Razorback head football coach Sam Pittman signals first down during the Hogs' game versus Texas A&M Saturday night at AT&T Stadium Stadium in Arlington, TX.
By Otis Kirk
FAYETTEVILLE -- Sam Pittman is pleased to be back in Razorback Stadium Saturday for the first time since Oct. 1 when Alabama was the opponent.
Arkansas will host No. 23 Liberty and Pittman is impressed with Hugh Freeze's team.
"We’re really excited to be back home," Pittman said. "I think it’s been five weeks since we were able to play here at the university. We’re playing a really good team in Liberty, 7-1, a two-point conversion away at Wake Forest from being 8-0, AP ranked 23rd. We’re excited to be home. Homecoming game for us. Looking forward to the opportunity."
Liberty is coming off a bye week while Arkansas defeated Auburn 41-27 this past Saturday. Pittman is doing what he can to keep his starters and key reserves healthy for the final stretch of four games this month.
" I believe you do," Pittman said. "Now I’m not Knute Rockne but I believe you do to get through the grind of the SEC West along with what currently has been our non-conference schedules. I think it’s the smart thing to do and we did it last year. We lost three in a row and kind of went back to ‘We’ve got to get our best players healthy and things of that nature and that’s what we did. It seemed to work for us last year and hopefully it does this year, but yes, you’re absolutely correct."
One way to get the starters some rest would be to substitute the second unit on both sides of the ball. But the last time he was able to do that before the Auburn game was against UAPB in 2021. Pittman talked about what needs to happen for that to take place.
"Yeah, I appreciate you mentioning that," Pittman said. "We’ve been here 31 games right now and we’ve total subbed twice in 31 games. And a lot of it has to do with continuing to build our program. A lot of it has to do with who we’re playing. If you add BYU in this non-conference schedule, this will be our third team non-conference that has been ranked in the top 25. And so it makes it difficult.
"Honestly it’s about morale at practice too. If you don’t feel like you’re ever going to get in the game as a two and things of that nature, it’s hard, and I get it. Because two of 31, that’s what we’ve basically done, wholesale wise. So we’ve got to get better and that will allow our twos to get on the field more. It’s that and then it’s part of the scheduling and that’s what we had. You know you schedule years in advance and all those things. You don’t know who’s going to be really good and who’s not at the point when you’re scheduling because you’re scheduling so many years out. Yeah, there’s a lot to that and I was really glad that we were able to get our twos in toward the end of the game at Auburn."
The Razorbacks have lost two players recently to ACL injuries without any contact. Both of them had previously had an ACL injury the same knee. Earlier this week, it was learned running back Dominique Johnson had suffered another ACL injury to his knee. Now, it has been learned that walk-on redshirt sophomore quarterback Kade Renfro has torn his ACL again. Pittman talked about when it happened.
"I think it was during the Texas A&M week," Pittman said. "Just stepped and planted. A non-contact deal. Swelled up on him a little bit. Didn’t think it was that big of a deal, I don’t think he did. He couldn’t get the swelling off of it and found out that he had torn his ACL again. Again, another misfortunate deal. Non-contact type situation. But yes, he had an ACL again."
Arkansas State transfer defensive tackle Terry Hampton is now listed as a starter on the depth chart. In eight games, Hampton has 19 tackles, six solo, and 1.5 for loss.
"Terry’s always played a lot of football for us," Pittman said. "He’s playing extremely fast right now. He’s kind of Arkansas. Plays hard, plays physical. Gets a lot out of his athletic ability. Has made some really nice plays, really nice strides. I’m glad that he elected to transfer in here. He’s helped us a lot."
Arkansas will host Liberty on Saturday at 3 p.m. and televised on the SEC Network.