Coach Pittman on facing Costello and Leach

[TrapGame]

https://www.nwahomepage.com/sports/pig-trail-nation/arkansas-preparing-for-mississippi-state-quarterback-k-j-costello/

Pretty good article. He knows slowing down this offense is a tall task.

[Captain Falcon]

Watching some of his press conference, either he has the least interesting personality in the SEC or he is stressed to the max right now. Certainly can't blame him if he's stressed based on what he inherited and how tough his schedule this year. But you're definitely not seeing some of the goofy "YESSIR" stuff that there was a lot of when he was hired.

Pittman seems like a likeable guy who genuinely wants to be there, so I hope he gets Arkansas back to respectability. Just going to be a lengthy process.

Our series with them has been pretty strange since we joined the SEC. They had a stretch where they won 15 of 17 against us and we couldn't buy a win against them. And now we've won 7 of 8 against them. You just don't see division matchups like this very often where it goes from one team totally dominating the series for almost 20 years and then there's a big swing where the other team starts dominating the series for going on a decade now.

[War Machine Dawg]

Watching some of his press conference, either he has the least interesting personality in the SEC or he is stressed to the max right now. Certainly can't blame him if he's stressed based on what he inherited and how tough his schedule this year. But you're definitely not seeing some of the goofy "YESSIR" stuff that there was a lot of when he was hired.

Pittman seems like a likeable guy who genuinely wants to be there, so I hope he gets Arkansas back to respectability. Just going to be a lengthy process.

Our series with them has been pretty strange since we joined the SEC. They had a stretch where they won 15 of 17 against us and we couldn't buy a win against them. And now we've won 7 of 8 against them. You just don't see division matchups like this very often where it goes from one team totally dominating the series for almost 20 years and then there's a big swing where the other team starts dominating the series for going on a decade now.

All had to do with scheduling. Until recently they've always been sandwiched between Bama and Northern Miss. We'd come out flat and just get rolled. There's also the tail end of JWS and Croom in that 15/17 stretch for them. Once we had a competent coach and a competitive talent level, we stopped losing to them so much. But the scheduling change to play them earlier has been a huge improvement.

[Captain Falcon]

All had to do with scheduling. Until recently they've always been sandwiched between Bama and Northern Miss. We'd come out flat and just get rolled. There's also the tail end of JWS and Croom in that 15/17 stretch for them. Once we had a competent coach and a competitive talent level, we stopped losing to them so much. But the scheduling change to play them earlier has been a huge improvement.

I'd have to go back and look at the schedule but we still have played them a lot of times in recent years between Bama and Ole Miss. Not as frequently but I know for a fact it's been more than a couple of times. I am glad we are seeing less of that scheduling though, that really sucked in the years where Arkansas was respectable.

I think you hit on the main part of it though. We sucked most of the time that they owned us from 1995-2011. Then they started sucking after the Petrino motorcycle incident and haven't been the same since. When both teams are respectable it's been a much more even series.

[WPS]

Watching some of his press conference, either he has the least interesting personality in the SEC or he is stressed to the max right now. Certainly can't blame him if he's stressed based on what he inherited and how tough his schedule this year. But you're definitely not seeing some of the goofy "YESSIR" stuff that there was a lot of when he was hired.

Pittman seems like a likeable guy who genuinely wants to be there, so I hope he gets Arkansas back to respectability. Just going to be a lengthy process.

Our series with them has been pretty strange since we joined the SEC. They had a stretch where they won 15 of 17 against us and we couldn't buy a win against them. And now we've won 7 of 8 against them. You just don't see division matchups like this very often where it goes from one team totally dominating the series for almost 20 years and then there's a big swing where the other team starts dominating the series for going on a decade now.

It's been a similar trajectory with Texas A&M for Arkansas. Arkansas owned them when they were both in the SWC and in 2009-2011 under Petrino but then Petrino was fired and Arkansas hasn't beaten A&M a single time since they joined the SEC.

Doesn't help that three of those were under John L. Smith and Chad Morris. Bielema wasn't great either but better than those two. At this point Houston Nutt's tenure at Arkansas doesn't look like too bad of an option.