Everything Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said after losing to Auburn

Below is a transcript from Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman’s press conference after losing to Auburn 48-10 on Saturday.

Opening statement…

Obviously Auburn played exceptional.

They were ready to play. I thought we were through the week. We got dominated today and we’ve got to go back to work and figure out why.

Obviously, Auburn played exceptional. We did not. I want to give them credit for playing very well. They were ready to play. I felt like we were through the week. I thought we were coming off a good week, had a really good week of practice. But we got dominated today, and we have to go back to work and figure out why.

On what went wrong…

We couldn’t handle the edge on defense. We tried different things out there, but any time they wanted to get on the edge, we couldn’t handle the run. We didn’t tackle well. We went back to where the protection wasn’t any good. Gave up five sacks. Couldn’t run the ball. Got stymied running the football. Things we did well last week. I thought we had a really good week of practice and preparation. We felt really good going into the game. They jumped on us on the first drive. Then they held us and came back with a punt, but we did the same thing to Florida last week. They came back and we never did. Didn’t tackle well all game. Didn’t block well all game. That’s what happened. We haven’t been in this situation, but we were in it today. Fought and tried to get out of it. We just never did.

On going 1-12 on 3rd downs…

You hit it. Third and long. It always seemed like we couldn’t win first down at all. Third and long was a problem for us. We tried several different things. Empty, six-man protection, rolling out, nakeds, things of that nature, running it. They were just more physical than us, and really dominated us.

On if Arkansas’ energy dropped after falling behind…

It’s like a lot of times you’ll say get the momentum back, but we just never had it. It was seven, then the punt, then another three-and-out, then another drive for a touchdown. At some point you need somebody to make a play, and then Nudie made the play. And we go out there and three downs and make two yards and kick a field goal. They just physically whipped us in all phases of the game.

On if Pittman is concerned for his job security…

I’m not, and let me say why. Because it’s never been about me being the head coach. It’s been about me and these kids. But, to answer your question, no, I’m not.

On why Pittman used Jacolby Crisswell as the QB after KJ Jefferson was taken out…

We’re down 41-3 and KJ is getting the heck beat out of him back there. Obviously, I wanted to look at Jacolby, and I talked to KJ. I thought he went in there and played really well. I thought he played like what I thought he would, like how he’s been practicing and things of that nature. The bottom line is it was seven minutes left in the third quarter, and we’re down 41-3. KJ was bloodied up a little bit, and I wanted to see what Jacolby could do.

On Criswell getting snaps with starters…

Well, we have given him some looks recently in two-minute and things of that nature, but there isn’t a quarterback controversy in my opinion.

On what the Arkansas sideline was like during the blowout…

Well, as you would imagine, you’re obviously trying to continue to pump up and motivate. We are, some of the kids are, all this. The sideline was about like what it was on the field, to be perfectly honest with you. But I didn’t feel like we quit, I just didn’t feel like we ever really started today, and that’s all of us.

On poor Arkansas tackling…

Well, tackling inside – and we didn’t do that particularly well either – but tackling out in space is a whole different story than tackling in space, you know what I mean? So, we’ve kind of gotten exposed the last couple of weeks in space. It wasn’t because we didn’t work on it because we spent most of indies tackling, but we knew we needed to emphasize what we didn’t do well last week against Florida. We need to continue to work on it more because we weren’t very good at tackling today.

On why Arkansas has played poorly at home…

Yeah, I don’t. We thought about our routine and what we do, things of that nature. We didn’t go to the movies or do anything like that. We never do that for a 3 o’clock game, but it was kind of ‘lock us in, get us focused’ type things. The week was identical to last week practice-wise. I’ll be honest with you, motivation-wise it was a really good week. It really was. I don’t know why, unless Auburn was just that much better than us today, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think for whatever reason, we didn’t play with a lot of energy, it looked to me like. Maybe they sucked it out of us fast, but that’s not what a good or well-coached team does.

On the home crowd…

Well, I think one of our main goals this week was to perform for them because they have been sticking with us and been out there like they did. So, I’m really very happy that they came out and supported us again and very disappointed that we couldn’t do a much better job than we did.

On the health of Raheim “Rocket” Sanders…

I don’t know. I don’t really know how bad he is or anything like that yet for sure.

On what changed on offense from beating Florida to struggling against Auburn…

Last week, we threw some bubbles and made some plays that maybe took them out of the box a little bit. We didn’t play as much men as what we did today, but other than just getting whipped. The other thing is, last week was a surprise to them with what we did and the pace that we did it and all that. But you’ve got to get some first downs to play a fast pace, and I don’t think we did that until somewhere in the second quarter.

On what, if anything, changes now that Arkansas will not go to a bowl game…

Well, we’ve got to win. We’re going to play to win. We’ve got to beat Florida International next week, so we’re going to continue to do what we feel is the best to get us a win. I think a lot of it will have to do with where we’re at physically. We had several guys go off today, so I think we’ll have to figure out where we are physically. Our job is to give our kids the best chance to win, so that’s what we’ll do next week.

On keeping players engaged with no bowl prospects…

There was a lot of importance to win today, and that was one of them, to keep that alive. To get to Missouri. Hopefully, you could get to Missouri with that opportunity. We talked to them a little bit afterwards, we’ll kind of see a little bit more on what we’re made of. Are we going to go fight and prepare and do these types of things this week? I have no doubt that we will. But, we’ve got to get ready for FIU, and I just don’t think there’s any way that we won’t be ready for them. I don’t think we have a locker room problem. We got our butt kicked today.

On the punt returners…

Sometimes we will outkick our coverage a little bit, but if we outkick our coverage and get the ball in the middle of the field, we’ve got problems. That’s a little bit of what happened this time and the last time. If we can cut it inside the hash, then we can basically take a lot of the field away. He had a two-way go on us a little bit today, on that one.

On the locker room at halftime…

I thought we were engaged, but we were in trouble now. We were in trouble. It was 27-3, and we hadn’t done a lot of things. (Didn’t have) success in any phase of the game, so we tried to pump them up about competing and we had the ball first and all these type things. We tried to do a good job of adjusting our protections, our runs, why we can’t handle the edge on defense. We told them we had a gameplan of what we were going to try to get done and try to give them hope that we’re in it with them. That we’re trying to help them with what we’re doing, and it just didn’t work.

On Payton Thorne…

It was outstanding. Very good athlete. Very good athlete. Can throw it. They have kind of changed a little bit lately, over the last two or three weeks, they’re going back to a little more fast-paced, hurry-up type offense. RPO. Using him a lot versus a slowed-down version that they were doing earlier. He’s very valuable to them. Very good. Their offensive line, they played lights out. They were exceptional, and that’s including the tight ends and all that, but he ran the offense very well. He threw the ball well and managed the time well.

On interim offensive coordinator Kenny Guiton facing 3rd-and-longs…

It’s really hard. You try to concentrate in first and second down and stay out of that long stuff. We had a nice little run, and got a holding that took us back to first and 20. I think we ended up, I think I went for it on that one on fourth down, but it’s very, very difficult. And then you’re going, who are your playmakers? We’ve got to get them the ball. Who are they? Who can we go to, to get the ball and get the first down or get open? Who can we count on to protect? There are a lot of things that go into that, and obviously if you’re not doing a great job of protection, you don’t have as much time to get open and then you’ve got to think about moving the pocket and things of that nature. Moving the pocket is good, but if it’s not more than five or six yards. When it starts getting a little deeper than that, you have a little bit more difficulty of success.

On third down struggles…

Well, we lost first down all day on defense. I mean, all day. It seemed like second-and-three, second-and-two, second-and-four all day. We couldn’t win first down, and they should have pretty good success on third down because they were ahead of the chains it seemed to me like most all of the game.

On the health of Jaylon Braxton…

I don’t know. He wasn’t well enough to come back in the game, but we’ll have to see on that.

On the health of Antonio Grier…

No, I don’t know. I don’t know where he is injury-wise, either, but I’ll know more tomorrow.