Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel and Arkansas counterpart Sam Pittman made it clear this week that there will be no lack of respect for one another when Heupel’s No. 4 Volunteers face Pittman’s Razorbacks inside Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday night.
Same with Sunday, Monday and every day after that.
“I think he does a great job, and he’s one of the good guys in the business,” Heupel said Wednesday on the Southeastern Conference’s weekly Zoom call. “You can tell that his team believes in him, because they play extremely hard for him.”
Both coaches have reached the SEC with underdog backgrounds, with Heupel having been born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and having quarterbacked at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, before transferring to Oklahoma and guiding the Sooners to the 2000 season’s national championship. He parlayed those experiences into a lengthy play-calling career before receiving head-coaching opportunities with Central Florida and Tennessee.
Pittman hails from El Reno, Oklahoma, and was a 1983 NAIA All-America defensive end at Pittsburg State in Kansas. He would become known as one of college football’s top offensive line coaches before leaving that role at Georgia after the 2019 season to become chief in command at Arkansas.
Heupel arrived at Tennessee in January 2021, and Pittman is beyond impressed with a Vols program that is 24-6 since the start of the 2022 season.
“They’ve got a really great team,” Pittman said. “There is no place where you’re going, ‘Oh, we’re going to attack this guy, or we’re going to attack that guy.’ They’re just a very well-rounded team and very talented.
“They’re really well-coached, but we’re excited to get back home.”
ABC will televise Saturday’s game in Fayetteville, which is set for a 7:30 Eastern kickoff.
While Pittman’s Razorbacks are 3-2 with one-possession losses at Oklahoma State and against Texas A&M in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, the Volunteers are 4-0 by the average score of 54-7. The closest game for Tennessee was the 25-15 downing of Oklahoma in Norman on Sept. 21, where the defensive front of the Vols set the tone early and was dominant.
Pittman does not want his Hogs to endure the same fate in this matchup.
“James Pearce is special,” Pittman said. “I mean, he’s very, very special, and we have to understand where he is and get some help there on him. The problem with that is that they push the pocket really, really well with their interior guys. Those are big, physical guys when you’re talking about No. 10 (Elijah Simmons), No. 20 (Bryson Eason), No. 21 (Omari Thomas), No. 55 (Omarr Norman-Lott), No. 53 (Daevin Hobbs) — they’ve just got a lot of depth there.
“That’s going to be a really huge challenge for us. We’ve got to win first down, and we’ve got to stay out of third-and-long.”
Third-down success will certainly be a stat worth tracking, with the Arkansas offense ranking fifth nationally with a 55.41% conversion rate and with Tennessee’s defense leading the nation by yielding just a 16.98% clip.
“If we let them tee off on us, it’s going to be a difficult challenge,” Pittman said. “They’re not going to have a tired guy out there. They don’t need to.”
On the flip side, the Arkansas defense will try to spoil the second career road start for Vols redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava. The 6-foot-6, 215-pound Iamaleava has completed 61 of 88 passes (69.3%) for 892 yards with seven touchdowns and two interceptions this season.
“He plays within that offense so well,” Pittman said. “He doesn’t make mistakes. He’s so talented and can make every throw, but the thing you see is just the way he carries himself and how he handles the team as a young redshirt freshman. I went back and watched their bowl, and I was just shocked at how mature he is.
“That’s the thing that sticks out. He’s very, very talented, but his leadership skills seem to be off the chart.”
The Razorbacks will be playing their sixth game in six weeks, while the Vols are coming off an open date. Arkansas will get its first break of the season after Saturday’s showdown.
“We’ve got a big football game in front of us,” Heupel said, “and it’s going to be a great environment.”
‘Out of my way’
Pittman was amusing this week when asked if he’s ever had any interactions on the sideline with the ball boys from opposing teams.
“I always try to visit with them a little bit, because they’re always good kids,” Pittman said. “A lot of times they don’t know what to say, and I just joke with them and say, ‘Hey, stay the hell out of my way.’ Then they start smiling.
“I’ll ask them what their names are and stuff like that, but they’ve got a job to do, too, so it’s always nice interacting with them right before a game starts.”
Vols back at AT&T
Tennessee’s reigning national championship baseball program is returning to AT&T Field.
The Vols will stage a nine-inning intrasquad game in Chattanooga on Wednesday, Nov. 6, with the first pitch set for 6 p.m. All tickets will be $12 general admission and can be purchased at lookouts.com.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.