PITTMAN’S SPEECH at halftime works for Razorbacks.

FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman saw some long faces in the locker room at halftime Saturday night, so he saw part of his role as being a psychologist.

The Razorbacks were trailing visiting Tennessee 13-0 at the time, but it wasn’t just the deficit that was disheartening. It was how the game got there.

Tennessee had scored on three of its first four series, had churned out 135 rushing yards on 30 carries and had dominated in time of possession by nearly a 2-to-1 margin at 19:56 to 10:04.

Pittman’s pep talk included the prediction that the Razorbacks would come out and score on their first possession, hold the Volunteers, then score again, and “we’re going to be up before you know it.”

Lo and behold, the Razorbacks did just that, scoring on Mike Woods’ 1-yard slant after a 17-play drive to open the half, holding the Vols with a three and out, then driving 67 yards for Blake Kern’s 6-yard touchdown strike from Feleipe Franks.

Arkansas seized its first lead with 6:35 remaining in the third quarter and never let it go en route to a 24-13 victory.

“I told them the mind is so powerful,” Pittman said. “The mind needs to tell you that we’re going to go win the game and just how we’re going to do it. I didn’t want to see any negative. I didn’t want to see any heads hanging or anything like that because it was only a 13-point game.”

Receiver Mike Woods said the players were not discouraged at halftime.

“Coach Pittman always tells us a problem is only a problem until you fix it,” Woods said. “So we don’t harp on things that happen. We just come in at halftime, we fix the problems, and we just go execute in the second half. So we just came in, fixed the problems and y’all saw what happened in the third quarter.”