Arkansas trying to simplify defense after poor showing against Ole Miss

Originally posted on Arkansas Razorbacks on SI
By Daniel Shi | Last updated Sep 15, 2025 7:30 PM ET

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman didn't pull any punches when postgame Saturday that the team had some serious defensive issues in the 41-35 loss to No. 13 Ole Miss.

Defensive coordinator Travis Williams' unit allowed 475 yards. Pittman didn't stumble around about who was at fault.

Less than 48 hours after the loss, Pittman put a hefty amount of the blame on the coaching staff. According to Pittman, the issue is not related to the Ole Miss scheme or the Hogs' personnel, rather an issue of the operation of getting the play call in from the sideline being too slow.

"We had 12 [players] on the field," Pittman said. "We tried to make a substitution when there was nobody coming off the field." We thought because a guy went out of bounds, which is normally the case, you get a little bit more time to sub because he went out of bounds on his sideline. But that wasn’t the case."

The overall sloppiness in the operation comes caused problems as quarterback Trinidad Chambliss used his dual-threat ability to score on Ole Miss's first five drives.

That included a touchdown on every drive in the first half except for the drive at the end of the half where the Rebels had just 78 seconds left. The Rebels still managed to get to the Red Zone and kicked a comfortable field goal.

Pittman alluded that the team may have had a case of decision paralysis. The coaching staff tried to get the perfect play call in instead of just letting the unit's ability to make plays.

"We’ve got to do a better job over there coaching," Pittman said. "We have to do a better job of making sure our kids have time to process. Those two things we didn’t do well, but we did better in the second half. [It] us a little bit of spark going into this week that, ‘Hey, we’ve got good players, let’s line them up and quit trying to win the chess match every time and let our players play.’"

The schedule that the Razorbacks are about to embark on doesn't get any easier. Many of the themes from Ole Miss will carry over to Memphis. Memphis' quarterback Brendon Lewis is the team's second leading rusher with 190 yards on 32 carries through three games. He averages nearly 6 yards a carry.

Memphis has one of the lowest pass play percentages in the country at just 37.5%, but their two leading receivers, Jamari Hawkins and Cortez Braham Jr., both average over 15 yards a catch.

"Someone's going to miss a tackle." Pittman said. "Okay, that's fine, but let's don't miss 10. Let's line up and make them earn what they [get], let's don't cut somebody loose. So, we've got to be a little simpler there."

Kickoff between Memphis and Arkansas is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday and the game will be broadcast on ABC. Fans can also listen to the game on the Razorback Sports Network and ESPN Arkansas 99.5 in Fayetteville, 95.3 in the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home.