by Otis Kirk
FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas and Auburn are both coming off a bye week and Sam Pittman is hoping his refreshed squad can build off the 52-35 win over BYU prior to the break.
On Monday, Pittman gave a look into how he spent his weekend.
"I watched all day," Pittman said. "Obviously, I went to some high school games Friday night and some schools on Friday here in the state. I got down to Hot Springs about 11 or so Friday evening after the games. Went out on the lake a little bit and watched games all day and enjoyed it. Our staff got together at five yesterday and worked from five until about 10."
Among the prospects seen by Pittman were Benton running back Braylen Russell, 6-2, 230, Bryant defensive lineman TJ Lindsey, 6-4, 265 and Mills defensive lineman Charlie Collins, 6-5, 265. The trio are all Class of 2024 prospects and hold offers to the Hogs. Russell was committed to Arkansas before he opted to decommit on Oct. 9. But with the bye week behind the Hogs, Pittman is looking ahead to Auburn.
"We're excited to go to Auburn," Pittman said. "We had a good bye week. I feel like we're healthy as we can be going into this game. We know they have a lot of good players. They are very talented, but we're looking forward to going to play."
The players, other than the ones ruled out for season and defensive lineman Taurean Carter, who may still be up in the air as far as playing status are defensive back Myles Slusher and backup center Marcus Henderson.
"We're going to look at Slusher today ... and see how well he can progress or how much better he is," Pittman said. "We feel like he's going to be fine. Khari (Johnson) will be back, and hopefully we can get Malik (Chavis) back no later than tomorrow. Hopefully (Latavious) Brini's ankle that has been bothering him for five or six weeks now, hopefully it's healed. We'll know a little bit more about that. Marcus Henderson will be one guy that probably won't be ready early in the week, hopefully later. He had a high ankle sprain. Getting (Ty'Kieast) Crawford back today. Bumper (Pool) feels better, and Drew Sanders feels better. So, I think we did the right thing. We'll obviously wait to see on Saturday if it is the right call or not, but we feel like it is."
Pittman accidentally left safety Jayden Johnson off the list. He was injured against Mississippi State and didn't make the trip to BYU.
"Jayden will be ready to practice today as well," Pittman said.
Against BYU, the Hogs rolled up 644 yards of total offense. Of that amount, 367 yards was through the air with KJ Jefferson tossing five touchdown passes. The Hogs rushed for 277 yards. The ground attack was led by Rocket Sanders who finished with 15 carries for 175 yards and two touchdowns, including a 64-yard sprint to close out the scoring. Pittman liked the balance of Kendal Briles' offense.
"Well, I think we opened up the game plan a little more last week on early downs," Pittman said. "I think that's who we are. We can throw and catch, especially when we're unpredictable about what we are doing on early downs. I think that helped us against BYU.
"Certainly, I believe you have to run the ball to have success. A lot of teams are throwing it and having success. I don't mean that, but for the way we are built, I think we have to run the ball to have success then do some things off of that. But I like where we're at offensively. Obviously, last week we were big on third down. That helped us. As long as we continue that and hold onto the football, I think we'll like how our offense looks. I do right now."
Arkansas and Auburn will kickoff at 11 a.m. on Saturday and the game will be televised on the SEC Network.