Sam Pittman opens up on difficulty of overcoming so many key Razorbacks injuries

Arkansas was a dark-horse pick for some analysts in the SEC West going into 2022 but key Razorbacks injuries pretty quickly derailed those picks.

The Hogs have been absolutely decimated in certain spots, particularly in the secondary. Add in a recent injury that has sidelined quarterback KJ Jefferson and you have a recipe for disaster. Arkansas has lost five of its last seven games.

“Obviously they’re [starters] for a reason, then if you have a special guy like KJ, a special guy like (Jalen) Catalon, those guys are special to play for anybody in our league,” coach Sam Pittman said. “Hopefully will have a pro career and things of that nature.

“When you lose your key guys like that, who also, you know, it’s ironic. And everybody’s going to say I’m making an excuse. You’re the one that asked the question. I didn’t. So you asked the question, I’m answering it. But we had four captains walk out there the other night. KJ’s one of them, (Dalton) Wagner‘s one of them. So two of your four leaders out there are not playing.”

If Pittman sounded a bit testy, it’s understandable. He’s had a veritable juggling act for most of the season simply trying to find enough guys to suit up in the secondary.

The Razorbacks have done a number of different things to combat that, even moving players around from other positions.

Still, it hasn’t been easy.

“We did learn a lesson from COVID that if you cross-train and different things of that nature then you can go out and win games,” Pittman said. “Now we didn’t win a lot of them. But you can go out and win games if you’re prepared. This year it’s just been a rash of injuries in the secondary. And we never quite got on target or got comfortable with each other till the last game and a half, probably.”

Key Razorbacks injuries have been crippling

It’s one thing to have injuries, it’s another to lose your starting quarterback on top of all the other ones.

And it’s been clear Arkansas isn’t the same team without Jefferson. His absence only exacerbates the other key Razorbacks injuries.

“When you lose, anybody, you go out in the conference and you lose your best player, your quarterback, it’s going to affect your football team,” Pittman explained. “And it’s not only about affecting your team, it’s about how people play against you.

“If you noticed the box numbers, the amount of blitzes we’re getting on run downs now versus what we did before with KJ running, it’s different. It’s a different number count, it’s different schematics that people are using against us. So it’s going to take away some of your rushing yards because they’re not afraid of you. They’re not afraid of that slant anymore. They’re not afraid of that go route off of a play-action read. They’re not afraid of it.”

Changing the math on that for opponents is the key thing Arkansas has to figure out down the stretch. The Razorbacks still need to secure a win for bowl eligibility, facing No. 11 Ole Miss at home and then traveling to Missouri to close out the regular-season slate.

The backups will have to emerge.

“And part of that is having the confidence,” Pittman said. “We need to have the confidence in whoever’s there as a two that we still do that because we’ve got to back people off of us.”