Bye week helped Hogs get healthy
Bye weeks are a crucial period for every football team. Oftentimes, they represent a critical juncture in which a team can either fold in on itself or revitalize and finish strong.
In Arkansas' (2-6, 0-5 SEC) case, the bye last week was an opportunity to get back to full health before tackling a potentially program-changing final four games of the season.
"Program changing?" you might ask. Yes. If the Razorbacks win out, they'll qualify for a bowl game. Don't, or even win just 1-2 games, and some valid questions around head coach Sam Pittman's tenure will start floating around.
"I mean, it’s my butt on the line," Pittman said Oct. 23. "It’s all of us. I don’t worry so much about losing my job. I worry so much about losing the building’s job. You know, we’ve got buyouts and all that kind of stuff. I don’t want the buyout. I want to win. I’m not saying I’m the know-all answer guy, but I damn sure need to get involved more, and that’s something I’ll do."
On top of getting healthy, the week off provided a good adjustment period for the team following Pittman's decision to relieve Dan Enos of his playcalling duties on Oct. 22. With wide receiver's coach Kenny Guiton filling in as interim offensive coordinator, it doesn't come as a surprise that some changes are going to be made to the offensive game plan.
Pittman took some time on Monday to talk about the bye week and what it meant for his football team going forward.
"I think there's a little bit of a different feel in the building," Pittman said. "Coach Guiton, I think everybody is excited for him. Obviously, I think we've got some bumps and bruises healed up a little bit better that what we had before, but it'll be hard to say.
"I'll know a little bit more how we adjust to the new offense and things of that nature, or the less offense I guess would be a better way to say it. We'll know more about that as the week progresses, I think."
Overall, the Razorbacks are fairly healthy right now. Aside from season-ending injuries, it seems that junior running back Rocket Sanders is the only questionable player (as of public knowledge) entering Saturday.
Others such as left tackles Devon Manuel and Andrew Chamblee are healthy, according to Pittman. Cornerback Dwight McGlothern is also healthy, and was so for the 7-3 loss to Mississippi State that he didn't play a snap in.
Typically, bye weeks are as good a time as any to give your younger, less experienced players an increased amount of reps while your starting players rest up. But because of the learning curve around a new offense, there wasn't enough time for that according to Pittman.
"I think two years ago we had a freshman or sophomore not playing scrimmage and I remember we had a knee injury in that time," Pittman said. "I’m not laughing about it. But we did. And I’m thinking, ‘Man, I wish we wouldn’t have done that now.’
"But this week was more of run throughs on Tuesday and Wednesday and then we practiced on Thursday so really it was more about … and it had to be that way because of the new coordinator just changed this week, so we weren’t able to get the young guys in view quite as much as we normally would in a bye week."
Shifting away from the offense, the Hogs' defense benefitted from the bye week just as much as anybody. Ranked 31st in the nation in total defense (333.0), the unit has done everything in its power to keep Arkansas afloat. With a road tilt against a pass-heavy Florida team looming, the defense will need to use the bye week to lock in on a gameplan.
"There’s a lot of confidence there," Pittman said. "I will say this: this is a good offense we’re getting ready to play. Good offensive line, really good receivers, quarterback and running backs are good, really good offensive schematics, so we’ve got our work cut out for us. We can’t let them get to the edge."
Under Pittman, Arkansas is 2-1 coming off a bye week. The lone loss came in 2020-21, when the Razorbacks lost to Texas A&M 42-31. The Hogs beat Mississippi State 31-28 in 2021-22 and Auburn 41-27 in 2022-23.
Pittman said he is hoping that taking time to get healthy will result in that trend continuing.
"I think we’ll be as healthy as we’ve been on both sides of the ball as we’ve been all year," Pittman said. "I guess that’s what bye weeks are for. I think we’ve done well off bye weeks. I don’t think we had one our first year, but I think we’ve won the other two. We’ve had some good success coming off the bye weeks."
Arkansas will have a shot to get the season back on the right track when it travels to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium to take on the Florida Gators (5-3, 3-2 SEC) on Saturday. The game is set to kick off at 11:00 a.m. CT and will be broadcast on ESPN2.