Hunter Yurachek is right.
The Arkansas athletic director took the podium Monday at the Little Rock Touchdown Club to talk Razorbacks athletics. Football was, of course, top of everyone’s mind after Arkansas’ loss to Brigham Young on Saturday.
Yurachek chalked up the loss to typical on-field items.
“People say ‘What’s the matter with our football program?'” Yurachek said. “Quite honestly, I don’t know that anything is the matter with our football program but just normal football issues.”
Arkansas is a solid 2-1 after three weeks. The Hogs were just outside the Top 25, too, before the loss to the Cougars. And it isn’t as though BYU is a bad team. A modest Big 12 team, perhaps, but not slouches.
Yurachek acknowledged the Razorbacks have problems up front on the offensive line. But he re-iterated his faith in coach Sam Pittman.
“Absolutely, we have some inexperience on our offensive line. Everybody says ‘Well, Sam Pittman is an offensive line coach.”
And he was. That’s how Pittman received the opportunity for his first head-coaching gig. He was that good at coaching offensive lineman. The expectation from fans may be that, because of it, Arkansas’ offensive line should be a strength.
It isn’t right now, but that’s something Pittman said after the loss he recognized. Arkansas doesn’t have a ton of free time to fix things, though, what with LSU, Texas A&M, Alabama and Ole Miss on the slate over the next month.
Those four games will go a long way in determining whether Yurachek’s defense will hold come October.