Head coach Sam Pittman and his Arkansas Razorbacks (2-1, 0-0 SEC) are well-aware of the fact that their performance in the 37-27 win over UAB on Saturday was not their best showing.
Just one week removed from a hard-fought 39-31 double-overtime loss on the road against a ranked Oklahoma State team, the Razorbacks lacked physicality and had plenty of miscues on offense against the Blazers from Birmingham, Alabama.
Although they didn't punt once against UAB, the Razorbacks did struggle to move the ball through the air and they allowed three sacks on offense while also giving up 5.3 yards per play and 235 yards through the air on defense.
ALSO READ: Arkansas' PFF grades, snap counts vs. UAB 2024 - Offense
This weekend, the Hogs will open Southeastern Conference play against another team from Alabama — the Auburn Tigers, who are led by second-year head coach Hugh Freeze. In each of the last two seasons, Freeze took Liberty and Auburn into Fayetteville and left both times with wins over Pittman and Arkansas. Last year, the Tigers won 48-10 at Razorback Stadium.
The frustration of not playing their best ball against UAB paired with a 38-point loss in front of their home crowd last season against Auburn is enough to make the Razorbacks a little angry entering this matchup.
"I think usually you play a little bit better when you didn’t play well," Pittman said. "Hopefully you won the game, you know. You look at Kentucky (on Saturday against Georgia), same thing. They were mad. They got focused and played a great game against Georgia. These games are about us versus us. The one Saturday was us versus us. We had better players. Hopefully we had as good a coaching staff as they did.
"The fire that you play with is something that’s expected. So I don’t know for sure. Obviously I think all of us coaches would like to figure that out. But I think I heard Kirby (Smart) say (Kentucky was) mad. They were embarrassed (by South Carolina) the week before, Kentucky (was). That’s a little bit how we feel right now going into the Auburn game. So hopefully that’s a good thing for us."
As it was part of the question he answered in the above quote, Pittman alluded to the fact that Kentucky narrowly lost, 13-12, against Georgia on Saturday just one week removed from an embarrassing 31-6 home loss to South Carolina.
Senior defensive end Landon Jackson put it bluntly after the UAB game Saturday, saying, "Any team in the SEC is going to beat the hell out of us if we play like that." Being more assignment-sound, specifically on defense, should help with that.
RELATED: Arkansas' PFF grades, snap counts vs. UAB 2024 - Defense
"Some of it was we had a lot of guys that were hurt," Pittman said Monday about miscues in the UAB game. "They practiced but the speed of practice, because we had them at all levels hurt, wasn’t what we want. Obviously (Travis Williams) is vitally important to the teaching of defense and also the motivation. He was out some.
"But we’ve got older players that understand that when they’re supposed to be in the B gap they’re supposed to be in the B gap. I mean, I think a lot of times you don’t get to that gap because you’re not playing with the same urgency that you should be and you get knocked out of your gap. I think it all boils down to I don’t think we played as hard as what we had in the first two games at times. And we have to get that fixed."
ALSO READ: Arkansas' official depth chart for Auburn game
In each of the past three games between Arkansas and Auburn, the road team has emerged victorious. Some Razorback fans would argue for four in a row, including Pittman, given how the 2020 matchup ended in the infamous "Bo Nix fumble" game.
"It was raining, if you remember," Pittman said of the 2020 game at Auburn. "Then 2 years ago, we went out there and then they came in here last year. So, hopefully, the trend keeps going and we can go up there. And I think we'll play really well. I think they will too and we'll find out what happens.
"But we've seen to be able to handle the noise. If you look at it on tape, and that's the one thing we're going to talk about today, every team that's been in there, of course, this is their 4th home game in a row and our 3rd out of 4, you know, on the road. But the 3 teams that they played at home have been affected by the crowd and the noise. So, we have to take that out of the game if at all possible."
Auburn enters the matchup with a record of 2-1 with wins over Alabama A&M and New Mexico, plus a 21-14 loss to California on Sept. 7. Saturday's game, which will kickoff at 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN, is set to feature a "Power Stripe Out" from fans at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama.
