Arkansas opens its Southeastern Conference schedule on Saturday in Oxford, Miss., against a 17th-ranked Ole Miss squad coming off an uneven effort in its conference opener.
Last weekend, the Rebels (2-0, 1-0 SEC) fell behind host Kentucky 10-0 in the second quarter, with both scores coming after interceptions thrown by Austin Simmons.
“We’ve got a lot to clean up from last week, especially turnovers and lack of getting turnovers,” Rebels coach Lane Kiffin said.
Simmons settled down and helped lead his team to a 30-23 victory, though he missed the Rebels’ final possession of the game after sustaining an ankle injury. Kiffin said he expects Simmons to play Saturday, but senior Trinidad Chambliss will be ready to go if he cannot.
Kiffin noted that Simmons’ matchup against the Wildcats was his first road start.
“We have high expectations for our players, but first road starts in any level, including NFL, guys sometimes struggle early,” Kiffin said.
The Rebels’ running game helped calm down Simmons, who contributed 44 yards and a touchdown to a ground attack that totaled 220 yards. Kewan Lacy led the way with 138 yard and a touchdown.
“That was good to have, especially on the road in the SEC against a good defense,” Kiffin said.
Arkansas (2-0, 0-0) has won easily in games against outmanned opponents Alabama A&M and Arkansas State, winning by a combined score of 108-21.
“We haven’t had a lot of adversity yet,” Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman said. “When adversity hits, then your leadership takes over — whether it be me, whether it be the team. You want it to be the team.
“And I think we really have an older team that understands and believes we can win, but we’ll see. If all hell breaks loose, we’ll see what we really have. We haven’t been tested that way yet.”
The Razorbacks faced plenty of adversity in their home game against Ole Miss last season, losing 63-31. Pittman said he thinks that performance might provide added motivation for the players who were on the team last season.
“Each game has different motivational factors behind it,” Pittman said. “We should have enough things to motivate ourselves, so certainly the way we got beat last year in that game has to have some motivation. It should motivate the guys that were embarrassed, because it was an embarrassing night.”
The Rebels had 562 passing yards among their 694 total yards in that game.
“Hopefully we’re better,” Pittman said of the pass defense. “It’s hard to tell. I certainly feel like we are, but we haven’t been tested like we’re going to get tested Saturday … We have a good enough team. If we play well, we can play with anybody on our schedule.”
