FAYETTEVILLE -- You don't get ahead getting even, they say.
Regarding preseason football scrimmages seems "they" are wrong. Waging just two major preseason scrimmages as new Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman plans, better for offense vs. defense be 1-1 than one an inflated 2-0 and the other a doubting 0-2.
So these Razorbacks may have gotten ahead getting even.
The defense, running out of gas in the first Friday closed scrimmage and generally bested by the offense on Aug. 28, dominated last Friday's closed scrimmage, Pittman said.
"I've been around a long time," Pittman, a first-time major college head coach but previously a 26-year major college offensive line coach, said. "And you'd probably be more concerned if one side won a scrimmage every single time."
Inheriting a team both sides of the ball beleaguered for the consecutive 2-10, 2-10 overall/0-8, 0-8 in the SEC campaigns under the Chad Morris regime, Pittman doesn't need one side of the ball already deflated before the season kicks off Sept. 26 against nationally No. 4 Georgia.
"The scrimmage, we're not gonna talk about it," Arkansas senior defensive tackle Jonathan Marshall said Aug. 31 when asked to review the Aug. 28 session.
If asked, Marshall, drawing Pittman's praise throughout the preseason, and the rest of the defense this week presumably will more readily review last Friday.
And the offense likely will be more inclined to note that protecting the football and the quarterback for one game doesn't automatically translate to the next.
"A lot of times, just like in life, people pat you on the back and you get complacent," Pittman said post last Friday's scrimmage. "I'm not saying we did that on offense, but certainly we weren't the same offense that we were a week ago. Nor was the defense the same a week ago. Obviously anytime you improve, you have to feel good about one side. But is there concern about us holding on to the ball? Absolutely."
For a program long beset with Arkansas' doldrums, returning seniors and juniors experienced Bret Bielema's 2017 Hogs wallowing 1-7 in the SEC, instilling confidence seems essential.
Some coaches would try instilling with psychology and slogans.
That's not Pittman's style and wasn't when he coached Arkansas' offensive line from 2013-2015.
"The only way I know you can build confidence," Pittman said, "you put a guy in the right position A: for him to have success. And then, B: he has to see it. You can't just tell a guy, 'Hey man, you're doing great,' and he's not because he won't even believe it."
Off two scrimmages, Pittman sees enough good showing what these players can do and the bad if they don't strain to do it.
"Flip that tape out, show them what they're capable of doing and try to build confidence that way," Pittman said. "Otherwise, you can't really talk about it because it just doesn't work that way. I think you have to see it."