FAYETTEVILLE -- Whether the Arkansas Razorbacks can make strides up the SEC standings in 2023 will be decided in large part by the roster building plan established by coach Sam Pittman and his staff.
The turnover on the University of Arkansas roster has been extraordinary in the past two years, driven in part by the advent of the NCAA transfer portal in 2018 and the dawning of the Name, Image and Likeness age in 2021.
The Razorbacks welcomed 38 new scholarship players -- almost half their available scholarship count -- including 18 transfer portal players, to make up the team that will host Western Carolina of the Football Championship Subdivision today at noon at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
"First games are always scary because of the unknown," Pittman said. "Unknown about the opponent. Unknown this year about our own team."
Arkansas will try to improve from a 7-6 run last season, 3-5 in SEC play, that included four losses by three points or less. Western Carolina (6-5, 4-4 Southern Conference) sports an explosive offense under third-year coach Kerwin Bell that racked up a school-record 5,333 total yards a year ago.
Arkansas fans can easily identify with multi-year standouts like quarterback KJ Jefferson, tailback Raheim Sanders, offensive linemen Brady Latham and Beaux Limmer, and defenders like Zach Williams (playing in front of his hometown fans for the last time), Eric Gregory, Chris Paul and Hudson Clark.
Yet they also will have to get acquainted with a large number of portal players, like defensive end Trajan Jeffcoat, who was selected as a team captain. If the portal transfers can be as impactful as last year's group -- such as Drew Sanders, Jaden Haselwood, Matt Landers and Jordan Domineck to name a few -- the Razorbacks could be in good shape.
Of the 26 players on the roster listed as starters or co-starters, eight of them -- three on offense and five on defense -- are first-year portal acquisitions. Another pair of starters -- defensive end Landon Jackson and cornerback Dwight McGlothern -- were portal pickups last year.
Pittman has indicated there was locker room turmoil regarding the implementation of portal players last year, so togetherness and unity came up time and again from players and coaches during training camp.
Pittman was asked if he had team chemistry concerns after adding so many portal players.
"Yeah, I do," he said. "Except for at our place they have to earn everything they get. They're just a part of the team, and they're like everybody else."
Williams, a fifth-year senior defensive end and Joe T. Robinson graduate, said the influx of new portal defenders has been pretty smooth.
"It's not the first time, so everybody's kind of used to it and we know what to do, what to say, how to integrate them into the defense, integrate them into the D-line," Williams said. "So it really isn't that hard. With everybody leaving, there's always new personalities to fill in their spots, even though you miss them. I feel like we mesh pretty well as a defensive line. We have a lot of depth."
On the defensive line alone, Jeffcoat is expected to start along with Jackson, and portal adds John Morgan III, Anthony Booker Jr. and Keivie Rose are in the rotation.
Linebacker Jaheim Thomas, safety Al Walcott and nickel-corners Lorando "Snaxx" Johnson and Jaheim Singletary are all among the portal additions who could start.
On offense, transfer receivers Andrew Armstrong and Isaac TeSlaa and guard Josh Braun are all projected to start.
Western Carolina's Bell, who has added 29 transfer players in his three seasons, said the early part of today's game will include rapid-fire scouting of the new personnel.
"Yeah, with it being your first game, we spent a lot of time during the offseason really studying that and the different personnel they brought in," Bell said. "But hey, that's the age of college football now. It seems like every team is so different year to year with the transfer portal and those things.
"We're used to sort of going in blindly a little bit sometimes as far as personnel is concerned. Used to be in the old days you knew exactly who was coming back on each team and you sort of knew the personnel because you'd played against those guys.
"Now with the portal, it's more of an on-the-job type of deal. You're in the game and you've got to make some adjustments. Maybe you see a defensive end you thought you could block in one-on-one situations and maybe now you get in that first quarter and you decide, 'We've got to chip him. We've got to double him. We've got to give the tackle some help because he's a lot better than we thought he was.' So a lot of in-game adjustments and things we're going to have to deal with."
Pittman, 61, was no spring chicken when he took the reins as the Hogs' head coach in 2020 after decades as a top-shelf offensive line coach, including his first stint at Arkansas (2013-15).
In his first three years, he's dealt with the COVID-19 crisis, the bizarre and still unsettled NIL rollout and the portal shaping.
He said team cohesiveness has been his driving motivation through the fast and furious changes.
"I rely on my staff," Pittman said. "I'm not quick with decisions. I try to take my time and think about it. Always it's what's best for the kids.
"My biggest concern in all that was separation of the team. NIL was a separation of the team. Portal, to be honest with you, was a separation of the team. COVID, not necessarily, but it did separate you from the team. You know culture to me is a big thing, and the two hottest topics of separating the team and culture is NIL and certainly the portal."
The Razorbacks showed immediate improvements under Pittman in 2020 after three years of terrible results. They cranked it up to a 9-4 record and Outback Bowl win in 2021 and dropped back to 7-6 last season.
Jefferson and Sanders, one of the nation's top backfield duos, have seen all the curveballs thrown at Pittman and the Razorbacks the past few years.
"I feel like they've kept a pretty good steady mindset about everything as a staff," Jefferson said. "As our coaches they want what's best for us, a player-led team. He brought in a staff that's willing to sacrifice a lot to help us be the best we can be on the field and off the field in teaching us how to be young men.
"I feel like the roster building with all the changes, they've kept a steady mindset on knowing what pieces are valuable to us and the pieces we need in order to be successful in the football season. I feel like they did a really good job."
Sanders said big roster overhauls have been an adjustment.
"Myself, I'm not used to new," he said. "Sometimes when it comes down to having new, it can benefit you, and I think that's benefiting us with new personalities. ... I feel like the transfer portal was pretty good with new guys coming in."
Pittman admitted giving Haselwood an immediate starting position last season was a mistake that has not been repeated.
"I've changed," he said. "I've made mistakes. I've changed in the fact we tell the kids we don't want anybody to go in the portal. Before, we just never really addressed it until they came into my office. But now, if we've signed them, we don't want them to leave.
"So I think that's helped our culture a little bit. The NIL is certainly something, if somebody is making this much money and somebody isn't, certainly there's a possibility of separation. But we don't seem to have too big of a problem with it right now."
The Razorbacks will ship out today with their vastly overhauled roster and play eight consecutive weeks before reaching their open date on Oct. 28, when a more accurate read can be made on how Pittman's roster building plan is working.