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Change is nothing new for Grant Morgan.

Going into his fifth season, the linebacker from Greenwood is on his third head coach and fourth defensive coordinator. He’s seen the base defense shift from a 4-3 to a 3-4 and back to a 4-3.

Former Missouri head coach Barry Odom is Arkansas’ latest defensive coordinator and he has a history of using multiple defenses at his various stops, so Morgan “would be very shocked if we ran anything less than everything this year.”

The Razorbacks’ base defense, though, will be a 3-2-6. That means they’ll have three defensive linemen, two linebackers and six defensive backs on the field.

“It’s a variation off a 3-3, but you have an extra nickel and you have extra DB to stop the passing everyone wants to do,” Morgan said. “But you’ve got the variation with the middle safety to be able to come down and fit the run gaps that we need.”

In a normal year, spring football would be a crucial period for Arkansas - and all teams with a new head coach and/or coordinator - to implement the new system.

The coronavirus pandemic effectively erased that, but the silver lining is that Odom’s defense is relatively easy to learn. Heading into spring practice, Morgan said the Razorbacks were further along in the playbook than in any of his previous seasons.

“This has been the fourth defense I’ve learned over the years,” Morgan said. “I know this is the most simple defense we’ve learned with just letting us fly around. All of the language with the defense is just super easy. They all match. Everything goes with something else, so it kind of all just correlates with everything.”

It’s obviously not the same as getting reps on the practice field, but Arkansas is still implementing its playbook in virtual meetings. The SEC initially allowed teams two hours of such meetings, but bumped it up to four hours beginning Monday.

The Razorbacks broke up the two hours into daily 30-minute sessions Monday-Thursday for positional meetings. Instead of using Zoom, Morgan said they are using Microsoft Teams. He described the service as “Zoom on steroids” because not only can you see everyone’s face, but the coaches can also pull up documents to put on the screen.

“We talk 30 minutes of ball, but those 30 minutes are critical because every single second counts,” safety Jalen Catalon said. “No matter how you get it in, you’ve got to get it in while you can. Those meetings, we take them very serious and make sure we get the most out of it.”

Players have been doing player-only FaceTime sessions and Odom also uses Socrative to send quizzes on what players do in various situations. All of those efforts has Morgan confident Arkansas is making the most of a bad situation.

“We could go play a game right now, but we wouldn’t want to at all just because you have to be able to have certain things,” Morgan said. “But I feel comfortable enough and especially the guys learning the defense - even the new guys, the freshman and JUCO guys - we have a real good ground-level basis that we’ve established through Coach Odom and the whole defense.”

With six defensive backs in the Razorbacks’ defense, Catalon said players are trying to learn all of the spots rather than focusing in on one. He is primarily working on middle safety and a little bit of strong safety, but he said he wouldn’t be surprised if he also gets a look at boundary safety, nickel or the two cornerback spots.

“I think it fits who our defense is - that’s just being able to fly around and just and make plays,” Catalon said. “It all comes down to how the DBs play. I think it’s good for us because at the end of the day, our group is very athletic and they’re very agile. We move around and can do a lot of things.”

On the other side of the ball, wide receiver Mike Woods said the offense is “pretty comfortable” with the playbook right now. They haven’t been able to physically work on Kendal Briles’ system, but - much like the defense - are getting plenty of mental reps in position meetings.

“Obviously getting out on the practice field would do us a lot of help, we need that,” Woods said. “But as far as knowing what we need to do, I believe that we’re pretty good in that phase.”

For Woods specifically, it’s been an easy adjustment because the offense is very similar to what he ran in high school. That makes sense considering his coach, Sterling Doty, actually played with Briles at Stephenville High in Texas under Briles’ father, Art Briles.

However, he added that his teammates are also picking up on it compared to the last few years.

“It’s real simple for us all,” Woods said. “It really makes the game less thinking for all of us, it allows us to play a lot faster, so I think it’s a great system as far as allowing us to play fast.”