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FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas will return to the practice fields Friday afternoon, marking the start of fall camp in Year 2 of the Sam Pittman era after four months of offseason training.

It will be the first of 25 practices leading up to the season opener against Rice on Sept. 4, but the players won’t be in full pads until Thursday.

Coming off a 3-7 season in which they snapped their lengthy SEC losing streak and were within seven points of a winning record, the Razorbacks are confident heading into 2021 despite the toughest schedule in college football awaiting them.

Part of that confidence stems from the success they had last year, Pittman said, but it also helps that Arkansas managed to retain offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, defensive coordinator Barry Odom and special teams coordinator Scott Fountain.

Keeping the key coaches in place was vital in an offseason that saw half of the staff turn over.

“I think because of the meetings we were able to have and the continuity with our three coordinators coming back, I think all of those things are going to benefit us,” Pittman said. “We feel a lot better about our football team. We know them better and they know us better, (which) probably is as important.”

Even with that familiarity and a full offseason under their belts, the Razorbacks still have some things to figure out before welcoming the Owls to Reynolds Razorback Stadium in about a month.

That’s what fall camp is for. Here are some of the top goals Pittman laid out for the next few weeks…

As they ended spring ball with the annual Red-White Game back in April, Pittman said he felt like the Razorbacks were on the brink of taking ownership of themselves.

Summer workouts were critical in that, too, but now that they’re returning to the field for actual practices, they need to finish determining who will be the leaders of the 2021 team. In fact, that is Pittman’s top priority for the first week of camp.

“I want to see the team push each other,” Pittman said. “The more the team can control the tempo, the strain of practice, the better football team you’re going to have. We’ll certainly have our expectations, but you’d like for the expectations to be met by the players. That’s when you have a pretty good football team, and they feel like they own the team.”

It helps that guys like Grant Morgan and Jalen Catalon are back, but KJ Jefferson will have to fill Feleipe Frank’s shoes not only from a quarterback perspective, but also a leadership perspective.

Last season, Arkansas ran the ball 32 times when it needed three yards or less on third down and converted just 15 times. Its 46.9 percent rate ranked 12th in the SEC, ahead of only Missouri and South Carolina (tied at 42.9 percent). That was also well below the SEC average of 62.2 percent.

Not surprisingly, it sounds like that will be a major area of focus for the offense in camp, with the staff needing to continue to coach up the offensive line and tight ends, as well as running backs needing to break more tackles.

“We’re going to have a big emphasis on third-and-short throughout the camp and we’re going to have a big emphasis on being able to run the football,” Pittman said. “The only way I know how you do that is you go practice it and you do it with bigger and stronger players and that’s what we have returning.”

That could mean running reads without the option to throw the ball at certain points of practice. The defense will likely know a run is coming, but Pittman said they need to be able to convert anyways.

There is no question that Arkansas’ defense made strides under Odom last year, but it was still among the worst units in college football.

A lot has been made about Pittman’s desire to generate more of a pass rush in 2021, especially considering they brought in three transfer defensive linemen, but that stems back to being better on first downs.

In 2020, opponents averaged 5.6 yards per carry and completed 61.8 percent of their passes for 6.9 yards per attempt against Arkansas on first down. That led to a lot of third-and-short situations, which - as noted above - SEC teams converted 62.2 percent of the time.

“We have to be able to get the offenses we’re playing behind the chains,” Pittman said. “I think that’s the biggest thing for Barry and them, is quit getting into 2nd-and-5 and 2nd-and-6. Let’s go to 2nd-and-12 and 2nd-and-10 and give ourselves a little bit better chance.”

As a former offensive line coach, Pittman would be the first person to tell you that sacks aren’t always on the offensive line. They could be the result of a missed assignment by a tight end or running back, receivers not getting open or the quarterback holding on to the ball too long.

A little bit of all of that happened last season, as the Razorbacks gave up an SEC-high 3.4 sacks per game. That number needs to come down, so Pittman is focused on eliminating sacks in camp.

“We certainly have to get better at protecting the football, so in our practice schedules that we made there’s quite a bit more emphasis on 9-on-9 type of pocket pass protection,” Pittman said. “If everybody in the building knows you’re going to throw the football or run a draw, so does every defense that we play, and we have to be able to protect it.”

HawgBeat will go more in depth on a few of the key battles in another piece, but camp is of course an extremely important time for the depth chart.

Even with 19 returning starters, there are a few starting spots up for grabs, including at cornerback, wide receiver, defensive line and offensive guard. However, there are battles for backup roles pretty much across the board.

Fall camp will be the players’ final opportunity to show the coaching staff what they can do before the season starts.

“I'm really not too concerned about a whole lot of things except we have to find some positions,” Pittman said. “Those things are big for us, but they're not concerning because I think they're on our team. We just have to make sure we get the best one or two.”