So, where are we, really, on our journey back to respectibility -------------------------------

Football Insider Board
#1

----------------------------------------- in SEC Football? A lot further along than I expected in the beginning of Pittman’s first full year in the program. The truncated Covid season, no spring ball, limited off-season, etc. last year does not really count as a full first year. Maybe a half year or so.

The most impressive thing to me is that, across the board, at almost every position where the players have bought in to the Pittman program, his inherited players are much better. Stronger, bigger, more disciplined, and they play and practice extremely hard, now. We got former walk-ons at linebacker, offensive guard, in the secondary, tight end, etc. playing at a high level of excellence. Morgan at linebacker, Kerr at starting tight end, Hayden Henry at linebacker, etc. are gettting the attention but you can see the same “rise to excellence” all through the roster.

Sam’s staff is outstanding. He corrected a couple of mistakes in the initial hires and now has an amazing (approaching Frank Broyles era quality) staff, both as recruiters and developers of players. Odom is doing outstanding work with limited material and has used recruiting and the transfer portal to create depth, particularly in the defensive line, that has not been seen at Arkansas in decades.

Briles is managing our young QB’s and our lack of elite speed & depth well so far. His system, with the right players will work well in time and he is blending Sam’s beloved power running game into his system which can be a very powerful combination. That is a work in progress but you can see real progress taking place.

So, we just gave our collective ego and our recruiting power a huge boost on national TV with an equally impressive performanence on the field and in the stands against a hated former and soon future rival. That should help us top out this class with a few more good recruits and set us up for the next class to be even more special, particularly recruiting in Texas.

Have we “arrived?” Far from it, but we are headed there. We are showing good depth at several key positions like defensive line, running back, linebacker, and receivers. There are positions where we are one injury away from having to scramble like tight end but not as many of those as in the past.

If we can have good luck with injuries, we will be competitive in the rest of the schedule. A huge step for us is to generate an upset against the upper echelon of the SEC. A&M would be a very good place for that to happen. I don’t expect us to go to Georgia, Bama, LSU, or OleMiss and come out with a win. I do expect this team to beat most of the teams that it should beat. It would be nice if that was true for the non-conf, MissState, Mizzou, and a home win against Auburn.

So, I am guessing we might go 8-4 with an upset coming against A&M, OleMiss, or LSU. 7-5 if no upset. That requires us to beat Mizzou for the first time in ages and hold serve against the toss-up competition. That is huge improvement in year 1.5 of the Sam Pittman era and better is on the immediate horizon. Did you notice, at least for this old Hog, that beating Texas was just very nice but will not be the cherry on top of this season? My how times have changed in a very nice way. Go Hogs!

10 Likes
#2

@Hogmodo Excellent points as always. You have a talent for putting into words much of what I’m thinking. Pittman could prove to be the steal of the century.

1 Like
#3

As thrilled as I am with beating Texass, I don’t want us to get the cart ahead of the horse. 6-6 this year would still be very very good. If we were to some how get to 8-4, Sam has got to be coach of the year. The last time we got excited about a coach beating Texass, well, we know what happened over the next few year.

1 Like
#4

Great post. The Covid seniors are helping a lot and will give us a chance to build depth even more.

We may beat LSU. they got woodshedded by UCLA.

3 Likes
#5

I try to temper my excitement with realism. Excitement is winning….

1 Like
#6

I like to think we COULD beat LSU, A&M, OleMiss, Auburn, Mizzou, etc. Probably, the ones on that list we play at home and, maybe with some breaks, A&M are the most likely.

1 Like
#7

Speaking of staff mistakes, the Corndogs don’t seem to be very impressed with the OL coach they took from us.

#8

Hogmodo always does a good job of looking ahead and coming up with good thoughts. What we have to wait to see, how do injuries impact key positions. He covered that, but I’m adding to it for emphasis. For instance, how is Grant Morgan going to heal. He is not just a good player, but a great player. I don’t think we truly understand to what he means to this team. I do not know the severity of that knee issue, or if it will be something that happens again. There is linebacker depth unlike past years, but there is only one Grant Morgan.

The depth at running back is good, but having four is better than three and sure better than two. Running in fresh backs in the second half and fourth quarter was a thing of beauty.

7 Likes
#9

Very good post, We have to replicate our performance from this weekend throughout the remainder of the season to be considered as ‘Arrived”. Win the games were supposed to and squeak out a upset or 2 and everything will continue to improve with all aspects of the program . I honestly believe that CSP and staff will win over the type of recruit that you have to have to become a juggernaut in the Sec with their honesty and dedication to their players. The story that was told by the announcers on Saturday’s broadcast about the ride home from the Missouri game about calling the QB in the portal and telling him that they had their man speaks volumes for the character of this staff in my opinion. I think the coaches are getting every bit of effort and try out every player we have considering the freshman and walk on’s contributing on this team. We do have a long way to go and I have bought in whole hog to this team and the coaching staff and I’m thankful for the former players that spoke up on behalf of CSP to be the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks . WPS

3 Likes
#10

Maybe we have 3 Kopps relieving in the 2nd half for the Hogs. At least we did Saturday.

2 Likes
#11

We cant lose sight of the fact that a rebuild from where we were will take time and multiple recruiting classes. We have a decent starting crew, but we have to build depth and that takes recruiting and development. Covid seniors will help us, but we are still 2-3 years away from realizing our full potential under CSP.

We just need to keep our expectations realistic. It’s not like we play in the Big 12, 10, 8 whatever they are.

1 Like
#12

They were gassed and well defeated but those were some very fast and talented secondary and linebackers for Texas that Green and Malik were leaving in their dust. That was some impressive young speed and quickness on display late in that game.

1 Like
#13

When you lose heart you slow down. We responded every time in the second half. The Whorns were whipped.

1 Like
#14

Exactly. I’m more optimistic than I’ve been in years about our program, but I think the last time I felt this way was after the last Tx win.

I agree we can’t get ahead of ourselves here. We don’t know how good TX is. They could be vastly overrated. And we could have played well over our heads. I don’t think so, but there’s no doubt we were hyped to win this game & Tx came into a hostile environment led by a freshman QB.

We will face at least 3 teams this year I think are better than Texas. Bama & UGA without a doubt are better. TAMU & LSU could very well be. And as bad as I hate to say it, Ole Miss & Auburn are looking very good right now. Even MSU handled a highly regarded NC State team without much problem. Only MU looks weak. We face a tough gauntlet.

Like you, I still think 6-6 should be considered a successful year in year 2 of the Pittman era. However, the win against Tx makes me think 7-5 is quite doable & maybe even likely. More than that is gonna require staying healthy and getting some good breaks. Glad we have AU & MSU at home. For that matter, I’m glad we have MU at home. If we win all our RRS games, we’ll be 7-5 & have a very good season to build on.

3 Likes
#15

Enjoying the win but watchful of what is ahead. Hope the Hogs are that good & that Saturday’s win was against a worthy opponent. On paper ut has much better talent, but obviously their level of talent was of little benefit to them against a team with more heart & desire to win on Saturday.

Also being noted on local talk shows that Coach Pittman may be the real deal & the motivator for whom players want to play. Expectations are that this win & the overwhelming crowd enthusiasm will have a huge positive impact on our recruiting in every sport, especially in Texas.

2 Likes
#16

I think 8-4 is doable, which would require 4-0 NC and 4-4 SEC.
LOSSES: Bama, Georgia, Ole Miss
COIN FLIPS: A&M, LSU, Auburn
WINS: Moo U, Misery.

Win two of the coin flips and that’s 8. Or steal one of the others (OM).

#17

I agree 8 wins is doable. I’m just not letting myself get that pumped just yet. Ask me again after the A&M game what my prediction is.

OM on the road will be tough. I want to vomit as I say it, but I’m afraid they’re pretty good this year.

#18

It certainly seems that the A&M game has already become a pivotal indicator for this years football team. Win and we will be rushing forward to a likely 7-8 win regular season, lose and 6-6 may become our likely destination.

#19

I echo so much of what I read in this thread. One of the greatest wins in program history, especially when you consider where it has been the last 5-6 years.

I also am a realist and do not want to throw cold water on the excitement. But, as I watch the replay, there were a few key plays that could have changed the whole complexion of the game. The biggest being the muffed punt inside our 5 yard line that we got a big break on. There were 3 long passes that were missed or dropped by Texas that also could have changed the game. We were lucky to avoid a couple of targeting calls too.

Perhaps the Football Gods finally had a change of heart and suddenly decided to even things out for the many years we got bad breaks. It feels good to be relevant again and even better to see a team play with heart again . However, there is still work to do and I hope the players stay focused on getting better each week.

2 Likes
#20

This is the only thing I may disagree with. Probably only Alabama and Georgia will have a noticeably faster team overall than us this year. Against everyone else, I think our overall team speed will be comparable. Our freshmen RB’s look both fast and strong.