Sam Pittman on recent record vs. Texas A&M: ‘The rivalry for us has to mean more’

Arkansas and Texas A&M have a rivalry dating back to the Southwest Conference, heightened when the Aggies joined the SEC. They have dominated the game as well, only losing once since the 2012 season. AT&T Stadium has been a venue those from Fayetteville loathe, even as Sam Pittman turns the program around.

Still, Pittman is looking to embrace the rivalry. In fact, Arkansas may need to take it more seriously than Texas A&M because of the struggles.

“The rivalry for us has to mean more than them,” Pittman said. “I don’t know how much you can truly respect an opponent that you’ve beaten 10 out of 11 times.”

A few of Texas A&M’s victories have been blowouts. The 2012 game wound up being a 48-point difference, as Johnny Manziel threw for 453 yards and three touchdowns. But other games have been absolute heartbreaks for Arkansas. Six losses for Arkansas vs. Texas A&M have been decided by a possession or less. Three of them came in overtime.

Pittman understands Arkansas went through some difficult years but not too many rivalries — something he still believes it is — have the same school winning 10 out of the last 11 matchups.

“We’re one out of the last 11,” Pittman said. “I’ve been on some of those overtime losses where the game looked like it was ours — just like last year. It’s definitely a rivalry for us. You don’t see many series lopsided at 1-10 like that. But we did go through some rough, rough years.”

Sam Pittman hopes Arkansas can build on lead if ahead vs. Texas A&M

The end result might show Texas A&M dominating but as pointed out, there have been close games. Arkansas has even held some leads but has never been able to build upon them. Last season was a prime example, going up 14-0 in the first quarter before eventually losing 23-21.

If Arkansas gets a lead this season, Pittman is going to keep his foot on the pedal. The goal will be to go up a score or two and make sure there is no coming back for Texas A&M.

“If we can get a lead, we got to figure out how to extend the lead and not just try to hold onto it,” Pittman said. “We certainly tried that last year. At the end of the game, I thought we were going to score. Matter of fact, I was worried about scoring too fast.

“At that point, we were running the clock and I just wanted to score. Then we had an (bad) snap that killed a lot of that stuff. Hopefully, decision-making will be as good as it possibly can be and we’ll come out on top.”