Observations from Arkansas 21, Mississippi State 14

It took two games for first-year Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman to accomplish something his predecessor never could in two seasons.

Pittman is the owner of an SEC victory, and with a well-coached team that plays hard, more victories should follow.

With Saturday’s 21-14 victory at Mississippi State, Pittman became the first Arkansas coach since Houston Nutt in 1998 to win his road debut. Others have had golden opportunities since, but failed against teams they should have beaten.

In 2013, Bret Bielema’s Razorbacks led Rutgers 24-7 but allowed three touchdowns in the final 17:14 of a 28-24 loss in Piscataway, N.J. That was the beginning of a long trend of Bielema’s teams blowing double-digit leads.

Chad Morris didn’t have as many chances to give up big leads, but did on a few occasions, beginning with his road debut at Colorado State in 2018. The Razorbacks led 27-9, but allowed the Rams to score 25 straight over the final 17:46, culminating in the game-winning touchdown with eight seconds to play.

With that in mind, it was noted when Arkansas took a 21-7 lead over Mississippi State on its first drive after halftime, and when the Bulldogs pulled within 21-14 with just under 19 minutes to play.

Would Pittman’s Razorbacks — many of whom experienced gut-wrenching losses under both Bielema and Morris — fold late? Or would they learn to win, a trait Pittman said was needed earlier in the week?

It was the latter, of course, although Arkansas gave Mississippi State plenty of chances to tie the game in the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs began drives on the Razorbacks’ 21- and 30-yard lines, and got the ball back with some time remaining after receiver Michael Woods was flagged for a personal foul that stopped the clock when Arkansas was in victory formation.

But the defense coordinated by Barry Odom made play after play. A week after allowing just 4.3 yards per play in a loss to Georgia, the Razorbacks held Mike Leach’s offense to 4.8 yards per play, intercepted three passes, and in the fourth quarter forced two turnovers on downs and recovered a fumble on a special teams miscue.

It was arguably the best defensive performance by an Arkansas team since the Razorbacks held LSU great Leonard Fournette to 91 yards on 19 carries in a 31-14 victory at Death Valley five years ago. That was also the last time the Razorbacks defeated a ranked team on the road.

Pittman was on the sideline that night as the team’s offensive line coach.

There are plenty of reasons to like the look of Arkansas under Pittman’s watch. There are issues that will take time and recruiting to correct — such as an inexperienced, still smallish offensive line — but there is desire in a Razorback uniform that hasn’t been seen in some time.

Arkansas played with the same intensity for four quarters Saturday that it had for 2 ½ quarters of its loss to No. 4 Georgia a week before. It was said then — and bears repeating now — that kind of effort will win games in the SEC.

Other observations:

• Running back Trelon Smith (14 rushes, 48 yards; 5 receptions, 22 yards) and receiver De'Vion Warren (4 receptions, 100 yards, TD) provided needed production after the Razorbacks lost starters Rakeem Boyd and Treylon Burks to injury in the first quarter.

• Boyd and Mississippi State running back Kylin Hill were voted All-SEC in the preseason, but neither played much due to injury. Hill had a monster 234-yard game against Arkansas last season and was coming off a career receiving day last week at LSU when he caught 8 passes for 158 yards and a touchdown.

• Linebackers Bumper Pool and Grant Morgan appear to be thriving in Barry Odom's defense. A week after logging 11 tackles against Georgia, Pool had a career-high 20 stops against Mississippi State. Morgan had 15 despite missing some time with an injury, and has 28 for the season. Pool's total Saturday tied him for 10th most in a game by any Razorback. It was the most by an Arkansas player in an SEC game since Jerry Franklin had 20 stops in an overtime win at Mississippi State in 2010.

• Arkansas unveiled its rebranded white jerseys from the 2005-07 seasons. The last time the Razorbacks wore that look at Starkville, they won 28-14 to clinch the 2006 SEC West championship.

• The Razorbacks' win Saturday was particularly notable because of the way they lost to Mississippi State the past two seasons. The Bulldogs won 52-6 in 2018 and 54-24 last year — a combined 76 points. The only time in recent memory the Razorbacks have come close to pulling off such a turnaround was 2014 when they lost 14-13 to Alabama after consecutive 52-0 losses.

• Because of how well Mississippi State quarterback K.J. Costello played at LSU, his two interceptions and lost fumble there were somewhat overlooked. The graduate transfer might be turnover prone, though, following a three-interception outing against the Razorbacks. He had at least one other pass that could have been intercepted.

• Arkansas' last three SEC victories have come in the state of Mississippi. Prior to Saturday, the last SEC win was in October 2017 at Ole Miss. Before that? The Razorbacks defeated Mississippi State 58-42 in Starkville in November 2016. Arkansas had lost 25 of its last 26 SEC games prior to Saturday.

• SEC teams deserve better than the SEC Network-Alternate channel, which missed around 15 real minutes of action Saturday via the online stream. Viewers watching via traditional TV methods like cable and satellite were apparently uninterrupted. In this day and age, though, streaming is increasingly becoming the expected method to watch games and the ESPN-affiliated product failed its viewers in that regard. It's worth noting the Arkansas-Mississippi State game was bumped to SEC Network's overflow channel, in part, because the Auburn-Georgia game was being shown on ESPN and ESPNU.

• Might Arkansas pull another upset next week at Auburn? The Tigers' offense has looked out of sorts through two games against Kentucky and Georgia, the latter of which is great defensively, as the Razorbacks found out last week. Momentum is a peculiar thing and the Razorbacks have it heading into their Week 3 matchup. Auburn is a more talented team than Mississippi State and should test Arkansas in some different ways.