UA coach: Plenty to be thankful

FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas held a morning practice on Wednesday and players were free to get to family Thanksgiving plans for around 24 hours before reporting at 10:45 a.m. for travel to Columbia. Mo., for Friday’s 2:30 p.m. game against Missouri.

Arkansas will do a morning walk-through on campus before flying north.

Coach Sam Pittman said the team would have Thanksgiving dinner in the 6 o’clock hour.

At his weekly news conference on Monday, Pittman went through a litany of things he gives thanks for as a nod to the holiday.

“I’m thankful for a lot of things,” he said. “I’m thankful to be the head coach at Arkansas. I’ve been married [to his wife, Jamie] 36 years. I’ve got my health. I don’t look healthy, but I have my health.”

Pittman, who will take an 18-16 record into Friday’s game, said he also has gratitude for the good times and the tough times.

“The state of Arkansas has been really good to me, accepted me, and

I’m thankful for that,” he continued. “Of course I’ve got a group of kids in there that believe in us and are fighting their butts off, and I’m thankful that we fought back.

“A lot of times you see teams at this point in the year, and they don’t. And we fought back. And we’ve got pride, and I’m thankful for my assistant coaches that they help instill that pride in the team and, ‘Let’s go get our respect back.’ Somebody asked me about what to play for? Go get your pride and your respect back. We did in a small way, I felt like, on Saturday. So thanks for the question. I’m thankful for the question.”