Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Hogs not wanting end to ’20 season
FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas football team capped its debut season under Coach Sam Pittman with a 3-7 record after Saturday’s 52-3 loss to No. 1 Alabama and will now point toward the upcoming sequence of events.
The Razorbacks face final exams during the coming week, the early national Signing Day on Wednesday and bowl practices for the first time in four years.
Pittman has been advocating for several weeks that the Razorbacks’ three SEC wins in a normal season would equate to at least six wins and bowl eligibility. The NCAA waived its standard bowl eligibility requirements in 2020 due to covid-19 issues.
He reiterated that stance Saturday, particularly in light of the game against Alabama being the only one in which the Razorbacks were out of contention relatively early.
“I know our record is 3-7, but in the regular season you win three conference games most of the time you get an opportunity to go to a bowl game and I want to,” Pittman said on the Razorback Sports Network postgame show.
“I want to get the practice that we can get out of it. And I don’t want the kids to really end the season on this note
because we’ve been in every game we’ve played except for today.”
The Razorbacks have lost out on the NCAA allowed 15 practices between the end of the regular season and a bowl game since the 2017 season.
“I want to [ play in a bowl] because I want to practice with this team,” Pittman said. “I want to have a few days with the younger kids. Teams that don’t go to bowl games lose a spring ball on everybody that does. And obviously if we don’t think practice is important we wouldn’t want to go to a bowl game, but we do and we want to.”
Boston College and Pitt have already opted out of playing postseason games, citing the long, quarantinelike conditions their rosters endured through late summer and all of fall to get in a season.
The Razorbacks available on Saturday’s postgame video conferences sounded eager to go bowling, which Arkansas has not done since a 35-24 loss to Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl to cap the 2016 season.
“Of course we’re excited for a bowl game,” junior receiver Mike Woods said. “Not too many guys in that locker room have gone to a bowl game, so we’re just excited for the next step. We’ve just got to go back to work and get ready for that game.”
Junior linebacker Bumper Pool said he had a conversation about the possibility of a postseason with strength and conditioning coach Jamil Walker.
“He was like, ‘ We can continue to build using these practices,” instead of having that time off,” Pool said. “It’s huge for our growing program. We love playing football here.
“If we get another opportunity to play, we want to play, and I think Coach Pittman has kind of put that in our minds. His leadership is the reason that the culture is changing. It’s all credit to him.”
Freshman safety Jalen Catalon said a bowl game would be “a great experience, especially for the seniors who’ve been through so much in their years here. For them to end their senior year going to a bowl game, and competing in one, and winning one would be a great way to cap off everything for sure. Coach Pittman stressed to us that we got a bowl game because he says we deserve it.”
Most analysts and industry insiders believe the Razorbacks would be targeted for a bowl close to the Arkansas campus, with the Liberty Bowl in Memphis and the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth being the most ideal destinations to fit that bill.
Both of those bowl games are scheduled for Dec. 31, as is the Texas Bowl at NRG Stadium in Houston.
Arkansas has been linked to all three of those games, as well as the Music City Bowl in Nashville, scheduled for Dec. 30, and the Gator Bowl, slated for Jan. 2.