FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek thinks the Razorbacks’ tough schedule, their rugged style of play and various injuries have played a role in the team’s three-game skid after opening 4-0 and peaking at No. 8 in The Associated Press top 25 under second-year Coach Sam Pittman.
“Obviously Sam takes every loss really, really hard as do our players,” Yurachek told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette when asked how Pittman is handling the losing streak.
“We got out to an incredible start, 4-0 I would say exceeded all of our expectations with that and being ranked in the top 10 in the country. But when you’re in the Southeastern Conference and you go on a string where you play Texas A&M, then you play Georgia, then you play Ole Miss and then you play Auburn …”
The Razorbacks’ three-game run against then No. 7 Texas A&M, then No. 2 Georgia and then No. 17 Ole Miss was rated the toughest three-game stretch of any team in the country.
Auburn re-entered the top 25 this week at No. 19 after beating Arkansas 38-23 last week.
“As hard as our young men played it takes its toll on them,” Yurachek said. “We’re not built like other SEC teams yet, but we play really, really hard. When you’re not built that way, that playing really, really hard is going to come back at you.
“We’ve seen that over the past couple of weeks. Not making any excuses for Coach Pittman or our team because they’re not making any excuses. But the opportunity to step out of conference, and play the game this weekend, and then have a bye week next week comes at a really good time for our program.”
Injury updates
Coach Sam Pittman said on Wednesday’s SEC teleconference that defensive tackle Markell Utsey will probably not be recovered from injury enough to play in Saturday’s game in his hometown of Little Rock against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Later, speaking on a video chat with local reporters, Pittman updated by saying Utsey is out. The graduate transfer senior from Little Rock Parkview is likely not to travel for the game.
“We don’t travel guys who aren’t healthy enough to play, so that answer would be no,” Pittman said.
Tight end Trey Knox is questionable after missing time the last couple of weeks with an ankle injury. Knox, who had his first five catches of the season at Ole Miss two weeks ago, including a touchdown, played sparingly last week as tight end Hudson Henry played more reps and had his first two catches of the year behind Blake Kern.
“We’re still looking at Trey Knox to see if … that ankle will be healed up enough,” Pittman said.
The timetable for the returns of offensive tackle Dalton Wagner and Utsey appears to be following the open date when the Razorbacks start preparing for a home game against Mississippi State.
“Other than that I think we’re pretty healthy,” Pittman said.
Gamble run
UAPB Coach Doc Gamble picked up Southwestern Athletic Conference and Historically Black Colleges and Universities national coach of the year awards in the spring after leading the Golden Lions to a 4-1 record, the SWAC Western Division title and a berth in the league championship game.
The Golden Lions defeated Grambling, Southern and Prairie View in the same season for the first time since winning the SWAC title in 2012.
Outley back
Freshman tight end signee Erin Outley has been at practice this week, his first work on the field since rehabbing a knee injury.
Outley is working at a position group that has had major ups and downs with personnel and injuries this season.
Coach Sam Pittman said Outley, a 6-4, 255-pounder from Little Rock Parkview who wears No. 36, is strong.
“We were talking about that in our staff meeting today about all these kids that are not playing but how exciting it is to have them either back healthy or even watching them on the scout team, and how much we think they can develop the rest of this season and in the spring,” Pittman said.
“I think we’ve got some guys that you’ve heard of but you haven’t heard of them really on Saturday playing that are gonna play and play well for us, and I think Erin is going to be one of those guys. He’s lost his weight, lost not all of it, but he’s lost a lot of the weight he needed to lose. It’s the first day but he looked good [Tuesday].”
Weather report
The high temperature on Saturday in Little Rock is forecast to be 82 degrees after an overnight low of about 54 degrees. There’s a 35% chance of morning rain on Saturday with a south breeze expected to peak at about 11 mph.
LR travel
The Razorbacks will take buses back and forth to Little Rock this weekend, a slight change from when Pittman was an assistant coach at Arkansas. Under Bret Bielema from 2013-17, the Razorbacks would typically bus down and fly the most essential personnel back.
“On a normal year, let’s say the game was at night and we had a game the next week, we might fly back, but since we’re off and it’s an 11 o’clock game, I think we’ll be back here by 6:30 or 7, and we’re going to give the players off Sunday and Monday of next week,” Pittman said.
Poll run
The Razorbacks dropped out of The Associated Press top 25 this week for the first time in three weeks.
Arkansas had entered the poll at No. 20 on Sept. 12 after downing then-No. 15 Texas 40-21. The Razorbacks moved up to No. 16 after defeating Georgia Southern 45-10 the following week, then peaked at No. 8 after improving to 4-0 with a 20-10 win over then-No. 7 Texas A&M.
Arkansas has now been in the poll for 422 weeks in its history, which ranks 21st among all FBS programs.