Sam Pittman identifies turning point for Jordan Domineck

Arkansas edge Jordan Domineck had a monster game in his debut for the Razorbacks swarming to the football, as he ended the game with two tackles, one sack for a loss of 10 yards, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery. The most impressive part may be that Domineck was not a starter, and came off of the bench for the Razorbacks, making the most of his limited snaps.

His performance raised the question to head coach Sam Pittman on if he knows if Domineck could see more playing time and an increased role on the defense moving forward.

“I don’t, I would assume he’ll increase some. We feel very good about our four defensive ends that are playing on a regular basis, but again I don’t know it he’ll increase his reps or not, it should go up a little bit,” Pittman said.

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Domineck was a transfer from Georgia Tech who wreaked havoc on defenses in the ACC last season with 36 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, four quarterback hurries, and three forced fumbles with a 70-yard fumble return. But when he arrived to Fayetteville, Pittman was not happy with his effort at practice, which quickly turned around for the better.

“But it is really cool, I showed in the team meeting where he was on the group of four that we weren’t really happy with the effort on the play and from that day on he’s changed the way he practiced,” Pittman went on to explain. “And it wasn’t like it was a week, it might’ve been day two into fall camp and I go ‘hey, we can’t do this, we can’t win this way’. And that day he started practicing extremely hard and he’s gotten a lot better from it and I’m really really pleased he’s on the team and really pleased he had some success on Saturday.”

Domineck’s performance Saturday against Cincinnati was strong enough to earn him SEC defensive lineman of the week, which Pittman also spoke on.

“Yeah isn’t that cool? It’s neat for him and I’m sure that will give him added confidence as well,” Pittman said.

Domineck may not have been on the scouting report heading into their week 1 matchup because of his standing on the depth chart, but teams will definitely be on the lookout for him whenever he takes the field moving forward after his week one showing.