Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman joined the weekly SEC Teleconference on Wednesday to briefly preview Saturday's matchup between the Razorbacks and Louisiana Tech at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.
Below are links to more preview content for the Razorbacks' game against the Bulldogs, plus everything Pittman said on the coaches teleconference...
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- VIDEO: Sam Pittman press conference - Louisiana Tech preview
(Opening statement)
Pittman: "I think our team is fairly healthy. Excited about the opportunity for senior afternoon on Saturday against Louisiana Tech, a team that is playing extremely well. They’re holding teams to low scores defensively and putting up some points. Last week obviously was a hard-fought game against Western Kentucky, who was leading that league, and they were able to win. So we have a hot team coming in here."
(Thoughts on Louisiana Tech quarterback Evan Bullock?)
Pittman: "Yeah, I think he’s grown. He’s a redshirt freshman and I think he’s really grown as the year’s continued to move on. He’s polished back there. He doesn’t play like a young guy. Obviously he’s started now, I think this will be his eighth start coming in here. But he’s very accurate and has a strong arm. They do with him what they need to to win. Obviously last week was more of a running game for them. But very accurate. I’ll tell you he’s got a lot of fantastic receivers, guys that have a lot of speed out there and so we’re well aware of him. He’s poised back there, especially for his young age."
(The players said they need to show out for the home crowd, your thoughts on that? Any added pressure for this game?)
Pittman: "I think there’s pressure every week you know to play good football. i still believe we have a really good football team and if we play up to our standards we can play with anybody in the country. So you know they’re well aware of what happened (versus) UAB and we’ve got to play to a standard that’s high for us and hopefully it’ll be good enough to win the game."
(How would the 105 roster limit as a result of the U.S. House settlement affect your team?)
Pittman: "I think the first thing is you’re going to have to eliminate 15 guys, which none of us — I don’t want to speak for the other coaches — a lot of us didn’t want to do. We thought that we need that number. That’s the first thing, which is hard to do because some of these guys dreams are to play for the University of Arkansas. So that’s just a given that’s going to have to happen.
"I understand we’ll stay at 85, so you can cut the scholarships up like some other sports have been doing for years. So it’s yet to be determined how that will really affect us, but I do know that it will affect us as far as some two-spotting and some things we that we do that we think helps us, I think it’s going to take some of that away from us because of wear and tear on the kids and I think you’re going to be very concerned about the limited numbers that we have.
"We’re different than the NFL, now. We can’t go out and just get a player whenever we lose somebody. I know their numbers are less than ours. I think it’s going to be something that we’re all going to have to decide on how to go about the 105, but part of it will be the helper of that is the ability to cut up scholarships. Certainly as I said before, I don’t believe 105 is enough."
(Does this have most of an effect on playing scholarship guys on scout team in-season than you have in the past?)
Pittman: "Well, I think it’ll just happen. If they are on scholarship and they are not quite ready… You know, I’ve had two guys that were on scout team for a year that got drafted in the first round when I was an o-line coach. Some guys develop slower than others, some faster than others. As you look in the bowl systems right now, guys that aren’t in the playoffs, they’re having a hard time fielding a football team. Now you take it down an extra 15 guys, it could be a little dicey at that point."
(It looks like the athletic department is going to have about $20.5 million after the settlement. Have you had any kind of conversations with with Hunter Yurachek on what percentage of that might be allocated to football and how do you manage that with the transfer portal at semester and stuff?)
Pittman: "Certainly I've had that conversation with Hunter. Well, we have to know, you know…Basically, your collective is going to be in effect until July. And then as you're talking about it, I think you would talk about it in totality of of what it looks like with your collective and then the revenue sharing, I think you talk more of a year long, instead of half and half. At least, that's what we're going to choose to do. And then obviously you're going to have to stay within a budget.
"But there was restrictions on that when you were in collective, you know before revenue sharing, as well. Because, you know, it's not Monopoly money. You’ve got to have the money. And so, I don't know that's going to be a whole lot different. Ours is certainly going to go up a lot because what we had in in our collective, we certainly are going to have more money in revenue sharing."
(Do you feel like that revenue sharing combined with NIL, in relation to your peers, do you feel like you guys are going to have what you need financially to build a championship caliber program next year?)
Pittman: "I think we're going to have, certainly, a lot better chance. And, you know, some people are going to take that as I'm making excuses. I'm not. You asked the question. When you're half the money of your competitors, that makes it very, very difficult to recruit. Yes, do I think that this will allow us an opportunity to go out and financially recruit with the rest of the teams in the SEC? Absolutely. Were we able to do that in the past three years? No."
(Injury update on Anthony Switzer, Braylen Russell, Selman Bridges?)
Pittman: "Bridges is back. Russell is full speed, has been all week. And Switzer is probably doubtful."
