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FAYETTEVILLE — It may have been the first spring practice of the Sam Pittman era, but Tuesday was far from Arkansas’ first practice under its second-year coach.

The coronavirus pandemic completely wiped out last year’s spring ball, so when the Razorbacks finally hit the practice field for spring drills, they did so with a full season under their belt.

Even with a large group of newcomers, the veterans - including 11 seniors who chose to return for an extra season - helped things run smoothly on Day 1.

“We know what to expect, we know where to go because we’ve been through it before,” linebacker Grant Morgan said. “This isn’t our first time doing it. It’s our first spring ball, but it’s not the first time doing it with these coaches.”

Morgan is one of those seniors who took advantage of the NCAA’s eligibility relief to get a second senior year. He’s actually a sixth-year guy, so he’s been through plenty of spring practices during his time in Fayetteville.

Although he’s going into his fifth year of college football, running back Trelon Smith is going through his first spring with the Razorbacks. He came to Arkansas as a transfer from Arizona State during the summer of 2019 and enjoyed a breakout season last year.

With Rakeem Boyd gone, Smith is the unquestioned leader of the running back group and has made sure to convey Pittman’s practice expectations to the two early enrollees - Javion Hunt and Raheim Sanders - at his position.

“He wants everything to be fast, on and off the field,” Smith said. “Coming on the field he wants us running, coming off the field he wants us running, so coming into Day 1 that was on our mind. Transitioning on and off the field today was huge.”

Thanks to that veteran leadership, the Razorbacks had a productive first day of spring practice, despite wearing only helmets.

“(Pittman) called us up on inside afterwards and he was just congratulating us on how great we did and saying ‘You all really had the best inside period I’ve ever seen without pads,’” Morgan said. “We made mistakes, but everybody was full speed, running around. You couldn’t ask for anything better than that.”

Here are a few other notes from the first day of spring ball…

Big Plays

Only a handful of periods were open to the media Tuesday afternoon, so most of the details from the day were courtesy Morgan and Smith, the two players chosen to do Zoom interviews following practice.

A lot of attention is going to be on the quarterbacks this spring, with KJ Jefferson entering as QB1 and Malik Hornsby expected to push him for that spot.

Smith said Jefferson looked comfortable in the backfield and that he liked what he saw from the third-year quarterbacks, but the play he specifically mentioned was a big pass down the field from Hornsby to Kendall Catalon that set the offense up at the 5-yard line during a two-minute drill.