Opinion: No reason to believe Alabama-Georgia II will end differently, nine other takeaways from Week 7
Alabama's offense chugs on. Georgia's QB situation needs attention. Is Heisman race already decided? And Arkansas' Twitter win among Week 7 takeaways.
amp.usatoday.com
Pittman, who hadn’t been a head coach since his Hutchinson Community College days in 1992-93 but built his reputation in FBS as a veteran offensive line coach and recruiter, ended up getting the Arkansas job mostly because he really wanted it. Not a lot of flashy up-and-comers did, given that the Hogs ended last season on a run of four wins in their previous 27 games. From the outside, it looked like an impossible situation. A coaching graveyard.
But remarkably, Pittman has the Hogs sitting at 2-2 after a 33-21 win over Ole Miss — and they’d be 3-1 if not for an unfortunate mistake by the officials against Auburn last week when an inadvertent whistle negated a fumble that would have ended the game.
The Razorbacks are playing extremely hard under Pittman, and that accounts for a lot. But the biggest difference is defensive coordinator Barry Odom (the former Missouri head coach who was fired last December), who has transformed Arkansas’ defense into a very salty unit. Arkansas limited the same Ole Miss team that put up 48 points on Alabama to three scores and 4-of-16 on third down. They also forced seven turnovers, including six interceptions of quarterback Matt Corral.
