Ask Mike: Pittman Is Safe, Green Steps Up & Is There an Issue w/Defense?

Q. Our first question is from JimmyHogBall who asks: Nice win for the Hogs but what happened to the defense?

A. It reminded me of last week when LSU’s offensive coordinator correctly guessed that Travis Williams would scheme Arkansas defense to stop the deep pass. LSU threw for corners and also ran the ball successfully against Arkansas scheme.

Mississippi State essentially took the same approach. Throw for the corners and run the ball right at Arkansas. It worked. MSU rolled up 450 yards on Arkansas. But they also had five turnovers and the Hogs defense stopped them on 4th down twice.

When you look at the big picture MSU scored 31 points on Georgia and 28 on the Aggies so a lot of Arkansas fans were on the Internet after the game saying, no big deal. The defense is fine.

I won’t go that far. Sam Pittman himself said after the game that the defense has some issues that have to be addressed. To me they were hot and cold. They gave up a lot of chunk plays and late in the 3rd quarter, when the game had looked to be out of reach MSU scored two quick touchdowns to make it a two possession game. But Arkansas came up with another turnover and scored off of it. The game was essentially over with Arkansas winning by 33 points.

Still they are 13th in the SEC in yards given up per game. That is cause for concern.

It will be interesting to see what Ole Miss does this weekend. It’s always a guessing game between the OCs and the DCs.

Q. RazorAlex88 says: To see the Hogs lay the wood on MSU was refreshing. There were some annoyances but it was great to see putting the foot back on the gas to slam the door shut in the 4th. One more win to bowl eligibility.

A. To me the best thing about this game was they way this staff and these players responded to what could have very easily been a trap game that sent his football program backwards again. They knew what was at stake. Lose this game and Sam Pittman is back on the hot seat. Those players were playing for their head coach and at every point, when it got a little dicey, they delivered. Consider again that they scored more on Mississippi State than Georgia or A&M did and gave up fewer points.

Q. KYHOG says: I’m a Pittman fan. The “fire him” crowd has been driving me crazy. Now it’s their turn because he ain’t going anywhere.

A. I hear you but let me give you a tip. They’re not gonna stop. Yes they’ve failed but they will still make noise. They can’t help it. But it will be easier to ignore them now. Also with Pittman returning the recruiting an portal classes should be solid.

Q. EddyLynn says: I’ve been watching college football for about 70 years but I don’t claim to be a genius like those experts who have been calling for Green to be benched. Experts? How about dummies.

A. It’s been a silly argument all along. Take away that one mistake against LSU which resulted in a turnover, upping the lead from 6 points to 14, I thought Green did his best job of staying in the pocket, finding open receivers and delivering the ball on target in spite of a heavy pass rush. However, the cries to get rid of him popped back up last week. So how did he answer? With one of the best individual quarterback performances in school history. Six touchdowns. Five passing. One running. He did have a turnover but that was pass interference that wasn’t called. He was throwing to Andrew Armstrong on a crossing route and a defender behind Armstrong tripped him which caused the interception.

But even going back to previous games one stat tells me a lot about Green. This season Arkansas has had three 600+ yard games. In the previous five seasons there have only been four of those and we have several games left this season.

Arkansas now has the number two offense in the SEC behind Ole Miss. Number two at 482 yards a game. You know what they averaged last season? 326.

Green is 3rd in the league in passing. He has 7 picks but LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier has 9 and Carson Beck at Georgia has 8.

He also is at 400 yards rushing in spite of the sacks. That’s number 2 in the SEC.

Q. Hawgredneck asks: What’s your reaction to the combo of Braylen Russell and Rashad Dubinion? I like the ‘hit em with power, hit em with speed’ aspect. But Dubinion worries me. He needs to learn how to hold on to the football.

A. He fumbled out of bounds a couple of time against MSU so yes, that’s still a concern but he has been impressive when he doesn’t fumble. Arkansas is strong at that position. Russell is coming on at the right time. Ja’Quinden Jackson is again doubtful this week but he should be back for the Texas game and Sam Pittman says Rodney Hill is probably back for Ole Miss.

Q. Hog Fan n Tx asks: With all the injuries could we have a stretcher crew on the sidelines and every time an Ole Miss player goes down we run out a stretcher to carry them off?

A. It might save some time. But I’ve noticed that a lot of teams are starting to stage those fake injuries. It may have begun with Ole Miss but since the SEC is not gonna do anything about it other schools have decided, let’s do it too.

Q. Swine American wants to know: Do you think either Petrino or Williams will leave after this season despite the hot seat for Pittman cooling off? Perhaps Pittman is smart enough to know that he can’t keep his job without high power coordinators.

A. I see this as two separate questions. First Petrino is not going anywhere as long as Pittman is the head coach. I don’t know what he will do when Pitt retires. Travis Williams might take a head coaching job at some point but honestly with the number 13 defense in the SEC right now I don’t think it’s happening this season. I’m also told that he is very happy to be coaching under Pittman at Arkansas

Part two of the question implies that Pittman can only keep his job if he doesn’t have top coordinators to turn the decisions over two. That may be true but it’s true of a lot of head coaches. Unless you’re a Malzahn or (from years ago) a Ken Hatfield, most coaches rely heavily on their coordinators. If they don’t they won’t keep them. I give Pittman credit for hiring the right coaches.

Q. Sherlock.Hawg says: We are getting close to the early signing period for football. Do the Hogs have any high-impact high school recruits on the hook? The high school recruiting news wire seems quiet.

A. Only one 4-star so far but apparently they have several 4-stars who were dropped to 3-star start status after they committed to Arkansas. That’s common. But the real issue is the portal. That’s where this staff has excelled so far and with the NIL expected to go up for next season they’re hoping to fill a lot of needs through the portal.

Q. ArkystuckinMizzou asks: What happened to Drink and his boys? No playoffs for them. Thank you Bama.

A. That was gonna be a tough game for them no matter what. Alabama may be down some this year but winning in Bryant-Denny is never easy. I said on our Gameday show that if Brady Cook, who has a bad ankle, had to leave the game they were done. They don’t have a backup QB who can make the kind of plays to win a game like that on the road. Most teams don’t. Injuries derail a lot of high hopes for teams every year.

Q. mousetown: I was blown away by the basketball team. Our guards were outstanding and the inside game is better than I thought even without the Tennessee transfer. They shoot AND play defense. But I remember that exhibition win over another # 1 team last year. History better not repeat itself.

A. Two totally different games. Last year Arkansas blew a first half lead and had to come from behind to force overtime, winning by 4 points over Purdue. Against Kansas, Arkansas was in control the whole way, winning by 16 points. Against Purdue four Arkansas guards scored 41 points. Against Kansas three guards scored 51 points. I saw both games. I was much more impressed with the win over Kansas even if the Jayhawks did have two starters out compared to just one for the Hogs.

Q. Hotdogger says: Looks like we did okay hiring Calipari. They looked sharp. Any thoughts on the UK team? As long as we beat them I’m happy no matter where we’re ranked.

A. Did okay? Just okay? That’s funny. I have no thoughts on Kentucky but Jimmy Dykes on the broadcast crew said he’s seen Kentucky practice recently and was very impressed. I get it that Hog fans don’t want to loose to Kentucky but have have to believe that most have a good NCAA Tournament run way ahead of beating Kentucky on the scale of importance.

Q. Marty Byrde’s Proxy says: We’re somewhat familiar with revenue sharing in professional sports but how will this differ in college sports? Will the revenue stream be from TV?

A. It appears that revenue sharing will apply to the money each school has available to be shared with each school’s scholarship athletes. There will be a cap of approximately $22 million distributed to the athletes. This is designed to eliminate higher revenue schools from buying better players by offering them more money

Q. Hogman80 asks: What is the ceiling for the soccer squad? I feel like this could be the year to get over the hump and win the SEC Tournament and make the college cup.

A. Evan Kamikow is our staff expert of the soccer team. The law of averages suggests to me that sooner or later they will win the regular season SEC title and the SEC Tournament title. To me, this season their defense is outstanding but they’ve had games when they were not as productive offensively.

However, it looks like Arkansas may end up 2nd in the regular season which also might up its chances of winning the SEC Tournament title.