The Arkansas Razorbacks are no stranger to the grind of an SEC football schedule. Year in and year out, the Hogs have one of the toughest schedules in the country.
This season's grueling four-game stretch away from home — against LSU, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Alabama — may be the most difficult challenge Arkansas has faced in recent memory.
"I think on the road we played some really good teams," head coach Sam Pittman said Monday. "Obviously, nationally ranked teams and things of that nature. We caught some breaks because we didn't play every one of them at night. The difficult part about playing on the road is obviously the noise, which is our advantage on Saturday morning."
Lack of experience — especially in a group as important as the offensive line — serves as a disadvantage in tough road envrionments like LSU's Death Valley. The unit allowed 20 total sacks in Arkansas' four games outside of the state.
"Probably if we had a veteran offensive line, it might have been a better stretch for us," Pittman said. "Obviously, we didn't win any of the games, so that would be the biggest disappointment. However, I do think we're getting a little bit better, and we have four of the next five at home.
"We still have some of our goals left that we had at the beginning of the year. But that's a hard stretch, and I wish we could have made a dent in the win column on that. But I do think our team is better than we were when we last played at home."
Losers of five straight, Arkansas (2-5, 0-4 SEC) is hoping it can turn the season around with a home matchup against Mississippi State (3-3, 0-3 SEC) on Saturday. The Bulldogs have won games over Southeast Louisiana, Arizona and Western Michigan but have lost to LSU, South Carolina and Alabama. Pittman thinks his players will be excited to play in Reynolds Razorback Stadium again.
"Man, because they love the fans," Pittman said. "Everybody does. So I think, and from what I understand we’re almost full. Which is really something to be said about the state of Arkansas, especially where we’re sitting right now. But they come out, support the kids and that’s what it’s all about. We got to give them a reason as well. We need to come out and play well but we’re really appreciative of that."
After only scraping across two field goals in the first half against Alabama last week, the Hogs used more up-tempo offense in the second half. That led to two touchdowns and a better flow amongst the players. Fans should expect to see more of it now that the Razorbacks are in the comforts of their home stadium.
"Because it’s going to be easier without noise," Pittman said. "I mean, it’s going to be easier. It just made them line up faster. We had a little success on some plays. Because right now without that, what’s happening is we’re standing up there and they’re looking over getting their calls. Obviously you guys know we’re more of a pro-style offense, so we need them to line up so we can identify the MIKE and all this kind of stuff."
Transitioning from playing ranked teams on the road to below-average teams at home isn't something to overlook. It can be easy to glance at Mississippi State and assume you have the upper hand, especially with how the Razorbacks' defense has played the last two weeks against talented offenses in Ole Miss (27 points allowed) and Alabama (24 points allowed).
"We’ve got to win," Pittman said. "We have to win. Have to win Saturday. To reach — again, when the season starts you have all these goals and there are still some that we have. There are still some attainable goals that we have. And our kids know. I’m going to talk to them today about it. But this game Saturday is a big, big game for us.
"We’ve proven that we’ve got a pretty good football team. We haven’t proven we can win. So, we’ve got to do that Saturday. I think our kids understand that. There are some things in that locker room, you know, the kids that have been here for four years have started that we don’t want to let go of. There’s a lot of motivation and things. One of them is being back home. We want to show the state of Arkansas that we have a good football team, one good enough to win. So, there’s a lot of motivation there."
That team motivation will be put to the test on Saturday, as Arkansas hosts Mississippi State in Reynolds Razorback Stadium. The game is set to kickoff at 11:00 a.m. CT and will be broadcast on ESPN.
