Hogs Chose to 'Fight Like Hell' After Losing Six in Row
Arkansas coach Sam Pittman looked like a guy completely drained by six straight losses, but had to rely on somebody else to do something about it, and they did. The Razorbacks had to put in a little overtime to get past a Florida team that refused to go away, 39-36.
"You're either fighting like hell or quitting like hell," Pittman said he told the team. "We talked about last week, two weeks ago, where we just couldn't get anything going offensively. And the defense had a chance to roll over on the offense and they didn't. They had a chance to quit on them, but they didn't. With the special teams, they kind of outplayed us in the first half. We came back in the second half and kept us in the game in the second half."
In the end, this game came down to a match of wills and Hogs quarterback KJ Jefferson decided to impose his on the Gators. He ran for 113 yards and passed for another 255, but in the fourth quarter and overtime, he was just making one read, tucking the ball and taking off. That even included trying to run over some poor defensive back who got in the way.
After Jefferson had basically run the ball to the four in overtime, the approach abruptly changed. Jefferson raised up and hit Tyrone Broden coming across the middle. The Gators may have been expecting a run by Jefferson because they were caught completely flat-footed on the play.
"That was a surreal moment," Pittman said. "We really needed that. Great team effort. We battled the whole game. We fought, we came close as a team. Offensive guys were cheering defensive guys on, talking to them. Defense came down there to us, talking to us, making sure that we were keeping our head on straight and not getting too high or too low. Staying even-keeled. It was a great team effort, and special teams as well."
With six straight losses, the Hogs were reeling. After a 7-3 loss two weekends ago against Mississippi State, Pittman had all he could take of offensive coordinator Dan Enos working on one thing all week in practice and not running it in a game. Wide receivers coach Kenny Guiton took over, calling plays for the first time in his career.
"He's got a swag to him and a charisma to him," Pittman said. "The kids believe in him. A good coach gets his kids to play better than they are. Not as good as they are, better than they are. A lot of coaches have the ability to do that, and some don't. Kenny is one of those guys that has that ability and kids want to play for him. They respect him, so they want to do well. You could feel it all week."
Yet, despite tying the game with 44 seconds left in regulation on a 49-yard Cam Little field (his fourth of the game), somehow Florida almost won it in regulation. Trey Smack's 49-yard field goal attempt was a couple of feet wide to the right, though. It probably never should have even been attempted.
"The field goal, in my opinion, should have never been kicked," Pittman said. "The officials were good and all of that, but they said that the ball was not ever ready for play, therefore, they had to have 18-20 guys on the field."
There were some wild substitutions going on and officials never marked the ball ready for play and stopped the clock was the explanation Pittman had gotten arguing about the whole thing. "Someone was looking out for us," he said about the luck for the Hogs changing.
Especially at Florida. Razorback fans have suffered through some favorable officiating down there, complete with officials getting suspended by the SEC. This time, though, the Hogs managed to get a win at the end.
It was because Jefferson just decided he was sick and tired of the losing and everybody else was willing to fight for a win. Maybe most importantly, though, they stopped the bleeding. Whether it was in time to get a bowl bid is still a tall order fans have seen come up short all too many times. Winning three is asking a lot, especially after watching Missouri give No. 1 Georgia all the Bulldogs could handle.
