What Sam Pittman said after Hogs’ 16-13 win against LSU

BATON ROUGE, La. (ARKANSAS FIGHT) — The Battle For The Boot is over, and Arkansas has found its seventh win of the season under second-year head coach Sam Pittman, knocking off LSU, 16-13.

Spirits were high across Razorback Nation tonight, and rightfully so. Here is what Sam Pittman said in his post-game press conference.

On the win:

“Well, it was such a hard-fought game. It was ugly, and beautiful, and all in-between. I credit LSU for playing so hard and you know with Coach O not being their head coach, and how hard they played, you have to give credit to their kids and their coaching staff for continuing to coach and do their jobs.

“I was really proud of our guys, being down at half and coming back. It wasn’t pretty, but when that ball went through those uprights, it was one of the prettiest things I’d ever seen. To come to LSU at night, and to win is hard anytime, and we’re very very proud to have the Boot, and I’m proud of my coaching staff.”

On what the locker room looked like after the win:

“It’s hard to describe the kids. I will say this, that’s why we coach. If they took away that time, man coaching wouldn’t be near as fun. When you win, you should celebrate, and that’s what I told the kids.

You know, the offensive guys were kinda halfway down. I mean, a little bit down. They were excited we won. But man when you win you gotta celebrate it, and that’s exactly what they did.”

On Montaric Brown’s interception in overtime:

“Well, you know we won the toss and we elected to go on defense. I thought we had ‘em earlier, and then they made a really good throw and catch on third down, and got to the 11. Then they threw the pick, Mo picked the ball. They didn’t throw it, he went and got it. He went and picked the ball.

Then I told KB (Kendal Briles) that we were gonna run it, twice to center it, and if we didn’t make a first down, Cam was gonna go win the game, and that’s exactly what happened. And man, how nice is it to have a kicker that you know if you put it in the middle of the field, he’s gonna make it. And it doesn’t matter what the pressure is. But, when Mo picked it off I thought we had a chance.

On Cam Little and his confidence in him:

“I pretty much felt like if he got the ball up, that he was gonna make it. You know, ironically, when we faked the field goal, in the third quarter, Cam was the most excited guy when I said “hey, we’re gonna fake it” because he felt like it was there all night, and sure enough Bauer went down there and did it. But that just shows you how unselfish Cam is.”

On the defense:

“You could tell that the game plan for LSU was to run the ball, and they felt like they could run the ball on us. You know, they had some success but I would think we had a little more success in stopping it.

I thought our defense, Barry, and the defensive staff did a nice job of going from four to three down and give them a little bit different looks. This is the most we’ve blitzed all year, but it’s also the most multiple that we’ve been as well. So I thought they mixed it up well, I thought the kids executed the plan, we tackled pretty darn good tonight, and of course, the three turnovers with the botched snap on the wildcat, and then Mo picking off two of them were the difference in the game.”

The Arkansas Razorbacks will be back in action next Saturday, as they are set to play the Alabama Crimson Tide at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Kickoff is set for 2:30, and will air on CBS.

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