S3:E3 - Arkansas vs Oklahoma State Preview

[Music] welcome to the believe in okay State podcast along with Nathan Gill slider I'm Justin southwell Nate before we dive into this matchup preview got to talk about how Arkansas got to where they are today today Arkansas is led by head coach Sam Pittman who was born in eleno Oklahoma he has a record of 24 and 25 over the past four years and that includes the game last week his coaching career dates back to 1984 most recently before he took the head coach job at Arkansas he was the assistant coach and offensive line coach at Georgia he has won both bowl games most recently being in 2022 against the Kansas Jayhawks the 2023 season was a bit of a disappointment where they were 4 and8 looks like five of those losses were one score games losing to BYU 12th ranked LSU ninth ranked Old Miss fifth ranked Alabama and Mississippi State recruiting has been solid according to 247 Sports 2024 ranked 28th overall 202 23 27th overall 2022 22nd overall 2021 28th overall so stacking up against Oklahoma State maybe a little bit better in recruiting and we'll see how that plays out on Saturday one big difference from last year to this year is the hiring of offensive coordinator and quarterback coach Bobby patrino last week Arkansas became the first FBS team in the last 20 Seasons to open the year with 10 touchdowns on its first 10 drives regardless of your opinion of Arkansas Pine Bluff that is pretty dang good it's all you can ask from your offense Nate just right out of the gate what do you think about Arkansas so far from what you've seen yeah I mean that's really hard to take anything away from that matchup when you see the just the jimmies and Joe's right like that is that's about as a big a discrepancy as you're going to get between athletes at the FBS level but to their credit like you said you score 10 times on 10 possessions you put it in the end zone I mean sometimes te some teams will struggle to do that on air so got to give them props for that you know obviously Halen green the quarterback stands out immediately right you give a guy a kid like that is that athletic that amount of time with zero pressure he runs like a deer I mean the kid can really really run really run yeah and I mean he can really spin it too accuracy's not his Forte but he can he can fling it I mean the kid's a fantastic athlete you know LED Boise State last year to their conference title he's he's very very good so he's obviously the guy that pops off the page right away when you look at that team in that matchup and honestly I think that's why Arkansas is so excited right you get Bobby patrino back who they loved until he got in a little motorcycle accident with somebody the back that shouldn't have been there his career goes a little different but the respect for him as a football coach has never waned but obviously the first thing that jumps off I didn't I'm gonna be honest I didn't watch a ton of it because it's kind of pointless but tailing green definitely jumped right away definitely and we'll look at some of their returning production here I've got listed a couple of receivers wide receiver number two Andrew Armstrong actually had a history teacher back Junior High who was named Andrew Armstrong and he's an Oklahoma State fan so I wonder if he knows about this we gotta put out a cease and assist maybe he's cashing in on some of his nil checks I don't know so wide receiver number two Andrew Armstrong led the team in receiving with 56 receptions for 764 yards and five touchdowns wide receiver number four Isaac Tesla started all 12 games in his first season at Arkansas catching 34 passes for 351 yards and two touchdowns he led the team with eight contested catches according to Pro Football Focus and finished second on the squad in receptions and yards so Nathan they have some Speedy receivers as you'd expect in the SEC but we've got some DBS to match that Cory black rumored to be the fastest guy on the team so he's not going to get beat by any quote unquote SEC speed right this group is really solid for Arkansas they bring some guys back they're going to have athletes on the outside right in that conference that's what you expect to see it's not something that overly concerns me from a matchup standpoint from our guys versus their guys some of the things that we got beat on last week obviously they're going to try to scheme up and put into the same in some of the same uh Concepts but in my opinion A lot of that was not due to our DBS being slow or Bust it was some of it was by alignment some of it was by what we called defensively for what they called offensively they got us in a couple spots so this is this is a solid group for Arkansas probably an underrated group from an SEC standpoint just because they're used to having you know first round draft picks all over the place there at wide receiver but it's not a focal point of their offense at this point I pulled up a tweet from Adam Lunt he said impressive that Brian Nardo found how to line up 40 different ways pre- snap to run identical cover one Robber every play you know you can kind of get by with that in week one against an FCS opponent I think he's probably gonna mix it up a little bit disguise some coverages and looks and things like that against Arkansas against these receivers so that's thing to maybe keep an eye out for no doubt about it we definitely probably had to uncover a little bit more than we wanted to for a week one opponent but they from both sides of the ball after going back and looking at it some there's definitely a lot left to your point like Adam like Adam said right tried to show a ton stayed very simple is what it is and they're not going to be able to do that and they certainly will not do that this week just building up the confidence even more all right a couple more guys on the returning production that I've got as far as who to maybe keep an eye out for tight end number nine Luke has I hope I'm pronouncing that right from Bixby Oklahoma he had three catches for 42 yards against Arkansas Pine Bluff he caught 16 passes for 253 yards and three touchdowns over five games before a broken collarbone cut his season short so again another team with some good tight end play and you know while it wasn't necessarily the tight ends of pass that we saw maybe against South Dakota State we were maybe prepared for it looked like we shut down their tight ends for the most part maybe we can do it again here and then uh yeah as far as defense goes I think everybody knows this guy in case you don't projected first round NFL draft pick and defensive end number 40 Landon Jackson who's listed at 67 280 lbs he is on uh a few less nersi benar Lombardi he's on everybody's radar last season he recorded 13 and a half tackles for loss while also recording six and a half sacks so Nathan how do you think our offensive line again all five starters or red shirt seniors that experience how do you think they handle their business against a guy like Landon Jackson with all the potential upside of the NFL heading his way yeah this is a matchup those guys are have definitely circled right you go into these you see all the preseason talk the guy had a fantastic season last year by all the physical metrics absolute monster there's not very many of those guys walking around planet Earth at 6 foot7 280 pounds so he's a definite game wrecker so this is somebody that you are going to scheme into how you run plays how you slide what you're going to do I think we match up fairly well that is the strength of their team on defense is that defensive line they've got some big boys in the middle and they have him on the outside who's fantastic at pass rushing really getting pressure by himself not needing help to twist or stunt so one of the things that I kind of am anxious to see how the Arkansas defensive coordinator goes about trying to stop Oly is he kind of going to feel it out and Trust his defensive line and see if they can do it without extra help or is he GNA go all out and then single coverage on the outside and make Bowman spread them back out you know those are the kind of cat and mouse games that we see going to these games but there's no doubt about it they're gonna let Landon Jackson eat as the young kids like to say but he's gonna get after it and when you get these challenges as an athlete these are the ones if these guy everybody everybody on that field has the drive and the desire to go play on Sundays you don't get many chances to line up across somebody that's going to be a first- round draft pick if you're trying to put film out there that says you deserve to play on Sundays this is your opportunity those kids know that the coaches have told them so they're amped up for this opportunity there's no doubt about it coaches have definitely told him Coach Gundy was talking about it in his weekly press conference these guys average size compared to what we saw last week I think was like 30 35 pounds on average more and you're hearing it again whenever offensive linemen are getting interviewed by you know OSU Max pistols firing whatever the case is they're very aware of that and I think that they know like to your point this is our chance to prove our worth yeah and even from a schematic standpoint when you have guys that big and that powerful you tend to probably try to do a little bit less you know when we played South Dakota State they are such a unit they work together so unbelievably well I don't think quite honestly I don't think Oklahoma State's goingon to see a more sound defensive unit the rest of the season they work I mean it it it was truly impressive but they did a lot of things when you go back and look at it and I listen to some you know the feels like 45 pod does a fantastic job about breaking down what you're seeing yeah and one of the things that they noted and and when you go back and watch is anytime we did our pull counter that we do a lot with Oly as soon as we started pulling that defensive end would essentially jump back and then just Sprint over to the pole side which is why the second levels were so congested I don't think Arkansas is going to be doing that because they're going to say I don't we don't have to LEAP out and go beat you to the spot we're going to sit here and anchor down and make you push us out of the way quite honestly it's going to be a completely different issue for the offensive line because I think Arkansas is going to lean heavily on this defensive line to do what they think is the strength of their team also on that feels like 45 pod they were able to break down what the Zone blocking plays were versus The Gap rushing plays on their scheme on blocking and I don't remember the exact statistics that they put out there but essentially it was when they ran the Gap scheme they ran a lot better so I got to think that they're probably gonna be doing that against Arkansas that's probably fair but again it's kind of hard to take away you know I think the average weight on the defensive line for South Dakota State I think was like 270 275 that's just not it sounds like a big human being to us but when you're talking about in football terms of controlling the middle of the field that's not very big it's more agile it's more staying there being able to move and those type of things so I'm very interested to see the difference in what we do from a run game perspective against Arkansas because we're not going to give up on the Run game that's who we are that's what we do we've got oie we're going to find ways to make that work and it's either we're going to have to force Arkansas to give us single coverage on the outside or ar I just going to sit there and say beat us good luck so we mentioned the quarterback earlier let's dive a little bit to these newcomers for Arkansas again again number 10 quarterback tailon green that transfer from Boise State another dual threat guy maybe not as similar to Mark rowski probably a better Runner probably a not as good of a thrower I would guess uh just from what I've seen and then versus AP Buu last week he went 16 for 23 229 yards and two touchdowns like we talked about earlier what do we know from that nothing nothing right and he just looked he looked athletic on his runs that's that's probably that's it right and so we heard some of the guys kind of talk about it and I wouldn't imagine that it's not going to be all that different from a schematic standpoint of always having one to account for the running back whether that's Nick Martin Trey Rucker Colin Oliver Kendall Daniels it's going to be some semblance of one of those guys on every play that their job is going to be to make sure that he does not get outside right and so that makes it difficult from a standpoint you always have to account for the running quarterback but Bobby patrino is going to do Zone read he's going to do QB power he's going to do uh probably some option he's going to do all kinds of things because that is his most gifted asset and that's where they're going to do their most damage is if they can get him loose and get us to get out and have to account for him more often one thing I was kind of wondering going into this game is when you have a running quarterback like that you have to be very limited and when you run your man coverage on the back end because if you're in man coverage none of those guys are able to look in and peek at the quarterback and they turn their back completely you know open up one side of the field he takes off if he's able to get outside and there's 40 yards before you know it so it kind of limits a little bit on what you can do from that standpoint but they did a Fant fantastic job on granowski last week who is by far a better Runner statistically speaking he not as gifted from a speed standpoint but you know definitely has a better feel for it and is more used to running between the tackles so I'm I'm really interested to see this is something that coach patrino quite literally has brought into Arkansas to do is to create quarterbacks and to utilize their skills which is something he's done at every stop he's ever been to but you're looking at but when you have a quarterback like ton green you are focused on stopping the run and making him beat you with your arms he can make every throw he can also throw it to the other team I believe I believe he finished last year with 57% completion percentage at Boise State that in today's football that's not great you you need to get well over 60 in order to be a very efficient uh quarterback at this level and you know he's got some turnover Tendencies obviously he's a year older so you would imagine some of that would come down but you got to make him prove it especially throwing the football and Oklahoma state knows that no doubt about it yeah we kind of mentioned with the defensive scheme maybe spying a little bit on granowski last week I think Nick Martin did a great job running sideline to sideline Trey Rucker again 15 tackles do you have any pause for concern on just the fact that he made so many tackles and that that wasn't maybe as evenly spread across our defense that doesn't necessarily concern me as much because if you're if you're that guy you continue to put yourself in that position and you make the plays I'm fine with it what concerned me a little bit was the D Line's inability to eat up double teams against an FCS team and not getting clean lanes for our linebackers to fire through and go make those plays a lot of times it was they were getting hammered getting off and still making the tackle which Nick Martin is incredible at that's what concerns me most because this is a you know these boys are going to be a bigger challenge they are newer they had a lot of problems last year on the offensive line with Arkansas but it's a new year it's new coach you know you can't just lean off of last year's what you saw last year at Arkansas because it's a completely different setup and Coach Pitman obviously has a great history of being a fantastic offensive line coach so you know of all coaches he is going to be focused on getting that right yeah I didn't dive too deeply into this I mean you can you can tell from last week to this week having the guest on and being prepared and doing all the research maybe not so much this week with a quick turnaround the holiday in there but from what I remember I think it was they had two offensive linemen that were returning starters and they went to the portal for the other three that's right no that's right I heard that on the radio on the um actually coach pitman's radio show today that I was listening to um and not to say that that's a a bad thing but whenever you're you're new I mean you're just from the portal you're you're trying to figure this stuff out you probably look a lot better against Arkansas Pine Bluff in week one just based off of sheer Talent yeah but whenever you're playing a team like Oklahoma state that has their stuff on their defensive line linebackers maybe gonna look a little bit different yeah absolutely and that's that's incumbent upon coach Nardo and the defense I would imagine a lot of movement from our defense of line and linebackers everybody moving in and out you know one of the things that coach Pitman said um whenever I was listening to him trying to he's given a lot of praise to our offensive line basically saying you got over 200 starts between these guys you can stunt and move all you want it's probably not going to affect them very much because they just know where they're supposed to be they know who's coming but this is not a unit with Arkansas that's been together very long and you need to make them prove that right you need to make them prove that they can take this Blitzer or you know a Twist or a stunt overload one side they have to show you that they can um they can defeat that consistently so I would imagine that coach Nardo and crew will be moving around guys quite a bit back to some of these newcomers that we need to keep an eye on running back number 22 J quendon Jackson you rush for 101 yards and two touchdowns while catching two passes for 20 yards and the season opener against Apu he played in 12 regular season games at Utah with 11 starts leading the Utes in carries with 161 in rushing yards with 797 and rushing touchdowns with four and he also had three 100 yard games in there and you know it's kind of funny Gundy was mentioning on his radio show how OSU was interested in bringing him in but he didn't want to be the backup to olly Gordon it makes sense but it's just funny how it's probably a guy that coaches are doing their research here's a guy that could fit in the cowboy culture and you know they're not just throwing out offers to just anybody this is a guy that was on our radar that we really wanted and he chose Arkansas over Oklahoma State yeah one thing he noted was how hard that he runs in the style that he runs with and obviously like you said coming from a program like Utah which so many similarities between are to programmed so I think they really coveted that about him but you can't blame the kid for wanting a few more touches and clearly he made the right choice he's in at Arkansas and he's you know rb1 so um good for him but you know that Arkansas is going to lean on him right they're going to try to impose their will running the football he's a big part of that so I expect us to see a lot of him on Saturday and we can't forget this guy defensive back number 13 Maris Robinson the South Alabama transfer who's very confident heading into Still Water uh you know he was calling out on what OSU was going to do on offense last year uh maybe a little bit of an indictment there on Casey Dunn but again I think it'll be different this season but here's a guy that's just really really confident and uh love the confidence man maybe rightfully so you do you big dog I'm I'm happy for you you made a great play last year you guys absolutely rocked us no two ways about it but the simplification that Oklahoma State kept going into that game rotating three guys Ole Gordon barely touching the football it's night and day not saying he's not a great player not saying he didn't make a great play uh I'm happy for you you know your your interception against Oklahoma state is your Shining Moment apparently so good for you it means nothing going into this game and Oklahoma state is not even thinking about him from a schematic standpoint of what they need to do I can guarantee you that and the the great thing about it though is I just I think our receivers have something to prove we have some of the best talent in in the Big 12 and a lot of these guys because of that quarterback rotation that we saw last year weren't able to get in a rhythm on the same page with with the quarterback it obviously affected us last year yeah I think I think I think Garett Rangel might have even been sick leading in heading into that game yeah I don't even think he got to play did he or to get his final start and he didn't get the opportunity and I think he did play a little bit but but it wasn't much it was kind of like how much can you expect out of the guy if he's you know throwing up or whatever well in being the the nerd that I am I listened to some of the South Dakota State guys that we spoke with um but earlier in the week kind of I just want to see what they were thinking about Oklahoma State and how they thought about the team and one of the things that every single person that talked about was we did not know about number one well nobody did the guy broke his wrist in the fourth game of the year with a three quarterback Carousel you know what I mean and so the group as a whole people see okay well Presley's kind of undersized and Owens it's like that is you are completely under selling this unit and I know the fans for Arkansas doing it because I've seen it all over Twitter listening to some of the stuff that these insiders are saying this week and it's really irritating and I I'm I'm sure that the players are not listening but my goodness I I cannot wait I I I was you know cautiously optimistic going into this game but man they got they've got me teed up a little bit cuz just some some of this this blatant disrespect for the whole team and the wide receiver room in general is is getting out of control it's getting out of control yeah and if you if you go back if you're brave enough to look at the box score from that South Alabama game stribling's not on there he didn't record anything Brennan Presley three receptions for 11 yards and Rashad Owens one catch for zero yards and jayen Bray a drop on the opening drive that was a wide open TouchDown these are the guys that are some of the best receivers in the Big 12 based on what they were able to do after this game whenever we got Alan Bowman in as the starter and getting into a rhythm and obviously you know stribbling coming back from that injury and how great he looked in the first game against South Dakota State it's a different team I I I get the confidence but at the same time you're you're just playing a completely different Squad yeah and and rightfully so a lot of Arkansas fans are saying the same thing I think they've got close to 50 new players on their roster um when you count transfers and and signings fantastic good for you this is not the same team that your buddy from South Alabama is hyping you up that we're gonna be able to walk in there and smash that's you know what I mean it's just not and I'm confident that the Arkansas coaches know that sure yeah you know but it from a fan perspective for good content exactly from a fan perspective it's it's really irritating but that's that's good good for Content so there you go well we didn't get to this segment last week but we're back for it this week and for every week in the foreseeable future uniform predictions Nathan I'm gonna hand it over to you real quick and I just want to I want to see what you got yeah so I kind of Base this off of what I think Arkansas is going to do so I think Arkansas is probably going to go red red white um red white red so yeah so I I think we're going to throw a little bit of black in there this week so for my uniform prediction I'm GNA go with white orange black white orange black white orange black cursive Cowboys oh okay that would be kind of cool so with that there's two different versions on the white helmet do you want to go with the orange cursive Cowboys or with the black cursive Cowboys I want to go orange orange cursive Cowboys okay so you got options yep with the jersey and pants there yep and the last time we've worn white orange black was against Cincinnati in homecoming last year I can see it being white orange white again just because we're doing strip the stadium fair point I think that the SC RP pokes has been pushed out there a lot I I could absolutely see us wearing that helmet a new helmet for the first time so that was my initial thought and I was I was leaning on that all the way up until about 20 minutes ago where I was thinking you know what lesie O'Neal is being inducted into the Ring of Honor and he wore black orange white and it's really one of our best looking combos and it's not nearly worn enough I would love to see it for this game in his honor old school old school brand now we're not gonna we're not going to see like you know the full Throwbacks like you were back in the day with the the burnt orange jerseys we fully embraced America's brightest orange so because I don't think we see an Old School logo or any you know you know we've already got the Ring of Honor patches on the orange jerseys so I feel like orange jerseys for this name is a lock but yeah what logo to go with that I guess just the brand give us the brand again the orange brand would look great with it honestly a white brand would also look great on a black helmet like lesli O'Neal War so I'll go with the brand black orange white love it we'll see how it goes all right let's go jump over to score predictions so Nathan I was I was looking into this a little bit Arkansas has a 30 15 and one record against the pokes all time the last game we played was in 1980 so I let everybody on Twitter know the revenge tour is back on we gotta avenge that loss from the 1980 season but I also noticed that 36 of those matchups have been played in the state of Arkansas very little Ro Little Rock right yeah I heard Coach Jones talk about that on the radio quite a bit about why that was it's interesting yeah did you did you catch any of that at all I didn't get to hear any of that but it makes sense if you're trying to maybe start a little bit of a well so the thing well correct so the thing was is that we had coach IBA at the time who was also scheduling and uh for not just basketball by the way for All Sports um I believe he's either ad or associate ad at that point and they had Frank br as the football coach and we I wish I would have taken notes but anyways a large majority of our non-conference games were not at home because we had a terrible stadium and we weren't making money and so they could make twice as much money if Arkansas played us to play in Little Rock than if we were to even bring Arkansas here so that's why we did that and then Coach IA said I'll do that in return for your football team if you guys come to Ste water for basketball ah makes sense see even back in the day whenever you think that college football is at its purest with no money involved decisions were being made based off of money absolutely well we've got him in still wat this year so I think that that is a huge advantage that maybe isn't being talked about enough we have that home and home match up with him we'll we'll see him in fav later but yeah the fact that we get him in Still Water this year I think is a big deal I I agree well uh bet online has the red at Oklahoma State minus 7 a half at the time we're recording over under set at 62 and a half points so Nathan what do you got for your score prediction how do you see the game playing out and what's your score prediction yeah so that that line started out at 9: I think on Sunday and it's come down some I'll be interested to see how that jumps up I think the over under started at 59 it's gone up to 62 so I am going to go with OSU 38 to 24 I think it's a one or two possession game going into the fourth and we pull away a little bit force a key turnover able to run it a little bit on them and I I really feel like they are going to force Alan Bowman to make them back up and make our wide receivers beat them in one-on-one situations on the outside so I look for Bowman to have a big day and oie maybe to start a little bit slower but finish strong and have a big touchdown maybe even a big run you know a long one that he hasn't broken a couple games um to seal the deal so I've got it 3824 Oklahoma State as we know oi likes to get stronger as the game goes on so I could see that too well for me last week I felt like we left some off the scoreboard I think we can hit mid-40s again because Olly is itching to have a real Breakout game again this game being SEC vers Big 12 a lot more eyes on this game ABC and our receivers have a shot to silence Mr Robinson out there Corner talent wise maybe we're similar kind of touched on the recruiting aspect of that a little bit but depthwise I think we've got them they're a little bit overconfident from a cupcake win this season is different our guys are on a mission and we can make a huge statement Saturday I'm going to go with 4524 love it I think that usually if it's Naro can keep him 24 and under we're GNA win that game at least that was the case last year and we'll see how he does with these halftime adjustments again we'll see how Bowman can come out see how consistent he can be this year and get started off strong two and0 and the conference and let people know hey quit betting against us I think it's a statement opportunity for both teams you know it's Arkansas's trying to prove that they're changed that they're different they're coming back quite frankly are trying to save coach pitman's job if we're being honest Oklahoma State and all those guys came back for a reason and if you want to be up there with the big boys you've got to be able to knock off these mid-level SEC opponents and that's exactly what Arkansas is right now they midlevel to lower level SEC opponent they have great athletes we have great athletes I love our coaching match up against them and I fully expect us if if this team is who we say they are and who they say they are and believe they are they come out and win this game convincingly and yeah patrino great offensive coordinator no doubt but can they put it together in such a short amount of time against a talented Oklahoma State team they look great against Apu who wouldn't but didn't South Dakota State hang nan0 on them six years ago they did didn't we hang 63 on them two year two or three years ago so because of that I think maybe there's a little bit of overconfidence they'll come back down to earth a little bit I agree well just to recap Game two versus the Arkansas Razorbacks will be Saturday September 7th at 11: a.m. Central Time in Boon picking Stadium it's stripe the stadium week so check out the stadium map to see what color you're wearing because you could be wearing orange you could be wearing white lesli O'Neal will also be officially inducted into the Ring of Honor at Boon picking Stadium our first defensive player to be honored did I mention the game will be on ABC if you're not able to join the pokes in boomp stadium you can check it out on National Television good crew by the way calling this game Dusty dorek I know he's OU but I think he does a fantastic job always great insight and very well researched so I think he's going to do a great job and be a good listen I agree it's hard to give any o you guys props but maybe we can do it if they're gonna detach their bias that's right maybe show the poke some love too so that's it this episode of the believe in OK State podcast is presented by B online please like share and subscribe to show your support we'll see you next time and remember all things are possible for the one who believes oh [Music]