Razorbacks trying to fix glaring weakness from last season

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Arkansas is coming off an up-and down season in which they finished 7-6. The team made a bowl game for the fourth time in five seasons but finished with a glaring weakness.

Arkansas finished the season with a -8 turnover margin and 14 lost fumbles, 131st out of 134 teams in Division I FBS.

Oklahoma was the only team to finish with more lost fumbles (15). Add in the 11 interceptions and just 15 total turnovers forced by the defense, the Razorbacks finished 2025 with the second worst turnover margin in the SEC (112th nationally), only behind Auburn.

Pittman and the rest of the team knows that turnovers on both sides of the ball will need to improve in order for the Hogs to stand a chance.

"We went over film [as a staff]," Pittman said. "We understand why we had the turnover, we understand why we didn't get the turnovers. Each day is working on that to improve getting the ball back to the offense and keeping it offensively."

10 of the 12 teams that made the inaugural College Football Playoff ranked in the Top 50 in turnover margin, including four of the top six teams (Indiana, Clemson, Notre Dame and Arizona State).

According to a CBS Sports story, FBS teams that win the turnover battle won the game 78% of the time from 2016-2023.

Arkansas was 1-6 in games in which they lost the turnover battle, with the lone win coming against non-Power 5 school Louisiana Tech. In games in which the team managed to neutralize or win the turnover battle, they finished 6-0.

Arkansas was +7 in the two games against Mississippi State and Auburn, a pair of teams that finished with a combined record of 7-17. In the other 11 games, the defense forced just five turnovers, while the offense coughed it up a staggering 20 times.

Pittman hopes by pushing turnover drills to the start of practice, the team will get the message on the importance of securing the ball on offense and forcing turnovers on defense.

"The very first thing we do out of stretch is ball security," Pittman said. "We need to emphasize it. I don't know how to do it anymore than do it the first thing in practice."

The message was well received on defense, who forced a plethora of turnovers on the opening day of practice.

"The energy is just contagious," defensive back Larry Worth said. "Once you catch one of them, it's easy to catch another one. That energy was just flying around. That was one thing we wanted to do, create turnovers and get the ball back to the offense."

The offense left plenty to be desired in the ball security department, but Pittman chalked most of it to being the first day of 25 practices.

"We gotta be better with the football," Pittman said. "Some of those [turnovers] were tipped and all that kind of stuff. But they're still turnovers. We've got to be better there. and we will, I'm not not one bit worried about it. We'll get better about that tomorrow."

Arkansas resumes practice 9:15 a.m. Saturday. The season opener against Alabama A&M is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. Aug. 30 and will be broadcast on SEC Network.