Everything Sam Pittman said after Arkansas throttled by Auburn
Sam Pittman’s disposition, for the first time in a while, belied Arkansas’ result on Saturday.
The Razorbacks were blasted, 48-10, by Auburn in a game Arkansas needed to win if it hoped to reach bowl eligibility. A 38-point margin sent those hopes to the toilet with one of those fast, hard flushes.
Arkansas’ coach wasn’t at a loss for words like he sometimes has been this season after Razorbacks’ losses. But all the ones that came before were defeats by one possession. The Tigers took a two-score lead less than five minutes into the game and never looked back.
For fans purposes, the most important thing Pittman talked about was his job status. He said he wasn’t concerned about it.
But the way he said it left open some possibilities.
Take a look at everything Pittman had to say below.
Opening statement
They were ready to play. I felt like we were through the week. I thought we, coming off of the week, had a really good week of practice. But we got dominated today. We’ve got to go back to work and figure out why.
What happened?
We couldn’t handle the edge on defense. Tried different things out there. But anytime they wanted to get on the edge, couldn’t handle the run. Didn’t tackle well. Went back to where the protection wasn’t any good, giving up five sacks. Couldn’t run the ball. Got stymied running the football. Things that we did pretty well last week, you know. I thought we had a really good week of practice and preparation. I felt really good going into the game. They jumped on us with the first drive. Then they held us. They came back with a punt. We did the same thing to Florida last week and they came back and we never did. Didn’t tackle well all game. Didn’t block well all game. That’s what happened. We haven’t been in this situation. We were in it today. Tried to fight, tried to get out of it, just never did.
Third downs not there
Third-and-long, seemed like we couldn’t win first down at all. Third-and-long was a problem for us. We tried several different things – empty, six-man protection, rolling out, nakeds, running it. They were just more physical than us and really dominated us.
Energy drop after 21-0
It’s like a lot of times you’ll say get the momentum back. We just never had it. It was seven, then the punt, then another three-and-out then another drive for a touchdown. At some point, you need somebody to make a play and Nudie made the play. Then we go out there, get three yards and kick a field goal. It just, they just physically whipped us in all phases of the game.
Concerned about job?
I’m not. Let me say why. Because it’s never been about me being the head coach. It’s been about me and these kids. To answer your question, no, I’m not.
Jacolby Criswell
We’re down 41-3 and KJ is getting the heck beat out of him back there. Obviously I wanted to look at Jacolby. Talked to KJ and I thought he went in there and played really well. I thought he played like what I thought he would. The bottom line is seven minutes left in the third quarter, we’re down 41-3 and KJ was bloodied up a little bit and things and I wanted to see what Jacolby could do. …
We have given him some looks recently. But there’s not a quarterback controversy.
Players defeated?
As you would imagine, you’re obviously trying to continue to pump up and motivate. We are. Some of the kids are. The sideline was about what it was on the field. But I didn’t feel like we quit or anything. I just didn’t feel like we ever started today. That’s all of us.
Bad tackling
Tackling inside, we didn’t particularly do that well, either, but tackling out in space is a whole different story than tackling in-space. We’ve kind of gotten exposed the last couple weeks in space. It wasn’t because we didn’t work on it. We spent both first of indies tackling. We knew we needed emphasize what we didn’t do well last week against Florida. But we need to continue to work on it more because we weren’t very good tackling today.
Bad at home
I don’t (know why). We thought about our routine, what we do. We didn’t go to the movies, didn’t do anything like that. We never do on a 3 o’clock game. It was lock-us-in, get-us-focused. The week was identical to last week practice wise, motivation wise. It was a really good week. It really was. I don’t know why, unless Auburn was just that much better than us today. I don’t think that’s the case. I think for whatever reason we didn’t play with a lot of energy. Maybe they sucked it out of us fast. That’s not what a well-coached team does.
Rocket's status
I don’t know. I don’t really know how bad he is or anything like that, for sure.
What else went wrong besides O-line?
Last week we threw some bubbles that made some plays that maybe kind of took them out of the box a bit. We didn’t play as much man as what we saw today. Other than just getting whipped. The other thing, I think last week was a surprise to them with what we did and the pace we did it and all that. But you’ve got to get some first downs to play fast-paced and I don’t think we had one until the second quarter.
What changes now that no bowl?
We’ve got to win. We’re going to play to win. We’ve got to beat Florida International next week. We’re going to continue to do what we feel is the best to get us a win. I think a lot of it will have to do with where are we physically. Our job is to give our kids the best chance to win, so that’s what we’ll do next week.
How to focus down the stretch?
There was a lot of importance to win today. That was one of them to keep that alive. I think right now, we talked to them a little bit afterward, we’ll kind of see a little bit more about what we’re made of. Are we going to go fight and prepare? I have no doubt that we will. We’ve got to get ready for FIU. I just don’t think there’s any way we won’t be ready for them. I don’t think we have a locker room problem. We got our butt kicked today.
Near-half talk
I thought we were engaged, but we were in trouble. It was 27-3 and we hadn’t done a lot of things. Hadn’t had a lot of success in any phase of the game. We tried to pump them up about competing. We had the ball first. We tried to do a good job of adjusting our protections, our runs, why we can’t handle the edge on defense. Told them how to gameplan what we were trying to get done. Tried to give them hope that we’re in it with them. We’re trying to help them with what we’re doing and it just didn’t work.
Payton Thorne
It was outstanding. Very good athlete. Can throw it. They have kind of changed a little bit lately over the last two or three weeks. They’re going back to a little more fast-paced, hurry-up type offense versus the slowdown version they were doing earlier. Their offensive line just played lights out. They were exceptional. But he ran the offense really well, threw the ball well and managed the time well.
Tough in third-and-long
It’s really hard. You try to concentrate in first and second down and stay out of that long stuff. Got a nice little run and got a holding that took us back to 1st-and-20. It’s very, very difficult. Then you’re going, who are your playmakers? Who can we go to get the ball and get the first down or get open or who can we count on to protect? There’s a lot of things that go into that and if you’re not doing a great job of protection, you don’t have as much time to get open and you’ve got to think about moving the pocket.
Injuries
I don’t know. He wasn’t well enough to come back into the game. We’ll have see on that. … I don’t know where he (Grier) is, either, injury-wise. I’ll know more tomorrow.
