FAYETTEVILLE -- There are hints and suggestions as to what the University of Arkansas will look like come Saturday against Florida at The Swamp.
But until that reveal soon after the 11 a.m. Central kickoff in Gainesville, Fla., the Razorbacks are keeping any schematic, personnel or tempo transitions on the down low.
Third-year assistant coach Kenny Guiton will handle the play calling from the press box in his first game as offensive coordinator following the Oct. 22 firing of Dan Enos.
Guiton, the former Ohio State quarterback and Arkansas receivers coach, has been charged with providing more simplicity to the complex schemes and injecting some vitality into a unit that had been bogging down with poor performances.
"I knew that they would be happy for him and things of that nature, but they've seemed to rally around him," Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman said of the players' reaction to Guiton's promotion. "They want him to have success and things of that nature ... but I knew they would. It's just they've really got a passion for what we're doing and for Coach Guiton."
Florida Coach Billy Napier called the preparation for Arkansas "challenging" without really going into details when asked what he expected from the Hogs' offense.
"Certainly we've got a process that we began late last week, in terms of prep," Napier said on Wednesday's SEC coaches teleconference. "We're working hard on it. I've got a ton of respect for Coach Guiton. He was a very accomplished player and he's had a good career as an assistant coach and I know he'll be excited for the opportunity."
Quarterback KJ Jefferson indicated there's a personality difference between Enos and Guiton -- who, at 32, is 23 years younger than Enos.
"He's more of a laid-back coach," Jefferson said. "He corrects us when we make mistakes, but he's not really, really hard on us. He played the position, so he knows what to expect. He kind of just lays back and lets us do our own thing. But when he needs to coach us, we're very coachable."
Receiver Andrew Armstrong said Guiton is handling his new responsibilities well from what he can tell.
"He's not panicking like you would think a new coach or anything like that would do in this time that we're in here in the middle of the season," Armstrong said. "He shows a lot of poise. He's very calm. Like KJ said, he makes sure everything is right. If it's wrong, we just do it again and move on to the next thing."
The Razorbacks have been largely stymied across the board offensively with issues in both run and pass blocking, slow-developing meshes in the Run-Pass Option game, blitz pickups for linemen, tight ends and backs. Jefferson simply hasn't been reading, communicating and operating as quickly this season as he did while starting through the 2021 and 2022 seasons in the Kendal Briles offense.
A more condensed call sheet with fewer in-play alterations might assist the Razorbacks in reacting more quickly and playing more freely.
"I mean, guys don't have to think as much," Jefferson said. "We're ... calling plays that we're good at or we had success on and try to get guys to play faster and play more confidently rather than thinking a lot, playing slower, and scared to make a mistake, so the plan has been good so far.
"We cut down, trimmed down on some of the playbook so some of the guys can play faster and just move forward and be able to play confident."
Armstrong concurred, saying, "Making it smaller, it's less thinking that you have to do. You're more focused on the play that you have to do at hand and it makes you play way faster than you having to think about another play that sounds like that play or things like that."
Playing at a quicker tempo could be another facet to the transition to Guiton. Jefferson said last week he felt comfortable going uptempo, which the Razorbacks did almost full time under Briles.
"I would say a lot of tempo, just a change of energy," linebacker Jaheim Thomas said of what he's seen of the offensive changes. "I would say we're just very confident in our offense.
Added defensive end and captain Trajan Jeffcoat, "Yeah, we're very confident in the change."
Pittman mentioned he was pleasantly surprised by Guiton's capacity to scheme up in the run game last week and he elaborated on that theme Wednesday.
"The reason I went with him is I thought he was the most knowledgeable guy in both the run and the pass," Pittman said. "I knew he was in the pass game. But like I say, I was surprised about answers for blitzing.
"Anybody can call a play, but it's the answer for what-ifs that you need to have success. I was very pleased knowing that he had the answers to the test."
Jefferson has admitted in the last week he was feeling weighed down in the Enos system.
"At times it did get frustrating on my plate, from my perspective," he said. "But I mean, just being able to have guys playing faster, playing confident and not scared to make a mistake or be thinking a lot during the play or before the play, their mind is thinking about 1,000 different things. When you just slim it down a little bit and focus on one thing and make sure they're executing that one thing at a very high level, that creates confidence and having guys playing faster."