Sam Pittman analyzes job Zach Arnett has done

On Saturday, the Arkansas Razorbacks will head east as they take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Both teams are not ideally where they would want to be, as the Razorbacks entered the game 2-5 and the Bulldogs 3-3.

Saturday will be the first time Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman faces off against Zach Arnett as a fellow head coach. Last season, when the two squared off, Arnett was still in the defensive coordinator position for the Bulldogs. But after the untimely passing of head coach Mike Leach, the Mississippi State defensive coordinator has now become the head coach. And ahead of their matchup, Pittman took some time to analyze the job Arnett has done in year one.

“I think he’s done a really good job,” said Pittman. “He’s been hit with injuries now; I mean, he has. And he’s tried to take them to a new offense, and obviously, he’s still working with the defense. But he was calling it before. I’m sure it’s a little bit different. There’s a lot of similarities in what they’re doing now and what they did last year defensively.

“But I have a lot of respect for him and had a lot of respect for him when he was a D coordinator. I do think you know if they’ll stay with him, he’ll bring a tough physical team. But a lot of their situation has come from injuries, and some of their best players have been out.”

Pittman on Mississippi State game: ‘We have to win’

With a chance to end their losing streak on Saturday, Sam Pittman is making it plain and simple to his program.

Pittman’s answer was very clear when it comes to the importance of this weekend’s game during his press conference on Monday. He stated that their matchup with Mississippi State is clearly a must-win for the Razorbacks and left no questions about it.

“We’ve got to win,” said Pittman as he shrugged at the podium. “We have to win, we have to win on Saturday.”

Besides the obvious, Pittman said a win over the Bulldogs is vital for the ‘Hogs to still accomplish some of their goals. He expects Arkansas to respond too as he almost feels as if they’re due because of the position that they’ve put themselves in.

“When the season starts, you have all these goals,” Pittman explained. “There are still some on that we had. They may have been down here to get up here but there are still some attainable goals that we have.

“Our kids know – I’m going to talk to them today about it. But this game on Saturday is a big, big game for us,” said Pittman. “They all are but when you keep backing yourself up into a corner? At some point, you’ve got to go forward.”