Trivia question for Arkansas fans.
What was the last season in which the Arkansas defense was ranked in the top 50 in total defense?
Give up? No, really, give up.
The answer isn’t two seasons ago when the Razorbacks won nine games. It isn’t the good-until-the-collapse-at-the-end team of 2015. But it is the one before it, a season that, still, holds as Arkansas’ most successful of the last 10 years.
The 2023 Arkansas defense isn’t going to be as good as the 2014’s No. 10 ranking that season. Right now, however, even with three straight losses, the Hogs have the No. 48 defense in FBS. For that record, that’s one spot worse than the team had in 2011 when the team went 11-2.
The trick going forward, the trick to snapping the losing streak, is to keep it going against Ole Miss on Saturday. The Rebels will enter with the No. 8 team in total offense. Where that gets tricky is with big plays.
The Rebels have had 42 plays go for 20 yards or more this season, a mark that puts them second in FBS, just one behind Washington. Arkansas’ defense has been susceptible to such plays, giving up 26 to rank 101st. Pittman knows the Hogs have to limit them to win.
“That may be limiting (to five, to three. They’re going to get some. You know it. I know it. Everybody knows it. It can’t be 10. It can’t be 12.”
Much like the team’s offense has struggled in the same way – they can’t seem to get big plays at a high enough clip – a small tweak there and Arkansas is sitting 4-1 instead of 2-3.
Pittman is counting on it changing.
“Can’t let them get behind us. LSU obviously did,” he said. “I’m confident in our defense and I think they’re making huge strides as the season goes on.”