Arkansas HC Sam Pittman Details Game Plan for Alabama Football
During his weekly appearance on the SEC Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday morning, Arkansas head football coach Sam Pittman was not short on compliments for this weekend's opponent, Alabama.
Pittman started off his time on the call by speaking highly of the Crimson Tide in his opening statement.
“We’re really excited to play the University of Alabama,” Pittman said. “Wonderful team and to get them at home, it’ll be exciting for our fans and for our university to get a great program like that on campus. We have the ultimate respect. They have a lot of fine players — two of the finest on both sides of the ball in the country — and we have a huge, huge challenge but we’ve had a good week at practice and excited for the opportunity.”
Arkansas enters this weekends game coming off of a heartbreaking 23-21 loss at the hands of Texas A&M at neutral-set Dallas. Prior to the loss, the Razorbacks boasted a perfect 3-0 record, with the game against Alabama potentially giving the team a chance to take first place in the SEC West Division.
The loss set the program back, though, and now Arkansas is looking up at Alabama in the standings rather than over at them.
Last season saw Pittman and the Razorbacks play the Crimson Tide in Bryant-Denny Stadium in a game that is much closer than many fans remember it. Alabama ultimately defeated Arkansas by a close 42-35, but the tight game turned many heads in Pittman's direction and put the Razorbacks in the spotlight as an up-and-coming team to look out for in 2022.
This year, Arkansas was living up to every bit of those expectations until the loss against Texas A&M, but this weekend's game against Alabama provides the team with the opportunity to get back on track.
When it comes to a game plan, Pittman said this year's isn't too different than those he's assembled in prior seasons for multiple teams in preparation for the Crimson Tide.
“The game plan, you can look at it as very similar to each and every year as long as Coach [Nick] Saban has been the head coach at Alabama,” Pittman said. “Because they’re going to be very similar to what we had at Georgia because Kirby [Smart] was there, Dan Lanning at Oregon — all these different people that’s gone through Coach Saban’s tree. It’s the players, so what you try to do going into the game is you find — of course, they have several of ‘em. I think [Henry] To’oTo’o is playing his best ball I’ve ever seen him play."
However, just because it's a similar game plan doesn't mean that it's any less difficult. Pittman continued, speaking highly of the athletes that Saban has on his Crimson Tide team.
"You go in there and you go ‘OK, who do they have that can ruin our game plan?’" Pittman said. "And they have several guys. Obviously you mentioned Will [Anderson] and I think To’oTo’o is one of those guys, Byron Young — I mean, they have a lot of guys — [Jaylen] Moody, [DeMarcco] Hellams, [Jordan] Battle — they’ve got a lot of guys that can ruin your game plan.
"So you just through that and you have a base game plan and then you’d better have an answer for their freak-ish type athletes and players. They’ve got so many of them it’s hard to do, but certainly you try to eliminate the guys that can change the outcome of the game."
Alabama is currently a 17.5-point favorite to beat Arkansas at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, according to SI Sportsbook. While the line opened at 15.5, it has slowly but surely grown as confidence in the Razorbacks has gone down in the days since the loss to the Aggies.
Pittman believes that his game plan on paper could prove those betting odds wrong, but only if his players are able to execute it well by eliminating the threats that Alabama poses on defense.
Unfortunately for the Razorbacks, that's easier said than done.
"So we know where they’re going to line up, [but] just like everybody who plays them the problem is blocking them and running past them," Pittman said. "So we have our specifics for that, but other than that, they’ve been the same type defense for years, it’s just the players have been different.”
