Hogs back home, set to host No. 4 Tennessee

FAYETTEVILLE — The good news for Arkansas is they are finally back home in Razorback Stadium, but the bad news is a rested No. 4 Tennessee is coming to town.

Tennessee (4-0, 1-0) is coming off a bye week while Arkansas (3-2, 1-1) lost to Texas A&M 21-17 on Saturday in Arlington. Sam Pittman knows the Vols are the best team the Hogs have faced this season and they come in very rested with the bye week.

“Yeah, it is a concern,” Pittman said. “We’re going to have to do a good job with some of our key players mentally because we’re not probably going to have them for at least a couple of days, some. And maybe get them back on Wednesday, hopefully. But it is a big concern. Most of our injuries are offensively, which … the ones we’re most concerned about is offensively. The big, physical D-lines I think have taken a toll on our tight end position. That’s the one right now I’m most concerned about. But yeah, I think it gives an advantage. We’re undefeated coming off our bye weeks and a lot of that is because we get our players back.

“I remember the last time we played Tennessee here they were coming off a bye week and they started out like gangbusters on us and then we were able to come back in the second half. But this is a totally different team than what came in here now going on five years ago. But yeah, that’s a big concern. We’re going to try to take a little bit off of them today. Not the mental part of it. Not the speed part of it as far as how fast Tennessee goes. But we’ve got to … for us to compete like we need to and how we want to we’re going to have to be smart this week.”

In their last outing, Tennessee welcomed Oklahoma to the SEC with a 30-15 loss in Norman. The Vols also beat a good North Carolina State team 51-10 on Saturday, Sept. 7. Pittman knows they are very talented.

“Excited to be back home,” Pittman said. “Somehow our schedule has been that way the last couple of years, but now we have five of the next seven at home, so we’re excited about that. Especially for a night game. I think we have two in a row coming up.

“Tennessee is a really good team. Top of the nation in a lot of categories. Both offensively and defensively. I think defensively they’re very, very stout up front. Have a really good secondary, linebackers. I think kind of a common theme over the last couple of weeks that their defensive line is probably the strength of their defense as well as what A&M’s was, what Auburn’s was. So that’ll be a big challenge for us. Offensively, they do so much. Of course, we have to get ready for as fast as they go. Which we have some ideas for that, and we’re going to use that today in practice. 

It starts with their quarterback. Very good skill-wise. I really like Dylan Sampson their running back. They play more than one. They’ve got (DeSean) Bishop in there too. I really like him. He breaks a lot of tackles. Their tight ends are good. Their offensive line can do it all, pass, run. I have to obviously talk about Cooper Mays. I love Cooper Mays. He’s done such a nice job at center. I love his brother, his family. They’re really good people. But Cooper is playing exceptionally well this year and he’s healthy. Looking forward to seeing him as well.

“Really well rounded team. Squirrel (White) is a great punt returner. Cameron (Sheldon) is a good kickoff returner, and then they’ve got a kicker that can kick with either leg, rugby. Just a really good football team. But we’re excited to play the No. 4 football team in the country, and they may be higher than that. They’re the best team that we will have played thus far. We’re excited about it and excited to be home in front of our crowd.”

Pittman spoke about the Vols being impressive in night wins particularly against the Sooners.

“That was a hard-fought game at Norman,” Pittman said. “OU scored late, I think, to make it look a little bit better than what the game was. I think if you look at that game, they got up and coach tried to run the football and tried to take the clock away. I think it says that they’ve been in that atmosphere before. They’ve got a really good team. Physical. What you see this year a little bit is their defense is so much better than what I’ve seen. They’re really good defensively. I think they handled it real well. Oklahoma is really, really loud at night. They handled it real well. I imagine that had more than half of the fans when they went over and played in the neutral site (against) NC State. 

“It says they’ve got a good program. I understand mature guys, they’ve got a lot of older guys on their offensive line. Usually that’s where it affects you more than anything, is up front on the o-line. They’ve got a lot of maturity up there, starting with Cooper.”

Freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava has been impressive. He has completed 61 of 88 passes for 892 yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions. He has rushed 25 times for 117 yards and one touchdown.

“Really good,” Pittman said. “Mature. It’s just like Marcel Reed. Reed did what he needed to do. He didn’t turn the football over. I’m not comparing them, I’m saying Nico is that — he does what he needs to do, he’s got a lot of opportunity to shine in his offense, he doesn’t make mistakes and then he does it at a high, high, high level. He’s scary because he’s not going to make mistakes and he’s going to run the offense to a perfection. For a young guy like that, he’s just really impressive.”

Josh Heupel is the head coach at Tennessee. He’s someone that Pittman has a lot of respect for.

“Really good dude,” Pittman said. “I really like him. The guy won the Heisman [false], I don’t know what I was expecting, I don’t know, but he’s a very humble, very good guy. I mean, I like him. I like what he does on his team. They’re well-coached, they’re disciplined, they play extremely hard. But I really like the man, and I don’t know him much more than the SEC head coaches meetings, but I have high respect— I mean this, I have high respect for the guy because he’s really done a great job there, and a lot of guys had went in there and didn’t before he got there. I think he’s done a wonderful job, and the kids are, they know how to play the game. They know how to play it the right way.”

Sampson is having a very good year at running back. He has rushed 69 times for 449 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also has caught seven passes for 70 yards.

“He’s bad,” Pittman said. “He’s bad to the bone. He’s a good player. I mean, he’s really good. To make you miss, can run over you. I mean, he’s a good player. Can catch. I like him a lot. He’s a really good player. And then, you know, they use the other one, [DeSean] Bishop, too, but he’s a really good player.”

It appears it will be another week without Arkansas’ top cornerback Jaylon Braxton who was injured in the Oklahoma State game. Better news appears to be for safety Hudson Clark.

“Well, I don’t feel great about Braxton, but I feel pretty good about Clark,” Pittman said. “He practiced last week. I believe he could have played if we really needed him to. (Kee’Yon) Stewart went down. He was sick. I didn’t feel real confident with Clark. Not that he couldn’t play, I thought he was doing it more for the team than what his body physically could handle, and so we elected not to play him at that point. I think we just got to get his confidence that he can hit somebody, and I think he’s closer, obviously a lot closer than he was last week.”

Running back Rashod Dubinion has seen his suspension lifted after one game. He will return for Saturday’s game. This season he has only carried three times for 15 yards and caught two passes for 14.

“We know that he’s a good player from a year ago,” Pittman said. “He’s been hurt most of this year. He’s healthy now. All he’s got to do is have a good week of practice and we’ll certainly… You know, one thing you have a suspension, you have this, you do whatever the responsibility is and then after that it’s… We wouldn’t let guys back on the team or anything if we had a grudge or if we had anything like that. It’s what we felt like we need to do. If he’s ready to go and he’s practicing well, we’re going to use him.”

Arkansas (3-2, 1-1) and No. 4 Tennessee (4-0, 1-0) will kickoff at 6:30 p.m. on ABC.