FAYETTEVILLE -- For the second time in five games, Arkansas will face a school for the first time in school history when Notre Dame comes to Fayetteville for a non-conference football game.
Earlier this season Arkansas faced Arkansas State in Little Rock. Arkansas (2-2) hasn't won since beating Arkansas State in Little Rock. Notre Dame (1-2) won for the first time this past Saturday when they defeated Purdue. Sam Pittman is excited to face Notre Dame and also be back home in Razorback Stadium for the first time since the season opener.
"Excited to get an opportunity to play Notre Dame," Pittman said. "Certainly glad it’s home. It’ll be good to be back home. Really good football team. Outstanding running backs, quarterback, tight end, wideouts. They’re just really good offensively. The O-line’s good. They’re running the ball more now than what they did early in the year and it’s really working out, having a lot of success.
"Defensively they’ve got some really good playmakers over there. They want to run man coverage, bring singles, disruptive on the defensive line with their movements. So, a really good team, played good last week against Purdue. Really played well against A&M and Miami, just came up short a point and a field goal. Coach (Marcus) Freeman has done a wonderful job there. We’re looking forward to having a storied program like Notre Dame in our stadium."
After fumbling away chances to beat both Ole Miss and Memphis Pittman was asked about additional pressure now?
"It'd be kind of hard to have more pressure," Pittman said. "I mean, I think the pressure you put on yourself is obviously a lot because you want to do well for a lot of reasons. But I've kind of had this same type pressure for, I don't know, three years now. It seems like 40, but I think it's been about three ... We have an opportunity. The only way we can win people (over) that don’t believe in us, or win some more positive thoughts about our program is to win ball games, and that’s really the bottom line. You can say whatever you want. You can do whatever you want, but what’s the score? That really is what changes people’s perception or perspective of you. We have a great opportunity here. As we well know, we’re not, we could be 4-0. We’re 2-2. I say that only because if we’re 4-0, I think we’re all sitting in here thinking we have a great chance to beat Notre Dame. Our football team will think that, but we’ve got to rally around this week, but we’ll do that. To answer your question, probably not any more than normal."
Cornerback Kani Walker was injured against Ole Miss and didn't play in the Memphis game. Pittman somewhat updated his status for Notre Dame.
"I don’t know," Pittman said. "I mean, he’s been in concussion protocol this weekend. He was in, he didn’t travel obviously. We had people working with him. I’ll know more on Wednesday. And that’s not because the whatever, the injury report comes out. It’s because of his walk-through of his injury that he has to do. If he’ll progress today and then tomorrow — if he progresses today, he’ll be able to practice tomorrow. If he does that, then I think he’s going to be just fine."
While Arkansas' defense has drawn criticism the Notre Dame one is statistically worse than the Hogs. Can Arkansas exploit it?
"I think we match up," Pittman said. "We match up. They're good on the D-line, but I think we've got good matchups against them. I really like their Mike linebacker, (Drayk) Bowen. He can run side to side. We have to get him blocked. I mean, we just have to, because he can run and he's physical. They've run a lot of different coverages. A lot. You know, whether it be 8, 4, 6, and man free. So we have to prepare for all those coverages. Where our matchup is, what do we try to do? In other words, are we going to try to attack outside, are we going to try to attack inside, are we going to run Taylen (Green) a lot? But all those things, anytime you have a team that's really good, you have to figure your matchups, and I think we match up well, with great respect, against what they do."
Is Pittman concerned with his team letting go of the rope?
"No, not at all," Pittman said. "You know, guys, as much as y'all want us to win and the state wants us to win, and guys in the locker room want to win too. It's Notre Dame. If I had a concern, I'd be telling you that I didn't think I had a good team or good leadership on the team, and if I told you that, I'd be lying. So we'll be ready to play."
Pittman likes Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr, but has to be pleased he isn't a running signal caller. He also praised running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price as well as former Razorback tight end Ty Washington.
"Did I say I liked Love?," Pittman said. "I mean, God, as I'm looking at tape, I'm going this guy is sensational. And he's fast, he's mean. They brought an A gap linebacker, Purdue, he just knocked the hell out of him. He can catch, he likes to jump. He's a high jump hurdler or something, but he's special. Barry (Odom) thought he was one of the best backs he's ever seen. Then he talked about Price and of course, Price returned a kickoff for a touchdown. We call them 1A, 1B. I call him 1AAAA and 1B. The guy's great. He's a great player.
"Carr, really good, man. So accurate and runs the offense. really well and they throw the deep comeback on the sideline as good as anybody. And it seems like he's always got it in the right spot on time, but I got a little roll protection that they run a deep comeback on. I don't know what his percentage on it is right now, but it's high. He’s really good, really good player. Their tight end, I hope I'm saying it right, (Eli) Rarodan, number nine is fantastic. He's the second leading receiver on the team and doing a really good job. And Ty Washington's played for them and playing well. He's caught three balls this year, and he's doing a good job for them. It's good to see, happy for him."
Carr has completed 49 of 74 passes for 737 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions. But he only has one yard rushing. The Arkansas State, Ole Miss and Memphis quarterbacks all hurt Arkansas running the football. Love has rushed 52 times for 284 yards and three touchdowns. Price has rushed for 187 yards and five touchdowns on only 27 carries. Raridon has nine receptions for 182 yards.
Some fans have declared they aren't going to attend any more football games. What message does Pittman have for them?
"Get on out here," Pittman said. "We're excited about this game. We're not backing into the door. We obviously think we have a great chance to win the game. If they want to see Notre Dame, they ought to get to the game and they'll see a really good Arkansas team as well. We'll be ready to play."
Arkansas and Notre Dame will kickoff at 11 a.m. on Saturday from Razorback Stadium and televised on ABC.
