A classic scene in the iconic ’90s movie Tommy Boy features Chris Farley, at his wits’ end after failing to close yet another in a series of sales he needs to keep his company afloat, having a meltdown in a prospective client’s office. All he needed to do was to remember a line he’d practiced beforehand, but of course he jumbled it up, and, well, just watch:
Hog fans, can you relate? I can relate.
Arkansas’ game against Oklahoma State had been circled on the schedule. Even if not by the coaching staff, then certainly by Razorback fans. Once Hunter Yurachek made it clear that Sam Pittman would not be fired following the end of Arkansas’ disastrous 2023 season, a quick look at the 2024 schedule made the importance of the Stillwater game obvious. It would be the first test to see if the Hogs had made the improvements necessary to restore excitement in the fanbase and for Pittman to keep his job.
Arkansas lost. It didn’t just lose, it lost in what has come to feel like classic Hog fashion. Not because it was out-talented or out-coached or out-resourced. Arkansas dominated many phases of the game. The Razorbacks lost because of a maddening self-inflicted series of unfortunate events, the kind of bizarre confluence of chance happenings that would fit right at home at jaxon.gg.
Hogs gonna Hog, as they say.
Frustrations in Arkansas vs Oklahoma State
Despite all the advances in football strategy and analytics that have led to amazing sophistication in modern offenses (and the Razorbacks’ 600-plus yards), one traditional football maxim still holds true: take care of the football. Arkansas didn’t, and some of it was completely unforced. A fumble on a toss to a running back. A muffed punt. Snaps that landed on the ground and killed drives. A pick-six. Two missed field goals. And there were two near-fumbles that had to be reviewed. Oklahoma State made several mistakes of its own, but those weren’t as costly. The Cowboys’ only turnover was an arm-punt that, while a great play by Jaheim Singletary to prematurely end the Cowboy possession, didn’t lead to any Hog points.
Yes, the Hogs showed improvement from last year. As the announcers on television made sure everyone knew, Oklahoma State has hopes to make the playoff this year and believe they have a Heisman candidate in Ollie Gordon II, but they didn’t look like anything special against Arkansas. The Cowboys trailed until about five minutes left in the game and needed double overtime at home to win. Gordon was held to 2.9 yards per carry and was outgained by both Taylen Green and Ja’Quinden Jackson. In many ways, Arkansas looked like the better team.
But still, the Hogs lost the game. After nine months of hiring new assistant coaches, overhauling the roster and planning for this specific game, they came up short. Fans, many of whom wanted Pittman gone in the middle of last season, are now asked to recognize the team’s improvement despite the loss and keep the faith for the rest of this season. They will be asked to continue donating to NIL and the Razorback Foundation, buying tickets and merchandise, and devoting 10 of the next 12 Saturdays to Arkansas football.
Looking Ahead to Rest of 2024
It remains to be seen how much goodwill the team’s evident improvement will generate. There is plenty of pork on the bone upon which optimists can gnaw. But is improvement enough if it doesn’t lead to victories? Not for long. Maybe not at all. Pittman needs wins, but the good news for him is he still has his opportunities to get them.
The Razorbacks will be favored to beat UAB next week and then go back on the road to Auburn (which lost at home to Cal on Saturday) and then to Arlington against Texas A&M (which lost at home to a Notre Dame team that lost in South Bend to Northern Illinois). Everyone knows the Hogs have been snakebit in Arlington against the Aggies, but remember, Arkansas is undefeated at JerryWorld with Bobby Petrino on the Razorback sideline.
Last year, it felt like the team basically quit late in the season as it suffered multiple blowout losses. This team is facing its first bit of adversity, but if they can continue fighting and build on the many positives they displayed in Stillwater, it feels like wins should come soon. If they do, the program can get back on track.
However, “should” is a silly concept in college football. The reason Pittman has found himself in the position of fighting for his job is that his teams too often haven’t done what they should have done. Any Razorback fan can quickly come up with his or her own list of most frustrating woulda/shoulda/coulda Saturdays. Most people didn’t come into this game thinking Arkansas should win, but by the time the Razorbacks were up 21-7 and looking like they were rolling, a lot of people were probably thinking they could and should and would win. If it weren’t for the sloppy play, they almost definitely would have.
It can be easy to dismiss some of the mistakes as flukes. It seems like they should be things the team can clean up through practice and film. Hopefully, they will. The difference between losing teams and good and championship teams is not always about how fast the players are or how strong they are. Sometimes, it’s simply about the discipline to avoid making the types of mistakes Arkansas made against the Cowboys. Football is a very complex game in many ways, but in some, it’s not.
The State of Arkansas Football
Throughout the offseason, much was made of Taylen Green’s leadership abilities as a key difference for this year’s team compared to last year. Now that the team finds itself with its first wound of the season, it’s time to find out how much Green or the coaches can keep the team’s spirits lifted enough to rebound. Last year, Pittman said before the season, “The culture is really good right now and it’s going to stay that way. I think we’ll like what we see.”
Well, it didn’t and we didn’t. We’ll find out soon enough if it’s different this year.
It might be. The offensive coaching staff was overhauled after last year. The way the roster comes together in the NIL/transfer portal era differs a lot from what used to happen each offseason. This is a new team with new habits and hopefully a new mindset. They’ll need it to pull themselves together after the disappointment in Stillwater. There’s nothing coaches can do during the offseason to replicate this feeling, so despite what they may say about knowing the character of the team, and Pittman’s confidence in it, we’re all truly going to find out together.
“I think we’re going to roll up our sleeves on Monday and learn from the mistakes that we made, learn from the good things that we did today,” Pittman said afterward. “We’ve got to flush it. We had to flush last week. Gotta flush it and head toward the next one. I think they will, to be honest with you.”
Just as fans have reason to be optimistic toward the rest of the season, those who are ready to move on from the Pittman Era are similarly justified. It can be extremely difficult to bring fans back into the fold once they feel like they’ve seen enough. That doesn’t mean Pittman won’t have the opportunity. He’s still the coach and has winnable games coming up. Nick Saban isn’t on the schedule anymore. Georgia isn’t on the schedule. There are plenty of tough games, and it won’t be easy, but he’ll have his chances.
Arkansas looked like a much better team against Oklahoma State than it was in 2023, and while that’s good, just looking better won’t get him very far. He’ll need wins to get off the hot seat. If Pittman can’t win to generate excitement among the fans pretty quickly, it’ll be up to Yurachek to do it.
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Patrick Kutas, the Hogs’ starting projected left guard, has had a tough go of it in recent weeks. The junior from Memphis has been dealing with a back injury since the second day of fall camp, missing two full weeks of practice before returning in a limited fashion.
It’s unclear how much Kutas has been able to participate since then because practices have been completely closed to the media, but Pittman did say he would have an MRI the Friday following the opener against UAPB.
Although he confirmed the MRI happened, Pittman declined to reveal any further details last week. That was a red flag to Dr. Kirk Reynolds, an orthopedic surgeon at OrthoArkansas who specializes in sports medicine.
More here:
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