razorbacks
FAYETTEVILLE - For the first time in their football history the Arkansas Razorbacks will play the Penn State Nittany Lions in Arkansas’ first ever Outback Bowl game, Jan. 1 in Tampa, Fla.
The Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day kicks off at 11 a.m. and is televised by ESPN2.
The Razorbacks under second-year Coach Sam Pittman went 8-4 overall/4-4 in the SEC, and finished ranked 21st in Sunday’s final College Football Playoff Committee poll and 22nd and 24th, respectively in Sunday’s Associated Press Media and the USA Today Coaches polls.
Penn State of the Big Ten and coached by former Vanderbilt Coach James Franklin, finished 7-5 overall after a 5-0 start and 4-5 in the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions are not Top 25 ranked in the CFP, AP or Coaches polls but have had three 11 win seasons and one 9-win season since Franklin’s 2014 arrival from Vanderbilt.
From 1950-1965 under Rip Engle, 104-48-4 and 1966-2011 under the NCAA record 409 wins under Joe Paterno, Penn State inevitably ranked among the nation’s best football programs.
“Just want to say we're so excited to play in a New Year's Day bowl against a great opponent in Penn State University,” Pittman said in a Sunday evening Zoom press conference. “It's been an exciting day for us, the University of Arkansas and our program. Can't wait to get down to the sunshine of Tampa, Florida and eat a couple of Bloomin' Onions."
Blooming’ Onions are among the specialties of the bowl sponsoring Outback Steakhouse.
Supposed to play in last year’s Houston Bowl against TCU which was cancelled because too many TCU players tested positive for covid-19, Arkansas has not played in a bowl game since Bret Bielema’s 2016 Razorbacks lost to Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl.
Between the long bowl absence and playing in a New Year’s Day bowl in
Florida, Pittman expects a team excited to be bowl bound.
“"I think they're unbelievably excited,” Pittman said. “There's not many of them in there that's been to a bowl. So, to get to a New Year's Day bowl, and one as prestigious as the Outback Bowl, they'll be ready and they'll be excited. It'll make practice a little bit easier for them I would say."
It doesn’t always work that way. Pittman was offensive line coach for the 2018 nationally No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs missing the 4-team national semifinalists cut and then getting upset by Texas in the Sugar Bowl.
“Sometimes you’re at a university and if you’re not in the college playoff it’s hard to get them fired up even about going to a New Year’s Day bowl,” Pittman said. “ But for us, I think it’s going to be very, very easy to get our kids excited about going to Tampa and playing on New Year’s Day in the Outback Bowl.”
Pittman said he has no history coaching against Franklin, but Dowell Loggains, Arkansas’ tight ends coach and former NFL offensive coordinator, was briefly on Franklin’s staff as an offensive analyst before the former Arkansas walk-on quarterback seized the opportunity that Pittman offered to return to his alma mater as tight ends coach.
Pittman was asked if he’d seek Penn State insight from the former Penn State analyst.
“That would certainly be something we talk to him about,” Pittman said. “We have 12 videos, 12 films, 12 games as well, but he might know something a little bit more about personnel.”
Arkansas will start its on campus bowl practices this Friday and Saturday concentrating “on ourselves,” Pittman said and then get Penn State specific in the Dec. 20-23 practices before breaking for Christmas and flying Dec. 26 to Tampa.
Pittman will take time from his recruiting schedule to attend Monday night’s Burlsworth Award banquet in Springdale.
For the second consecutive year, Arkansas senior linebacker Grant Morgan of Greenwood, an All-American last year when the the award went to University of Pittsburgh center Jimmy Morrissey, is a finalist for the award honoring the season’s best player who began his career as a walk-on like the late Brandon Burlsworth of Harrison did as a Razorbacks 1994 redshirt freshman walk-on offensive guard and finishing as a NFL drafted 1998 football and academic All-American.
Morgan, Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett, who Pittman knew while coaching Georgia’s offensive line before head coaching Arkansas, and Troy University linebacker Carlton Martial are the finalists.
“Certainly I hope he wins it,” Pittman said. “ I’m getting ready to fly out to a home (recruiting) visit. We’ll come back and g got a team meeting tomorrow at 5, and then we’ve got graduation reception at 6:30, so I’ll hit that early, then we’ll — Jamie and I — run up to the Burlsworth Award. Certainly I’m rooting for him. That doesn’t mean I’m rooting against others, but certainly I’m rooting for him. I’d love to see a kid from the University of Arkansas win the Burlsworth Award.