Pittman Doesn't Like Making Excuses, but No Way Around It Now

Razorbacks' coach gives explanations for disapppointing performance, but overall tone didn't change

Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman on the sidelines against UAB at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. / Nilsen Roman-Hogs on SI Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Whether Arkansas coach Sam Pittman wanted to call it an explanation or excuse Monday about the win over UAB, it probably wasn't particularly re-assuring.

Anyone who listens to it and comes away confident heading to Auburn this week wasn't taking it correctly. A disappointing 37-27 win still counts and nobody will really remember much about how it happened in November.

Unless it was a sign of things to come.

"Sometimes when you answer a question it’s like an excuse," Pittman said Monday. "But you have to answer the question. It’s a good question."

That was about the defensive line's inability to stop the Blazers last week running or passing the ball. He's said for years he will never flat-out lie to fans, but he's only going to say what he wants people to know.

Pittman's hope right now is his team takes what it saw from the UAB game and is upset about it. His buddy Kirby Smart is pretty much in a similar spot, managing a 13-12 struggle win against Kentucky Saturday.

"These games are about us vs. us," Pittman said. "The one Saturday was us vs. us. We had better players. Hopefully, we had as good a coaching staff as they did. The fire that you play with is something that’s expected. So I don’t know for sure. Obviously all of us coaches would like to figure that out."

There's a lot of the circular nature of coaches talking in all that. If Pittman knows the solution to the problems in the first three games (and there were several), he's not going to explain it.

Just like last season, though, now comes the time when reality starts to be revealed. Somehow, it seems teams stumble around against non-conference opponents often and turn out to be better or worse than what everybody saw when conference games start.

There's hope among fans Auburn isn't that good this year. They weren't last year, yet the Tigers crushed Arkansas in Fayetteville.

That is why the season truly starts now. The Razorbacks may be ready to step up and live up to the expectations after a close loss to Oklahoma State.

Somehow, though, hope was lost in a win that was too uncomfortable for most fans and all of the Lunatic Fringe. That's nothing new to the Hogs, either.

HOGS FEED:

• Game note tidbits for Auburn, Razorbacks for Saturday's game

• Will Pittman have any clues by noon how to fix Hogs' issues?

• Green needs to trim mistakes, mental lapses going forward

• Subscribe and follow us on YouTube
• Follow HogsSI on X and Facebook