Pittman not 'making a mountain out of a mole hill' over past two losses
Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman isn’t sweating after the Hogs’ latest late-game disaster dropped their record to 2-2.
In the last two weeks, Arkansas has been within striking distance of taking a lead with less than two minutes left in the game, but both times — against Ole Miss and Memphis — fumbles have ended those chances.
The two losses are the latest in one-score failures the Razorbacks have had under Pittman, who is 7-19 in one-score games in his tenure as the Head Hog.
Still, Pittman said doesn’t want to make the last two weeks more than they are.
“Our plan is to beat Notre Dame,” Pittman said. “What do we need to change? We need to tackle better, we need to run to the ball better, we need to take care of the football, and we can win games. I’m not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. The public will, but we’ve got a good team. We’re doing the right things. We’ve got to hold on to the football, we’ve got to tackle better and we’ve got to play harder and we’ll win those games.”
After the recent two-game skid, talk on social media has gone from disappointed to angry. Pittman’s proverbial hot-seat, at least to those on the outside of the program, has gotten hotter. That’s not a new phenomenon to him, and he said he doesn’t feel any more pressure than he has in recent years.
“It’d be kind of hard to have more pressure,” Pittman said. “I mean, I think the pressure you put on yourself is obviously a lot because you want to do well for a lot of reasons. But I’ve kind of had this same type pressure for, I don’t know, three years now. It seems like 40, but I think it’s been about three.”
Lack of effort an issue for Hogs in Memphis
It was pretty easy to see, especially on defense, that there was a lack of effort for the Hogs in their loss to Memphis. Pittman also identified that as an issue and said part of it might have to do with the heat.
“A lot of times not tackling is effort,” Pittman said. “Obviously, it’s technique, but it’s effort. We had more missed assignments offensively, especially in the third quarter, than we’ve had this year. And it wasn’t this guy, it was this guy, or that guy, or that guy, or that guy.We obviously had more turnovers than we have had.
“So, yeah, I mean there are some things that mentally, it’s just not a physical game that mental effort, and it may have had something to do with the heat. I don’t know. We’ve got to find that out today so it doesn’t happen to us again. I thought that we were either fatigued or we weren’t playing hard enough, or both on defense especially.”
Wins are what will bring the fanbase back in
It’s been 16 days since the Razorbacks were in the win column. Since then, they’ve been punched in the mouth defensively and hadn’t really responded. The Arkansas defense has surrendered 964 yards and 73 between Ole Miss and Memphis in back-to-back weeks.
Now, the test gets exponentially harder with a Notre Dame team that was in the National Championship game a year ago coming to Fayetteville.
Pittman said the only way to change the perception about the program is simple: Win games.
“The only way we can win people (over) that don’t believe in us, or win some more positive thoughts about our program is to win ball games, and that’s really the bottom line,” Pittman said. “You can say whatever you want. You can do whatever you want, but what’s the score? That really is what changes people’s perception or perspective of you.”
The season is still young and only 30% of the way done, and Pittman said he’s not worried about his team letting go of the rope.
“Guys, as much as y’all want us to win and the state wants us to win, the guys in the locker room want to win too,” Pittman said. “It’s Notre Dame. If I had a concern, I’d be telling you that I didn’t think I had a good team or good leadership on the team, and if I told you that, I’d be lying. So we’ll be ready to play.”
The Razorbacks and Irish will kick off from Reynolds Razorback Stadium at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The game will air on ABC.
