Nothing ‘Little’ in Red Zone: Sam Pittman Wants Touchdowns, Not Field Goals
Sam Pittman was glad to see freshman kicker Cam Little get four field goals against Texas but he would rather see touchdowns.
Arkansas squandered a couple of golden opportunities deep that would have blown the game open earlier, but the offense kept shooting itself in the foot.
"We've got to get that cleaned up," Pittman said earlier this week. "When we go out and play an SEC team, we have to get those seven points any time we have an opportunity."
Never mind the interesting part of that between the lines was an interesting slip that could be perceived as saying the Longhorns weren't SEC caliber.
That probably wasn't his intention. What bothers Pittman is the offensive mistakes.
"I've got it sitting right here in front of me," he said Wednesday afternoon when asked about the problems in the Red Zone, referring to some papers. "Most of it all was just missed blocking assignments. It could be the wideouts, it could be the o-line."
Mainly some confusion in who to block for the wide receivers.
"We're having a little bit of trouble figuring out who's first for us (to block) outside," Pittman said.
It almost got tight end Blake Kerns de-capitated on some tight end patterns in the flat.
"If we called it again and I was Kerns, I'd look over there and said, 'nawww, I'm not running it,'" Pittman said. "My lord. He was getting smoked over there."
He knows that's one thing to fix and said Wednesday it had been handled.
The main thing, though, he wants touchdowns when they get chances deep in the other team's end of the field.
Don't think for a second, though, he doesn't like the kicker he's got. Little, the rare early enrollee as a kicker, completely changed the results he was having in the spring.
"Ya'll were at the spring game," Pittman said. "He's come a long ways since then. He's as confident as you can be and I'm as confident as you can be in him."
Through two games Little has turned field goals into something routine.
"I never think about anything except get the kickoff team ready," Pittman said. "He's making 'em in practice and making 'em in the games. I've been really proud of him."
The smaller Little does have his coach shaking his head, though, and making golf comparisons.
"It's amazing how strong of a leg he has and not a very big dude," Pittman said. "It's like me and a golf swing. I don't want to play with a small guy that's out-driving me 100 yards. It's not any fun."
Little's consistency is one less thing to worry about, which against Texas was blowing chances for touchdowns.
"I knew the answer, but I asked them to do a study of the four drives that we kicked field goals on," Pittman said, "and every one of them ended up on mental assignments."
Those are usually easier to fix for coaches.
Which is what games against teams like Georgia Southern are for.
