NWADG College Football

14 NWA COLLEGE FOOTBALL PREVIEW | 9.20.2020 TOM MURPHY ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE FAYETTEVILLE — Three months after Sam Pittman lobbied hard for and ultimately landed the head coaching job at the University of Arkansas, the world was turned upside-down by the coronavirus pandemic. The virus is taking college football along on its crazy ride this fall and perhaps beyond. There is no other way to frame Pittman's debut season outside the borders of how he and his first-year staff will lead, develop and manage the Razorbacks this fall through the ongoing crisis. It is a tough hand, no doubt. When the SEC opted for a conference- only season and added two games to each team's schedule it was as if the Razorbacks were already the designated whipping boys, and they were gifted games against No. 4 Georgia and No. 8 Florida. Arkansas will be the only program in the nation among the 77 FBS schools scheduled to play this fall that is facing seven teams ranked in the preseason Associated Press top 25 poll. Pittman has handled questions about the brutal schedule in stride. "The SEC is the best and that's where Arkansas belongs, with the best," Pittman said. "We've got an incredible opportunity ahead of us." As he told the SEC Network, "When I got the job, I said we're in the SEC West, exactly where we belong. So it's kind of hard for me to say we're where we belong, but dang, I don't want to play Florida and don't want to play Georgia. We're part of the SEC, and they're part of the SEC. The draw is the draw." Pittman went on to call it "the toughest schedule in the country," and noted college football analyst Phil Steele agreed, assigning it the No. 1 spot in his rankings. Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek seemed to say "I'll see your toughest schedule remark and go all in" the day the extra games were announced. In a UA release, he said, "We already owned the nation's strongest 2020 football schedule, and with these additions to our SEC only schedule, we now own the most challenging schedule in the history of college football." This is the landscape placed before Pittman as he jumps in the saddle. The Razorbacks enter this strangest of seasons with super-sized losing streaks of nine consecutive games overall and 19 in a row in conference play. There's a chance Arkansas could be an underdog in all 10 games, if they can all be played. Some analysts have already put the Hogs on high alert for an 0-10 campaign. Pittman hired a staff, headed by coordinators Barry Odom, Kendal Briles and Scott Fountain, that seems to genuinely enjoy working together and with the first-time major college head coach in an effort of building toward contending in the SEC West. Odom, the defensive coordinator who spent the past four years as head coach at Missouri with a 4-0 record against the Razorbacks, said he thinks the players have proverbially "bought in" to what the new staff is all about. "You look at the things that we put out in front of them and the way that they've attacked it," Odom said. "Now, also everything hasn't been sunshine and rainbows. It never is. But also Coach Pittman has done such an amazing job on laying out the plan and just being honest and transparent and showing them that this is the way we're going to do things, this is our program, giving them the roadmap of what it looks like. "And we also understand there's going to be some adversity. How do we respond? How close can we get before this first game happens? Because there's going to be adversity in that first game. FACING STACKED DECK RAZORBACKS DEALT TOUGH HAND UNDER FIRST-YEAR COACH NWA Democrat-Gazette/ANDY SHUPE Arkansas linebackers Hayden Henry (right) and McKinley Williams run through a drill Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019, during practice at the university practice facility in Fayetteville. Visit nwadg.com/photos to see photographs from the practice. See DECK, Page 16

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