Arkansas pulled off a thrilling 19-14 upset of No. 4 Tennessee in front of a packed house at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium Saturday night in Fayetteville.
The victory snapped an 18-game losing streak for the Hogs against AP Top-5 opponents dating back to 2007 and was the first such victory at home since 1999.
Following a well-deserved field storming and a locker room celebration, head coach Sam Pittman and several Hogs gave their raw reactions to the win. Here are several quotes and highlights:
HEAD COACH SAM PITTMAN
“Our coaches did a wonderful job of preparing our guys and making them believe they could go win tonight. These guys are happy. They’re not surprised. If we have the same amount of turnovers, we can play with anybody.
“You get into coaching for moments like what just happened. It’s to see the kids and the smiles on their face and the hard work they do because there’s a lot of teams that can’t get to that feeling. We did tonight. If y’all care, we won a one-score game. You might want to write about that too. GO HOGS.
“The fans won the game for us. I think it was the sixth-largest crowd in the history of the University of Arkansas. Our fans got us four false starts, and it helped us tremendously. Our atmosphere today as like any of the elite university football programs. Nobody had nothing on us today. That was the fans, the facilities, and everything like that. This was a big, big, big time atmosphere for college football, and the fans made it happen for us. We appreciate them.”
DL ERIC GREGORY
Eric Gregory was a menace for Arkansas and helped set the tone for a dominant defensive performance against the heralded Tennessee offense.
Gregory finished with four tackles, 1.5 sacks and chased Nico Iamaleava out of bounds on the final play of the game to open the floodgates as fans stormed the field at Razorback Stadium.
“Definitely top two. No. 1 was Texas in 2021. This one is definitely top two.”
“The crowd played a huge factor. They had four false starts. That was huge. They gave us a lot of momentum. It helped the defense. It helped the team. It was great. I appreciate the fans for coming out and supporting us. Just keep believing in us.”
DB DONEIKO SLAUGHTER
Transfer nickel Doneiko Slaughter was named a captain this week before lining up against his former teammates at Tennessee.
He downplayed it in the aftermath, but there is no doubt there was some added motivation involved as he finished with a team-high eight tackles and a pass breakup in the win.
Side note: It probably hit different hearing “Rocky Top” over the loudspeakers as fans stormed the field following the upset-win.
“It was huge, man. I’m just speechless about it. We just beat the No. 4 team in the country. We just made history in Arkansas forever.
WR ANDREW ARMSTRONG
Star players shine when the lights are brightest, and Armstrong did exactly that in Arkansas’ stunner over Tennessee on Saturday. The senior wideout finished with nine receptions on 11 targets for 132 yards.
While he was thrilled with the win, he was far from surprised, and made it clear in the aftermath that the Hogs never flinched in preparation following a disappointing result last week.
“Our team, it’s something I’ve never seen. Even after the two close losses we had previous to this game, the team never put their head down. They never said the season is over.
“We went back to practice on Monday. People were in the training room Sunday getting their body ready because we knew we had a game this weekend. It was a hard-fought game as you could see. We just finished.”
QB MALACHI SINGLETON
With starting quarterback Taylen Green sidelined with an injury, Arkansas turned to redshirt freshman Malachi Singleton for the final stretch of the game.
After stalling out at the goal line for a field goal and back-to-back three and outs, Singleton and the Hogs regained possession at the 35-yard-line with 3:20 to play trailing by a point.
Singleton found his rhythm on the first play with a 13-yard tunnel screen to Isaiah Sategna and capped the drive with a game-winning 11-yard touchdown run with 1:22 remaining.
“The emotions are definitely running high, but to get the quick screen just to get me settled in to get everybody calm and get a first down settled down the whole offense. It kept us rolling throughout the whole drive.
“It boosts me up a lot. Just being able to come in and help my team win any way I can is always a confidence booster. Just going out there and making a play will definitely help me as the games go on.”