Sam Pittman hoping for healthier team this week

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas suffered some lingering injuries against Oklahoma State and then some more against UAB this past Saturday.

Sam Pittman is hoping for a healthier squad at Auburn on Saturday. The Hogs and Auburn open SEC play on Saturday afternoon.

“We’re trying to get healthy,” Pittman said Wednesday. “Oklahoma State game beat us up a little bit. We’re trying to get healthy. I think we’ll take a healthier team into Auburn. A lot of respect for them. They beat the heck out of us last year in our building. Certainly have a lot of respect for Coach (Hugh) Freeze and the job that he’s done there and throughout his career. We’re looking forward… We know it’s going to be loud. It’s going to be our first SEC game. So we’re excited. Had a good week of practice so far and excited to go up there.”

With a 2-1 record, has Pittman seen any particular players step up this week showing leadership?

“Yeah, the mentality has been great this week,” Pittman said. “Two really good practices. Physical practices. We’re flying around the football. We understand, SEC getting ready to play. Landon Jackson’s kind of that guy that you’re speaking of defensively, and Taylen Green’s the guy on offense, for the most part, it is vocal. But been very spirited practice, very physical practices. And our team has played extremely hard at practice, getting around the football, straining on offense. But those two guys You’re talking about have been Green and Landon.”

Travis Williams played and coached at Auburn. He had a rough outing against them last year, but Pittman was asked if his defensive coordinator is looking forward to this game?

“Well, first of all, it was a great hire,” Pittman said. “Wonderful man, wonderful coach. Travis was here last year when we played them and we were very motivated then to play and we got the heck kicked out of us. I think there’s some motivation involved in that, as well. But going back for him, it’ll be special for him to go back to his alma mater. Bottom line is we have to prepare and get ready and our guys have to go out and execute the plan. To ignore that he’s going back to Auburn, where he played, would be silly. So he’s certainly excited about the opportunity, as we are each and every week.”

Linebacker Xavian Sorey Jr. was also asked that about Williams following Tuesday’s practice.

“Nah not really, but I know he’s probably cronk and hype but he’s not really showing it you know,” Sorey said. “He’s treating it like a regular game like every other game, it’s an important game, every game is an important game. Last week was important, every week is important. So I know Coach T-Will he’s treating it like an important game you know what I mean? We of course as players know he’s from there, so we kind of wanna play — we’re feeling for him you know what I mean, we’re feeling for him, so we want to go out there and play hard for our coach. We know he’s from there we know he coached there and he probably still has a lot of friends and a lot of relationships there. So you know he wants to do good so we want to do good for him.”

Center Addison Nichols could only play three snaps against UAB with an ankle injury. Pittman talked about his availability for Auburn.

“I think he’ll probably be listed as probable on that list tonight,” Pittman said. “He looked better yesterday than he ever has over the past week and a half at practice, so I would say that he would be probable, right now.”

Arkansas and Auburn will kickoff at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at Auburn and televised on ESPN. It was announced on Monday night that Arkansas and Texas A&M will kickoff at either 2:30 or 3:15 on Saturday, Sept. 28, on either ABC, ESPN or the SEC Network.