Complete press conference with Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman after a 48-14 loss to Missouri on Saturday at Razorback Stadium to wrap up a 4-8 season.
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00:00 Want to start out twofold thanking the fans for
00:03 continuing to come out and support us over the Thanksgiving holiday and
00:09 congratulate Missouri. We knew they had a really good football team,
00:13 physical football team, and they played a really good game today and
00:18 obviously we did not, but congratulations to them and they were
00:23 a physical team and running backs really good and
00:28 we had a hard time, couldn't stop it and
00:32 and I'll be ready for questions. Sam, can you fill us in on what KJ looked
00:38 like his left knee and then obviously that was that was
00:41 Jacoby's first extended time just and I was rough sledding for him against
00:45 that defense. Just what could you fill us on KJ and then what
00:48 you thought of Jacoby? KJ hyperextended the knee. I don't
00:53 think that it's going to be that bad. As a matter
00:56 of fact, he was trying to come back and this had another week
00:59 gave in until halftime and I didn't want to put him he was he was
01:04 he was not going to be full speed and I didn't want to put him back out there
01:09 at that point. He said he wasn't able to go but he certainly tried to
01:13 go. Jacoby, you know he's tough. I thought he
01:17 he played extremely hard but he just didn't have any time to throw the
01:22 football. I mean none nor did KJ for that matter.
01:27 But you know we got beat up front. O-line we
01:30 gave up a sack by a running back. He gave up a sack on a hot on a
01:36 empty protection. Jacoby himself so but we just never he never had any
01:42 time to throw the football so it'd be hard to judge
01:44 his performance but he you could say he was tough and very gritty.
01:48 As rough as that was how could that maybe help him just
01:51 that experience you know moving forward? He's a comp you saw
01:55 you know he's competitive and so and he's athletic and things of
02:01 that nature and and tough. I thought he did a nice
02:05 job of leading the team. Obviously in the fourth
02:10 quarter he let us let us down a couple touchdowns to
02:13 a nice touchdown pass but it's really hard to judge him other than
02:19 his character and his toughness to continue to get up and
02:23 and play. Coach with Hunter giving you his backing for next year and
02:28 just generating trying to generate some momentum going into the offseason with
02:31 this performance how how do you generate that going into the
02:35 offseason? I don't know. Somebody else.
02:40 Must have had another solid day but I think they had two carries in the first
02:44 half. Would you like to get him more involved early on?
02:46 Yeah I thought we we would. The problem is when you have
02:50 when you have reads when you have quarterback run to run
02:57 and when we called a lot of plays to him but basically what they were doing
03:02 they were knife in the end and and running the Willie out which is a normal
03:06 thing for our for any defense and so Jacobi was seeing that
03:14 read taken away from him so he was and KJ and was pulling the ball so
03:21 we did have runs called for him just they were taken away with the read.
03:27 The CBS broadcast mentioned that you could have an OC as soon as next week.
03:31 Is that right and do you have a timeline on when you might like to have an OC
03:34 hired? Well I hope so because the portal comes
03:36 open you know on Friday and next Friday so
03:42 and obviously with the kids that we have that are committed I think
03:46 that you want to be right but you also want to be
03:50 as fast as you possibly can you know you would like to get some guys in here
03:54 maybe Tuesday Wednesday so they could talk to the kids before
04:00 we need to go out on the road but I don't know if that's possible or not but
04:04 obviously we've been in conversations with several
04:06 several different people. Speaking of speed do you expect to have like exit
04:10 interviews like pretty quick after this? Yeah Trey we're
04:14 going to have Monday we're going to start with those
04:20 obviously we have a staff
04:24 team meeting at four o'clock on Monday but we're going to start talking about
04:31 with the guys that are plus one that have some type of
04:36 NFL ranking and we'll go through there first with those guys.
04:43 You know starting with the Florida game it's been a difficult close for the
04:46 defense I mean what has does anything we've talked
04:49 about tackling but anything else specifically change you think?
04:52 We've made some mental errors I mean we've cut the
04:55 tight end loose twice and you know 39 man so
05:03 we I don't think we've added and things of that nature
05:06 but since and Florida you know scored 36 I think too you know so
05:15 it was a tackling issue I think more today you know they were cracking
05:22 with the wide receiver and we our replace guy we know whether it be
05:28 the corner whether it be the safety we just weren't getting there
05:31 and they were getting right outside on the edge and we weren't
05:34 handling the edge at defensive end and and they were cracking
05:38 inside down on first force and and our corners were going to have to make plays
05:43 or our safeties and we never you know we did the second half second
05:46 half but really more in the second half we were getting penetration
05:50 in there to beginning of the second half but we didn't give our defense any
05:53 chance then because you know we had two or three turnovers
05:57 bam bam bam in a row and they came out and fought but
06:02 you know you can't can't beat anybody with five turnovers and
06:06 and that's what happened there. You spoke about wanting the fight from
06:12 your team I'm guessing a little too much fight there in the second quarter and
06:15 also wondering if you could share maybe you got the whole team together
06:18 after the altercation what the message was after the we're not coming off the
06:22 bench you know that's the main thing if you
06:24 just keep the guys on the field the officials can handle all that kind
06:28 of stuff but coming off the sideline or having problems when they get on the
06:34 sideline you know obviously the quarterback was
06:37 hit late out of bounds and then their their
06:41 offensive line came in to our bench and you know
06:45 and then we retaliated and and we can't have that but
06:50 you know then it went on to the field and I'm glad I think we got it
06:53 stopped fairly quick you know and all those things both Eli and myself and
06:58 and our people I felt like got it stopped pretty quick but
07:02 you know just as rivalry it escalated into
07:06 on our sideline I think they had some problems over on theirs as well
07:11 it was 20 to nothing at halftime what were you thinking then still in the
07:14 game you know we got the ball back you know
07:18 but you know we had to do something more
07:21 offensively I don't I mean we had I think four first downs in the first
07:24 half and one of them was a was a fumble you know
07:28 after we got 20-25 yards whatever it may be
07:31 we were thinking about moving the pocket
07:35 you know continue to do our reads but not necessarily same side you know
07:42 same side read maybe a way read running back to the other side in other
07:50 words same side reads are here and they were
07:53 running the little willie willie stun on us and we were trying to
07:57 get away from it go towards the open inside and then maybe go
08:01 back to the tight inside because we felt like that would give us a better
08:05 chance to either whenever to eat up to the
08:09 willie with the tackle or pull it and go back the other side
08:13 and that was maybe the major adjustment there and then we were
08:17 talking about trying to move the pocket you know but
08:20 then we moved the pocket and guy came right through the right through and
08:23 and hit Jacoby and the ball went up in the air and we were rolling
08:27 which is about as simple as protection as we have
08:32 would you be inclined and want to keep your entire defensive staff most of your
08:35 defensive staff now those questions are you know hard to
08:40 answer obviously i'd like to
08:45 have a little bit more time to evaluate everybody but
08:50 those are all those are hard to answer at this point you know
08:53 we just got our butt kicked you know and and
08:57 i need to take some time to figure out exactly what we need to do
09:03 over the entire and over the entire staff
09:06 how disappointing were all the hits on the quarterback because they they got a
09:09 few tonight well
09:13 i think we went into the game with over 40 sacks you know
09:17 so um that's our we've got to shore up a lot of
09:22 things that's that's our main thing we've got to get
09:25 fixed and uh very disappointing because we're just not we're not giving
09:31 you know we're not getting our wide receivers a chance to you know
09:34 get open and catch the ball and we're certainly not giving our quarterback
09:38 those opportunities either so you know we went to empty against
09:43 florida and it worked and it worked because in all honesty i
09:47 don't think they'd ever seen it and they weren't ready for it
09:49 and then all these other teams have become ready for it
09:52 and we've done a decent job last week against fiu but
09:58 um you know certainly this week we did not
10:03 you know when you're talking about an offensive offensive coordinator
10:06 what kind of offense are you want are you wanting a tempo
10:09 pro style i mean what what are you thinking about for next year on offense
10:13 well i think you have to find the fit but you know you certainly
10:17 you certainly want a guy that brings something special to
10:22 to the university whether that be you know what kb did in the past
10:30 whether that be a combination of what kendall did and
10:34 and some pro style stuff you know i think we need
10:38 a guy that really wants to be here and understands arkansas
10:42 and but the number one thing is we need somebody that understands how to run the
10:47 football and because we have to run the football
10:51 in my opinion to win and of all the problems that we've had
10:55 this year in all honesty it all stemmed a bunch of it because we
11:00 can't run the football and uh so
11:04 that that would be my number one thing is sit down and vision with a man that
11:08 knows how to to uh run the football
11:12 you know you gave it a great shot yeah it's you think he would be willing
11:19 to stay as a wide receiver coach again and i appreciate the question but i
11:24 just haven't had time to talk with kenny i've obviously
11:27 interviewed him for the offensive coordinator job and those things but
11:31 um i'm i'm i'm really pleased with what he did
11:38 as offensive coordinator i mean um went going and beating florida and then
11:43 scoring 44 i think they're gonna support some 37
11:47 last week and and uh i'm really grateful for him
11:51 because he he worked his butt off and and
11:55 and did as good a job as he possibly could do and i'm
11:58 i'm thankful for him profit divine issues there
12:03 well you gotta go you know you gotta go in the portal and you know i look back
12:10 at at auburn coming in here and and i think
12:14 i think four of their five was from the portal and then
12:17 i think seven of their eight of their say seven of their top eight players
12:22 o lineman were transfers um there's an opportunity to do that and
12:28 we've got to get better with the ones that we have here
12:31 as well but
12:35 you don't have to be a football coach and just be that no we need
12:40 help and so we've got to go address that and that will be our
12:45 number one place to address because without that you
12:49 you really can't have a lot of success offensively and with that you can have
12:54 a whole bunch of success but we got to get that we got to get it fixed and
12:58 that's something negative about the kids we have we just got to get that one
13:01 fixed i think everybody knows that you mentioned nil in the last press
13:06 conference feel a lot better about it i was
13:08 wondering if you could expand any more on that well no i can't and i
13:12 wish i could uh i can't but i do feel uh much better
13:17 about it i think we're going to be very competitive there and
13:19 and um i'm really excited about that hell nobody wants to set up here
13:25 like this nobody does but um i'm the head coach i'm supposed to set up
13:31 here when good and bad but i think there is a
13:36 big chance for us to to change where we're at at four and
13:40 eight and i'm excited to have the opportunity to do it but
13:45 but um i am excited about our nia situation
13:52 you might not have phrased it right at the beginning but i was just kind of
13:55 asking about that in terms of the momentum with the
13:57 program is it a big splash higher oaks oc is it landing some big studs
14:02 yeah transfer portal what what creates the momentum from
14:05 to turn this program well i think the first thing is you gotta go find
14:09 an offensive coordinator you know one that wants to be here one that
14:14 uh you know it'd be fun if you got understood the state you know and
14:19 understood the sec and all those type things i will say
14:23 this that arkansas is is uh very well respected
14:28 by some of the folks that i've been able to talk to and
14:32 i feel very very good that that we'll get a
14:35 offensive coordinator that wants to be wants to be here and wants to
14:39 um uh lead help lead our program uh to a lot of a lot of great things
14:46 um but i we talked about the nil again no what
14:51 were you saying just the coordinator that that we need to get in pretty quick
14:55 we need to get that oh you're talking about uh yeah
14:58 well what you got to do is you got to get the right coordinator
15:02 that that uh that is going to help us win
15:06 and then we've got to start now as we betray if we just started
15:10 going okay this guy committed this guy committed this guy committed you know
15:13 what i mean just change instead of just nobody
15:16 commits where's our coordinator all that stuff
15:19 obviously that's gonna fester uh but if we can get a coordinator that
15:25 we believe can reach four points and then go get some
15:29 starting honestly with soaring up the offensive line
15:33 i think we can get momentum back you know we obviously have been invited to
15:38 three of three bowl games in the last four years
15:42 this one right here is a disappointing year
15:46 more so to be honest with you that there was
15:50 way way higher optimism about this year than what it ended up being and
15:58 we got to change it we got to fix it and uh
16:02 but i think you asked me before too there's no doubt in my mind i'm the guy
16:06 that can change it especially with the opportunities that
16:09 we've been afforded i think i had a social media post today
16:14 that said like one last time that made it the sense that this is it for him
16:18 do you have that sense that he'll he won't be back
16:24 i don't know um i really don't i don't know um
16:31 we haven't sat down and spoke about it and
16:35 i never do until monday with the guy so in all honesty if he if he
16:42 put that out there that probably means that he's had all the
16:46 college or all the arkansas ready that he wants i
16:49 i just haven't talked to him about
16:52 i'm gonna see legend tackles this year i think the last two games is playing
16:56 time kind of growth you kind of reveal kind of what's going on
17:00 jaheim's done a nice job he had you know obviously had some tackling and
17:05 tackling problems things of that nature not not like anybody else
17:09 but to be perfectly honest with you i think greer just
17:12 just uh played a little bit better when he was in there
17:15 and uh he played better in practice when he was there but
17:20 jaheim's got a strong future here but um
17:25 what injuries or anything like that or just i think where we felt like we're
17:28 playing a bit better following up on tom's question if this is
17:32 kj's last game just how disappointing is it that
17:34 he goes out with a game like this and you know with the injury and that kind of
17:38 thing i imagine it's disappointing i got a
17:42 hundred of them there's disappointed too as well but i imagine it's
17:46 disappointing but kj's had so many great moments here you know
17:52 if he's if he dwells one second on on a game
17:56 here that he got hurt on you know uh that's not his legacy at all and and i'm
18:02 sure he's disappointed that he wasn't able to play the entire game
18:06 and help his team out but he's he's been so valuable to me our
18:11 program over the last four years including the first year when he went up
18:15 to missouri and played a really nice game last one
18:19 how confident are you that you'll be able to keep this recruiting class that
18:22 you have together uh these last few weeks
18:25 very confident