FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Alabama has been the dominant program in college football for more than a decade, and Sam Pittman has been working somewhere in the Southeastern Conference for much of that time.
After the top-ranked Crimson Tide buried his Arkansas Razorbacks 52-3 on Saturday, Pittman delivered a dose of what Alabama coach Nick Saban once famously referred to as “rat poison.”
“On tape, it’s the best Alabama team I’ve seen,” said the 59-year-old Pittman, 3-7 in his first season as head coach in Fayetteville after previously working as an SEC assistant at Tennessee (2012), Arkansas (2013-15) and Georgia (2016-19). “(Saban) is going to hate me for saying that. I think he calls that rat poison. But that’s how I believe. That’s the best squad I’ve seen. They’re hard to stop.”
That’s Pittman’s opinion. It’s a fact that Alabama has gone 10-0 against an all-SEC schedule, an unprecedented feat, heading into next Saturday night’s league championship game against Florida at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Tide are on track for the No. 1 seed and a return to the College Football Playoff after a one-year absence.
“One of the motivating factors was win 10 SEC games in a regular season, which has never been done before,” Saban said. “And obviously we wanted to play to a standard. We got started a little slow and as the game went on, we got better and better on defense and controlled the tempo on offense. All in all, I was really pleased. We got to play a lot of players.”
With the game tied at 3 late in the first quarter, DeVonta Smith returned a punt 84 yards for a touchdown as Alabama began a 28-point outburst that covered 11 minutes of game clock.
Running back Najee Harris scored consecutive touchdowns just 14 seconds apart in the second quarter, and Brian Robinson Jr.’s 1-yard plunge made it 31-3 with 6:43 left in the half. Robinson added a 4-yard touchdown run in the final minute for a 38-3 advantage at intermission.
Outside of his big play on special teams, it was a quiet day for Smith, who had three catches for 22 yards, but the senior receiver bolstered his surging case for Heisman Trophy consideration with that return.
“We gave up 76 yards early in the game, then we went for a good little stretch where they didn’t get a first down and we started getting momentum on offense,” Saban said. “The punt return was big.”
AP photo by Michael Woods / Alabama defensive lineman Phidarian Mathis (48) sacks Arkansas quarterback Feleipe Franks during the first half of Saturday’s game in Fayetteville.Alabama’s defense totaled eight sacks, the fifth of which resulted in a fumble by Arkansas quarterback Feliepe Franks that was recovered by the Tide’s DJ Dale at the Razorbacks’ 4. Harris scored on the next play.
Alabama allowed 188 yards and kept Arkansas from registering a first down during a streak of seven straight possessions from the first quarter to the third.
“We were having trouble picking them up,” Pittman said of the Tide’s defensive rushes. “I had trouble picking them up when I was (offensive line coach) at Georgia with arguably the best line in football. We have to figure out how to move the pocket. Nobody can just sit back there against Alabama.”
Harris and Robinson combined for 100 yards on 27 carries, and Jase McLellan added a final rushing touchdown, an 80-yarder, with 1:51 left. Alabama junior Mac Jones, another Heisman candidate, was 24-of-29 passing for 208 yards before being pulled in the third quarter with the outcome not in doubt.
Arkansas backup quarterback K.J. Jefferson left in the third with an apparent leg injury, bringing Franks back into the game to finish. They combined to go 9-of-17 for 108 yards.
Alabama leading tackler Christian Harris left the game after the first play when he came up with a lame shoulder after a tackle. Saban said he was unsure the extent of the injury and that the linebacker was scheduled for an MRI.
The Tide’s win was its 14th straight over Arkansas – it’s the Razorbacks’ longest losing streak against a single opponent in school history – and the 49-point margin of victory is the largest in the series since Alabama’s back-to-back 52-0 wins in 2012-13.
An encouraging first regular season under Pittman ended with a four-game losing streak, but the Razorbacks’ three SEC wins are just one fewer than they had the previous four seasons combined – and in this strange, coronavirus-altered season, Arkansas may have another game to play due to the NCAA waiving bowl eligibility requirements (in terms of wins) this season.