Last season the Razorbacks had one of the worst pass rushes in the power 5, ranked second to last in the SEC.
Fast forward to now, the Hogs’ pass rush has elevated to the top of the FBS, currently third in sacks among all schools. It is a stark contrast from a year ago when the Hogs only had two sacks after two games.
This time around, they have nine total sacks going into Saturday.
“It’s had a big impact,” Pittman said about the pass rush. We have to get to the quarterback. Our secondary is continuing to get better, but we’ve got to improve there. We’ve had a couple of injuries that hurt us last week, but we have to get pressure on the quarterback.
It was one of the main topics going into the season. Everyone questioned how good the pass rush will be while expecting the secondary to be the defensive staple. Injuries play a part in the secondary struggles, but the transfer portal helped the front seven become the foundation of the pass defense.
“(We went) out in the portal and (found) somebody to rush the passer. Drew Sanders is one of those guys that we can put up on the edge and rush him. It’s helped us. The other thing, too, we’re not playing as much a three-man front as we did. We’re not really the same defense we were a year ago with the pressures and man-coverage and things of that nature.”
Sanders leads the team in sacks with three, followed by Jordan Domineck’s two.