Sam Pittman hopeful but doubts Arkansas OL Patrick Kutas will be available vs. FIU

Arkansas offensive lineman Patrick Kutas remains dinged up as of Wednesday, head coach Sam Pittman said on the SEC coaches teleconference. And the lineman’s status for Saturday is yet to be decided.

As of the middle of the week, Pittman wasn’t exactly hopeful that Kutas could get back in the lineup following his injury absence. Kutas is certainly in a better spot than this time last week, but he might not be game ready come the weekend.

“Well, my hope obviously is that he’ll be available. My feeling is that he probably won’t, to be perfectly honest with you. But he’s moving so much better than he did last week, so we’re going to keep that hope alive,” Pittman said.

Kutas missed Arkansas’ loss to Auburn last weekend after suffering a high ankle sprain in a win against Florida in Week 10.

How rehab and practice goes the remainder of the week will determine if Kutas can perhaps get back in the line up as Arkansas hosts FIU on Saturday.

“He’s obviously getting his rehab work done. He is moving in practice, doing some things, doing some indy. We’ll just have to wait and see but he’s much further this week than he was a week ago,” Pittman said.

Pittman shared a message for Arkansas faithful earlier in the week

Disappointment has been around every turn for Arkansas this season, and this past weekend was no exception. On Saturday, the Razorbacks suffered a blowout 48-10 loss to Auburn. On Monday, Pittman delivered a hopeful message directly to the fans.

“First of all, we thank them for coming out and supporting us,” Pittman said. “Obviously, we’re disappointed we didn’t have even a good showing for them on Saturday. We believe we can get this thing turned around and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Pittman hasn’t able to fulfill any such promise yet. The Razorbacks have lost seven of their last eight games and only have one SEC victory this season. Arkansas hit a new low in its loss to Auburn on Saturday.

In the defeat, Arkansas only tallied 255 total yards of offense while allowing Auburn to double that number. The Razorbacks only picked up 10 first downs in the outing compared to Auburn’s 32. The loss eliminated Arkansas from bowl eligibility.

If Arkansas does not defeat Missouri in its final game of the season, it will finish with only one conference win for just the second time in program history. Despite Arkansas disappointing season, Pittman isn’t letting his eyes wander ahead.

“You’re always trying to win,” Pittman said. “Honestly, it doesn’t feel a whole lot different than what it does every week. We want to win and to coach for our players to be the best they possibly can be. Coaching, I think a lot of times, you get concerned when you felt like you had a really good practice week and it doesn’t go well on a Saturday.

“We went back and tried to figure out if we could change something up. It was the same thing we did against Florida format-wise. But, no. We’re trying to win games and trying to do the best we can to put the kids in the best spot to have success.”