FAYETTEVILLE — Coach Sam Pittman dreamed up a handy theme to spring back from the University of Arkansas’ open date last season.
The “B” section of the Razorbacks’ 2021 schedule bloomed in the back of special teams coordinator Scott Fountain’s meeting room as Pittman thought about the finishing stretch after a 5-3 start.
“I was sitting in the back of Fountain’s special teams meeting and it just popped in my head to be honest with you,” Pittman said Wednesday during the middle of the Razorbacks’ bye week. “It was right before the team meeting, so I just wrote it down. It caught on, I guess.”
Pittman took Bs from upcoming games: Bulldogs for Mississippi State, Boot for the Golden Boot game at LSU, Bama for the road game against the Crimson Tide, Battle Line for the rivalry game with Missouri and “bowl,” to concoct his plan “B .”
Arkansas went 4-1 during that stretch, losing only 42-35 at No. 2 Alabama, to polish off a 9-4 season, the most wins for the program since 2011.
The Razorbacks sit at 4-3 now, with remaining games at Auburn, home against Liberty, LSU and Ole Miss and a road finale at Missouri.
Pittman would like to see another strong finish to his third season on the hill, through he hasn’t cooked up a closing theme yet.
“I’m trying to think of something unique to kind of put it in perspective for us like we did last year,” Pittman said.
The Razorbacks have one overwhelming objective to accomplish during the bye week: Improve the health.
“We needed an open date,” Pittman said. “We’re a little beat up. We do think we can get however many we think we can get back healthy.”
The Arkansas secondary has been ravaged this season, with Jalen Catalon and LaDarrius Bishop out for the season, and players like Myles Slusher, Jayden Johnson, Khari Johnson, Malik Chavis and Latavious Brini slowed by various ailments.
Pittman said Catalon is back with the team after taking time away to undergo reconstructive shoulder surgery, though he has not made a decision on what he will do in 2023. Catalon’s teammate at Mansfield (Texas) Legacy, defensive tackle Taurean Carter, is on target to be healthy late in the season following spring knee surgery.
“Maybe it’s late as the bowl game,” Pittman said. “I definitely think we’ll get him back if we qualify for a bowl. … But we’re trying to press toward maybe the last couple of games of the year. We’ll see how that works, but that would be probably the earliest.”
Bishop and Catalon are among around six to eight seniors Pittman said he would approach about returning for a bonus year based on the NCAA’s eligibility rules regarding the covid-19 season of 2020.
Pittman mentioned last week that defensive lineman Eric Gregory was a senior he would want to ask back.
“Then we have several, a lot of them on the D-line, that we certainly would like to have back,” Pittman said.
Among the seniors on the defensive line unit are Zach Williams, Jordan Domineck and Isaiah Nichols.
Pittman said the Razorbacks had two walk-through practices in the middle of the week during last year’s bye. This week, Arkansas will have all walkthroughs through today before the players have off Friday to Sunday.
The walkthroughs, with Pittman calls “walks,” are for a very specific reason. It allows some of the injured players, who otherwise might not be cleared to participate in contact drills, to be on the field going through the plan for Auburn.
“Let’s take for instance Slusher, who probably couldn’t practice, practice if it weren’t for walks,” Pittman said. “Chavis wouldn’t be cleared yet too, unless it was for walks.
“Obviously you’re banking on that they’ll be physically able to practice [next week] so you want to get them on the mental aspect of it, the non-contact stuff. That’s another reason why we’re practicing them the way that we are.”
Pittman said offensive linemen Ty’Kieast Crawford and Marcus Henderson, who were injured last Wednesday and did not travel to Provo, Utah, for Saturday’s 52-35 win over BYU, fall into that same category.
Pittman said Khari Johnson has been cleared already, while Jayden Johnson, Slusher and Chavis had not yet been cleared for contact work. He added that walkthroughs in previous years could wind up pretty fast paced, so he has had the players remove their helmets to make sure the pace stays better manageable.
Other key players who have had bumps and bruises that have been nagging but not kept them out of games, should also be healthier when the Razorbacks play Oct. 29 at Auburn. Among that group is linebacker Bumper Pool, who has been dealing with a hip injury, and receiver Jadon Haselwood, who has an AC joint issue in his shoulder.
“I think Bump needs [time off] even worse than Haselwood,” Pittman said. “Bump’s injury is just nagging, which is affecting the way he plays. And hopefully we can get him back healthy.
“Haselwood is the same thing; he’s dinged up a little bit, which … week after week after week, it just doesn’t get much better. So, we’re certainly hoping that this week will help him, as well.”
Pittman said the open date would also be good for quarterback KJ Jefferson, who is coming off a career-best five-touchdown game at BYU.
“I’ll be honest with you, we’re not going to throw KJ this week either,” Pittman said. “His shoulder has been sore, and he won’t throw a ball this week. But that’s fine. We’ll get him in on Monday, and he’ll be ready to go.”
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