What Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said on Monday about facing Tennessee

What Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said during his weekly press conference on Monday, as the Razorbacks prepare to host No. 4 Tennessee Saturday night (7:30 p.m. Eastern Time, ABC) at Donald W. Reynolds Stadium in Fayetteville:

Opening Statement

“Excited to be back home.  Somehow our schedule’s been that way the last couple years, but now we have five of the next seven at home. So we’re excited about that, especially for a night game. I think we have two in a row coming up. Tennessee, a really good team, top of the nation in a lot of categories, both offensively and defensively. I think defensively, very, very, very stout up front. Have a really good secondary, linebackers. I think kind of a common theme over the last couple of weeks that their defensive line is probably the strength of their defense as well as what a and A&M’s was, what Auburn’s was. So that’ll be a big challenge for us.

“Offensively they do so much. Of course, we have to get ready for as fast as they go, which we have some ideas for that and we’re going to use that today in practice. But it starts with their quarterback. Very good skill wise. I really like Dylan Sampson, their running back. They play more than one. They got (DeSean) Bishop in there too, but I really like (Sampson). He breaks a lot of tackles. Tight ends are good. Offensive line can do it all — pass, run. I have to obviously talk about Cooper Mays. I love Cooper Mays. And he’s done, done such a nice job. Love his brother, his family, they’re really good people. But Cooper is playing exceptionally well this year and he’s healthy and I’m looking forward to seeing him as well. But a really well-rounded team.

“Squirrel (Whites is) a great punt returner. Cameron (Seldon) is a good kickoff returner. And then they’ve got a kicker that can kick with either leg, rugby (style).

“Just a really good football team. But we’re excited to play the No. 4 team in the country. And they may be higher than that. They’re the best team that we will have played thus far. So we’re excited about, excited to be home and in front of our crowd.”

If it’s a concern that Arkansas is “beat up” coming off the Texas A&M game while Tennessee is coming off a bye

“Yeah, it’s a concern. We’re going to have to do a good job with some of our key players mentally, because we’re not probably going have them for at least a couple of days, some. And maybe get them back on Wednesday, hopefully. But that it is a big concern, And most of our injuries are offensively, which the ones that we’re most concerned about are offensively. And the big physical D-lines I think have taken a toll on our tight end position especially. That’s the one right now I’m most concerned about. But yeah, I think it gives a advantage. We’re undefeated coming off our bye weeks. And a lot of that is because we get our players back. 

“I remember last time we played Tennessee here, they were coming off a bye week and they started out like gangbusters on us and then we were able to come back in the second half. But this is a totally different team than what came in here now going on five years ago. 

“But yeah, that’s a big concern. We’re going to try to take a little bit off of them today. Not the mental part of it, not the speed part of it, as far as how fast Tennessee goes, but for us to compete like we need to and how we want to, we’re going to have to be smart this week.”

The mistakes and turnovers in the Arkansas loss against Texas A&M

“Well, let’s go with the fumble first. There’s two ways you can play it. You can charge it or you can stand on the line of scrimmage and read the mesh. And they had a two different ways to play it. I think we should have just gave the ball, and they had us on that particular one. Part of it was a ittle bit of a snap problem too, so it slowed down the timing of it. But we probably should have just gave the ball and took our lumps on that one because I believe they were mesh charging Taylen, and fumbled the football and obviously bad timing, bad play, all of it that. If we could just hold on the football, we’d be a really good football team, with all the problems that we’ve got to correct. 

“The second one, I think we’ve had so many pressures that we’ve got a lot of problems. We got a confidence problem. We have a quarterback that’s not confident. There’s times when he can stand in the pocket, there is one there, there’s times when he stays in the pocket and he gets hit. So probably in between. And we tried a lot of quick passing game as well, but I think between that, moving the pocket and running the football, the problem with that was early in the game. We lost a running back early in the game. 22 was in and out of the game. R-Dub was suspended, which he’s not anymore by the way, but he was suspended. So it takes a little bit of our tight ends, both of them didn’t practice a whole lot last week, so it takes a little bit of the running thought out of it. But I think to take pressure off of the offensive line and our quarterback, we have to run the ball a little bit more quick game, get the ball out of his hand so we can build some trust between (the quarterback) and the offensive line. 

“And he’s got to get better. The offensive line’s got to get better. I think Tesla was a big shot in the arm for us. I think he came in and made some plays. And I believe that gives Taylor another option to go to. So there’s a lot of reasons behind that. If I was going to put it in a nutshell, I’d say we got to protect the front of the pocket better. I didn’t think our tackles, I thought they played better than they played the week before, but there’s no place for him. A lot of times there’s no place for him to step up. And so the pocket’s getting collapsed on him, which makes you look worse at tackle. Even the last one that we fumbled a football on, Kamon had him 11 yards deep. You can’t ask a guy to do more than that. He flushed because the front of the pocket was coming at him and the guy got to strip fumble. 

“But I thought our tackles were better. We’ve got to continue to get better, but I think the front of the pocket is something that we we’re certainly going to address this week as well.”

How impressive Tennessee has been away from home so far, the keys to success in those games

“Well, that was a hard fought game at Norman. OU scored late, I think, to make it look a little bit better than what the game was. I think if you look at that game, they got up and Coach tried to run the football, trying to take the clock away. But I think it says that they’ve been in that atmosphere before and they’ve got a really good team. Physical. What you see this year a little bit is their defense is so much better than what I’ve seen. They’re really good defensively, but I think they handled it real well. Oklahoma’s really, really loud at night. And they handled it real well. 

“I imagine they had more than half of the fans when they went over and played in a neutral site, NC State. But it says they got a good program and understand mature guys. They got a lot of older guys on a, on their offensive line. Usually that’s where it affects you more than anything. It’s on upfront, on the O-line. They got a lot of maturity up there, starting with Cooper.” 

What he has seen from Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava 

“Really good. Really good. It’s just like (Texas A&M quarterback) Marcel Reed. Reed did what he needed to do. He didn’t turn the football over. I’m not comparing him. I’m saying Nico is that, he does what he needs to do. He’s got a lot of opportunities to shine in his offense. He doesn’t make mistakes. And then he does it at a high, high, high, high level. He’s scary because he’s not going to make mistakes and he is going to run the offense to a perfection.  And for a young guy like that, he just really impressive.”

The times he has crossed paths with Tennessee coach Josh Heupel

“Really good dude. I really like him. The guy won the Heisman and I don’t know what I was expecting. I don’t know, ut he’s a very humble, very good guy. I like him. I like what he does on his team. They’re well coached, they’re disciplined, they play extremely hard. But I really like the man and I don’t know him much more than the SEC head coaches meetings, but I have high respect. I mean this, I have high respect for the guy because he’s really done a great job there. And a lot of guys had went in there and didn’t before he got there. And I think he’s done a wonderful job. And his kids, they know how to play the game. They know how to play it the right way.”

His time at Tennessee as an assistant coach 

“Yeah, I remember when I went for an interview and the GA took me over to the stadium and I’d never been there before. And in between the time I was interviewing and I think the head coach was talking to AD about if he could hire me, how much he’s going to pay me and all that. And I went, walked in the stadium and I said, I told the GA I said, take me back. He said, why? And I said, hell, they ain’t gonna hire me to coach in the stadium like this. It was unbelievable. It was like the coliseum. I said, I’m not getting a job, take me back. And he started laughing. When I got back I had a contract and a job. But it’s one of those places, it’s an SEC school, but it’s one of those places that has a lot of history and really great place to live. Good opportunity at the time to obviously get an SEC as well for me. 

Arkansas not playing Tennessee very often in the SEC schedule rotation

“When we went down there a few years back, when they returned open a kickoff for a touchdown. We were down fast down there. And then offensive line and running backs and they kind of took the game over back then. We ran a lot of pin and pulls and end up kicking a field goal right before half and we missed the swiper. I’ll never forget that. He came right through there and he should have blocked it and he didn’t. And then when I got the job here, one of my former O-linemen over at Tennessee, I was talking about when I was O-line, I said, going to Arkansas. I think I said I came here from Tennessee. I said hey I’m going to Arkansas, he said there’s nothing to do with in Arkansas. We played there. I said yeah it was 44-10, bro. 

I said there might not much to do, but them Hogs did whip your butt. And we were laughing about it. But I do remember. Tennessee was a short was about 11 or something. But happy Derek Dooley hired me and gave me that opportunity.”

Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson

“He’s bad. He’s bad to the bone. He’s a good player. He’s really good to make you to miss, to run over you. He’s a good player to make a catch. I like him a lot. He’s a really good player. And then they use the other one, Bishop, too. But he’s a really good player.” 

Addison Nichols and Doneiko Slaughter being two Tennessee transfers on the Arkansas roster

“Well, anytime, Trey had mentioned something about starting and all this and so I’m going to contradict myself a little bit. But anytime you got a guy that’s starting, he’s the best you got. You feel like that’s the best you have, especially if you’re not in a rotation. So with Nichols coming in here and starting for us has been really good for us. And then with Doneiko, he’s played really, really good ball for us. And so those two guys coming from Tennessee have helped our program. Glad they’re here.”

If there’s more juice for those players facing their old team 

“I think there’s something to some of that. I also think that lasts about four or five plays and then you get hit in the head and somebody cuts you or somebody knocks hell out of you. And then at that point it’s about preparation and what you’re made of in the heart and how hard you want to go. So I do think there’s something. I think that has to do with preparation. I think whenever you’re wanting to do something so bad, I don’t know that that feeling that you have right before the game’s going to help you play a lot better. But I do know that feeling helps you prepare, which then you’ll play better. So I would assume they’d have that this week.” 

What he’s seen from Tennessee’s fast starts in games this season

“Well the thing about them in now is if they get going on you now, they’re hard to stop. They’re hard to stop because they go so fast and then your corrections  — you can’t sub — are made on the sidelines. So obviously to start like that, they’re well prepared on both sides of the ball. We have to match that to have success on Saturday, which we plan on having.”

What he could take away from Tennessee scoring 25 points at Oklahoma

“Yeah, there sure is. I thought it was a brilliant game plan. But as I said, once Tennessee got ahead there, they went primarily to running the football. They were ahead, they felt like their defense was playing well. I think Oklahoma was struggling a little bit offensively and part of that, a lot of that was because Tennessee is really good on defense. But yes, there’s certainly things that we looked at that Coach Venables and his staff did there that are intriguing.”