And I want to see us play to our standard going into year two.”

The Vikings offense features star tight end Charlie Taumoepeau, who was first-team All-Big Sky and second team All-FCS All-American in 2018. Taumoepeau led Portland State with 28 receptions for 580 yards and five touchdowns.

“He’s a really good player, he has NFL talent, there’s no doubt about that,” said defensive coordinator John Chavis at Monday's game-week press conferences. “That’s nothing we’re not accustomed to. When you play against SEC teams, you play against that type of talent each week."

Portland State typically runs big personnel using two tight ends, Chavis plans to combat that by deploying his 4-3 defensive scheme. He also plans to coach from the field, as he did to finish the 2018 season, to better communicate with his guys.

“They'll be in two tight ends and they'll be in empty in the backfield," Chavis said. "They mix it up and give you a lot of formations. They run a little bit of option. They've got two quarterbacks they play in almost every game. It will be interesting to see what their plan is.

"Certainly, there's some things we're going to do because of who we are and then we've got to find out how they're going to try to attack us and we may have to make adjustments as we go. We will play some base personnel for sure.”

Portland State does play with two quarterbacks but you know how the saying goes... "If you have two quarterbacks, you have none," kind of like Arkansas last season. Neither Davis Alexander nor Jalani Eason completed more than 55 percent of their passes last season, though both aren't afraid to take off and run with it. The two Vikings combined for almost 800 rushing yards in 2018.

Second year Arkansas offensive coordinator Joe Craddock believes that adjustments are key to doing a good job on Saturday. With the Hogs' opening the season against Portland St., there's a lot the Vikings could have changed from last season's playbook and there won't be new tape to review.

“Portland State plays extremely hard," Craddock said. "You turn on the film against Oregon, Nevada, their biggest games last year, and they’re competing. It didn’t seem like against Oregon they were very shy to be there. They came in ready to play. They were bouncing around making tackles.

“They’re very long at corner. I mean, every corner on their depth chart is 6'2" plus. They play a little bit of a funky style of defense in terms of you don’t see it a whole lot. So we’ve got to do a good job … Like I’ve always said, in first games you’ve got to make a lot of adjustments. There’s probably going to be something they’re going to show in game one this year that they didn’t show all of last year.”

The Arkansas coaches are obviously ready to start the 2019 season and get the bitter taste of going 2-10 out of their mouthes from 2018. This game will serve as a benchmark, warmup and learning experience going into week two against SEC opener Ole Miss.

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