Sam Pittman wanting Hogs to put wins back-to-back

FAYETTEVILLE — In SEC action, Arkansas has developed a pattern of alternating wins and losses which Sam Pittman would like to see change beginning Saturday when No. 18 Ole Miss provides the opponent.

The Hogs opened SEC play beating Auburn 24-14 on the road. Arkansas then fell to Texas A&M 21-17 in Arlington, Texas. They followed that with a big 19-14 win over No. 4 Tennessee in Razorback Stadium. The Razorbacks then fell to LSU 34-10 at home following a bye week. The Hogs defeated Mississippi State 58-25 last Saturday in Starkville.

“Well, sometimes it depends on who you’re playing, matchups…health of your team,” Pittman said. “But I think right now we’re pretty healthy. We have three in a row at home. We’re not worried about the second and third, but we do have three in a row at home. Early kickoff. I think it’s just how we prepare. We’re cutting back, not a ton this week, but a few minutes of practice, trying to make sure our legs are there, make sure that we take the right guys to the party. We’re very aware of that. In the past, we’ve been very good coming off bye weeks and obviously got beat by LSU off of it, so we’re aware of this week’s so important to us and then we’re aware that there’s a bye after it. So we’re taking just a little bit off of that to make sure that we’re fresh, but it’s all about the preparation.

“As you’ve seen in college football, I think most games are determined on who turns the ball over and who doesn’t. I think it’s been that way forever, but this year it just seems like if you win the turnover battle, you win, and I’m not sure it matters what the names of the teams are. So we’ve got to really concentrate on that, too. Obviously, I think we’re 5-0 in games that we’ve been even or won the turnover battle, and we’re 0-3 when we’ve lost it. We’re going to harp on that this week as well.”

Pittman has a legitimate point about the turnovers being linked to losses. In the games where Arkansas has turned it over three times they have lost each of them. When they haven’t turned it over three times they have won.

And it’s not just turnovers, but the spots they put Arkansas in. In a 38-31 loss to Oklahoma State, Arkansas’ Taylen Green threw a pick-6. The Hogs also had two fumbles in that game as well as a pair of missed field goals.

In the loss to Texas A&M, Arkansas turned it over three times including losing a fumble at its own 10. The Aggies scored two plays later. In the loss to LSU, Arkansas lost two fumbles, but it was an interception that proved the most costly. Green’s pass was tipped at his own 5-yard line and returned to the 2. At the time of the interception, Arkansas only trailed 16-10 with five minutes remaining in the third quarter despite being pretty much dominated. LSU scored on the next play and converted a 2-point conversion. It was then 24-10 LSU and the air was out of the Hogs. Pittman talked about the energy falling off the last 20 minutes of the LSU game.

“Well, it would with the turnover on the 1,” Pittman said. “It’s 16-10, five minutes left in the [third period].  I don’t know that we felt like we’d played particularly well to that point. We couldn’t get off the field on third down, couldn’t stop the hitch route, couldn’t stop the option route. They were running the ball well on us but we made some adjustments there. We basically were, what we thought at half of coming back out and getting it to a one-score game, which it was really good to see Shipley make the 51-yarder. We held them, had the ball five minutes left, 16-10..

“Every one of our turnovers were on P and 10, possession and 10, the first play, which then puts the defense right back out there. Bit momentum swing on that particular play and we just couldn’t recover from it.”

Arkansas and Ole Miss will kickoff at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The game can be seen on ESPN.