Will to win
Hogs still fighting amid losing streak
FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas is staring at a four-game losing streak and a weekend trip to Alabama, where the Razorbacks have lost nine consecutive meetings to the perennial power Crimson Tide.
But fourth-year Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman said the team’s will to win has not been diminished during its current tough stretch.
“When you lose your will to fight you’re just a survivor,” Pittman said at his weekly press conference on Monday. “And how long can you just hang on to the rope instead of fighting?
“I think we’ve got a group of fighters and I think we’ll be fine. Obviously we’ve got Alabama on the road and then we have some home games. But we certainly need to go play well against Alabama and see if we can’t steal a win on the road.”
The Razorbacks (2-4, 0-3 SEC) have lost 16 games in a row in the series against the No. 11 Crimson Tide (5-1, 3-0), which sits atop the SEC West yet again. Arkansas will face an Alabama team that is not in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll for the first time since 2007, though it’s No. 10 in the Coaches Poll.
“Yeah, all the way down there to 11 or 12,” Pittman said when asked about Alabama’s AP ranking. “Oh, they can line up there and play with anybody.”
Arkansas is in the midst of its longest losing spell since Pittman’s first team in 2020 dropped its final four games against Florida, LSU, Missouri and Alabama.
Arkansas has been an underdog each game during its 0-3 start in league play, but it fell as a favorite at home against BYU to kick off the losing skid.
“I think the BYU game really lingers over … and they’re 4-1 and have a good football team,” Pittman said. “I’m not taking anything away from them. But I think that game really is the one. Because if
you look at it, you go play your heart out at LSU, you play a pretty good game against A&M, and then the other night we’re leading in the fourth quarter. But we’re losing. So it’s just different.”
Despite the Razorbacks’ mostly sluggish offensive performances, they have had chances to win in shootout style losses to BYU (38-31) and LSU (34-31) and last week’s defensive grinder at Ole Miss (27-20).
Those narrow losses dropped Arkansas to 5-12 in one-score games under Pittman, a .294 winning percentage and the same kind of confounding tight-game bugaboo record that frustrated the Bret Bielema regime at Arkansas under which Pittman served from 2013-15.
Pittman was asked how the Hogs could turn the tight-game setbacks into wins.
“I think offensively running the ball successfully, whatever that may be,” Pittman said. “What I’m saying is the consistency of first down. We’re just putting ourselves in a hole all the time. We’re not winning first downs.
“We’ve been playing a lot of second-and-10, second-and-12, second-and-13. So I think that would help us with more drives, sustaining some drives.”
Not winning first downs and failing to establish the run has fed into the protection issue problems that have led to 20 sacks of quarterback KJ Jefferson in the last four games.
Pittman suggested late Saturday that Jefferson has probably started feeling the effects of constant pressure, which leads to mental stress as well for the third-year team captain.
“I think he’s pressing too,” Pittman said. “I think everybody could understand if he was. I think he’s pressing. It’s his senior year, a lot of things on his mind. He would be better at answering it than me, but that’s what I believe, that he’s probably pressing.
“He also has … much more on his plate now than he ever has. It’s been, I’m sure, difficult for him. But I do believe that he could really thrive and shine if we just protected him a little bit better.”
Given clean pockets in recent games, Jefferson has been more on target, and he’s still completing 67.1% of his passes, which is only fractionally down from the 67.7% completions of 2021-22 and better than his career rate of 65.8%.
“If you notice in the games, if he does have protection, we’re able to throw and catch well,” Pittman said. “When he doesn’t, not so much. I think that’s with everybody. But I think he wants to be Superman and I think he’s probably pressing a little bit too much right now to make a play.”
Pittman said the issues that are facing the Razorbacks’ marquee players Jefferson and tailback Raheim “Rocket” Sanders, who has been dealing with knee swelling and has rushed for 91 yards and 2.7 yards per carry, reflect on what the team is going through.
“I think it goes back to are you just going to get through it or are you going to fight through it?” Pittman said. “Are you going to survive? Trying to survive, well, a lot of times you’re gonna make it.
“You keep fighting and things of that nature, which I think our team is doing. I know they are. I don’t have any question about that. But those two guys with high expectations coming into the year, the thing they’ve got to remember is you’ve got six, hopefully seven, games left and there’s a lot of work to be done.”
“Rocket is different, because he’s coming off an injury. KJ, I could see that wearing on him a little bit even though he’s had some success. Rocket would be different to me because he’s probably not fully healthy quite yet, but he’s close. They’re mature guys and will fight through it, and we’ll help them.”