By Otis Kirk
FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas is coming off a loss to No. 23 Liberty and the schedule gets no easier with No. 7 LSU on the schedule Saturday in Razorback Stadium.
LSU (7-2, 5-1) is coming off a 32-31 overtime win over LSU. Two weeks prior to that the Tigers downed Ole Miss 45-20. They control their own destiny in the SEC West with games against UAB at home as well a road game with Texas A&M remaining on the schedule after the Hogs. Sam Pittman and Arkansas (5-4, 2-3) are still one game short of being bowl eligible. He knows LSU will be a huge challenge.
"We’re excited to play LSU," Pittman said. "They’re playing extremely well. Really well coached. Their offensive line is playing lights out. Jayden Daniels is their guy. They obviously have a plethora of wide receivers. Defensively, a great defensive line playing well, playing really good. Obviously they’ve got a couple of kids that transferred from here in (Greg) Brooks and (Joe) Foucha, who are playing well over there for them. Love their linebackers. Just got a really good team. There’s a reason why they’re top of the West right now. We’re looking forward to the challenge though at home at 11 on Saturday."
Daniels, 6-3, 200, is a junior transfer from Arizona State. He leads LSU in rushing with 131 carries for 619 yards and 10 touchdowns. He has completed 187 of 268 passes for 1,994 yards, 14 touchdowns and one interception. Pittman realizes the Arkansas defense will have its hands full with Daniels.
"Well, we certainly are aware of his talent," Pittman said. "And a lot of times even people have numbers assigned to him and miss him. So he's very, very talented. And going over the defensive game plan starting on Sunday night with Barry (Odom) and his crew all the way through this morning's meeting with the defense, I feel very, very confident in our game plan.
"But to me, Daniels is the difference in their offense, and it's not just running the ball. He's an exceptional passer. He's got three really, really good receivers. Counting the tight end, four. They throw the back out a lot, five. They're very talented, but everything starts with him and they're O-Line's playing better, so they're given him a lot of time to throw the football as well."
As far as his own team, Pittman isn't sure who will be at quarterback on Saturday. Redshirt junior KJ Jefferson is still nursing a shoulder injury which limits his ability to fully participate in practice. Prior to Wednesday's practice Pittman was asked about Jefferson's status?
"I can't answer that one without -- I don't know, is the answer," Pittman said. "We're going to talk to him. Obviously if he can throw today then we'll throw him a little bit more. If he can't, we won't. That's kind of been a -- talk to him before practice. He wants to, it's bothering him. He wants to be ready, he wants to play. He wants to practice because he understands that he needs to practice to play well.
"I think we'll just have to wait and see at practice today and see how he feels. We know he's sore. Depending on what he can tolerate or where it's at, maybe it's not nearly as sore today, I don't know. This morning it was a little better, so I don't know what that means as far as what kind of velocity he can put on the ball."
Pittman said if Jefferson can't fully practice it makes sense to go a different direction. The different direction would be redshirt sophomore Malik Hornsby. The speedy Hornsby didn't start against Mississippi State, but played the majority of the game. He finished with eight carries for 114 yards to lead the team in rushing. He also completed 8 of 17 passes for 234 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
"Yeah, it does," Pittman said. "I think that's certainly -- Malik practiced well last week and has practiced well this week. I think he's proven that we should. We certainly have belief that we can have Malik in there and we can go win the game with him. We do. So, we've got to take all of those factors in and see where we go after today, tomorrow -- we already know what's happened Monday and Tuesday -- today, tomorrow and then see where we're at."
In 2014, Arkansas had lost its first 13 games in the SEC over a period of two years. However, the Hogs snapped that streak against No. 20 LSU with a 17-0 win in a very cold Razorback Stadium. Saturday's forecast has the weather being much of the same.
"Well, we're going to embrace it," Pittman said. "We're going to embrace the cold, we're going to embrace the 11 o'clock, we're going to embrace that we've got the leaders of the West coming in here. We're looking forward to it. The colder the better, and the 11 o'clock is perfect. We're going to embrace that situation, I hear what you're saying there."
Pittman talked about what he remembers the most that night following the win.
"A team like LSU with the logo of LSU," Pittman said. "I think they may have been ranked (No. 20) still that day. It was a very, very exciting feeling. You had to get the heck out of the way because our team was flying over there to the boot. But you coach for a lot of reasons.
"One of them is seeing the faces and the excitement on the kids. A big reason, and it certainly was there that night. There's that big picture of them holding that boot was a big deal. It was down in our office in this building for a long, long time. And, yeah, it was a really neat feeling. And then I think it was the next year, we took it over there and we brought it back. And so it's been that long since we beat them twice in a row, and that's another incentive that we were talking about as well."
The first assistant Pittman hired at Arkansas was offensive line coach Brad Davis who is now in the same position at LSU. He has two freshmen offensive tackles starting and Pittman praised the job his former assistant is doing.
"I think (Brad Davis) is doing an outstanding job," Pittman said. "You know, they had (Anthony) Bradford playing at left tackle for a while and they’ve brought him back in to guard. Emory Jones has been playing tackle, but Will Campbell has really, to me, helped them because he’s done a really good job at left tackle for them and allowed them to move Bradford, the big kid, back inside at guard.
"They’re big and physical and well coached, and if you look at them technique-wise, they’re what an offensive line is supposed to look like off the snap of the ball, whether run or pass. He’s done a really good job, in my opinion, with the front and he’s had to play multiple looks as far as where his guys are playing. That’s also the sign of a good coach that you can still have success but may not have the same guys at the same position every week."
Arkansas and LSU will kickoff at 11 a.m. Saturday with the game televised on ESPN.