No wallowing: Arkansas sees a chance at FIU

Whether or not folksy fourth-year University of Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman has a countdown clock on his tenure will be revealed over the course of the next eight days.

Verify that.

To ensure Pittman’s tenure has a chance to continue, struggling Arkansas (3-7) really needs to defeat Florida International (4-6) tonight at 6:30 p.m.

Pittman appears to be aware of the circumstances, as he has responded to numerous inquiries in the past seven days regarding the security of his employment following an embarrassing 48-10 home loss to Auburn.

On his weekly radio show on Wednesday, Pittman stated, “We have to win Saturday and our team knows that,” without providing any additional context.

Pittman stated on Monday that he is confident in his ability to turn around the football team’s fortunes and that he is not worried about his job security.

Before the non-competitive loss against the Tigers, who had been sitting just above the Hogs in the SEC West basement, the Razorbacks’ season had been filled with a string of close losses, most of which had occurred away from Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Pittman described the show as embarrassing.

“On his radio show, he stated that it’s evidently not where they wish to be.” However, we have two options: we can stay there and mope, or we can go defeat FIU.

The fact that we haven’t performed well at home is disappointing. We’ve performed better away from the house than at home.”

Under second-year coach Mike MacIntyre, who won the national coach of the year award in 2016 after leading Colorado to its first Pac-12 South championship, Florida International is firmly in rebuilding mode.

This season, the Panthers have also been struggling, but a $1.5 million salary and the opportunity to take advantage of an injured SEC team in front of a national TV audience provide compelling incentives.

“It’s good exposure for us but what it really does is it helps our overall athletic program, not just football,” said MacIntyre. “It promotes football, and our kids enjoy participating in it.” Things change when you have a major upset in those. Thus, that is our intended outcome.”

After winning 39-36 in overtime against Florida to end a six-game losing streak—five of which were decided by a single point—the Razorbacks appear eager to deflect some of the criticism from Pittman and the coaching staff. However, the exhilaration following a standout offensive performance from star running back Raheim Sanders and quarterback KJ Jefferson did not last through the next weekend.

Following another brief run by Sanders in the first quarter, there were sporadic jeers during the farce against Auburn.

Hunter Yurachek, the athletic director of Arkansas, remained silent this week about Pittman, but it would seem imperative that Pittman put on a strong performance at home as a heavy favorite.

Linebacker Chris Paul remarked, “I feel like we’re putting everything out there for our coaches because we really love these guys.” “These guys have a strong passion for ball games and related activities. For us, the most important thing is to simply tune out the outside world and play our style of football. We also want to focus on FIU this week and make the most of our final two opportunities to turn this program around.”

Josh Braun, a transfer guard, tackled the problem of locker room reasoning on a losing team.

“People call college football a brotherhood and this is where those relationships really come into play,” Braun stated. “Well, it’s easy to be friends and to love each other when you’re winning and everything is going well, but when things go wrong, that’s when you need to rely on and lean on each other.” In the end, you’re all striving to achieve the same objective, which is to conclude the season with maximum strength.

“We must maintain our concentration for the next two games. We haven’t performed well this year, so we need to play for the fans in Razorback Stadium. At this point, our only priority is to show up for them.”

According to defensive end Landon Jackson, the Razorbacks must produce their own energy.

“The biggest thing in the locker room is the season is not over,” he stated. “We need to make a statement because we still have this game and Missouri to play. Just keep fighting and working hard, and let them see what a team we are.”

According to Jackson, the Razorbacks have had to hone their resilience in the face of hardship.

“We’ve been doing it all year and we’ve got to keep fighting,” he stated. “You must never give up because if you do, the media and the talk show will win, and they will be able to control you.

“So, the main thing I do is avoid using social media. You begin to believe the negative things you see more and more of as time goes on. I’m making an effort not to listen to that. And Coach Pitt wants us to know that he still cares about us and is willing to give it all to us, so we should do the same for him.”

Andrew Armstrong, a transfer receiver, echoed that idea.

“Coach Pitt comes in there every day, no matter what’s going on in the media, he comes in there and makes sure that we’re good as players, on and off the field,” Armstrong stated. Ascertains that we won’t be impacted by anything the media says about us, a particular player, or a particular coach. Just silence everything and emerge from here prepared to play football.”

At the Auburn game, more than 72,000 Razorback supporters turned out in support, but that number might be much lower today. The Hogs’ only victory on campus came in a 28-6 drubbing of Kent State, during which the offense amassed 308 yards in total.

That proved to be a portent for SEC play, as the Razorbacks, who average 318.3 yards per game, are last in the league.

Arkansas rebounded against Auburn, but interim offensive coordinator Kenny Guiton ignited the team with a faster-paced performance in the victory at Florida.

In the meantime, the defense led by coordinator Travis Williams, who had been in charge the entire season, performed a slow and careless job of tackling Auburn.

According to Pittman, the Razorbacks’ main goal is to avoid losing twice after their poor showing against Auburn. However, in Pittman’s final three seasons, they have not been a dominant force against non-Power 5 teams.

“I would be shocked if we don’t come out ready to play,” Pittman stated. We are accountable to them, to us, and to me. However, history indicates that we haven’t performed particularly well against teams like this, so there is clearly cause for concern and we will need to coach our way out of it this week.”

“We’re not really a big logo team,” Paul continued. We are going to go out there and play a hard, fast, physical brand of football and things like that, regardless of how big or small the opposition is. We prepare for this week the same way we do every other week, with a focus on physicality, communication, getting to the football, and flying around.

It is simply granting our fans what they are due. It’s important for us to go out and give the fans what they deserve because we haven’t played well at home the past few weeks.”