Sam Pittman reveals why Dwight McGlothern left game vs. Kent State

Grant Grubbsby:Grant Grubbs09/10/23

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Dwight McGlothern played one snap in Arkansas‘ 28-6 win over Kent State on Saturday. After the game, Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman revealed the reason behind his defensive back’s absence.

“[McGlothern] has turf toe,” Pittman said during the postgame press conference. “We were checking him out before the game and he didn’t move very well. Then we put him out there the first play and he didn’t move very well. So we went with [Kee’yon] Stewart.”

Arkansas didn’t need its star cornerback to take down Kent State. The Razorbacks’ defense held Kent State to just 200 total yards of offense. However, 178 of those yards did come through the air. This number likely would have been minimized with McGlothern on the field.

After all, the senior Razorback led the team and ranked second in the league with four interceptions last season. Additionally, McGlothern posted a career-high 52 tackles. The LSU transfer picked up right where he left off in Arkansas’ season opener against Western Carolina.

In the 56-13 victory, McGlothern recorded a tackle for loss, a pass deflection and an interception. While Pittman’s defense stepped up without McGlothern, he wasn’t satisfied with their performance.

“We came out. We got a three-and-out. We went down and scored,” Pittman began. “But we’ve got a lot of work to do. This team right here. He had them [Kent State’s head coach] better than I had ours prepared today. They played better than we did today. We were fortunate to win.

“It’ll be a good wake-up call for us,” Pittman said. “We talked all week about not needing to be surprised. Not needing to be woke up. But, we got woke up. So, we’ll be ready to play next week.”

Dwight McGlothern and fellow transfers finding success

McGlothern isn’t the only transfer who’s made a massive impact for the Razorbacks.

“[The transfers] have played well,” Pittman said. “Defensively, I don’t know, we had a lot of sacks. They haven’t scored many points on us. I was frustrated at half because we couldn’t get off the field. We weren’t giving up points, but time. The game plan was going exactly how they wanted it to go minus scoring a lot of points.

“What would happen if we didn’t have [Kee’yon] Stewart today? Jaheim [Singletary]. All these guys on the inside. [Antonio] Grier picked a pass for a touchdown. We’re very fortunate we hit pretty good for what we think.”

All three of these transfers joined the Razorbacks this offseason. Arkansas will need its transfers to step again this weekend. On Saturday, Arkansas will take on BYU at 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.