Pittman Doesn't Want Fast Start to Slide Away

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said at his Monday press conference what everybody else already has thought about

Watch Monday's complete press conference above.

Sam Pittman knows exactly why Saturday's game is so big.

"You don't want to go 4-0, ranked eighth in the country and then let it all slide away from you," he said Monday at his press conference. "And I don't feel like it will if we can win X number of games, I don't want to get into that.

"Yeah, we've won one conference game, we need to win some conference football games, and we need to start this run."

It won't be easy and he knows that, too.

"We want to finish the season as good as we possibly can," he said. "The teams you play are pretty good and we know that. It's a big challenge but we're looking forward to it."

Kickoff for the game is 3 p.m. on the SEC Network and you can listen to the game at HitThatLine.com or on ESPN Arkansas 99.5 in Fayetteville, 95.3 in the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home.

Getting back to winning in the league after losing three straight, which came as a shock to many fans after a perfect September.

If they hadn't put UAPB on the schedule, October could have been zero wins and this team WOULD be reeling.

Now they're hoping the bye week last week has gotten folks healthy and ready for a stretch run against the Bulldogs, at LSU, at Alabama and back home the day after Thanksgiving against Missouri.

"We're back healthy and things of that nature," Pittman said.

The Razorbacks practiced Sunday and will be taking Tuesday off as part of the NCAA Civic Engagement Day. That's because it's election day in case you're wondering.

"A lot of the SEC schools got a waiver and they're practicing on Tuesday," Pittman said. "We stayed with it off simply because we had Friday and Saturday off, and we wanted to get our kids back. We didn't want to really go those three days."

He's hoping all of the down time has gotten the Hogs back and ready for a November to remember.

"We practiced yesterday and it was a very good practice," Pittman said. "We weren't quite on, offensively. The effort was there. I think — that was a concern — and that's why we kind of stayed with Tuesday off so we could come in and get a practice yesterday.

"You can see it a little bit yesterday at practice. The way the guys practiced. The enthusiasm at practice. Everybody got their legs back and we needed it. It’s been very beneficial to us."

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