Sam Pittman believes Mississippi State is a 'scary' team despite record

Arkansas heads to Mississippi State on Saturday, being the first-ever matchup between Sam Pittman and Jeff Lebby. Both teams are fresh off a loss and looking to bounce back. Especially the Bulldogs who are now 0-4 in SEC play and 1-6 overall.

Pittman is not looking at Mississippi State’s record though, believing they are still a good football team. He cites a tough strength of schedule, already playing the likes of Georgia, Texas, and Texas A&M — three teams competing for spots in the SEC Championship. Not many teams will face that kind of gauntlet over the entirity of conference play, let alone through four games.

The environment of playing in Starkville is never easy either, having to deal with a good atmosphere full of cowbells.

“They’ve got a great football team,” Pittman said on Monday. “Everybody looks at somebody’s record. Who did they play too? It’s his first year in there and all that. He’s playing everybody… They’re a scary team, now, to go in there and play. The cowbells going off and all that.”

Mississippi State has ended their last two games against Georgia and Texas A&M with defeats of 10, better than the oddsmakers expected. Texas did have a little more success, winning by 22 points. The main difference has been true freshman Michael Van Buren settling into the offense.

Pittman knows Arkansas needs to be careful or they can catch a loss on Saturday, not something the program needs at this point of the season.

Arkansas has actually struggled against Mississippi State in recent seasons, losing five of the last seven contests. Two of those were in Starkville with the latest being in 2022 when Pittman saw his team lose 40-17 to Mike Leach‘s bunch. There are some bad memories from the last trip down.