Sam Pittman readying for Oklahoma State

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas will hit the road this week to face No. 17 Oklahoma State in a key non-conference game for both teams.

Arkansas defeated UAPB 70-0 on Thursday. Oklahoma State defeated South Dakota State 44-20 on Saturday. Sam Pittman knows his team will get a severe test this week.

“We’re excited to go to Stillwater and play Oklahoma State,” Pittman said. “I have a ton of respect for Coach (Mike) Gundy, I mean going into 20 years now at Oklahoma State University. He’s just done a phenomenal job. I have a lot of respect for him and the way he handles his program. They have 17 to 18 returning starters, played really well Saturday.

“Offensively, they have a ton of skill, really good at the skill spots, starting with the quarterback (Alan) Bowman. Then Ollie Gordon is certainly as good as any running back in the country. It starts with Brennan Presley. They love to get the ball to him. He’s a fantastic returner as well. And then I like the (De’Zhaun) Stribling kid they got out of Washington State. He’s done a really good job at wideout, and they already had (Rashod) Owens. Then they have their entire offensive line coming back who’s really playing well together. So you know they went to the Big 12 championship game last year and look to be headed north on that as well this year.”

The defense even includes a former Razorback, Collin Clay. Pittman praised him and others on Monday.

“Defensively they have some outstanding players over there as well, starting with Collin Oliver and Nicholas Martin. Those two guys are game changers. I really like their D-line, Collin Clay, obviously he was here for I think a year. Putnam City I believe, young man. He’s playing extremely well. Then I like Kody Walterscheid, just a big, physical defensive end. And they’ve got Kendal Daniels who is their Sam, who I think was second on their team in tackles last year behind Martin. Then Trey Rucker, he’s a tackling machine. What we saw off of film is that they tackle extremely well. They play hard. They’re sound. Just a well, well-coached football team.”

In the season opener, Gordon rushed 27 times for 104 yards and two touchdowns. He also grabbed four passes for 42 yards and one touchdown. Pittman was asked if he has anyone to simulate Gordon in practice?

“Well, our tackling is something that we needed to get better just from our Thursday night game,” Pittmans said. “On Saturday we had a tacking circuit, so we’re trying to address that. If they get him 2 or 3 yards, he’s going to get 6 or 7 or more. We’re going to have to tackle him one-on-one, but we’re going to have to get a lot of guys around the ball.

“We definitely understand how good he is and the other thing, too, is they have some dynamic skill (players) that are difficult to get on the ground as well. So our tackling is going to have to be better. We’re making a big emphasis on that this week.”

Oklahoma State likes the deep fade, but teams worry about committing to that too much because of Gordon.

“If you press them, they’re going to test you,” Pittman said. “I mean, that’s just what’s going to happen. If you press them up, you’re going to get tested deep. They have so many things they can do with the RPO, with handing it off to Gordon and then their bubble game, their screen game is a big part of what they do. They didn’t do it as much Saturday as what I think they — well, what I know they’ve done in the past, but if you press them, they’re going to go deep on you. If you don’t, you’re going to have the bubble or hand the ball off because normally you’re in a box that’s, number-wise, is going to give them an advantage handing the ball off to Gordon.”

Pittman said he watched the OSU game on Saturday live and then studied the cut-ups too. Any advantage to watching it live?

“Well, it was more about getting the benefit of the atmosphere and the juice of their team and how they play off their crowd and the speed,” Pittman said. “Watching games live, they came out and they went fast pace early. You don’t necessarily, as you’re watching cut-ups, get that feel. So we certainly have to be ready for their fast-paced offense. They don’t run it all the time, but we have to be ready for that.

“He opened the game with it, Coach Gundy did, last week. So yeah, I think there are benefits. Certainly you can hear calls and different things you can’t hear on cut-ups, but I think you just get a live feel of it watching it… Like you said, you don’t get a lot of that. Now sometimes you do, maybe on the plane coming back or the bus coming back, maybe if your opponent is playing later than you did, but not very often do you get to just sit down and watch a game. As I’m watching, I go, ‘Man, they’ve got a really good team.’”

Last season, Arkansas was better on the road than at home. Any particular reasons for the better play away from home?

“I don’t know,” Pittman said. “A lot of times you get your team on the road, you get them together, it’s just y’all versus everybody. That feeling, at times, if you have a real close team can make you play a little bit better. You don’t have the distractions of as many tickets and all that kind of stuff. I don’t really know the answer to that. I think we’ll be ready to play Oklahoma State. I know they will (be ready for) us, but I think it’s going to be a really, really good game. But I don’t know the answer to your question.”

Bowman was impressive in the opener. He completed 25 of 34 passes for 267 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed twice for eight yards.

“Their offense fits him perfectly in my opinion,” Pittman said. “I mean he can — they don’t run him quite as much. He’s sneaky, they ran him in a draw the other day and he made good yardage on that. But, what they’re asking him to do, he can do it and do it well. Gets the ball out extremely fast, it’s hard to get to him, hard to sack him. “A” because they’re good at protection, but “B” because he gets rid of the ball. But with that bubble, GOs, RPOs, he’s really good at that. I think he probably knows their offense as good as anybody does, as good as the head coach does. So, he’s a really good player and what they do with him is right down his wheelhouse. Really playing well, takes care of the football.”

Pittman has experienced the atmosphere at Boone Pickens Stadium when he was an assistant at Oklahoma.

“We went in there and got beat when I was at OU,” Pittman said. “Very, very loud. Very, very close — as in, they can stand up and look right on top of you. We talked to our players and coaching staff about that as well, because we can’t let their fans be a distraction to us when we’re trying to learn on the sideline or trying to talk about the next series or whatever it may be. But it’s extremely close. I think it’s the closest one in the country. Extremely loud. I think they have 55,000, but it’s a loud stadium, so we’ve talked about that. Crowd noise will be a huge part of this week’s preparation and we started that on Saturday.”

Pittman has a lot of respect for Gundy and what he has done at Oklahoma State.

“I always get a kick out of listening to Coach Gundy’s press conferences because he’s blunt and to the point and he is who he is, I have a lot of respect for that, and he catches a little heat for it,” Pittman said. “No, I don’t think he much cares, you know. I think he just is who he is. I’ve always had respect for him as a man, but then you go and you watch his teams play, and they’re always prepared, and they play hard as hell. And a lot of fun to watch.”

The kickoff Saturday is set for 11 a.m. and televised on ABC.