Sam Pittman preparing Hogs for No. 4 Tennessee

FAYETTEVILLE — Sam Pittman has wanted to play in Razorback Stadium and for only the second time this season will get his wish on Saturday.

The Hogs are set to host No. 4 Tennessee (4-0, 1-0) Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. and it will be televised on ABC. The Razorbacks played in five different stadiums to start the season.

“Yes, excited to play Tennessee,” Pittman said. “A really great team. There’s no place that you’re going, ‘Oh, well, we’re going to attack this guy. We’re going to attack that guy.’ Just a well-rounded team, very talented, well, well coached. But we’re excited to get back home. We’ve been gone four of the five weeks and excited to get back home, night game. Excited to play in front of our fans. Certainly know we have a huge, huge challenge and a very, very fine football team. We’re excited about it though.”

The Vols have only given up 28 points in four games. Pittman said they not only have talented starters, but very good depth on that side of the football.

“Well James Pearce is special,” Pittman said. “Very, very special. And we have to understand where he is. We’ve got to give some help there on him. The problem with that is they really really push the pocket well with their interior guys. Big physical guys. 10, 20, 21, 55, 53. They’ve got a lot of depth there, inside and outside. So that’s going to be a really huge challenge for us.

“We have to win first down. We have to stay out of third and long. We have to be able to run the football and have to be able to complete our short passing game, our quick passing game, our movement passing game and our play-action passing game to put … Because if we let them just tee off on us it’s going to be a difficult challenge at times. They’re not going to have a tired guy out there. They don’t need to because they’re talented and have a lot of depth there.”

Tennessee is coming off a bye week. Pittman said on Monday to offset that he would take some off his team this week.

“We took 10 minutes off of practice yesterday,” Pittman said. “Our Wednesday’s practice are usually about 1:48 from start to finish. So we’ll stay that way. We took the pads off, went to spiders on Monday to get healthy and also to get our legs because this is six weeks in a row, knowing that Tennessee comes off a bye week as well, that they’ll be ready to go. Just simply that they won’t be as beat up because they didn’t play last week. So we took all those things into consideration. The first two days have gone really, really well.”

Freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava has been outstanding. In four games, 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.

“That he plays within the offense so well,” Pittman said. “That he doesn’t make mistakes. He’s just, he’s so talented. He can make every throw, but the thing that you see about him is just the way that he carries himself and how he handles the team as a young redshirt freshman. I was going back to the bowl, really shocked with how mature he is. I think that’s the thing that sticks out. He’s very, very, very talented, but his leadership skills seem to be off the chart.”

The fact Iamaleava is a dual-threat quarterback makes defending him even harder according to Pittman.

“Very, because at times the same guys that are looking for him to come running out of the backfield are the same ones trying to cover that slant route, and the stop route, whatever it may be,” Pittman said. “Anytime you have a running, athletic quarterback that can throw — look at Alabama with (Jalen) Milroe and you can go on-and-on, our kid, Taylen Green — those guys are very difficult to plan for. If you let them out of the pocket, they’re going to hurt you. If you keep him in the pocket, he’s going to make some really good throws as well, so that dual-threat is very concerning for us this week.”

Pittman was asked if bye-week tweaks in a scheme is a myth?

“No, I don’t think that’s a myth at all,” Pittman said. “I think you have some unusual plays that you might put in. You have longer, you know, you’ve got to watch it, because sometimes those will hurt you, too. You’re doing things so well like Tennessee is, but yes, I think you’ll see at times more plays. Sometimes in the special teams as well, that you wouldn’t if you didn’t have the two weeks of prep. I do think that. I know we have done that on our bye. When we’re on a bye, we’re 3-0 having beaten Florida, Auburn and Mississippi State in the last three years, and I know we certainly try to add a wrinkle or two during that time.”

Arkansas (3-1, 1-1) will get a bye week following the Tennessee game.