Arkansas head coach John L. Smith stopped in for his weekly SEC teleconfernece on Wednesday. He covered things ranging from the struggles in the secondary for the opening game to former walk-on David Hurd's progression to a scholarshipped starter.

A partial transcript is below. To hear everything Smith had to say, click the player at the top of the story.

Coach Smith on his team’s start to the season and the team’s upcoming game against ULM in Little Rock:
“We are excited at this point to be 1-0 and have a win under our belt. It has been good week of practice and been a hard week of practice. We were not exceptionally pleased with our effort. Not from a player standpoint or a coaches standpoint last week, so we have gone out this week and worked as hard as we can. I am getting better at correcting what problems we do have and try to be a better football team than we were last week. We are excited about being 1-0 and we are excited about going to Little Rock. We have had a great tradition at Little Rock and a lot of success there in the last 10 games. The atmosphere there is always great. The fans there are super.”

On a slow start two years ago against ULM:
“As I recall, I don’t think we played extremely well. It seemed like we turned the ball over that first half. I would have to go back and look at that tape, but again we struggled in that first half. I think it was a 7-0 halftime lead. In the second half we came out and started to click a little bit better. As you look back at that game, that was a tough game for us and all of their kids or for the most part a lot of their kids coming back now that are veterans played in that game. They played us a heck of a football game. I expect them to be ready to go.”

On Arkansas’ secondary and ULM’s passing game:
“It really has (changed) and they (ULM) do a great job of throwing the football around and I really like what I see out of their quarterback. He was a kid who played against us a couple years ago. He throws it around and that is what they do. That is what Todd has done for years and years. He believes in spreading the ball around and spreading the field and making you have to defend the pass.”

On David Hurd’s development from walk-on to scholarship player:
“He was very appreciative as were his parents (of the scholarship). That the kid has worked that hard for this long and has finally stepped up and taken over as a starting role. That is why again, kids out there should take a look. If they really believe they can play at this level then come in and give it a shot. David is a prime example of a (player) that has taken a lot of determination and a lot of work and gotten to where he has earned himself a scholarship. We expect him to continue to improve and to continue to get better and he is doing that. We are trying to put pressure on him as we go along as we are the entire front to keep stepping it up and to continue to improve.”

On the play of the secondary in the opener:
“I don’t know that our secondary played anywhere close to where we would like them to play. We have to toughen some things up back there. I think we played loose at times when should not have.”

On Kiero Small playing both ways at full back and linebacker:
“We are going to continue to work him on both sides of the ball. He is a good young man that you would like to get in the game as much as you can.”