FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas, fresh off a 70-0 win over UAPB to open the season, will now travel to No. 17 Oklahoma State for a key non-conference game between these two schools.
Oklahoma State downed South Dakota State 44-20 this past Saturday. Sam Pittman is looking forward to his team playing a ranked team on the road.
"We’re excited to go to Stillwater and play Oklahoma State," Pittman said. "I have a ton of respect for Coach (Mike) Gundy, I mean going into 20 years now at Oklahoma State University. He’s just done a phenomenal job. I have a lot of respect for him and the way he handles his program. They have 17 to 18 returning starters, played really well Saturday. Offensively, they have a ton of skill, really good at the skill spots, starting with the quarterback (Alan) Bowman. Then Ollie Gordon is certainly as good as any running back in the country. It starts with Brennan Presley. They love to get the ball to him. He’s a fantastic returner as well. And then I like the (De'Zhaun) Stribling kid they got out of Washington State. He’s done a really good job at wideout, and they already had (Rashod) Owens. Then they have their entire offensive line coming back who’s really playing well together. So you know they went to the Big 12 championship game last year and look to be headed north on that as well this year.
"Defensively they have some outstanding players over there as well, starting with Collin Oliver and Nicholas Martin. Those two guys are game changers. I really like their D-line, Collin Clay, obviously he was here for I think a year. Putnam City I believe, young man. He’s playing extremely well. Then I like Kody Walterscheid, just a big, physical defensive end. And they’ve got Kendal Daniels who is their Sam, who I think was second on their team in tackles last year behind Martin. Then Trey Rucker, he’s a tackling machine. What we saw off of film is that they tackle extremely well. They play hard. They’re sound. Just a well, well-coached football team."
Since the Razorbacks played on Thursday Pittman and the rest of the staff was able to watch the Oklahoma State game on Saturday. Pittman said he watched it both live and the cut-ups. He explained the advantages of watching live.
"Well, it was more about getting the benefit of the atmosphere and the juice of their team and how they play off their crowd and the speed," Pittman said. "Watching games live, they came out and they went fast pace early. You don’t necessarily, as you’re watching cut-ups, get that feel. So we certainly have to be ready for their fast-paced offense. They don’t run it all the time, but we have to be ready for that. He opened the game with it, Coach Gundy did, last week.
"So yeah, I think there are benefits. Certainly you can hear calls and different things you can’t hear on cut-ups, but I think you just get a live feel of it watching it… Like you said, you don’t get a lot of that. Now sometimes you do, maybe on the plane coming back or the bus coming back, maybe if your opponent is playing later than you did, but not very often do you get to just sit down and watch a game. As I’m watching, I go, ‘Man, they’ve got a really good team.’"
Gundy likes the fade routes, but also has the option of giving the ball to Gordon if the pass isn't there.
"If you press them, they’re going to test you," Pittman said. "I mean, that’s just what’s going to happen. If you press them up, you’re going to get tested deep. They have so many things they can do with the RPO, with handing it off to Gordon and then their bubble game, their screen game is a big part of what they do.
"They didn’t do it as much Saturday as what I think they — well, what I know they’ve done in the past, but if you press them, they’re going to go deep on you. If you don’t, you’re going to have the bubble or hand the ball off because normally you’re in a box that’s, number-wise, is going to give them an advantage handing the ball off to Gordon."
In 2023, Arkansas played better on the road than at home. Their lone SEC win was in The Swamp. Pittman talked about the road success.
"I don’t know," Pittman said. "A lot of times you get your team on the road, you get them together, it’s just y’all versus everybody. That feeling, at times, if you have a real close team can make you play a little bit better. You don’t have the distractions of as many tickets and all that kind of stuff. I don’t really know the answer to that. I think we’ll be ready to play Oklahoma State. I know they will (be ready for) us, but I think it’s going to be a really, really good game. But I don’t know the answer to your question."
Bowman is set for his seventh season as quarterback in college. In the season opener, Bowman hit 24 of 33 passes for 245 yards and two touchdowns. He also had a couple of carries for eight yards.
"Their offense fits him perfectly in my opinion," Pittman said. "I mean he can — they don’t run him quite as much. He’s sneaky, they ran him in a draw the other day and he made good yardage on that. But, what they’re asking him to do, he can do it and do it well. Gets the ball out extremely fast, it’s hard to get to him, hard to sack him. “A” because they’re good at protection, but “B” because he gets rid of the ball. But with that bubble, GOs, RPOs, he’s really good at that. I think he probably knows their offense as good as anybody does, as good as the head coach does. So, he’s a really good player and what they do with him is right down his wheelhouse. Really playing well, takes care of the football."
Pittman is familiar with Boone Pickens Stadium from his time with Oklahoma.
"We went in there and got beat when I was at OU," Pittman said. "Very, very loud. Very, very close — as in, they can stand up and look right on top of you. We talked to our players and coaching staff about that as well, because we can’t let their fans be a distraction to us when we’re trying to learn on the sideline or trying to talk about the next series or whatever it may be. But it’s extremely close. I think it’s the closest one in the country. Extremely loud. I think they have 55,000, but it’s a loud stadium, so we’ve talked about that. Crowd noise will be a huge part of this week’s preparation and we started that on Saturday."
Last year's leading receiver Andrew Armstrong missed the UAPB with a hamstring injury. On Wednesday, Pittman provided an update on his status for Saturday's game.
"Well, Andrew’s gotten better since last week to Monday to Tuesday," Pittman said. "He’s improving each week. Whether he can go full speed or not on Saturday and this is not to hold anything back, we have other good receivers. I just don’t know at this point. But I will say that he’s looked a lot better this week, even from Monday to Tuesday and expecting him to look better today as well.
"But you know we’re confident in that we’ve got five, six, seven receivers that have speed and we’re catching the ball extremely well. I like the schematics that Coach (Bobby) Petrino is running there. If we have time, if we can protect, I feel like we’ve got adequate enough receivers that … you know (Tyrone) Broden obviously is a big target that can run and (Isaiah) Sategna is playing extremely well. Of course Jordan Anthony is fast. Then you look at (Isaac) TeSlaa. We’ve got some guys. (CJ) Brown. We’ve got some guys that if Andrew is not able to play we feel like we can stretch the field and have some success."
Arkansas and Oklahoma State will kickoff at 11 a.m. on Saturday with the game televised on ABC.
PREDICTION: Arkansas 45 - Oklahoma State 34
Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Sports Action
