FAYETTEVILLE -- The Arkansas Razorbacks took their final off day prior to the season-opener Sunday. The preseason No. 19 University of Arkansas will host No. 23 Cincinnati on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
The game will mark the first battle of ranked opponents in an Arkansas season-opener since the No. 6 Razorbacks fell 23-17 at No. 10 Texas on Sept. 1, 1980.
Third-year Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman is 12-11, including 7-11 in SEC play, after the Razorbacks were 8-28 overall, 1-23 in the SEC the three seasons prior. Arkansas was 9-4 with four trophy game wins in 2021 after going 3-7 versus an All-SEC schedule in 2020.
Pittman was asked at the Hawg Illustrated Sports Club luncheon last week if the program's turnaround has come quicker than he expected.
"Well, it didn't seem like it the first year, even though there were some really great things going on," Pittman said. "Our kids were competing and fighting.
"I've always been a huge Arkansas fan, so I always thought Arkansas could be whatever the hell they wanted to be, to be honest with you. I knew we had to win the close games. But to get to nine in year two? I'd be lying if I said I probably expected that. I probably did not.
"That doesn't mean I didn't trust and believe in the kids and the coaching staff. It's just we play in a heck of a league."
Faster reads
Coach Sam Pittman said quarterback KJ Jefferson has shown during camp that he has taken strides on making quicker reads on his keys and getting the ball out faster.
"Yeah, you know, he's done that all fall," Pittman said. "I think getting the ball out of your hands quicker has everything to do with knowing where to go with the ball pre-snap.
"Going with the ball, where his reads are much faster if one is covered, 'I'm going there.' I don't know, you'd have to ask him, but I think a lot of times it was, 'I'm going to go with one read, and if it's not open I'm going to find [Treylon] Burks.' Which worked out pretty good, you know.
"But this year I think he understands coverages and looks and all that. He's got a quicker release, but I think that's why he's throwing the ball faster."
Good eyes
Safety Jalen Catalon might be back to his old form this season after playing hurt through six games last year and not looking himself before undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery.
"He makes a lot of plays," Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman said of Catalon. "He looks fast. Maybe to y'all he's always looked fast. But man, he looks fast.
"He eyes seem to be in the right place all the time. Great leader, him and [Simeon] Blair. Blair too has had an outstanding camp. ... But Cat's like he never missed a beat."
Pittman said having leaders like Isaiah Nichols on the defensive front, Bumper Pool at linebacker, and Blair and Catalon in the secondary has great value.
"Any time you have leaders on each level, you can pretty much have an accountable defense and fly around to the football, which we're doing," Pittman said.
Returning kicks
There doesn't appear to be a definite decision made for the Razorbacks' top kickoff return man. But it appears running back AJ Green and receivers Jadon Haselwood, Matt Landers and Isaiah Sategna are the top candidates, while Bryce Stephens and Sategna look like the top options for punt returner. Myles Slusher had been in the mix for kickoff returning but was taken out of consideration last week.
Landers and Slusher, speaking to members of the media last week, were asked their thoughts on potentially returning kicks.
"I really kind of do it for staying conditioned, but if Coach needed me back there, I'd do it," Landers said.
"I'm just going with the flow," Slusher added.
Warren's work
Coach Sam Pittman said last week he "never would have thought" receiver Warren Thompson would be the player he is now based on what he saw from the 6-3, 193-pounder at this time a year ago.
Thompson was told of Pittman's remarks and asked how he has changed.
"I just tried to change my mentality and my, like, mental approach to the game," Thompson said. "So that's great to hear that from him, but I had that. I knew I had to be better since I played the last game, Penn State. So I knew I had to get better from that moment. And I made that my mission and my goal."
Good signs
Sam Pittman declared the Razorbacks have a "pretty good football team" after the second scrimmage last week.
"When you have problems on a football team, it's when they won't run to the ball, when they won't strain on their blocks, when you don't have talent to throw or catch it, when you don't have talent to cover somebody," Pittman said. "Those are when you have problems. When you have guys that don't want to be on the team and are problems in the locker room. That's when you have problems on a team.
"We don't have that. Everything we are doing [wrong], we can fix. It's just the little details. We had some offsides on the offensive line. We had a hard time on offense protecting at times."
Nice punt
Senior Reid Bauer eventually won the punting job in 2020, but in Arkansas' second game at Mississippi State he was backing up George Caratan.
With the Razorbacks leading 21-14 and facing fourth-and-36 at the 50 with 32 seconds left, special teams coordinator Scott Fountain told Bauer he was up after Caratan had handled the first seven punts of the game.
Fountain said Bauer had recently shared with his teammates his mindset before the crucial punt.
"'It's the last punt of the game. I've got to get it off or we're going to lose,'" Fountain recalled Bauer saying. "He said, 'I'm telling you, I about blacked out.'"
Bauer got off a nice put that Austin Williams fair caught at the Mississippi State 12. The Bulldogs got as far as their 43 on the final play as Arkansas broke its 20-game SEC losing streak.
Fountain said he had Bauer execute a rugby punt because he knew Mississippi State would rush up the middle.
"I didn't know if I was going to go in that game, and it was looking like the game was going to be over," Bauer said. "Coach Fountain told me to go warm up in the net.
"So that was going to be my first snap back on the field in over a year. ... I just remember being pretty nervous at first, just because I haven't done a lot of roll-out punts, but I trusted what I had been doing at practice.
"I went out on the field and all the noise kind of vanished and it was almost like I could feel my heart just beating out of my chest and that was the only thing. It was just me, the snapper [Jordan Silver] and then my heart rate honestly."
Lesson learned
Sam Pittman said he learned from pressing too much in his coaching decisions in a 38-23 home loss to Auburn last season.
"If we went for fourth-and-1, we didn't make it," Pittman said at the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club luncheon. "If we decided to kick a field goal, we missed it.
"Everything was a press. I learned a big lesson as a head coach: Just stay in the game. Let them mess it up, because we're not going to. Just let them mess up."
Pittman opted to have Cam Little try a 53-yard field goal on fourth-and-5 on the final play of the first quarter. Little missed, Auburn took possession at its 35 and drove for a touchdown.
In the second quarter rather than attempt a field goal on fourth-and-1 from the Auburn 18, Raheim "Rocket" Sanders was stopped for no gain.
Arkansas was also stopped short in the third quarter when quarterback KJ Jefferson ran for 1 yard on fourth-and-3 from the Auburn 30.
"I don't need to press, and I did that game," Pittman said. "After that, we went on a little bit of a run to finish the year. "But I learned a big, big lesson that day as a head coach, and I'm still learning."
The Auburn game was Arkansas' third consecutive loss and dropped the Razorbacks to 4-3. They went 5-1 the rest of the season to finish 9-4. The Razorbacks' only loss in their last six games was at Alabama 42-35.
Setting the tone
In reviewing Arkansas' 40-21 victory over Texas at the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club luncheon, Sam Pittman recalled quarterback KJ Jefferson running over a safety.
"I said, 'Hey man, you don't have to run over a guy,' " Pittman said. "And KJ said, 'Just setting the tone.' "
The story drew laughter from the audience.
Practice times
The Razorbacks set up their camp with practice times that reflect kickoff times for their first couple of games.
The practice start was around 2:30 p.m. the first week of camp, kickoff time for the season opener against Cincinnati on Saturday.
"Everybody's talking about the kids being hot. Hell, I was hot, too," Coach Sam Pittman said, drawing laughter from the crowd at the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club luncheon. "It was, like, 115 [degrees] and 119 heat index.
"I was out there, too, now. What about the 60-year-old man? But we got through that."
The Razorbacks practiced in the morning the second week of camp because their second game against South Carolina has an 11 a.m. kickoff.