Red-White game has players, fans excited

FAYETTEVILLE — The Red-White Game will return this Saturday after giving way in recent years to a scrimmage format.

Sam Pittman feels the team has enough depth to play a spring game and talked about the format for Saturday.

“We’ll have a red and a white team and the first half will be just a football game,” Pittman said. “We’ll have the ones with the red team, white team will be the twos. Then at half, what we’ll do is take the ones and they’ll be done and then it’ll be the twos against the rest of them. They’ll become the red team. We’ll score the game and all that and we’ll have a nice big breakfast for the winners, cereal for the losers and that stuff, but the bottom line is it’ll give — if it goes right the red team will be up at half and the white team should be the better of the two teams. We’ll see what happens, but it’ll give the white team a chance to catch up. So, that’s what we’re going to do. It’ll just be a game.”

Pittman was asked about the decision of a big breakfast for the winners and cereals for losing team?

“Number one, I won,” Pittman said. “I can tell you that. I’m on the winning team. Busys will come in and service the works It’s got to have gravy on it. Winners deserve gravy, right? I don’t know what the cereal of choice is going to be but it’ll be some good cereal. You guys know in the morning sometimes you put some milk over some cereal it’s pretty good. Some of them guys might want to… But they can’t… If they win they can’t go get the cereal and if they lose they can’t go get the great breakfast, but it’ll be the whole spread: sausage, eggs, waffles, everything. It’ll be fun for them.”

Offensive guard Patrick Kutas said Thursday following practice he’s excited to play a game and explained why.

“I think it’ll be exciting,” Kutas said. “To scrimmage is like situational stuff running scripted plays. Now we’ll be able to play free. No script or restrictions at that point.”

Kutas started at right tackle last season, but is inside at guard opposite Joshua Braun this season.

“I think I just feel better inside,” Kutas said. “Obviously I’m able to play anywhere on the line, but I think my highest potential is inside. It’s really fun. I can use all my skills and abilities inside and make it the best I can be.”

Running back Rashod Dubinion also likes the idea of a game.

“Saturday, we’ll just put on a show and show the fans what they need to see,” Dubinion said. “Like bounceback from last season. How much better we are as a team.”

Dubinion rushed 82 times for 260 yards and a touchdown in 2023. He also grabbed 14 passes for 85 yards and another touchdown.

One of the goals for Pittman was this spring was to make the team more physical. It seems like that has worked out well so far.

“We are a physical team and we’re practicing physical,” Pittman said. “I think Saturday will be the fifth time we’ve tackled to the ground this spring, which is by far more than we’ve done in the past. We’ll find out a little bit more because of it, about our team. I like the competitiveness between the offensive and the defensive line. I think we’re finding linebackers. They can run. I think we’re figuring out who are our running backs, who we feel good about at running back.

“I think maybe the biggest question mark right now is where we’re at wide receiver wise because we’ve had several injuries. We’ve had some hamstrings with Andrew (Armstrong), he was back today. We had a hamstring with Jaedon (Wilson). Ty Broden has a family situation that he’s handling right now. So that position right there, we’re still … we know who we have, we just haven’t seen them I guess in the last couple of days. But some younger guys are moving up the depth chart. It’s given them some opportunities. I thought Dazmin James played a little bit better today too.”

Pittman talked about the points of emphasis in the practices leading up to Saturday’s game.

“We have done more situational football than we have ever,” Pittman said. “Now, we’ve done a lot, but this is more situational. We need to become a play-action team. We need to become a team that’s able to pick up the blitz. We need our running backs to become better blockers, because we weren’t last year, at all. Those are the things that we’re emphasizing.

“Tackling obviously — we feel like we need to get better there. I’m not as much into the defensive, I have to wait to watch tape to see that they’re working on tackling as well over there because I’m Eric’s (Mateos) GA and so I’m not able to get around to all the indy until after practice when I watch it. If we’re seeing a problem, we’re addressing it as quickly as we possibly can the next day, that’s even changing formats sometimes of practice so we can just — if it’s a problem we need to fix, we can do it as soon as possible. So, that’s what we’re doing. We’ve had coming out, we’ve had going in, we’ve had high red, low red several different times because either side of the ball didn’t perform well.”

Saturday’s game will begin at noon and is open to the public. It can also be streamed on the SEC Network+.