Sam Pittman’s first season at Arkansas sometimes feels like something out of a movie.

The Razorbacks entered as the lowest team on the SEC totem pole, with no conference wins in the past two seasons. They rectified that by their second game and have kept surprising people each week since. Saturday against Tennessee was another one of those times.

Arkansas put themselves in a difficult spot with their first-half play and went into halftime down 13-0. Pittman said after the game that their spirits felt a bit defeated upon entering the locker room, but he still believed his team had a shot.

“I’ve been coaching football a long time,” he said. “Thirteen points? It’s not like we were down 50. Our locker room felt a little down. I just said, ‘Hey, look. We’re going to get the ball and go score. We’re gonna hold ‘em, and we’re gonna be up before you know it. Just keep the faith.’ … I told them, ‘The mind is so powerful. Your mind needs to tell you that we’re gonna go win the game.’”

It seems obvious now that no one should have doubted the Razorbacks’ grit.

Fueled by Pittman’s motivating words, they looked like a completely different team in the third quarter. Arkansas (3-3) scored 24 unanswered points and held the Volunteers to just 16 yards of offense to snatch back the momentum. Neither team scored in the fourth as the Hogs rode it out for a 24-13 victory.

Feleipe Franks continued to be the leader Arkansas lacked in the past few seasons. Time and again, he made plays both through the air and on the ground. He had a 56-yard connection with Mike Woods that was nearly a touchdown before Woods stepped out at the 6. It still set up the go-ahead score and was one of the most important plays of the game.

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The very next drive, Franks completed yet another pass for a huge chunk of yardage. He hit Treylon Burks in stride for a 59-yard touchdown to put Arkansas up 21-13. Burks finished just 5 yards shy of his fourth 100-yard receiving game this season.

Franks finished the game with 233 total yards and 3 touchdowns and improved to 3-0 in his career against Tennessee (2-4). Pittman was extremely complimentary of the offense in postgame, in particular coordinator Kendal Briles.

“We talked about needing to make some explosive plays,” Pittman said. “Get our engine revved up. Mike did, and of course Treylon did. But Feleipe threw ‘em. We needed something momentum-wise. Some kind of big play to get us going. There were several of them. Even some runs had decent yardage on them as well.

“Kendal is a really good offensive coordinator. There’s a lot of people that can sit at home and say, ‘I wouldn’t have called this.’ Well, he wouldn’t have, either, if he knew it wasn’t gonna work. But the guy is a damn good offensive coordinator, and I’m really happy he’s our offensive coordinator at Arkansas.”

The defense, which has been the Razorbacks’ strong point all year, made its impact, too.

Tennessee dominated time of possession in the first half. In the second? The Volunteers’ longest possession was 2:35 and ended with an interception. Arkansas came away with 2 picks and now have an SEC-leading 12 on the season.

The story of this game fit perfectly in line with the rest of this year. The Razorbacks have excelled in going beyond what we think is possible and are now firmly among the second or third tier of SEC teams. A bowl game is seeming more like an inevitability than a possibility at this point.

Arkansas has a tough matchup next week at Florida, Franks’ former team. At the beginning of the season, no one would have predicted the Hogs to win. The number who will now is probably still small, but it’s not out of the question anymore.

That’s in part because Pittman makes this team as fun to play for as it is to watch. The Razorbacks tweeted a video after the game of the team celebrating in the locker room. It all culminated with Pittman yelling, “Quit talking, turn that jukebox on!” and the team blasting music over speakers and dancing.

The Hogs have given themselves plenty of reasons to dance to this point. How many more can they create?