FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas is on the practice field for the first of 15 spring drills today.

The first few periods were open to the media. One of the more interesting battles going on this spring is at quarterback to replace Feleipe Franks.

One thing that was noticeable early in the practice is how well the quarterbacks were throwing on the first day. Redshirt sophomore KJ Jefferson is the current starter, but he’s being challenged by redshirt freshman Malik Hornsby, true freshman Lucas Coley, redshirt freshman transfer Kade Renfro and redshirt junior John Stephen Jones. It was very obvious that Renfro seems to have a very strong arm.

As Sam Pittman promised on Monday, redshirt senior Shane Clenin is working at center. Junior Ricky Stromberg is the starter there, but Pittman said he’s hoping not to have to ask senior Ty Clary to play both center and guard.

“I’m looking up here at my board and I don’t see it in the linebackers,” Pittman said. “We’re messing with Zach) Zimos a bit as a safety. Maybe that would help him as a nickel and get him out of the box. The rest of the guys, the D-line, not really too much changed there. I’ll tell you a guy who’s looked good for us this offseason is Simeon Blair. He’s looked really good and is doing some real nice things back there.

“At the O-line, our plan is to play Shane Clenin a little bit more at center and try to take a little bit of pressure of the combination of Ty Clary playing guard and center a little bit, and maybe let him develop a little bit better at guard for us. We’ve got to find a 2 center and obviously Ty can do it, but I’d really like to find a 2 center that can just sit there and be that guy. We’re going to look at Shane there and see how that works out. I like (Ty’kieast) Crawford, the young transfer. Big ole kid who can move, but we haven’t changed his position. We’re looking at Mike Woods more in the slot. We will this spring. Other than that, really not.

In some of the drills, Zimos and redshirt freshman Jacorrei Turner were getting some work at safety. Obviously seniors Bumper Pool and Grant Morgan were getting the linebacker reps together.

The Razorbacks will practice again on Thursday and then Saturday.