Sam Pittman responds to assertion Arkansas was looking ahead to Texas A&M

After back-to-back games to open the season against quality FBS foes, Arkansas survived a closer-than-expected contest in Week 3 against FCS Missouri State 38-27. After the game, coach Sam Pittman was asked if his team got caught looking ahead to a Week 4 matchup against Texas A&M.

The Razorbacks and Aggies will meet tonight at 7 ET on ESPN, but Pittman didn’t think the big conference road test was a reason for the letdown last weekend.

“No, I don’t. I thought, I’ll be honest with you, I thought we had a really good week of practice (prior to Missouri State),” Pittman said. “I think we were focused. Now I think there’s a difference in looking forward to next week and not giving enough respect for the team you’re playing. I think that.”

The Bears certainly caused the Razorbacks to reconsider. Pittman personally took a good deal of the blame for that, with the Bears leading 27-17 in the fourth quarter before Arkansas finally rallied.

A run of 21 unanswered points to end the game sewed things up for Pittman’s Hogs, but not before forcing some introspection.

“Their team wasn’t better than us today because we beat them, but their coach was better than me today and I’ve got to get that fixed,” Pittman said.

Arkansas has had a tough start to the season

Credit Pittman, because despite the lack of respect for the opponent last weekend the Razorbacks are indeed 3-0. If Arkansas looking ahead was a factor last weekend, at least it didn’t prove costly.

A season-opening contest against then-No. 23 Cincinnati ended in a 31-24 Arkansas win before a home SEC opener against South Carolina finished 44-30 in favor of the Hogs.

Last week’s Missouri State game, that one Pittman thinks his squad took a little lightly, was perhaps the lone respite in the first half of the season.

“I just think Missouri State outplayed us, to be perfectly honest with you,” Pittman said. “But if I was going to have a reason why or something like that it would be because they did, and the other thing is that I remember we went in there and beat Cincinnati and nobody was happy. Well Cincinnati’s a really good team.”

The point?

It’s hard to take too much from any single week’s result. You have to show up for them all. And attempt to stay as even-keeled as possible.

The next few on the schedule for Arkansas should require no real extra motivation from Pittman. Today’s road trip to Texas A&M begins a stretch that includes No. 2 Alabama the following week, then three straight road trips to Mississippi State, No. 19 BYU and Auburn.

“So we’re not going to have problems getting up for the next few,” Pittman said. “The name on the side of the hat? Pretty significant.”