FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas will host No. 3 Texas on Saturday in hopes of spoiling the visitor's season and become bowl eligible.
Sam Pittman has Arkansas (5-4, 3-3) coming off its second bye week of the season. The first one didn't result in a win instead LSU took a 34-10 win. Pittman is expecting a talented Texas (8-1, 4-1) team to provide a big challenge.
"It's a rivalry game for us," Pittman said. "Glad that we had a bye week. We were beat up after the Ole Miss game and feel like we're getting somewhat healthy and excited to play a great team. University of Texas, well-coached, exciting team to watch. A lot of speed. A lot of size. But we're excited for our fans to get this rivalry back and being able to play it at home the first year in the SEC. We're happy about that, so I'll answer any questions that y'all might have."
The Longhorns offense uses a lot of motion and misdirection which can cause issues for defenses.
" Ran the reverse off it," Pittman said. "Well then you do that and with speed you know. They are as good a screen team, in other words like you just mentioned. One way, counter back the next way with screens, whether it be wide receiver or running back. They want to get the ball on the edge and get you in space. That’s exactly the play you were talking about, the counter reverse. So we certainly have to practice it. We have to have our edge and we have to turn everything back inside. We have to. If they get outside of the 21 other guys we’re in trouble. So we’ve got to turn the ball back in and we’ve got to chase the ball and we have to play extremely hard. But there’s a lot of challenges there."
Arkansas beat Texas 40-21 in 2021 and at the time the announcers said the Horns now knew what they needed to do entering the SEC. Pittman looks at this roster and feels they did that crediting Steve Sarkisian for the job he has done there.
"I think NIL has certainly changed the game with a lot of people," Pittman said. "But I think they took full advantage of that. Obviously they’re the University of Texas, so they have a strong brand. You combine that with, I think Sark knew exactly what he needed. And he’s built it that way. Coming from Alabama, he’s been in the league. I think he knew exactly what he needed, and I think he went out and got it. And it was size, and it was certainly speed. And everybody knows you’ve got to have a quarterback, and he’s got two of them. Maybe three, I’ve seen two that are extremely good players."
LSU's Garrett Nussmeier and Ole Miss' Jaxson Dart both caused a lot of issues for Arkansas' secondary. Pittman was asked to compare Texas' Quinn Ewers to them.
"You look at them, they’re scary," Pittman said. "They’re dangerous at wide out and running back out of the backfield, and Ewers throwing the football. He has one of the fastest releases of guys I’ve seen. I mean, he can throw a bubble screen, it’s halfway there and you haven’t even seen him throw it. He’s really, really talented. Has an extremely strong arm, so there are some similarities there, so what are you going to do? You’re going to try and cover? Obviously. You’re going to try to get to him. You’re going to try and move the point. They’re good enough offensive line-wise, you’re going to have to send some guys to get to him because he has such a quick release. Therefore, when you do, you’re going to have to be in some type of zone 3 or man-to-man. So, we’ll have to pick and choose our times there, but we have to mix it up on him and we have to disguise better than we have. I think that goes back to your question, a little bit, I think part of it is we’ve got to disguise our coverages better than we have."
Experienced quarterbacks have caused the Arkansas defense issues and a Sark offense is exactly what has hurt the Hogs.
"Explosive offenses," Pittman said. "I mean, like I said before, the national championship when he was OC at Alabama, I thought was the greatest-called game I’ve ever seen by an offensive coordinator. Perimeter. Perimeter explosiveness and he uses his talent really, really well, and has plenty of it, but I just think the guy is a mastermind offensively and he’ll be a huge challenge with the talent that he has as well."
Texas not only has a quarterback in Ewers who has had success in the SEC. Arch Manning is his backup and also played well when in the game.
"I think he’s got the confidence of Jaxson Dart, you know, that type of confidence," Pittman said. "I think he has great belief in his o-line. You can just feel it. You can feel it on the film. His wideouts are incredible. Running backs used as wideouts, bubble screens. So I think he has a lot of talent around him, but I think he has a lot, a lot of confidence. He probably has since he was a young man. He’s very accurate and has got an incredibly strong arm.
"With Manning, I saw him make a play running to his left that they would’ve showed on SportsCenter if it was (Patrick) Mahomes (who) did it, but he just did it the other day in the game. The touch on that pass and the accuracy running to his left was incredible. Him staying there, I’m sure it says something about his family. He’s got a family that’s certainly had a lot of success, and so I’m sure they’re helping him with some of his decisions. To stay nowadays and do that is a notable achievement, or a notable accomplishment for a guy to do that now, especially a guy with his type of talent."
Texas' only loss came to Georgia 30-15 in Austin. Pittman feels the Horns have been able to put that loss behind them.
"I think very well," Pittman said. "I think they're pretty healthy. They certainly have the depth if they… they can play several guys. When you can do that, I think, especially in game 10, 11, 12, you're going to respond 9, 8, you're going to respond a little bit better than those guys is losing a key component. Not necessarily there's a big difference between 1 and 2, but I think they've responded extremely well. They’re third in this country right now and doing good."
Some have insisted Texas is overrated because of a soft schedule. Their best win is likely Vanderbilt since Oklahoma and Michigan aren't as good as expected in preseason.
"Oh, a lot of times critics don’t know what they hell they’re talking about and I don’t think they know much what they’re talking about on this one either," Pittman said. "This is a damn fine Texas team. I mean, you don’t go beat Oklahoma by 31, and beat Mississippi State by 22, and beat Michigan by 19, beat Colorado State 52-0 and have a sorry football team. I mean, you just don’t. These guys are ranked 3 in the country because they deserve it and they’re a really well-coached football team. Coach Sark is one of the best in the business, there’s no question about it, and they’ve got talent. It’s not their fault that they haven’t played, let’s say, a schedule like ours. We played LSU and Ole Miss and A&M and Tennessee. You know, we played… The schedule is the schedule and what they’ve done is done a damn fine job with their schedule and they’ve got a good football team."
Sarkisian is looking forward to bringing his team into Fayetteville.
"Yeah, great opportunity to go on the road to restore a historic rivalry here at the University of Texas," Sarkisian said. "One that Texas and Arkansas have battled for a long, long time with some great teams and some great games. For this rivalry to be restored, so much is made in college football right now about realignment and conference realignment and teams losing rivalries and we picked up two great ones, this being the first year with Arkansas. So looking forward to the opportunity on Saturday."
Texas and Arkansas will kickoff at 11 a.m. on Saturday and televised on ABC.
