Sam Pittman does not see 'any advantage' for playing Arkansas State in Little Rock

Although Arkansas and Arkansas State are the lone FBS teams to reside in the state of Arkansas, the two programs have never met on the gridiron. That will change on Saturday, as the Razorbacks and Red Wolves will clash at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

War Memorial Stadium has been Arkansas‘ home away from home for decades, as it will usually host one non-conference game per season at the venue. Since Sam Pittman took over as the Razorback head coach in 2020, his Arkansas-led teams are 3-0 at War Memorial Stadium with wins over Arkansas-Pine Bluff (twice) and Western Carolina.

While he’s enjoyed success in Little Rock, Pittman claimed on Monday that there’s absolutely no advantage for the Razorbacks to be playing games there. War Memorial Stadium is two and a half hours from Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, Arkansas‘ home stadium. It is however four hours away from Arkansas State‘s stadium, Centennial Bank Stadium.

“I don’t know that there’s any advantage for us you know in all honesty to go to Little Rock and play Arkansas State,” Pittman said. “It’s closer for them. It’s like when we used to go over there and play Mississippi State. It’s closer for them. I just don’t know that there’s gonna be 20-30,000 people less but from what I understand it hadn’t been packed since I had been a head coach. I hope this one is and I hope it’s as loud as Peyton Manning said it is over there.”

Pittman does say that Little Rock game continues to grow passion all around the state

“We should would like that to be the case, but future-wise I don’t really have a lot of say-so in (playing future games in Little Rock). I still think the history of the Hogs in our state (is so strong) because we’d take the team over to Little Rock. Those were certainly different times then with less hotels and less television where people could drive up and see the Hogs play and go home. Obviously it didn’t work out so much driving from Northwest Arkansas over there, but they can still do it.”

“Obviously the stadium was much better than the one we had then, but a lot has changed since then. I don’t know what the advantage of it is other than the passion of the state for the Hogs. Going over there certainly continues that in the state of Arkansas.”

Arkansas and Arkansas State both head into their in-state clash with 1-0 records, as the Razorbacks hammered Alabama A&M 52-7 and the Red Wolves downed SEMO 42-24 in college football’s opening week.