Arkansas defense focused on bouncing back after poor performance

The Arkansas defense enjoyed a solid start to the season despite the team’s overall disappointing performance. Defensive coordinator Travis Williams had taken the unit from 124th in total defense in 2022 to 40th entering last week’s game against Auburn. The Razorbacks then suffered their worst defeat of the year, allowing 48 points and 517 yards.

The catastrophic defeat destroyed the Hogs’ momentum following their emotional win at Florida in Week 10, and has cast doubt on the job security of head coach Sam Pittman. With questions surrounding the program, the Arkansas defenders are focused on righting the ship during this week’s matchup with FIU.

“Obviously, everybody on the team was disappointed in the outcome of the game,” linebacker Chris Paul Jr. said. “Nobody feels like they played Arkansas’ brand of football. With Coach [Williams], it was just how do we get back to that Arkansas brand? How do we get back to that physical, flying around, playing fast, communicating defense that we were? Just sitting back, we’ve been heavy in the film room like we’ve been doing.’

“Coach [Williams] has not changed his coaching style at all. He’s still a highly energetic guy that’s going to run around. We feed off his energy. He’s still going to coach us hard. He’s still going to give us tough love and things like that. So, we just listen to him. We sit back and we trust him. With everything we have going on here, we trust our defensive staff.”

Schematic changes will certainly be necessary following the loss, but the bigger issue appeared to be effort. Auburn ran the ball on 26 of their final 27 plays, but the Razorbacks still had trouble stopping the Tigers. Arkansas’ tackling was particularly poor and played a big part in Auburn rushing for 354 yards.

“I feel like it’s more so on the player,” defensive end Landon Jackson said. “We came into our unit meeting and Coach told us everything that he knew he did wrong. Then he just showed us certain plays at practice and the same play being called in game and we just weren’t executing the play, to be honest. We weren’t playing our style of football, weren’t wrapping up.

“Our tackling was by far the worst that it’s been all year in that game. That’s our biggest thing. Stressing that when we’re thudding in practice, to really thud and wrap the guy up. That’s something we did not do.”

While a significant portion of the Arkansas fanbase has called for Pittman’s dismissal, the Razorback head coach has continued to motivate his players.

“Coach [Pittman’s] message to us is he still loves us, still giving us his all so, I mean, I’m still going to give him my all,” Jackson said.

The Razorbacks are 29.5-point favorites Saturday against FIU. Kickoff from Fayetteville is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. (CST), and the game will be televised by ESPNU.

Following a 48-10 home loss against the Auburn Tigers, the Arkansas Razorbacks can put any hopes of a bowl game to bed. With two games remaining on the schedule, and plenty hanging in the balance regarding the long-term future of the program, the Hogs will be playing for pride in front a home crowd that has not seen a win since Week 2.

The Razorbacks’ 3-7 record to this point has come as a surprise to most, and most of the promising moments throughout the year have come away from Fayetteville. As the Hogs look to improve on a 1-3 record at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium this season and welcome in Florida International, redshirt junior offensive lineman Joshua Braun believes the objective is clear.

“Ultimately, it comes down to us as an offense just doing what we’re supposed to do,” Braun said. “We haven’t put together a good showing at home, so it doesn’t matter if it’s FIU or Georgia at home this week, we’re preparing exactly the same way, hoping to put on a good show for the fans and just for our brothers.”

“Our season is very simple now,” Braun said. “We have two games left. At this point it’s a point of pride. We’re going out there to put on a show. We’re not playing for championships. We’re not playing for anything except our brothers and our fans and our pride in ourselves. I hope that’s the product we put on the field on Saturday.”

“I feel like we are putting everything out there for our coaches because we really love these guys,” Paul said. “These guys are passionate about the game of ball and things like that. For us, the big thing about it is just blocking out the outside noise and playing our brand of football, going out and worry about FIU this week. Taking advantage of the two opportunities that we have left to get this program going in the right direction.”