The Razorbacks are coming off a 70-0 win over UAPB. Against UAPB on Thursday, Arkansas scored its only 10 possessions on offense. In 2021, Arkansas won nine games, but only defeated UAPB 45-3. The Hogs didn't score in the second half of that game. Sam Pittman compared the two games on Monday.
"I think this too," Pittman said. "I think there are some things there … It was a different timing … In other words, I think the UAPB game (in 2021) was right before a bye week and so I think we’d gotten up 45-0 if I’m correct, and we just played the twos the entire (second half). As you saw, the results weren’t the same three ago to what it was the other night. We certainly went to 10-minute quarters. But it’s the first game of the year, so we were going to run our … That was the plan. If we were fortunate enough to get ahead, we were going to run our offense and let these kids see what Malachi (Singleton) could do, and if it got to KJ (Jackson), see what the threes could do.
"I know the score got a little out of hand, but at the same time, we had to worry about our team more than we did anybody else. For us to go down and score that many times and shut them out with our 3s on defense, as well, I thought that was a really good sign for us."
Kyle Ramsey, a transfer from Abilene Christian, was the place kicker for Arkansas on Thursday. As a redshirt senior at Abilene Christian in 2023, Ramsey went 14-for-15 on field goals and added 33 point after touchdowns. He hit all seven field goals of 40-49 yards last season and missed one of five from 50 and beyond. He hit a long of 55 yards. He was competing with Hawaii transfer Matthew Shipley to replace Cam Little. Pittman was asked if Ramsey has won the job?
"Yes, I mean, there’s still a battle there, but he’ll be the first one running out there," Pittman said.
Pittman then was asked what Ramsey did to win the job?
"Well, we set him for five days," Pittman said. "He was hurt and so we set him for five days. Really, we just weren’t kicking quite as well as we’d like to and when he came back, he was pretty solid in there. It was just a ‘decide who we’re going to go with’ type deal, wasn’t really cut and dry and it’s his job until we figure something out differently. Hopefully, I don’t. Hopefully he makes them all and we can keep going, but we have full trust in him and Shipley."
Long snapper Eli Stein left the team last week. Pittman talked about what happened there.
"Depth chart came out and he had lost half of his starting role," Pittman said. "One was long snapping and the other one was short snapping. I just don't feel like he probably wanted to just be one or the other. So he decided to leave the team."
Ashton Ngo handled both duties against UAPB and was placed on scholarship recently. He redshirted at Arkansas in 2023 after transferring in from Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College.
Pittman was asked if any players played well enough against UAPB to earn more playing time going forward?
"Maybe a little bit more on special teams," Pittman said. "Alex Sanford played really well, Dallas Young made a great play on a special team. Stephen Dix, he played better than maybe even I thought he might. I’m talking about in space. Made some good tackles there, but we played so many guys that I wasn’t really disappointed in anybody. We got probably what I thought we would out of the guys. Skill-wise, we really did a good job at catching the football, I know we dropped one or two here or there, but some fantastic catches as well."
Saturday's game will kickoff at 11 a.m. and be televised on ABC.