Was Arkansas watching wrong Christmas movie at halftime?
As Arkansas was beat down by Auburn to the tune of a 48-10 loss Saturday, a chorus of boos rained down in Razorback Stadium, with many Hog fans heading for the exits well before the final whistle.
The loss dropped Arkansas to a 3-7 record, removing virtually any chance of a bowl game this season and squashing any hope fans might have had after a surprising win in Gainesville the previous week.
With their postseason hopes gone, Arkansas fans have started looking towards the future — and the offseason madness has started a few weeks early.
Matters were made worse when Texas A&M fired head coach Jimbo Fisher on Sunday and Mississippi State then parted ways with first-year head coach Zach Arnett before the business day opened on Monday morning.
Arkansas fans were wondering if Head Hog Sam Pittman’s hot seat would be the next one to catch fire, yet the fourth-year coach was present at his Monday press conference and went about his business as usual.
“I know what’s going on and Hunter Yurachek knows what’s going on, but really nobody else really [knows],” Pittman said. “It’s opinion. They don’t really know what’s going on…My job is to get ready for FIU. I’m not worried about my job security — at all. And I think I’m the guy for the University and I want to stay here for a long time.”
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Making matters worse in an already humiliating defeat was the emergence of a video on social media that appeared to show Arkansas redshirt players — who weren't ever going to play in the actual game — watching the Christmas movie The Polar Express at halftime when the team was losing 27-3.
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Clearly the movie did not touch the hearts of the players, as Auburn poured it on in the second half and ended up winning by 38 points. According to Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze, it could’ve been a lot worse - and he’s probably right as his team ran for 345 yards and they totaled 517 yards of offense.
“I don’t mean this to sound any sort of way, but we could have put up a lot of numbers [against Arkansas],” Freeze said. “We started milking some clock.”
Amidst the misery, Razorback Nation has taken to social media to express their frustrations over the past few days. One fan, in particular, offered a unique solution for the team.
On ESPN Arkansas' Hog Reaction postgame show, a caller from Fayetteville named Phil suggested that the Razorbacks should have turned to a different Christmas movie to inspire a second half comeback against the Tigers.
“If you’ve seen Polar Express, you know one of the big scenes is the train conductor is punching out little holes on the tickets, and it spells out the word ‘believe’,” Phil said. “Maybe one of the coaches put it on, kind of like a substitute teacher would put on a movie for a class, hoping that some of the kids would get inspired…I’m trying to justify it any way that I can.”
Phil from Fayetteville then offered a movie option that he felt was better fit for a team that was down by 24 points at halftime.
“You’ve seen the movie Fred Claus, right?," Phil said. "The scene where the sun’s about to come up and they’ve lost the map, and the prophecy says if you don’t get all the presents delivered by sunup it’s a disaster…Willy the Elf turns around and he says ‘Fred?’, and Fred says ‘I know Willy, I know.’”
“We were losing at halftime, we need to win out to make a bowl game…we were Fred Claus cracking the reins…If we had hopes of trying to actually be bowl eligible and keep Pittman, Fred Claus would have been the appropriate movie to show.”
In truth, the situation was blown a little out of proportion. Sam Pittman clarified Monday that the video came from a separate locker room for redshirt players, so nobody in that room was getting any game time. But there’s no denying that the optics of that video leaking after a humiliating loss is adding insult to injury.
“I hadn’t seen The Polar Express, so I don’t really know my thoughts on the movie,” Pittman said. "So the young man made a mistake. Sent it to a friend, friend sent it to his brother. Add on what have you. I’ve already addressed it and I think we’re fine there…so we’re going to move on."
The whole situation is a testament to a disastrous season. Back in August, fans were expecting to see their team potentially win nine or 10 games and go to a nice bowl game. Fast forward to November, and they’re calling in to radio shows to give their take on which Christmas movie would have motivated the team better to come back from a four-possession halftime deficit.
With questions looming about his job security, Pittman will look to right the ship with two games left in the season.
Up next, Arkansas (3-7, 1-6 SEC) will face off against the FIU Panthers (4-6, 1-6 CUSA) on Saturday at Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CT, and the game will be broadcast on ESPNU.