FAYETTEVILLE -- One position group University of Arkansas football Coach Sam Pittman knows needs to improve heading into his fifth season is the big men up front he built his reputation on handling.
The Razorbacks' offensive line struggled last season under position coach Cody Kennedy.
Pair those struggles with a quarterback in KJ Jefferson who did not mesh well with the schemes of coordinator Dan Enos and who seemingly withdrew from his team leadership position, and there lies key components in the making of a 4-8 season.
Arkansas was last in the SEC with 4.93 yards per offensive play, second-to-last with 326.5 yards per game and 10th of 14 with 139 rushing yards per game.
Pittman said last winter that many of the team's offensive issues stemmed from the inability to exert physicality on opponents and win one-on-one battles, the building blocks for a successful offense.
"You don't have to be a football coach to know we need help," Pittman said of the offensive line the day Arkansas wrapped its season with a 48-14 loss to Missouri. "And we've got to go address that.
"That will be our No. 1 place to address because without that you really can't have success offensively. And with that you can have a whole bunch of success. We've got to get that fixed, and that's nothing negative against the kids we have. We've just got to get that one fixed. I think everyone knows that."
To that end, Pittman hired one of his proteges in Eric Mateos to work with the offensive line after Kennedy left for conference rival Mississippi State.
Arkansas brought aboard Keyshawn Blackstock, Fernando Carmona and Addison Nichols, who have run with the ones during early spring practices at the two tackle spots and center, through the NCAA Transfer Portal, plus added freshmen Kobe Branham and Zuri Madison.
Mateos said the most important part of hitting the transfer portal was getting the right guys.
"I think the most important thing was that we got players that could play, guys that could contribute right away," Mateos said. "Guys that were made up of the right things internally. Have the right makeup, mindset.
"Keyshawn obviously already was in the mix here. I tried to recruit him at Baylor and had no chance. So that was a good surprise when I got here.
"Then adding Addison and Junior Carmona, just guys that love football. That was the priority, guys that love to play the position, have a passion for playing the position, have the makeup inside to do hard things. Because it is a thankless job. ... The offensive line world is you can kick a guy's rear end for 67 plays, but if he gets 3 sacks, he's SEC player of the week and Aunt Pam up in the stands thinks you're a bum."
The addition of coordinator Bobby Petrino is also expected to help synchronize the scheme to make ball movement more functional for the Razorbacks.
Pittman has spent large chunks of practice getting back to his roots, helping Mateos in the trenches.
"I told Eric ... I just called him and I said, 'I'm gonna be your GA [graduate assistant],' " Pittman said on March 8. "Basically we haven't done one-on-one pass pro[tection] yet because we haven't had to.
"They do it during team all the time. So basically I'm his GA during any individual and when they're in indy, and then I'm his GA during one-on-one pass pros and things of that nature."
Pittman estimated he spent about 30 minutes with the offensive line during individual drills each day.
Carmona, a 6-5, 324-pounder who logged 1,574 offensive snaps in 24 starts at San Jose State the last two seasons, has liked Pittman's hands-on approach.
"It's been huge," Carmona said. "Obviously, as you know, he was an offensive line coach and that was kind of the main reason why I wanted to come here. He told me that he was going to be with the offensive line more and he's really stuck to that word."
Carmona said Mateos and Pittman are dropping "gold nuggets" for the offensive line to put to use.
"Just having those two is like having two offensive line coaches," he said. "It's tremendous because you're always learning something and you have four eyes on you at all times."
Late last year Pittman noted Auburn remade its offensive line in 2024 with six of its eight key linemen coming from the portal.
He hopes the addition of veteran portal players along with continued improvement for returnees such as Joshua Braun and Patrick Kutas (the lone returning starters), E'Marion Harris, Ty'Kieast Crawford, Amaury Wiggins and others will help the offensive line show drastic improvement.
Pittman said he's already seeing dividends from Mateos' work with the portal additions on the front.
"You know everything starts outside in for me," Pittman said. "You've got to have two tackles that can play and you've got to have a center. I've been really pleased with Nichols. Junior Carmona is a player. And Keyshawn, he's really done a nice job.
"They brought an older skill set to the room and you look at E'Marion Harris, how much he's improved to this point, and Ty'Kieast Crawford and Braun and Kutas and those guys have improved. I think it's because of strength and all that, but it's also because I think Eric Mateos has done a really good job with them and I think the older kids are not selfish. They're hard-working kids and they're kind of showing how these guys need to be and they're following along with that. Really happy with that group."