FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Which is the head coach of Arkansas Sam Pittman said after upsetting No. 4 Tennessee 19-14 Saturday night at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium:

Opening statement

“Tennessee had a very physical team. And they came into the game, No. 1 on offense, No. 1 on defense. Very good football team. Our kids and our coaches have done a great job of preparing our guys and making them believe that we can win tonight. These guys are happy, they’re not surprised. If we have the same turnover, we can play with anyone. And the two games we’ve lost at this point, we had more turnovers than we were getting. But our coaches did a great job of making them believe we had a really good football team. We can compete if we take care of the football and we try to tackle well and play smart. We did.

“We didn’t score any points in the red zone in the first half. And then we scored touchdowns in the second half. So once again, very good work from our coaches and our players. You get started with coaching for moments like what just happened. And it’s seeing the kids and the smiles on their faces and the hard work that they do. Because there are many teams that cannot achieve that feeling. And we did that tonight. And if you guys care, it was a one-score game. You might want to write about that too.

“But Go Hogs. The fans won the game for us. There was four offsides. They started, I think it was the sixth largest crowd in the history of the University of Arkansas. And our fans gave us four false starts and that helped us a lot. And our atmosphere, and our arrival today, was like any of the elite college football programs. No one had anything with us today. And that was the fans in the facilities and things like that. This was a big, big, great atmosphere for college football and the fans made this possible for us and we appreciate them.”

Taylen Green’s status and the play of backup QB Malachi Singleton

“Yes, I think Talen, we’ll see. Obviously it wasn’t as bad as us not asking him how he felt. Our diagnosis for him was: if he wanted to get back into the game, he could. Then he was tackled again and then we just said: okay, that’s enough. Let’s put Malachi in there. Malachi, when he came in, we didn’t have great field position, so Bobby tried to take care of that along with the field position.

So when Bobby calls what he wants to call a foul, we’re usually pretty good. I think part of that was that Malachi, we got a little bit of confidence there and I never had any trouble kicking. And the last two rides he was phenomenal. He did a very, very good job. And scored the touchdown there to move on. And he had been here a long time and didn’t have to play. And to go in there and score the winning touchdown with the help of 10 other guys must be really satisfying for him. I am very happy for him.”

What the Arkansas defense did to throw Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava off schedule

“The game plan came in on Sunday night, T-Will (Travis Williams) talked about what he thought he wanted to do. And on Monday we started practicing it. There were some adjustments and stuff. But I think first of all, we ran something that they didn’t see us running. Secondly, we did very well. We wouldn’t let them stand behind us if we could help it. And we were very concerned about stopping the run, but we always had the edge covered because we were taking corners out of a read run. And we brought the field linebacker off a read run. And we mixed it up, so we had a little bit of a strange front end and then a little bit of the four man and mixed it up. We brought total zero blitz heat. I thought Travis did a fantastic job calling the defensive play. And most importantly, getting the kids to believe in what we were going to try to do to stop this very, very powerful offense.”

His emotions as Arkansas got the final stop and time expired

“Well, obviously they (Tennessee) think their kids deserve to win. They put in the time and I just go, man, we’ve got two plays left, don’t let them score. Because I know our children. We have to win that. And so I was just like, let’s put them on the ground, get them on the ground. To be honest, I was like, hey, no penalties in the end zone, to be honest. But every time (Nico Iamleava) got a flush and he couldn’t find anyone, Nico finally stopped the ball to run and I looked to see if he got the first down and he did. But the clock was running. So I thought about all those things and all those things. And when it was over I thought about how proud the state of Arkansas is of their football team and that’s the only damn reason, well it’s not the reason I took the job but that’s one of the main reasons why I came here I wanted to try to make the state proud of the team.”

Arkansas’ offensive line slows down Tennessee’s pass rush

“Man, I was so proud of our offensive line in that regard. We’re going through the first half and we had a little empty protection one time, (Tennessee) came. They brought two of them towards us from the edge and Talen had to scramble out of there. But I kept saying over the headphones, man, we’re protecting him really well. And then they had to bring some extra heat. They also went zero once or twice. But that’s our best game, protecting the quarterback, and we have to get better. But that’s our best game against a very good defensive line. So they did some stuff. Bobby and Eric got together and decided how we can protect, but some of them were the same protections, some of them. I really liked what Bobby did during the move. There were some screens there, we had a little tunnel screen, we had two light screens. And it’s slowing down outside guys. And I thought those guys made a very conscious effort to help those tackles.

The offensive game plan for Arkansas, Bobby Petrino is shaking things up

“To be honest, we didn’t have Luke or Tyrus for most of the week. They got a little bit of reps on Wednesday, a little bit on Thursday, so it had to be a little tough right now as far as game planning. So I thought it was really good. (Tennessee has) a good defense. We scored 19 and we (would have taken) 15. But we scored 19 and won the match and were strong and resilient. But I thought Bobby (Petrino) and his side and his staff did a fantastic job of getting guys ready with limited tight ends available.

Tennessee gains momentum in the third quarter, Arkansas responds and if that kind of win could be a turning point

“I don’t know. It definitely feels good right now. But you know, it takes two teams and they’re probably out there talking about something that I think we’ve done pretty well, you know what I mean? so a lot of satisfaction to be here and win for the kids and for the coaching staff. This is what I do know: our team believes we can beat people and that confirms that we can.

What the talk was on the Arkansas sideline after Tennessee went up 14-3

“Coaching all the time. But specifically (I think) did this change the outcome of the game? Probably not. We just didn’t want to panic. And we had to fix some things. So we did. And we had to get the ball rolling a little better in attack and we did that. But you know, every time you come off the field, you try to correct what went wrong and then you try to figure out what we can do. And we went back to a little flare screen and everything. But what I was probably disappointed about at some point tonight was that we conceded two penalties. We gave it a little bit, we didn’t give it, (Tennessee) still deserved it, but we had two penalties on the second touchdown (drive) and that was a little disappointing. But other than that – I talked to both of those kids, they didn’t mean to do it – they still played a great game. So that was probably the only disappointing thing. We got a few penalty points to let them drive a bit.”

Arkansas gave Tennessee a 3-2-6 look defensively, which is why the Razorbacks went that way

“(Tennessee) could throw it and run their wide outs. So we looked at Oklahoma and they had some success, holding them to 25. And with all that, did it fit into our schedules? But that’s where it started: the band about Oklahoma. Because they are the only ones who have actually done anything good. The rest was in the fifties, sixties, seventies. That’s why we implemented some of that.”

What the win over Tennessee could mean for Arkansas for the rest of the season

“I’m not sure this victory will amount to much. That locker room, they believe we’re pretty good. They work hard, they are together. I think it’s going to do more for the state, which came here, ‘Hey, they’re going to fire the coach, you’re going to do this, you’re going to do that. When are we going to get this man out of here?’ All that stuff. I think it might unify the state a little bit. And say, ‘Hey, these are our guys, let’s go back.’ Like they did tonight. And I’ll be honest: Most of the state has done that anyway. But I think it’s more up to the state to do that than it is up to our team. Because our team believes that we can beat anyone in the country if we have the ball the same amount of time. And so I think it’s a big deal, and the kids are really going to have a good time tonight and next week we’re off. It was a great time beating the No. 4 team in the country.”