FAYETTEVILLE — Sam Pittman is in his second season as Arkansas’ football coach, but he learned something new in his role this week.
There is such a thing as too much simulated crowd noise at practice.
Speaking during his weekly radio show at the Catfish Hole, Pittman indicated he had the crowd noise turned off for most of Wednesday’s practice after two days of it turned up loud for the majority of practice.
“With the crowd noise, you can’t coach,” Pittman said. “The last two periods of practice today we went crowd noise. I’d had about all the crowd noise I want.”
The Razorbacks are preparing for a full, hostile stadium Saturday. More than 93,000 people are expected at Sanford Stadium when No. 8 Arkansas plays No. 2 Georgia in Athens, Ga.
It will be the first time since Nov. 23, 2019, at LSU that Arkansas has played in front of a packed house on the road. The Razorbacks played five road games at mostly empty stadiums a year ago when attendance was limited due to covid-19 regulations, and Arkansas hasn’t played in a road game yet this season.
The Razorbacks are coming off of a neutral-site 20-10 victory over Texas A&M last week in Arlington, Texas. Attendance for that game was split between Arkansas and Texas A&M fans, and was announced as 57,992 at AT&T Stadium.
Arkansas will attempt to break Georgia's eight-game home win streak that dates to 2019. The Bulldogs have only lost four games at home under sixth-year coach Kirby Smart, and three of those losses came in his first season.
Pittman said his team is different from his inaugural season when the Bulldogs defeated the Razorbacks 37-10 in his first game as Arkansas’ coach. The Razorbacks led that game 10-5 in the third quarter, but allowed Georgia to score 32 unanswered.
“On offense we’ve got a lot of veterans back,” Pittman said. “We’ve got a quarterback who can run and pass. On defense we have most all our kids back along with some additions from the portal, and the ones we have are better. We’re definitely going to take a better football team in there than we had last year.”
Much of the same can be said for Georgia, Pittman said. He added that a lot has been made of the Bulldogs’ defense that is allowing 181.8 yards and 5.8 points per game, but Georgia has a potent offense led by quarterback JT Daniels.
One key for both teams during an unbeaten September was big plays on offense and a lack of big plays allowed on defense.
“The good teams don’t give those plays up,” Pittman said. “We’ve been fortunate defensively that if they have gotten behind us, they haven’t completed it. And they haven’t gotten behind us very much.”
Both teams have multiple players who chose to return with the extra season afford by the NCAA due to covid. Arkansas has 11 “super seniors” on its roster.
“With age comes experience and leadership, and I think that’s what you’re seeing in our football team,” Pittman said.
“There’s no way that someone who is not super, super bought in will come back for their sixth year. That allowed us to have great leadership on our team because De’Vion (Warren) and the other 10 guys who came back, they’re serious. They could be going on with their life, but they came back for one reason, to get Arkansas where it should be.”
Warren, a receiver who along with defensive end Tre Williams was a player guest at Wednesday’s show, said the Razorbacks must go to Athens believing they can win.
“This week of preparation has been wonderful,” Warren said. “Georgia is a wonderful team and they’re coached well, but we’re also coached well. We have to go out there and just play to our standard which is to play tough and be physical. We have to go in there with a mindset that we belong here; we belong to play in this moment.”
Pittman expects a physical challenge at Georgia, but noted the Razorbacks are coming off a similar game last week against Texas A&M.
“They were one of the prettiest football teams I’d ever seen,” Pittman said of the Aggies. “I walked by the receivers and was like, ‘What’s that? The left tackle?’ They were huge.”
It was like the linemen Pittman saw at Georgia when he was the Bulldogs’ offensive line coach from 2016-19. He stopped short of calling Georgia’s defensive front the best in college football, but said he knows the challenge will be great.
“I went against them every day for four years and they’re good. I mean, they’re really good,” Pittman said. “And then they’re good on the back end.
“You look at them on film and you’re trying to find a weakness in either their offensive line or defensive line — and say you’re going to attack this spot, attack that spot — and there’s just not.
"They’re big, they’re physical, they’re well coached and they run to the football on both sides of the ball.”
An X-factor in the game will be the play of Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson, who Pittman said has wowed since the second half of the season opener against Rice. Jefferson is the only quarterback in the SEC with at least 800 yards passing and 200 yards rushing, and his 18.4-yard completion average is the best in college football.
“He’s gotten better every single game,” Pittman said, “and anytime you can do that, you’re going to have one heck of a quarterback as it keeps rolling on. Our defense is playing so well right now that we’re able to just keep taking steps on offense. We’re able to run the football and let KJ progress as needed, and he’s done a great job.”