Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman Reveals Thoughts on 'Really Good' Auburn Tigers

The Arkansas Razorbacks suffered one of their worst losses of the season against Auburn last year. Head coach Sam Pittman aims to change things around on Saturday.

Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman prepares his team to face the Auburn Tigers on Saturday. / Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

After three weeks to get into the flow of the season, SEC play has arrived for the Auburn Tigers.

The Tigers open up their conference slate against Arkansas who shares a 2-1 record with Auburn. Its loss took place on the road against No. 16 Oklahoma State, a 39-31 overtime loss.

The Razorbacks opened the season with a 70-0 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff and picked up a 37-27 win over UAB this past week.

Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman believes Auburn has a lot of talent and is a tough team to begin conference play against.

“Auburn has a really good team,” Pittman said. “Very physical on the offensive line, obviously (Jarquez) Hunter is a great running back. Their quarterback they brought in, (Hank) Brown, had an exceptional game. Four touchdowns and [he] can really sling the ball.”

Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne had one of his best performances of the season against Arkansas last year, going 12-of-20 for 163 yards and three touchdowns, also adding 88 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Pittman confirmed that the gameplan remains the same despite Auburn going in a different direction at quarterback for this year’s meeting between the two teams.

“With Thorne, it was more of a zone-read, keep the ball, counter-read, keep the ball,” Pittman said. “They (Auburn) threw more RPOs with Brown. It’s the same principle, you’re giving it or you’re throwing it. With Thorne they gave it more or he kept it. That killed us last year with him keeping it. 

“That’s really the difference. I don’t think they changed a lot schematically throwing the football with their stops or go routes. They ran a little more drop back with him (Brown) this past week. I think Thorne was a bigger threat running the football and Brown is a bigger threat throwing it.”

Pittman reflected on Arkansas’ 48-10 home loss against Auburn last season and what went wrong for the Razorbacks that day.

“Probably not a lot offensively to be honest with you,” Pittman said on if he would have a similar gameplan against Auburn. “Defensively, we don’t want to run the same thing we ran last year, I can tell you that. They want to run the football, we have to find a way for them not to.”

Auburn hosts Arkansas at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday, officially opening SEC play for both teams. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. CT and ESPN will carry the broadcast. Auburn is considered a 3.0-point favorite by ESPN.