Sam Pittman claims Arkansas can play with 'anybody on our schedule'

It’s been an outstanding start to the 2025 season for the Arkansas football program, as it has absolutely demolished its first two opponents of the season. The Razorbacks opened with a 52-7 drumming of Alabama A&M and then turned that into a 56-14 win over in-state Arkansas State in Little Rock last Saturday.

Head coach Sam Pittman‘s team will however face their first major challenger this weekend in Oxford, as the Razorbacks will hit the road for a matchup at No. 17 Ole Miss. Through two weeks, Arkansas boasts the second best (statistical) offense in the Southeastern Conference.

Pittman seems extremely confident in his team and revealed on Monday that he believes they can play with anybody on their schedule this season.

“If you have a good enough team (and we do), if we play well we can play with anybody on our schedule” Pittman said. “I may be the only guy that believes it with all my heart — well, no — I’ve got 115 (players) that believe that as well. But each game has different motivational factors behind it. They all do. Last week was for the state. It was a state championship to some aspect. You find different things that have extra motivation.

“We should have enough to motivate ourself, so certainly the way we got beat last year (against Ole Miss) in that game has to have some motivation. The problem is a bunch of kids playing on our team weren’t here for it. It should motivate the guys who were embarrassed, because it was an embarrassing night.”

Five of Arkansas’ next six games are against top-25 teams

Pittman was alluding to last season’s game against Ole Miss at home in Fayetteville, in which Lane Kiffin‘s Rebels ran Arkansas off the field by a score of 63-31. Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart absolutely shredded the Razorback defense, as he passed for 515 yards and six touchdowns.

“So certainly there are things there we’ll talk about after we certainly need a great week of practice to prepare ourself,” Pittman continued. “That may be a part of the motivation.”

The Hogs are certainly off to a great start, but are now looking at a gauntlet of opponents over the next few weeks. Five of their next six games are against teams ranked in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll (No. 17 Ole Miss, No. 8 Notre Dame, No. 15 Tennessee, No. 16 Texas A&M and No. 24 Auburn). Their one game against a non-ranked team in that span is against Memphis, one of the favorites to earn the GO5 spot in this year’s College Football Playoff.

Saturday proves to be a great opportunity to show the college football landscape that Arkansas could legit be a threat to make some noise in the SEC this season. It will also show whether or not quarterback Taylen Green, who Razorback fans have been making Heisman Trophy noise for, could seriously put his name in the running for the most prestigious award in the sport.

Kick-off between Arkansas and No. 17 Ole Miss on Saturday is scheduled for 7:00 PM on ESPN.