Five top quotes from Sam Pittman's press conference previewing Ole Miss

1. Preparing for two different quarterbacks this week

"We certainly have to be prepared for two different type of offenses, whether (Austin) Simmons is healthy or whether he’s not," Pittman said. "They proved when they brought in their second-team quarterback they can move the football in their what I call the Wildcat but he can really throw the ball. He didn’t have to last week certainly, because of the situation in the game. When they do that it’s certainly different than it was last year because they had the big man running the majority of that last year."

Simmons exited the game last week and Trinidad Chambliss replaced him in the fourth quarter. A pair of early interceptions put Ole Miss in a bind against the Wildcats, but Simmons recovered.

That means there may not be much flames attached to all the concern of the Arkansas media. Pittman didn't appear to be that concerned, either, and the staff is probably preparing the same way. In Lane Kiffin's offense, it may not matter which one is in there.

"Their offense is their offense," Pittman said. "Both of them are very talented running the football as well as throwing it. So you’re still going to have to have contain and have somebody — if we elect to spy him or whatever it may be.

"You’re still going to have to have somebody responsible for him. So, yes, it would be more difficult if we didn’t know and they played the entire game with No. 6 instead of Simmons or whatever."

2. Pittmanese answer about importance of Ole Miss game

Considering the Rebels came to Fayetteville and basically ran a track meet around the Hogs' secondary, it was a valid question.

Add to that the transfers in the off-season to the Rebels and there are some good questions, but Pittman's answer is just easier to put in as it was said, according to the transcript.

"Yeah, I think there’s always … So you prepare your team. If your team … We have a good enough team. We do. If we play well, we can play with anybody on our schedule. I may be the only guy that believes that, but I believe it with all my… Well, no I’m not. I got 115 that believe that as well. But, Trey, there’s got to be, each game has different motivational factors behind it. They all do. Last week was for the state. You know? It was a state championship, to some aspect of a state championship game. You find different things that have extra motivation. We should have enough things to motivate ourselves, so certainly, the way we got beat last year in that game, it has to have some motivation. The problem with that is, a bunch of our kids that are playing on our team weren’t here for it. Now, it should motivate the guys that were embarrassed, because it was an embarrassing night. Certainly, there are some things there that we’ll talk about after we certainly need a great week of practice to prepare ourselves, but that may be part of the motivation."

3. Is secondary actually going to be better this year for Ole Miss?

Another response from Pittman that sort of wanders all over the place about a question that only involves hope. The Hogs have been burned by both Alabama A&M and Arkansas State in the first two games.

"Hopefully we’re better," Pittman said. "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.

"So we’ll find out more about us, but we’re very confident going in, but we’ll find out more where we are, how much man coverage we can play against them.

"They’ve got a tremendous amount of speed, their quarterback’s accurate, good player. He worries me about his scramble ability as well, but you didn’t ask about that."

4. Translating play up front in playing against Ole Miss

This one is obviously due to the Razorbacks facing the best team they've seen this year.

With some success at times for the Arkansas front, this may be the biggest group to watch this week for a better gauge of how they match up in the SEC.

"That certainly is different," Pittman said. "I mean, hell, I'd like to take it all. I'd like to have 10 negatives and 4 sacks and, yeah, I'd like to take every bit of it and add to it. But, schematically, with their RPO game off of that, I mean, schematically, they're tough. I mean, because a lot of times — we was talking about it last night — a lot of times the O-lines pulling and doing all that, and they're throwing the football. So you know, you have to be ready in the back end and in the front end for every single play."

In other words, this is going to be a challenge like they haven't seen and everybody has to be ready in this game.

5. Confidence in this team after two warm-up games

Here's another well-traveled circular answer to the question of lower-quality games giving some idea what to expect against a ranked SEC team.

"We've got a good team," Pittman said. "I'm confident in our football team and a lot of it is because of the leadership. I don't know how you create adversity until…unless, you just practice hard and keep accountability and toughness and all those things. You know, we haven't had a lot of adversity yet. If you look at it, we talked about the first drive against A&M that was really it.

"And then, you know, we gave up seven, or, they earned 7 on us the other day. We gave them some penalties, you know. So, I think it's just all about the mindset and playing hard and playing together.

"And 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. And we haven't been tested that way yet, you're right."

This one should be intereesting. The Razorbacks and Rebels will kick off at 6 p.m. Saturday night in Oxford, Miss., and the game will be televised on ESPN.

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