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FAYETTEVILLE — Early on in camp, Dalton Wagner seemingly found himself running with the third-team offensive line.

Despite being one of two offensive linemen who started every game on the offensive line last season, the media spotted him getting reps behind Noah Gatlin and Brady Latham at right tackle.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and the redshirt junior is back with the first unit and in one of the few remaining battles being sorted out by head coach Sam Pittman and offensive line coach Brad Davis.

“Up and down with a lot of stuff, coming back from a lot of things,” Wagner said about his camp performance. “Overall, a lot of moving parts and we're trying to find the best five we can. Coach emphasizes that every day. He wants production, he wants execution.”

With Latham moving to left guard to compete for a starting job there, it looks like it’s down to Wagner and Gatlin at right tackle.

It’s the battle we expected to get before last season, but Gatlin suffered a torn ACL on the first day of camp and missed the entire season. The injury essentially guaranteed Wagner the starting role, but he feels much better having the competition this preseason.

“We push each other to be the best every day,” Wagner said. “It's iron sharpening iron, and the best part about it is that he and I correct each other because at the end of the day, we just want this team to succeed. We fix our mistakes, we fix each other's mistakes, we try to help each other and lift each other up.”

The offensive line has been perhaps the Razorbacks’ most intriguing position this offseason, thanks in large part to Pittman’s background as an offensive line coach.

The first-year coach has said in the past that he’d like to solidify his starting five about 2.5 weeks before the first game and that deadline is quickly approaching, with Georgia coming to Fayetteville on Sept. 26.

“Everybody has been trying to improve on that O-line every single day,” Wagner said. “Everybody is making the biggest strides they can just trying to impress coach and find a place on this team, and really just go win some dang games this fall.”