No Panic on Offensive Line, But Clearly No Answers

Spin control after a 24-6 shouldn't expect downright worry, but there is concern

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Sep 10, 2023 3:12 PM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas' offensive line has had several question marks all through spring and fall practices and headed into a third straight non-conference game against someone they should handle with little problem, there probably isn't any reason to panic.

The Hogs won, 24-6, but t was clear to the eye there are questions about this team. We may not have answers by the time LSU play rolls around Sept. 23. Right now everything is still all-positives with Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman, which is his nature and pretty much about the only thing he can say.

“We talk about adversity all the time,” Pittman said later. “We’re saying, ‘It don’t have to get there. We can just solve problems.’ When you have a half, an entire half, of problems, it wasn’t a panic, but it was basically ‘they’re gaining three [yards] when we hit them.’ Basically, we were getting out-strained, out-wanted to, and we talked about that and how we’re going to fix it."

In the next sentence, though, he may have give a little deeper look at what he's really thinking right now with this team. “I’m trying to make something a lot better out of the second half than I what I really believe that it was," he said. "It was better, but it still wasn’t good. But they played harder.”

Some in the media will make the excuse they weren't preparing like they would for an SEC team, but that's probably not the case at all. Most coaches want to run up a score in the first half and sorta work on things in the second half. The Hogs had to scramble until late in this one.

"I’m trying to find more than 22 guys,” Pittman said. “I know who we have as the starters. I’m trying to find out how many guys we can win with. We’ve had the greatest opportunity in America to do that with Western Carolina and Kent State and we’re 2-0.

“I’m trying to find out who we can win with in the SEC. I’m not concerned about BYU and because we played three corners and four linebackers and all that. We’re helping our football team for SEC play.”

It's hard not to notice that carefully avoided any mention of a win or loss. Sure, he wants to win the game (no football coach ever wants to have a loss) but the important thing is what happens in SEC play. In other words, he's still evaluating everything.

"It'll be a good wake-up call for us," Pittman said. "We talked all week about not needing a surprise, not needing to be woke up. But we got woke up. We'll be ready to play next week."

Kickoff next Saturday in the last non-conference game for awhile will be 6:30 p.m. on ESPN2 and fuboTV. We should find out the time and channel designation for the LSU game the next week later Sunday, but expect it to be in a pretty good spot.