Enough Was Enough: Sam Pittman Wasn't Going to Pile Up Points on UAPB

Resting starters, going basic on offense in second half was probably plan all along against Golden Lions

Author:
allHOGS Staff
Publish date:
Oct 23, 2021 7:36 PM EDT

Sam Pittman got what he wanted in a 45-3 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday.

Arkansas was never really going to have a problem winning and Pittman was never going to run up the score on Doc Gamble's struggling Golden Lions.

There was no advantage in doing that, but the fans don't want to hear that.

"Our goal at halftime was to play all 2's and 3's and win the second half," Pittman said. "We didn’t do it. We couldn’t move the football with our 2's, and that was our 2's."

Fumbles and penalties. It probably wasn't going to be a lot of passing. Malik Hornsby played the entire second half and there were only five passes total (just one in the fourth quarter).

Whether fans like it or not isn't relevant. In the first game against an in-state college since 1944, Pittman wasn't going to just pile it on.

That never would have worked politically.

Besides, what Pittman was more interested in was getting some of his backups on tape.

“Those are guys that are capable of playing winning football," he said later. "We put two fumbles on the ground and it just wasn’t a very good showing for the offense. Now, the defense, I think they did really well."

Pittman got his teachable moments from the second half. He wanted that more than piling up a few more touchdowns to pad a score that really didn't matter.

Besides, he'd already gotten a bonus when Nathan Parodi brought a punt back 80 yards for a score.

That was the first one of those Hog fans have seen since Joe Adams returned a punt 51 yards against Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl after the 2011 season.

"We did a nice job blocking," Pittman said. "The guys turned around and got out in front of him and Parodi made a guy miss and got down the sideline and out-ran everybody.

"It was really well executed."

The punt return touchdown also energized the entire team.

"The whole team was excited as I’ve seen them in a long time when Parodi scored," Pittman said. "It was real neat."

Probably a whole lot neater than running up the score on UAPB.