Fans didn’t learn much in the first two games about this Arkansas football team.
When playing a FCS and then one of the weaker FBS schools in America, not only is it hard to motivate players to get up for those opponents, but it also isn’t a good gauge of how good your team ultimately is because theoretically, a team could sleepwalk through the majority of the game and still win.
Essentially, that’s what Arkansas did against Kent State.
“What’s amazing is first two game weeks, what’s amazing is that you prepare for the first game and it’s like ‘when is it going to get here?” Pittman said. “As you prepare nine days out, you’re assuming the guys are going to be hyped up because it’s first game of the year. Second game, you can prepare them all you want, as urgent as you want. They have to accept there’s a reason for urgency. Sometimes it’s simply who you’re playing.”
With BYU coming to town Saturday night, however, along with a national television audience on ESPN2, this will be the chance for the Razorbacks to show out.
At the time, people chalked that up to the Bobby Petrino return factor, and that Arkansas was looking ahead to the SEC opener with Texas A&M.
Maybe that was the case.
However, if Arkansas thinks they can afford to do that again, BYU will walk out of here with a victory.
“BYU, I know this, last year BYU was an urgent game,” Pittman said. “It was a must-win for us. It is now. It’s hard to beat a team that hasn’t lost. Both of us haven’t, so someone is going to have to. I think our kids understand the urgency of this game.”