FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ offensive line is inexperienced, but don’t confuse that with not talented.

The line does return center Beaux Limmer and left guard Brady Latham who have a wealth of experience. But beyond those two there isn’t much proven talent. Pittman though likes the options he and Cody Kennedy have available.

“I like the group,” Pittman said. “I think we have enough older guys, leadership with Brady and Beaux. I like our tackles. That doesn’t mean that they’ve had game experience, but I do like them. I think that we’ve got to where we are very comfortable with eight guys. I think we’ll play more guys this year than what we have in the past. I don’t think there’s a great division between the starter and the second team in maybe three of our areas up front. I think we can grow our o-line. Obviously, you play a few more and the room seems to be happier, and things of that nature.”

The offensive tackle options are redshirt freshman Andrew Chamblee, sophomore Patrick Kutas, redshirt sophomore Devon Manuel and redshirt freshman E’Marion Harris among others.

“I think we’re very talented at tackle, we’re just not proven,” Pittman said. “Andrew Chamblee I believe has come a long way, and he took to his opportunity when Devon Manuel got hurt for a while. He’s back now, but I think it did help us create some depth with (Amaury) Wiggins, and obviously Ty’Kieast Crawford has come into his own over this year. I like the group. I think we’re at least eight deep, and we’re trying to get to 10, but I do feel like we’re at eight players that we’d feel real comfortable putting out there on the field.”

Crawford is a senior who can play tackle or guard. Wiggins is a redshirt sophomore transfer from Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College who plays guard and center. Pittman went into more detail on his plan to play more offensive linemen this season, at least early on.

“Well I think some of those comments come out of we’ve had some injuries, therefore part of it they’ve earn some of that, part of it we owe them opportunities to play because of some of the injuries,” Pittman said. “Now, we wouldn’t throw them out there just because somebody’s been injured if we didn’t think that we could win with them. Let’s get that straight.

“But we have… With Wiggins, he’s played left guard and center. With Chamblee, certainly in my opinion he’s been one of the bigger bright spots of camp. And then you go to Ty’Kieast Crawford, he might be in that same category. Injuries certainly gave us an opportunity to look at them with a different group, look with the 1s and all this. I’m still just excited as I can be about Devon Manuel, but we found some more guys. I don’t know if it’s because our guys opened and looked at them differently, I don’t know. I really don’t. But I am very confident going into it that we have eight and I think I’d feel the same way about E’Marion Harris except he’s been injured here lately. We got him back yesterday.”

Assuming no injuries Pittman was asked if he plans to rotate more players on the line throughout the season or find a five best and stick with them most snaps?

“I would rather be what you mentioned first to be totally honest with you,” Pittman said. “There’s obviously guys that are just better than everybody else up there or have the separation. But if they don’t have separation, I don’t know how you figure out which one of them is the best if you don’t get them in the game and let them have at it. I think we’re that way, in all honesty, with at least three positions up there, so we just gotta go find out and see who the best guys are and then eventually maybe by mid-season, by the start of SEC play, hopefully we can cut that down. And if nobody’s separated, we’ll continue to go ahead and play seven or eight.”

Pittman was asked about the techniques that have allowed him to have a stellar offensive line most years he coached.

“First of all, good question,” Pittman said. “Cody Kennedy and I worked together for Kirby Smart at Georgia, and his beliefs coaching the offensive line are pretty much identical to mine. I can remember doing clinics as an O-Line coach a long time ago. Our technique is slightly different than it seems like most people. We talk about down shoulder, one versus two. Basically, we’re trying to tackle them without wrapping them up. That comes from my experience playing defense, near leg/near shoulder type techniques, and then I found out it worked, and people wanted to know a little bit more about it.

“So, we are a little bit different than some other teachings, but we’ve obviously had really good players, so it helps in that as well. Learned a lot from Jim Chaney when I was the offensive line at Arkansas and Georgia. He was a really good mentor of mine. We have a unique way of coaching. For the most part, it’s been successful for us, so I’m glad I have Cody Kennedy here that believes in the same thing I do.”