FAYETTEVILLE — The college football season has finally arrived for Arkansas as they take on Western Carolina Saturday at noon in Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium.

The Hogs are coming off a 7-6 season and have five new assistant coaches and a lot of new players who are expected to play key roles. Here’s five keys for Arkansas to win this game.

Get Off to Fast Start

This normally reflects to mean offense, but in this case it’s both that and defense. The offense needs to come out and be efficient and put the Catamounts in a hole quickly. The defense has a new coordinator and only one returning assistant. The Hogs got off to slow starts against both Missouri State and Liberty last season. It cost them dearly against Liberty and almost the same against Missouri State. A fast start on both sides of the ball allows the Hogs to get the lead and put the gas pedal to the floor. Don’t let Western Carolina hang around. Anything can happen if they are still in the game entering the fourth quarter.

Win Third Down

Stay on the field on third down on offense. Convert third-down plays to first downs. On defense, get off the field on third down. This will be a big key on both sides of the ball. The defense has good depth and if they can stay fresh that should present problems for Western Carolina. KJ Jefferson has a lot of new receivers and tight ends to throw to and they need to be on same page from the start.

Get Big Plays From Isaiah Sategna

The redshirt freshmen isn’t necessarily one of the first names you think of when you start naming key weapons for the Hogs He should be. Sategna showed in the spring scrimmage that was open to the public what he’s capable of doing. He will get chances to make big plays at wide receiver, kick returner and punt returner. He returned a kickoff 100 yards to open a closed scrimmage recently. Sategna was a big-play artist at Fayetteville and can be in the SEC even as a redshirt freshman.

Avoid Penalties, Turnovers

At times, Arkansas has been heavily penalized in games. The games where they avoid those excessive number of penalties they have better results obviously. Jefferson and the offense need to protect the football. The Hogs need to make Western Carolina earn everything they get and give them nothing.

Get Points in Red Zone

When the Hogs get in the Western Carolina red zone they need to make sure they cash in with points each time. Preferably they get seven instead of three, but they need to avoid coming up empty. That haunted them in the Missouri loss last season and some other games as well.