Sam Pittman reacts to Arkansas' loss to Liberty: 'That’s not acceptable'
Sam Pittman and Arkansas suffered a difficult 21-19 loss to Liberty in a game where the Razorbacks fell behind early, and trailed by 18 points at halftime.
On post-game radio Pittman said, “We didn’t play anywhere close to good at all in the first half. We were lucky to even get three. Bottom line: we weren’t ready to play for whatever reason. That’s not acceptable.”
Pittman added to the media after the game that QB KJ Jefferson was less than 100% in the game and during practice this week.
Pittman also shared concerns after the game about where he thought the Razorbacks were mentally, but that he thought there was a solid game plan. However, there were mistakes in the Friday walk through, he said.
Sam Pittman said KJ Jefferson was “banged up” for today’s game. He said Jefferson was banged up all week and was just sore.
— Mason Choate (@ChoateMason) November 5, 2022
Sam Pittman on Arkansas’ performance: “I was a little bit concerned about where we were mentally. I certainly thought we had a good game plan and that we’d come out and play hard…. We weren’t playing inspired football.”
— Christina Long (@christinalong00) November 5, 2022
Sam Pittman said he talked to Kendal Briles about maybe going to Malik Hornsby when KJ Jefferson was struggling against Liberty today.
“He told me what I need to hear, that KJ’s our guy and he’ll get going here eventually…In my opinion, that was the right thing to do.”
— Mason Choate (@ChoateMason) November 5, 2022
“I just asked what took so long.”
-Pittman on what he said to the officials during the review of the 2pt conversion
— ESPN Arkansas & HitThatLine.com (@HitThatLineAR) November 5, 2022
“We have LSU coming in here. Our job is to put the best team out there we can.”
-Pittman on what’s next
— ESPN Arkansas & HitThatLine.com (@HitThatLineAR) November 5, 2022
“We needed to play hard enough to win the 3rd quarter.”
-Pittman on halftime adjustments
— ESPN Arkansas & HitThatLine.com (@HitThatLineAR) November 5, 2022
“We had a couple mistakes on Friday during our walkthrough.”
-Pittman on game prep this week
— ESPN Arkansas & HitThatLine.com (@HitThatLineAR) November 5, 2022
“There were so many plays that could’ve turned the momentum.”
-Pittman on the tipped interception in the end zone
— ESPN Arkansas & HitThatLine.com (@HitThatLineAR) November 5, 2022
Sam Pittman: “We’ve lost games since I’ve been here, but not like this.”
— Christina Long (@christinalong00) November 5, 2022
H/T Josh Bertaccini.