Arkansas looking to avoid letdown against Georgia Southern

FAYETTEVILLE — Can the rebuilding Arkansas Razorbacks stand prosperity?

Coach Sam Pittman and his University of Arkansas coaching staff will start getting answers to that question today on a hot afternoon at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

The No. 20 Razorbacks (2-0) are more than a three-touchdown favorite for today’s 3 p.m. game against Georgia Southern (1-1) of the Sun Belt Conference.

One week ago, Arkansas put on a show in a physically dominating 40-21 win over No. 15 Texas. Since then, the narrative has been the Razorbacks are back and the Longhorns aren’t ready for prime time action in the SEC.

That’s heady stuff for a program that snapped a 20-game SEC losing streak less than a year ago.

The Razorbacks understand the euphoria of laying the Longhorns low has a quick expiration date within the organization.

“At the end of the day, it’s one game,” said senior captain and offensive tackle Myron Cunningham. “If we come out against Georgia Southern and we lay an egg, everyone is going to be talking about that more than they are Texas.”

Pittman said the Razorbacks deserved a sold-out stadium and needed to pay the fans back with a strong performance that he hopes brings repeat customers to the games.

“When you go see entertainment, whether it be a movie or whatever, you want something to inspire you,” Pittman said on his Wednesday radio show. “Hopefully we did and hopefully they’ll come back. I expect them to.”

Arkansas has opened a season 3-0 only eight times since joining the SEC in 1992, and twice in the last decade, the last time in 2016. That’s also the last time a Razorback team has been ranked.

So, between the fresh rankings and the week-long adoration of a field-storming fans, the Razorbacks had a lot to be jazzed about in the last week.

Senior linebacker Hayden Henry, also speaking on Pittman’s radio show, said it was awesome to deliver a resounding win in a rivalry game.

“I think our team has a new edge,” Henry said. “We have a new mentality. Things are very different than what they used to be. … It’s important to celebrate and I think we celebrated. The thing about our team is when Monday comes around it’s time to get back to work. We’re going to put the pads on, we’re going out to practice and we’re going to hit. That’s just what we do.”

Georgia Southern Coach Chad Lunsford noted the magnitude of the Razorbacks smoking Texas.

“That was a huge win for them,” Lunsford said. “I know their fan base was excited about that one. I know they’re excited about the prospects of what they can be this season.”

The Eagles have gotten off to a rocky start, with a narrow win over FCS Gardner-Webb and a 32-point setback at Florida Atlantic last week in which star cornerback Derrick Canteen was lost for the season with a pectoral injury.

Yet Georgia Southern is a proud program that won six national championships in the old Division I-AA and prospers off the excess talent in the fertile recruiting grounds of southern Georgia.

“I told our team, when you go to Georgia, and you can look anywhere in the state of Georgia, but if you want to go find one that’s guaranteed tough, go to south Georgia,” Pittman said. “He’s got a lot of kids from down there, so we know they’re going to be an extremely tough, physical, hard-playing team.”

On top of that, Georgia Southern quarterback Justin Tomlin returns from an academic suspension to lead a triple-option attack that forces defenders to be on their toes with a hammer of a back like 230-pound Logan Wright.

Arkansas linebacker Grant Morgan, a senior captain who tweaked a knee last week, has been practicing and is expected to play for a unit that ranks 46th in the country in allowing 109.5 rushing yards per game.

Arkansas appears to be trending up, with sophomore quarterback KJ Jefferson at the head of a rushing attack that racked up 333 yards on Texas and ranks ninth nationally with 289 yards per game.

The echoes of the Razorbacks’ crushing of Texas will certainly reverberate for generations.

Who knows? Perhaps it could one day be seen as the moment Arkansas football was “back” from the morass of perhaps the worst stretch in school history.

For instance, today’s game comes exactly three years and three days after the embarrassment of a 44-17 loss to North Texas at home, and three days shy of the two-year anniversary of a 31-24 loss to San Jose State, also at Razorback Stadium.

Is there a chance the Razorbacks suffer a lapse of focus following the seminal win? Team leaders speak as if the odds of that are minimal.

“We still have a lot to prove,” senior safety and captain Joe Foucha said. “We’re not letting this win make us do anything different. We’re still on the same path that we’ve been on. We’re just taking it one game at a time, and the next game is important.”

Linebacker Bumper Pool said the Razorbacks’ rankings in both major polls don’t change a thing.

“To be honest with you, it doesn’t feel any different right now,” Pool said. “That win was so big, but the way we come into practice, it’s almost like,’Hey, restart.’

“We’ve got a new game this week. All that’s great, exciting. But we’ll look back on all that when the season’s over and really kind of let that soak in. As of right now, we’re really locked in on Georgia Southern and this next test we have.”

Added receiver Tyson Morris on Pittman’s radio show, “When Monday comes it’s behind us, because in this league you have to be where your feet are. We have to focus on Georgia Southern because that’s what time it is.

“We’re not going to play Texas this week again. We’re going to play Georgia Southern. I feel like those dog days built that mentality we have now.”

The Eagles have a 1-13 record against SEC teams, but the lone win is of relatively recent vintage: a 26-20 decision over Florida in The Swamp on Nov. 23, 2013.

“Arkansas is a different deal,” Lunsford said. “They’re an SEC football team, a lot of talent, a lot of speed. I just want our guys to go there and show they belong. I want them to show that they have a lot of heart.

“It ain’t about talent, it’s about how hard you play. It’s about being sound. And it’s about playing Georgia Southern football. We always talk about expecting to win. If we go into this thing going, ‘We don’t have a chance, they’re an SEC football team, blah, blah, blah,’ then we don’t need to get on the bus.”

Pittman has said similar things about his club having to play with heart. He asserted the Razorbacks did not struggle to get back up after big wins last year. However, all those games came against SEC competition.

Pittman acknowledged facing Georgia Southern is a different deal.

“I mean, we’ve already proven we weren’t ready to play against Rice, you know?” Pittman said in reference to the Hogs trailing the Owls 17-7 in the third quarter. “Obviously it wasn’t easy for us to get our team prepared and ready for that, because we didn’t play any good, at least offensively, in that game for at least two and a half quarters.

“We certainly have looked back at that in the mirror. … I learned a lot, I hope, from the Rice game, and certainly hope that doesn’t happen to us on Saturday, that we go out and be the best team that we can be, and whatever the score ends up being at that point, if we play well then we can live with it.”

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