Despite early start, Pittman calls for rowdy crowd vs. Auburn
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FAYETTEVILLE — Sam Pittman is hopeful that the early kickoff Saturday won’t prevent No. 17 Arkansas from having a rowdy crowd for its game against Auburn.
In fact, the second-year coach has followed in the footsteps of his former boss - Georgia coach Kirby Smart - and made a public plea to fans to get inside Reynolds Razorback Stadium before the 11 a.m. CT start.
Not usually an active social media user, Pittman has sent tweets on Monday and Tuesday asking for students to arrive early and for the fans to be “ready to make a difference.”
Just six games into the season, he said he’s already seen a couple of games impacted by an incredible atmosphere. The first came out in his favor, as Arkansas crushed No. 15 Texas 40-21 and fans stormed the field afterward.
That was a night game in primetime, though. The second was in the same time slot as the Auburn game, but it went against the Razorbacks.
Amped up by the presence of ESPN’s College GameDay show and for a top-10 showdown, a raucous crowd of nearly 93,000 fans helped the Bulldogs to a dominant 37-0 win over Arkansas earlier this month. The Razorbacks committed numerous penalties, including several false starts that could be directly attributed to the noise.
“There's been two games that…I think the crowd mattered and helped the winning team,” Pittman said. “I’m not saying either team would have not won without the crowd, but when we went to Georgia, it was 110 decibels over there. It certainly affected the beginning of the game and throughout the game.
“Of course, when we played Texas here our crowd was as good as any crowd that you could ever hope for. We need that crowd again. We need our students in here raising heck early before the game. I'm just telling you the football team needs the fans, and we need them to come in here and help us win on Saturday."
Saturday’s game may have a revenge feel to it for some fans because of the controversial way last year’s game ended in Auburn, but Pittman’s motivation stems from playing in Fayetteville.
The Razorbacks have already beaten Texas - as well as Rice and Georgia Southern - inside Reynolds Razorback Stadium and still have Auburn, Mississippi State and Missouri on the schedule.
If they can find a way to win all three of those, as well as the UAPB game in Little Rock, it’d be the first time in a decade that they won all of their home games.
“We're off to a good start of winning here this year,” Pittman said. “We're undefeated in our stadium. It's been several years since we've been undefeated in Razorback Stadium and I think that means something.”
Kickoff between the Razorbacks and Tigers is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT and the game will be televised on CBS.