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Finally Beating Aggies: Sam Pittman Gives Credit to Barry Odom's Defense

Arkansas' 20-10 win over Texas A&M was due (once again) to a stifling defensive game plan that got a rush with three linemen.
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Chalk one up for the defense Saturday.

Defensive coordinator Barry Odom has finally gotten the players to stifle opposing offenses every week and the 20-10 win over Texas A&M for the first win in the Southwest Classic in nearly a decade was another example.

"Barry does a good job of making them guess what the heck we are going to do every week," Sam Pittman said later. "I really loved what we were trying to get accomplished in our three-down line this week with our ends.

"This one here was a nose with two five techniques. Before, it was a shade, a three, a five. Then it was a pair of four eyes, a nose. Then it was a pair of three's and a nose. This week we decided we needed to get rushes with our ends, so we needed to put them a little bit wider."

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All of that is a lot of football talk that simply meant they put 6-6, 320-pound John Ridgeway over a freshman center and he pushed him 3-4 yards backwards so often it completely disrupted A&M's offense.

"The game plan worked," Pittman said. "We needed to get a rush with a three-man line. Tre Williams and John Ridgeway and those guys and Markell Utsey and a bunch of guys got to the quarterback. Our toughness showed tonight."

Now Odom's got to do it again.

No. 2 Georgia is next, on the road in what will be the first hostile environment the Hogs have faced this year.

Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. and will be televised on ESPN.


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