Arkansas Football Head Coach Sam Pittman speaks ahead of season opener (Full press conference)

Uh, we're excited to go to Little Rock and take our football team. I, I believe it has a lot to do with the passion of, oh, of the state for a long time ago. I know it originally started, you know, there was no, no televised games, many, one or two on a weekend. And I think that had part of the reason to go over there. War memorial was, their stadium was better than this one, in the past and they had lights. So we did not, there was a lot of reasons to go over there, but I think the passion overall from the years of, of, uh Arkansas football, uh, had to do was something about, uh, our willingness to go play games in Little Rock. Uh, our team is not looking at this as, uh, well, we have to go play in Little Rock. We're looking at this opportunity to take the team on the road and, uh, have a great opening game, uh, in the great city of Little Rock. And, uh, whether I wanna do that for years to come or not is irrelevant. Uh, right now for, uh, this Thursday night's game, but we are excited to go over there. It's on our schedule, it's where we're gonna play and we're excited to go over there and we hope that we'll have a whole lot of fans at the game supporting our football team. Um, looking forward to playing Pine Bluff, looking forward to playing a inst state opponent. Um, and we know that, uh, coach Hampton has done a good job, uh, his, uh, as he goes into this year, he, he'll know more about his team and they'll have a better team, uh, as I hope we do as well, but we have a lot of respect for, for Pine for University of Arkansas Pine Bluff. And, um, you know, we're looking forward, uh, to getting over there. You, I guess bussing down on Wednesday and, and flying back is that kind of the, and what's the schedule coming up? No, Trey, we're gonna, we are gonna bus over there, but we'll bus back as well. Um, certainly, uh, helped us, we can save a little bit of money, but more importantly, you know, with us having a two day advantage on our opponent, uh, our kids will be off Friday, then we'll practice Saturday, then they'll be off Sunday and then we'll, we'll go into a regular, um, uh, schedule, uh, for Oklahoma State. After that, you not doing any kind of walk through in the stadium. I don't know if y'all ever really do that. We are not, you know, ever since I've been here, we, we chose not to go to the opponents. Uh, uh, we do everything here. Uh, so now and, uh, on, just on the depth chart you had Patrick Kudos listed bes or with the Marion Harris. That situation. I don't believe Patrick will play. Uh, uh, but I, I, I'll say this too and we'll miss him because he's a good player and that backs still, uh, bothering him. Uh, but Marion Harris has had an outstanding camp and, and, uh, and, uh, I don't know that there'll be any drop off there. I think he's, he's really, he's not five Trey. If you were going 12345, he, he's not five. I don't know where he's at. I don't know if he's three. I don't know if he's four but he's not five. He's, he's really done a really good job. I'm really pleased with how he's come along and, and, uh, gained his weight and, and playing and he's always in position. I'm, I'm really happy for him. The same question at running back we've seen to be and Dewon both up there and I'm hoping maybe you could, uh, spring that into, uh, your situation there, but bring that into the general health because it looked like you got to camp without any season loss guys. We did. Uh, thank you. Thanks for bringing that up too because that it was very physical, you know, we had 22 scrimmages and we also had two other times that we tackled to the ground in specific situations. Um, uh, so, um, I think we did the right thing. Um, obviously we talked about it a long time and what we wanted to get down spring was that way as well, two scrimmages and to tackle to the ground. Um, the depth there at running back. I, I look for Jon to be our starter there and then we'll go, uh, after that, you know, uh, probably Rodney Hill would be, uh, the second guy and our do, our doves have been beat up a little bit, so he hadn't practiced at full speed, um, uh, consistently over the last 10 days. So, uh, Rodney's done a really good job. We, we feel like we have five backs that can really play. So, but probably in order of going in the game that would be one and two and then we figure out how shot is at practice today and whether that be him or bra Braden, probably going in. So if anybody outflow, uh, questionable for this week, then probably the only one would be Armstrong, you know, left whether he, he's practiced every day, but whether he is, uh, full speed or not, um, we'll have to wait probably until Thursday night to find that out, but he has practiced every day and just hasn't really practiced a, a complete practice. So, uh, we'll see where he is after the day you brought up the Little Rock component to the scheduling and how you feel about it is relevant for this game. But is there an ideal amount of times you think to go to Little Rock every other year? Once the Arkansas State game is played next year, is there ideal for you in this scenario? I think this, I think, I think the only concerning thing and I think half of the, oh, I don't know the words problem. Half of the uh concern. OK. Is that, uh we're gonna play in our stadium once in the first five games and um, one of them is in Little Rock and one of them is in Dallas. Now, the Dallas game is, you know, we'll end up playing Texas A and M here next year. Uh, but if you look at it and you consistently look at, I believe the year we won nine, I think we had six games and I think four of them y'all check me on this, but I'm just, I'm saying, I think four of them were home games and we were in here twice, you know, and, and I, to be honest with you, I, I just don't know that it's fair to the, to the fans. I mean, they know where the University of Arkansas is. They can plan it, they can get here for games. I think they wanna be here uh for games. So, uh there are problems with that and including the one for five here. I, I don't know the answer to be honest with you. Uh, in the future, obviously, we're gonna go play Arkansas State a year from now over there in Little Rock. But, um, I think there's a lot of conversation probably needs to be, uh, had between now and 2026. See, I think the last time we talked to you, you mentioned that that Anton was really pushing Nico and then same thing with TJ Metcalfe, really pushing Hudson their safety and they're both listed as oars on the depth chart. I'm curious how, where those battles stand going into this week. Well, we haven't really talked to the kids, you know. Uh Exactly, you know, if there's an oar on there who's be that. But I, I can, I can be honest with you and tell you both Hud and TJ have played really well and so has Nico and Anton, uh which is a good thing, you know, a lot of times you have battles and you're trying to find one that's good. Both those, both those battles are between two really good players and they both will play um all four. You, you understand what I'm saying, but um uh I think we still have another physical practice today and we'll find out what we're gonna do at that point. But again, who runs out first is probably more important to the kid and maybe the media, uh, than it is to us. Um, because they're, they're gonna certainly play their reps. Just your general feeling when it comes to like bulletin board material. Like if another player, uh, coach on another team says something, you address it with the team. Do you, like, let them know like, hey, this is what they're saying or is it like, hey, they, they see it anyway, there's no need to bring it up, you know, nowadays everybody sees everything, you know. So, um, we, we have a lot of respect for Pine Bluff and, uh, and their staff and so we'll just leave it at that and try to go out and play our best game. And I remember, I think the preamp pressure, you said you thought it was important to figure out a kicker within a couple of weeks and the depth chart has, or, uh, it sounds like she's been doing pretty good, but may, I guess, is Ramsey healthy again or what, what, what, why is that an or, and, and is it really you don't know who's gonna kick? Uh, well, all of them is Os because we don't really, we haven't talked to the kids about it, to be honest with you. Um, uh, some of them, we still, they're so close of a battle that we still need to practice two more days before we figure it out. Um, again, that doesn't mean that we don't have confidence in the oars because we do or they wouldn't be on there. Um, we haven't spoke with the kickers yet about who's won that job and once we do that, um, I guess you'll have, you'll find out on Thursday. I hate it, but we just haven't, at this time of the media, we haven't talked to the kickers about who's won that battle. Um, I could say this. They both have kicked, well, Ramsey was hurt, uh, uh, for a week, we shut it down for five days and then he was back yesterday and, and, uh, uh, did a really good job on his field goals and there's been a lot of talk from players and, you know, Eric talked about how far Harris has come since, I guess the spring and you've done, you're down there with the L A lot specifically. What, what is he doing? That's, you know, made him, you know, 11 of your top guys. I, I just think he's so much more motivated and his body gives him a chance, you know, he, he had lost so much weight and he's down to 275 278 pounds and I'm not for sure if that didn't affect his mind as well because he wasn't able to move people. Uh He always had good quickness and always had pretty good technique. Uh But now I think him being over 300 pounds, I think he's his confidence, uh, is, is much better. Uh, he's been here, uh, now for three seasons. His, his, uh, ability, um, to move people is much better and he's just, uh, I think, I think he's just playing better because he's, he's confident that he can get it done. And his, you know, him and Carmona together, they've really been a good, uh, Carmona has been good for him too if that makes sense. And then, um, I, I was curious how the, the mic game or the dress rehearsal or whatever you wanna call it one Thursday night, I guess. I know you're not hitting. But how did you go from a logistic? Well, we actually did this year. We, we, we went in shells and our tempo was good. I felt like, um, the offense I think was right at 20 plays, two of them were on air, uh, situational, uh, and the defense was around 18 and then we had all kinds of, uh, of, uh, special team situations. Um, and it went well, now in the, in the past, we, we did not do that. I mean, we, we did the special teams, we, but we didn't, uh, physically, um, get after each other. Uh, I just felt like, um, we're, we're trying to talk about being tough and you can't be tough unless practices are tough and you ex the expectation is tough. So, uh, we did that. It went, well, I've been dealing with social media distractions. You mentioned that last week coach that you thought you would have to deal with some adversity at some point. And when that comes last year, maybe you didn't do the best job this year. You feel like you equipped your team a little better to handle that outside noise. Yeah, I think so. And, and, uh, you know, we really haven't gotten into a stressful situation yet, you know, so, uh, we're gonna have to figure that out once that, once that happens. Um, you know, there's, there's game, there's, there's situations that adverse during a game and then there's certainly adversity after a game. Uh, speaking of media. Um, but, uh, I think our kids have been pretty good with the media. Uh, they've been limited availability but, uh, I think, um, I think we're, we've got a mature team so I feel pretty good about it and we, and we've spoke about it quite a bit as well. So, um, I think we're gonna be in pretty good shape there as well. We have a mature team. So I think we'll be in pretty good shape. Last time we spoke with you, you kind of mentioned how Danny and, uh, Ian might have to treat them as one player kinda and, you know, see where you go, how, how many of those guys taken a step forward? Is it the same plan? Maybe they're one player in terms of snap and everything going into. Um, the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff game. I think that is the plan. Um, you know, where we've been rotating, you know, on fours. I, there's just no way that we can do that with a Landon Jackson. I mean, we can't, we, we need him on the football field. Um, you know, maybe he can ball as well. Um, but, um, the equal opportunity, we're, we're just not, we're not close enough right now, Uh, for a guy who's, uh, to me quite a bit better and that could be because of age. It could be a lot of reasons, uh, is off the football, uh, on, off the field. And so, uh, but I do think that rotation is something that we'll certainly do. And do you think like this could be a short term thing or how do you feel about his availability? Uh He's gonna get a reading on his back on Friday and then we'll know, uh, a little bit more about it after that. But he has, you know, he's progressed from things in the pool to things on land now, uh, to a little bit of hitting. Uh, so we're gonna get this, uh, MRI read and then we'll, I'll have a better answer for you. Uh, next time we meet, I guess next Monday and last thing just I know it's a, it's a game, it's not practice but how much of a week one maybe can be part of that competition. At, you know, defensive end safety cornerback where you have some of those guys not fighting for. Great question. I'm really excited um, about that to see game ready, um, competition. And, uh, you know, you just don't say you, you know, we talked to him about scrimmages and the games the same way. You don't stay the same, you just don't, you know, you don't, you go to practice and you go out to a game, you get a different person. I mean, you do on, on a Saturday on this case, a Thursday night, they're either gonna get better or they're gonna get worse. No coach is gonna come in and say, well, that's about what I thought we was gonna get out of it, it goes up or it goes down. So I'm really excited to see how each one of these guys that are in a battle and, and those are not for that matter, uh, to see how they play, you know, we have so many new players and of course, I, I heard, uh, uh, Arkansas Pine Bluff as maybe 52 or something like that came in in July, you know, so, uh, very, very difficult to really, really, really know what you have until you line up there on a Saturday night, you think, you know, but, but it'll be a lot of fun to find out truly what we have coming into fall camp. You said you liked Andreas Poka. But you need to love him, I guess. How much closer are you to, to loving him? And, uh, what have you seen from him throughout the fall camp? I love the kid. You know, uh, a lot of it was understanding the offense being able to play faster because of that. He had a really good off season, gained some weight, stronger, faster. He's very aggressive. Um, so there'll be times in there it depends on, you know, what, uh, personnel that we use, that. He'll be the first guy out there now. He might be out there with another tight end. Uh, so he's come a long way. II, I believe that, uh, we'll find out more about him on Thursday night, but I've been pleased, uh, with his progression over the last, uh, whatever spent 2122 days because last year, I think a full week out, y'all announced the captains, but you haven't yet. Are you, you, you know them or is there a reason for the delay? Well, I've changed that one too, you know, with, with the portal and all that. I think, uh, naming captains this early and I was at Georgia Trey. They named them after the season, you know, and they just had a rotating guys. I do think, uh, what we're gonna do is we're gonna, uh, name four game day captains for a while and I don't know how long that's gonna be. I don't know if that's gonna be to game 10. I don't know if that's gonna be, uh, during the bowl prep. I don't, I don't know when that's gonna be, that we decide who our captains are, but I just think twofold Trey, to be honest, I think that we have too many captain light guys on our team right now to get to four. I think. I think, uh, let's let them play a little bit. Let's see them in the adversity. Let's see who really is the leaders on a Saturday afternoon again, we have, what, 39 new guys. So, um, I just thought that it would be kind of cool if at the end of the year, if you had 48 guys or you had 36 guys that represented the team, uh, as captains, I mean, let's look at this, you're going to Little Rock. So if you're sitting there thinking who could be game day captains? Well, you start thinking about your kids from Little Rock that are starting, you start thinking about maybe a guy from Memphis, whatever. And I think it would mean something to those kids and they had the opportunity to walk out there and, you know, captains have changed, you know, they never ask the captain, what do you want to do or anything? You know, most of them, they don't ask me, they just, you're gonna take the penalty and we're moving on. So that's, that's really, uh, um, something that could kind of be neat that I thought about that, that you could have 4048 guys in a 12 game go out there and then maybe decide who really earned the captain's spot after the year during possibly bowl prep. I just kind of going through thinking too deep in my head, but I was Nico was like the only guy I could think of that's we have Marion as well, you know, now. And, uh, you know, then if you didn't have a lot of little rock kids, you might go back to the state of Arkansas because we're going over there. So we've got an idea. We haven't talked to the team about it yet. You're trying to get it out of me and I'm not gonna give it to you. Um, you watch some football games this weekend and anything that you maybe could apply to your players for, hey, look at this guy, you know, or penalties or anything like that, you might, I think we did a, we did a turnover circuit again, uh, individually, um, because we saw quite a few balls on the ground. Um, penalties obviously are, are a big part of the beginning of, of the season. Uh, we did show a couple of clips to the team, uh, about, uh, some things on special teams where, you know, we got muff, a fair catch on the kickoff and they got it on the one and next play was the safety, um, he was not in the end zone, you know, uh, makes a big difference. Um, so there was some situations like that but, uh, basically it's, um, the message was about, uh, what, what you believe that you can do and, and rankings in preseason or so, uh, inconsistent with what you have, you know, you see Georgia Tech and Florida State and, and, uh, if you looked at that game, no disrespect to either team, but it wasn't a fluke, you know, Georgia Tech and then went toe to toe and, and uh two good football team. Georgia Tech found a way to win the game. Um That's how our season started last year as well. We just didn't, we, we were Florida State, we weren't Georgia Tech at the end of the game. And so they're all learning situations and why did, why did it happen? And as Georgia Tech could have blown up there at the end with the, with the, with the uh snap and then they come back and have two really good plays and the kicker goes in and wins the game. So, yeah, there's some situations that we saw that we used with the team. Um I was gonna ask you about Pine Bluff, what you know about schemes, anything and I think they named Hagen's number nine. Yeah, they did. So just many thoughts that you have on, well, quickly on uh on their, them offensively and we've got to stop the stretch play. The quarterback is athletic so he can throw and pass. They, they have a, a white, they'll have a lot of guys coming back. I love, I like their left tackle. He's, they have a center and the left tackle, their left tackle, Christian love. He's a good player. And, uh, um, and so I like that schematically. They're gonna throw the bubble. Um, they're gonna run their quarterback. I, I expect some, um some RPO type situations out of them. Um They've got good team speed and, uh we've got to, like I say, we've got to stop the, the bubble screen and we got to stop the stretch and that's what they did. I thought very well last year defensively. Um haven't seen a lot of pressure out of them now, um whether they change or not, they, you know, obviously the, the, we, I'm talking about Grambling, what, what their coordinator did at Grambling, their offensive coordinator last year, that's what he did. Um Defensively, they have the same coordinator back and, and, you know, they base out of a four man line, a field under G um not a ton of movement. I expect to see more movement, uh not a ton of blitzing. Um I expect to see more of that. So we are, we are taking what we saw from them last year and, and amping it up, you know, instead of we, we're very rarely running anything against the base front because we're expecting some type of movement, uh, zone team. Not a lot of man co, uh, out of them. And, uh, uh, but we're very, very well coached and, uh, and they play extremely hard. You've got the rare triple or at one of the cornerbacks, the single. Terry Cody and Kon Stewart. Are they all guys or you looking for a guy? No, I think they're all really good players. Um, part of that again, uh when Cal makes me do this, you know, um, it's because we're, we're beat up a little bit, you know. So I'm going well, when are they coming back, all this stuff? Um, but, uh, single, single, single terror has been, he, he's had a little hamstring, you know, that set him back a little bit and, and stu's been beat up just a little bit as well. But I think all three of those guys are healthy and I really like what cut he's done, what he's done. And so, um, we'll see if we get through healthy. Um, um, the next two days I expect for cutie to be, be the guy there. Just a quick question about media access. I think you were wide open in spring. I think Kyle said that your camp training camp was maybe as open as anybody. An end season is gonna be no access. I just wonder, have you evolved on your thoughts on what led you to, to this point. Well, guys, it's a really critical year for us. I mean, it is, it's a big year for us and I just wanted to keep as much as we could everything in house. Uh, a lot of times in all honesty, a lot of times from our observing practice, there's some information that I don't want out that gets out. Uh, and it's just a big year and, and that's no negative towards anybody. It's just human nature. So, and so's not starting today, you know, they move this guy to this and, you know, I'm not saying you can't find that out anyway because we can call people, right? But, uh, i it's a big year for us and, uh, we just want to keep everything in house as much as we possibly could. Now, we all understand that you have a job to do and that media is part of our family and sometimes we like it, sometimes we don't, but you are a part of hog and a part of our family. We understand that too. So we're trying to find as, as good of a, uh, of a togetherness as we possibly can possibly can have. And to be honest with you, I'd like to see where, where it goes and then we'll decide in the future, but we do not wanna shut you out of what's going on. There was just too many things I felt like going on that people knew about our program that, that, uh, I, I didn't necessarily want them to and we, we didn't hear a lot about Jordan Anthony and camp. Right. Maybe we just didn't ask that much about him, but he's on the depth chart. We know he's got, you know, super duper speed. Uh What kind of camp did he have? And what he expected from him is he totally over that, that toll really good camp. I think Jordan's probably moved his way. He's definitely too deep, but that's so, that'd be six, right? I think he's six or higher and moving up, uh, really, uh, the toe the track, you know, might have, I don't wanna say set him back cause we knew when he came here he was gonna be a track athlete and a, and a football player. But, uh, he seemed to, as his health got better, he seemed to just keep on increasing. I, I think you, I think you'll really like him on, on, on Thursday night. II, I feel like he'll, he'll do a good job for us, I guess just a quick one tactically on the rules, I guess the first week we've seen the two minute war in action here in college, more stuff to worry about. Just your, just your thoughts on how that might affect, you know, play calling and things like that. I think this depends on, you know, are you ahead, are you behind, how much are you behind, you know? Whether you're gonna try to use that, you know, if you're two scores now you're probably gonna try to use, add another one before, you know, the, the two minute warning you try to just depends on down the distance, a lot of stuff. Uh, uh, but for the most part after doing studies on it, um, you know, you're gonna let the two minute warning be the two minute warning. Again, there's certain situations where you could possibly steal a time out. And, uh, that's what we, we would do. But, um, that rule and then, you know, you get your 22 stride rule before you can hit the quarterback. Um, so we've been working on that as well, but that's really, to me the only two that kind of stick out, tell me.