Coach Sam Pittman during a news conference last season.

By Otis Kirk

FAYETTEVILLE -- Game week is officially here and Sam Pittman held his weekly conference at noon with the media to discuss Saturday's game against Cincinnati.

The Hogs are ranked No. 19 while the Bearcats come in at No. 23. The kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. at Razorback Stadium and televised on ESPN.

"Game week’s finally here," Pittman said. "I certainly have great respect for the University of Cincinnati. They’re a really good football team, really good team. Well-coached and play well in really all aspects - offense, defense, and they’ve got a good special teams. Certainly glad it’s at home."

This is a ranked matchup for both teams as they open 2022 with high hopes. Pittman talked about it being a matchup of ranked opponents.

"Well, I think it’s a big deal that SEC Nation is here," Pittman said. "It’s one of three Top 25 matchups. We’re on ESPN. Yeah, you want that for the program, publicity for the program. And obviously we want to be standing room only and those things, which I think we are. But it’s changed a little bit over the last couple of years. Who knows what it would’ve been during the COVID year? I think we would’ve have some really good crowds. We were playing OK. We were playing a little bit better than what we might have in the past. But now the expectations are certainly high, and they’re high in our building as well. But I think opening up against a Top 25 program - which I think Cincinnati’s higher than that even. They would do well in the SEC, I know that. It should have helped us in the summer, should have helped us in fall camp understanding that we’re not playing a team that’s way inferior to us. We’re playing a team that’s every bit as good as we are. So, I think that’s helped us. I hope it has."

Arkansas opened the season against Rice last year and struggled for whatever reason until the second half. Texas was looming in the second game and many were looking at that game. The Hogs trailed 10-7 at halftime and was tied at 17 after three quarters. The Razorbacks scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to take the 38-17 win. Has it been easier to prepare for Cincinnati as opposed to the Owls?

"I think it could have been," Pittman said. "But you know we were coming off a 3-7 season. We were just trying to get any win we could get. Actually you guys know we had to stop Rice on a fourth down or we were in major trouble in the third quarter last year against them. So it wasn’t exactly like we really were hitting on all cylinders in that game. 

"So, to answer your question, I don’t really know. We tried to downplay the noise of Texas as much as we could last year. We knew that we had to beat Rice and obviously didn’t do a very good job of that, the first half especially. This year we know nobody’s said a word about South Carolina. They’re a really good team. They really are. Only team to beat Notre Dame last year. I know people say they lost a lot of players. Well they played a whole bunch of them last year because they were so far ahead in a lot of their games that they got experience with their other guys. And then they brought in some nice transfers as well."

Senior Ben Bryant and sophomore Evan Prater have shared the quarterbacking duties for the Bearcats and Luke Fickell isn't tipping his hand on who will start Saturday. Pittman was asked how that complicates the planning for them?

"So much about first games, you really don’t know who’s good and who’s not," Pittmans said. "I mean, you don’t. And it’ the same way, I’m talking about team wise. And then you talk about the quarterback, and we know the two guys they have. So we’ve had to prepare for what they possibly might do different. 

"They had a running quarterback, a throwing quarterback, in one guy last year. So you can kind of see what they would do with a runner, because they ran him a lot, and then you kind of see the route trees and all these things. They lost a really good receiver in 12. He’s a really good receiver. Their quarterback, their running back. Those were three guys on offense they lost that were really good players. And their coordinator. I think he went to LSU maybe. But their quarterback coach has taken it over. 

"I think they’ll be very similar, and I think, if this makes sense, they’ll run more of what they’ve already run, if it’s a running quarterback they’ll run more runs with him, and if it’s not, they’ll probably run the ball a little bit more and go back to their base inside/outside zone type schemes that they’ve run for years."

The Bearcats have all five starters back on the offensive line. Pittman knows that is very important to a program. His own team has four starters back on that unit.

"Well, any time you have them all coming back, you know that's that's a good thing," Pittman said. "It's a good thing, and, you know, they run the duo play about as good as anybody. They'll try to bloody your nose and come right at you. They're really good in pass protection. I don't know what happened to their coach, you know, coach Ron Crook. Good football coach, but he's since moved on, and I had a lot of respect for him, and I do have a lot of respect for him. But they're well coached. I'm sure they'll come in here well coached, and they play really well together. You know, you have five, like we do, we have four coming back, we feel like that's a strength of our team. I can't speak for Coach, but I'm assuming he thinks that's the strength of their team. I do, and really been impressed with their physicality."

The Bearcats are also very talented on defense and Pittman talked about some of the headliners there.

"They lost a lot of players from last year, really good players, too," Pittman said. "I like both of their linebackers, 2 (Wilson Huber) and 13 (Ty Van Fossen). They’ve got a defensive end (Malik) Vann, 42, that’s a good player, played a lot of ball for them last year. Then in the secondary (Arquon) Bush and (Ja’Von) Hicks, their free safety and boundary corner. That’s who we really know about. They lost several defensive starters and guys that went to the NFL last year, but Van played a lot of ball for them, and I really like (Van Fossen). He’s the SAM now. He makes a lot of plays, makes them in open space, big guy. And of course they still have Bush and Hicks in the secondary. They’ll run and hit you now. They’re a good team. I mean, good football team."

Arkansas will return to the practice fields on Monday evening. Pittman expects both wide receiver Jadon Haselwood and guard Brady Latham to return to practice this week, possibly both today. They have been nursing minor injuries.