Everything Sam Pittman said after Arkansas’ victory over Western Carolina
Sam Pittman said it himself after Arkansas’ 56-13 win over Western Carolina on Saturday.
The game wasn’t going to answer the Razorbacks’ questions about the season, but it could give glimpses.
Most things went right for the Hogs in the blowout. KJ Jefferson is clearly just as good as he ever was at quarterback. The new receivers seem to be FBS caliber. The secondary is more aggressive. Arkansas won’t be short of linebackers.
But a couple issues cropped up, too. The most major was with the running game and offensive line. Arkansas had just 105 yards on 36 carries after being top 10 in FBS in rushing last year.
The line was short two starters, one of whom Pittman thinks will be back Monday, which will help alleviate things.
But all in all, the fourth-year Arkansas coach was happy with what his team accomplished in the season opener. Check out what he had to say below.
Sam Pittman opening statement
I want to start out by thanking the Arkansas fans for coming out today. I thought the crowd was oustanding. It was loud. Very thankful. Usually the folks that have the most problems are the minority, not the majority of people. That proved it today. … Proud of the team. We got to play a whole lot of people. We haven’t been able to do that much since I’ve been here. The wonderful thing about that is the second team, some 3s, picked a pass, scored. … We’ve gotten away from “Did I get to play or not?” It’s how well did you get to play. We’ve got some things to clean up with penalties. Our run game was not what we wanted it to be. But let’s don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. The passing game was what we wanted it to be.
Good start
Any time you start fast, taking a chance on what you do. We talked about physicality right after stretch. It worked. I don’t know if it’ll work every time but I thought we really started fast. Defense had two three-and-outs in a row. The offense went right back and scored. Start of the game was, we had a little lull in the second quarter, then scoring on the last play of the half was big momentum for us, as well.
KJ's day
I think he threw three incompletions, five, what was he 18 of 23? He’s got to get better than that. Only three touchdowns and ran for one? No, I thought he played well. We’re not asking him at this point to run the ball as much. We didn’t want to run him today much. We weren’t going to advertise that. We wanted to see if we had the receivers that we thought we did and things of that nature. Luke Hasz caught the first ball of the game. I thought he was really poised. … I don’t know if we’ve answered any questions, but I thought he played really well today.
We mentioned it after, in the locker room, we’ve got a returner now. He’s dangerous. We did have the one block in the back. But when he gets the ball in his hands, he’s dangerous. An SEC kicker is going to kick it out of the end zone. But punting-wise, he’s dangerous. … I felt it. The whole crowd felt it, when he gets the ball in his hands in some space, he’s dangerous. They’re going to have to kick it further than five or he’s going to bring it out. We think he can get it to the 25. We’re pretty confident in the ol’ kid. He helped us in our confidence meter.
I thought he played really well. I don’t know the stats on it and all that, but from watching the game, I thought he was the most productive linebacker we had. I didn’t see him miss many tackles. What a nice pick-up for us. Just a wonderful kid, wonderful family. Again, he’s a guy that played at Cincinnati. He played, so you can get him on the field a little faster. I was happy with him.
Turnovers were huge and Pittman didn't see them coming
Not as much. Now, we did throw a pick in two-minute on Wednesday. I think Jayden got it. Johnson. But we have gotten a few turnovers. We’ve done a nice job of holding on to the football on offense. We’re preaching it, but to get five, that’s a lot. A whole lot. They did a nice job.
Brad Spence's 85-yard interception return
Well, I imagine he can outrun their offensive linemen, too. Those were the only people left. That was a lot of fun, wasn’t it? They had a drive going. I didn’t want them to score. Last year when we put our 2s in, the team just went. That’s not why you play. I was looking for flags, but there wasn’t any. I didn’t see the whole run because I was looking behind him. Great play.
Arkansas' new wideouts looked good
I thought TeSlaa, he catches everything all the time. Armstrong does, too. For them guys to come from Division II and come here and do that today. What is today? See a little bit where you’re at but don’t get too excited. Today is about building confidence in a team. I thought the team already had it, but to go show it on a Saturday, I think that helps everybody. I’m proud of those guys.
Brady Latham didn't travel
I think Brady will probably be ready on Monday. I hope so. We’ll see. He just wasn’t ready, therefore we didn’t bring him.
Jacolby Criswell gets his shot
It was going to the left, it wasn’t an easy throw. He threw it to who, Dozier? That was so awesome. Young kid being able to score a touchdown. He threw a dart out there. It’s huge for us to have two, maybe three really, really good quarterbacks. Again, that’s building confidence.
Hudson Clark still contributing
He can play safety, he can play Hog. You can depend on him. He’s so smart. He knows everything. He made a nice little pick today, early. He’s a guy that you can just count on. You know you can count on him. He’s one of the most popular guys on the team, too. Everybody loves him.
Defensive line rotations
I think we feel like we’ve got nine or 10. We were going in a four man rotation of four players. I think we pretty much stuck to that. Nico, he played a whole lot. Quincy and those guys. Got a lot of people in.
Not aware of Chris Paul's targeting ejection
For targeting? They kick him out of the game. I don’t know. If they reviewed them both, then, I guess the booth said that they did it. I don’t know. If it’s targeting, it’s targeting. If it’s not, it’s not. They called them, I’m sure it was.
