FAYETTEVILLE — Even after Mississippi State scored to regain the lead late in the fourth quarter Saturday, those on Arkansas’ sideline were confident it could pull out a victory.
Sure enough, the Razorbacks drove 75 yards on 10 plays and answered by scoring a touchdown with 21 seconds left to, with the help of a missed field goal as time expired, give them a 31-28 win over the Bulldogs.
It had about twice as much time - 2:22 vs. 1:07 - to work with as it did at Ole Miss a month ago, but the success Arkansas had that day, even in a loss, had a calming effect on head coach Sam Pittman.
“I think once you do it once, you become more confident,” Pittman said. “I’m not saying I knew we were going to go down and score, because that's a lie, but I felt confident that if we got the first first down in that drive - and we did fast - I felt like we could score.”
Pittman praised his quarterback, redshirt sophomore KJ Jefferson, for being “so poised” on the drive and his teammates followed his lead.
“He was pretty much hyping the team up, like, ‘We’re going to go down here and score,’” running back Dominique Johnson said. “That’s big, because he’s the leader of our offense and also a captain on this team.”
That wasn’t by accident. The Mississippi native said after the game that he was cognizant of the fact he’s the quarterback and that everyone feeds off his energy, so he knew he needed to “stay calm, cool and collected.”
