Razorbacks Football: Sam Pittman bluntly frames where Arkansas stands
Sam Pittman has thrown out any indication the Arkansas rebuild would be a slow burn. The Razorbacks head coach has his team a perfect 4-0 with wins two wins over top-15 teams.
And they are just getting started. Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, No. 16 Arkansas looked like the better team against No. 7 Texas A&M in a 20-10 victory.
Some will say the Longhorns and Aggies are not as good as their rankings showed. But Pittman is not buying it. Arkansas is a real contender in the SEC West, and they’ll have another shot to knock off a ranked team next weekend against Georgia.
“We beat No. 15 (Texas) and No. 7 or 5 (Texas A&M),” Pittman said in his postgame press conference. “Well, someone will say Texas A&M ain’t any good because Arkansas beat them. Well, someone will say Texas ain’t any good because Arkansas beat them.
“But I think both those teams are really good. And I think the Razorbacks have a good football team. That’s how it is.”
When the AP top-25 poll drops on Sunday afternoon, the Razorbacks could be looking at their first appearance in the top 10 since 2012.
Latest Injury update on Razorbacks quarterback
Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson exited Saturday’s game early in the second half with an apparent leg injury. The Razorbacks held on for the win over Texas A&M as Jefferson came back late in the fourth quarter, helping deliver the win.
He finished the day 7 of 15 for 212 yards and two touchdowns. When he was not in the gamer, however, their offense was clearly not producing at the same level. Malik Hornsby completed just one pass and was not able to move the ball down the field.
While the prognosis of Jefferson’s injury hasn’t officially been announced, the quarterback reassured CBS Sports’ Jamie Erdahl his knee was fine.
“I’ts good. It’s good. It’s good,” he said after the game.
In the third quarter, Jefferson was scrambling out of bounds in the third quarter when he was pushed by an Aggies defender which sent him tumbling into the sidelines. Somewhere along the way, the Arkansas quarterback injured his leg.
Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman was not ready to give a major update on Jefferson’s injury, but he was impressed by the grit shown by his quarterback to return to the game.
“Well they want to win and it says A&M has a very physical football team,” Pittman said, whose team now improves to 4-0. But, they came back and KJ finished the game and I love that the offense stayed on the field at the end of the game.”
Jefferson is a huge reason why the Razorbacks are the No. 16 team in the nation and ranked in the top 25 for the first time in more than five years. In their 40-21 win over archrival Texas, the 6-foot-3, 245-pound redshirt sophomore was 14 of 19 while racking up 73 yards on the ground on 10 carries.