Arkansas’ offensive adjustment will be on display Saturday when the Razorbacks face Florida in Gainesville, Fla.
After offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Dan Enos was fired Oct. 22 following Arkansas’ 7-3 home loss to Mississippi State, head coach Sam Pittman promoted wide receivers coach Kenny Guiton to be the new OC.
Pittman felt changes were in order after the Razorbacks (2-6, 0-5 Southeastern) lost their sixth straight game, managing only a field goal from strong-legged kicker Cam Little.
Guiton is in his third season in Fayetteville after being brought in by former OC Kendal Briles, who worked with the former Ohio State quarterback at Houston in 2017-18. Enos was hired in January to replace Briles, who left for the same position at TCU. Enos also served in the same roles at Arkansas from 2015-17.
“We’re trying to eliminate some of the volume we have offensively,” Pittman said. “Nothing ever came easy for us this year. We’ve got to do some things differently, and one of them is to cut down on volume.”
Guiton will be quarterback KJ Jefferson’s third OC in less than a year and will be leading an offense that has been extremely porous in pass protection.
“You know when you’re doing a large volume, you’re not practicing the fundamentals as much as you should,” Pittman said. “I don’t know that we can sit back in the pocket like we did for 29 plays (against Mississippi State) and expect … I mean the plays are good, but if you can’t protect it, they’re not.”
Coming off a 43-20 trouncing by top-ranked Georgia, the Gators (5-3, 3-2) are likely circling Saturday as the season’s marquee matchup when it comes to becoming bowl eligible.
After Arkansas, Florida will end the regular season with three straight against teams that are currently ranked — road games at LSU and Missouri, then home for its annual matchup with resurgent ACC power Florida State.
“I do think Arkansas, although their record doesn’t reflect it, they’ve been in every football game,” said coach Billy Napier, whose squad will wear black uniforms for the first time in school history. “(They’ve) lost a lot of close games. I do think that they’ve played really good defense for the most part. … I do think they’re a lot closer than their record indicates.”
In a series dating back to the 1982 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston, the Gators lead 10-2 all-time against Arkansas.
–Field Level Media