Emptying the Notebook: Notes, tidbits, stats on Arkansas-Georgia

FAYETTEVILLE — Sam Pittman has always had a hard time sleeping in the days leading up to games.

Even as an offensive line coach, he said nerves would kick in around Thursday or Friday, leading to sleeplessness and early mornings. It’s much the same now that he’s the head coach at Arkansas - it just started earlier in the week, as he noticed he wasn’t sleeping well Tuesday night.

“I’d be lying to you if I didn't say I was nervous, but I was nervous when I was an O-line coach, too,” Pittman said. “Nervousness comes from just making sure that you’re prepared every way you can possibly be. A guy that's not nervous probably won't be quite as prepared as he needs to be.”

For the first time since he was at Hutchinson C.C. in 1993, Pittman will lead a team into a game as a head coach when Arkansas welcomes No. 4 Georgia to Reynolds Razorback Stadium for a 3 p.m. CT kickoff.

It’s a heck of a first career matchup, as the Bulldogs are the three-time defending SEC East champions and are expected to compete for the title again in 2020.

Pittman has as good of an idea of what to expect from Georgia as anyone because he worked there the last four years as an offensive line coach, which probably adds to the typical first-game nerves.

“They’re an outstanding football team,” Pittman said. “They’re big and run to the football and they'll knock you off the ball. On both sides of the line of scrimmage, they’re probably as good as any team we'll play this year.

“It's going to be a physical football game and you're always concerned when you know it's going to be a smash-mouth game. Are you ready for that yet? Certainly we'll find out.”

Here are a few other notes, tidbits and stats from the week leading up to Saturday’s game…

Dealing with COVID-19

For more than six months, the biggest topic in sports has been the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It is the reason Arkansas’ opener was pushed back three weeks and why it is playing Georgia at all this season.

As kickoff approaches, what every coach in the SEC will be focused on is finding out which players won’t be available to play Saturday because of positive tests or through contact tracing.

“I feel good about our numbers,” Pittman told reporters Thursday. “There will be some guys that won’t be able to play, but I feel good about our numbers and where we are right now with COVID.”

The Razorbacks haven’t released any numbers about how many players they could be missing against Georgia, plus they were still awaiting the results of their final two tests the last time Pittman met with the media.

Players, coaches and staff were tested Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. It was originally planned for them to have their final test to be a rapid-response on Friday, but that did not come to fruition in the SEC for unspecified reasons.

Pittman has admitted that in addition to the normal first-game worries - ball security, tackling, etc. - he is also constantly worried about losing key players or entire position groups, as has happened during the first few weeks of the season for teams outside of the conference.

“All of those things wear on your mind, they weigh on your mind,” Pittman said. “Are you getting the third-team guy enough reps because he may be the starter on Saturday? Just a lot of extra preparation, a lot of two-spotting things for us so we can get our entire team ready to play if COVID hit us hard in a week or two.”

Feeding Boyd

The only Arkansas player selected by the media or coaches, Rakeem Boyd is a consensus preseason second-team All-SEC choice at running back.

Going into his senior season, he is the Razorbacks’ best player and many are counting on him putting up big numbers in 2020. Speaking on his weekly radio show this week, Pittman said he would like Boyd to get 18-30 touches - which includes the passing game - per game.

“I think he’s ready to go,” Pittman said Thursday. “Obviously you wouldn’t want to run him 30 times every game, but you want to run him to win the game, so whatever that number is, I think he can hold up and he’ll have success.”

Despite playing in an offense with virtually zero passing threat, Boyd managed to rack up 1,133 rushing yards last season. Even more impressively, he averaged 6.2 yards per carry.

“Rakeem Boyd is as good as there is in the SEC,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. “This guy has proven that he’s a really good runner, a physical runner.

“(He’s) talented, smart, sees the field and any offensive line coached by a head coach like Sam Pittman is going to be a great offensive line unit. … Our league last year was as tough against the run as there is and (Boyd) put up really good numbers.”

Returning to Action

It has been just over a year since Feleipe Franks suffered a season-ending injury that set into motion the events that led to him becoming the Razorbacks’ starting quarterback.

At the time, he was a third-year starter at Florida and seemingly primed for a breakout year. However, his injury allowed Kyle Trask to take over and Franks ultimately opted to become a graduate transfer.