By DON KAUSLER JR.

Viewers beware. A scary Tennessee football team visits Fayetteville after dark Saturday.

Alert the women, hide the children, and warn the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Be prepared to scream.

The Volunteers (4-0, 1-0 in the SEC) are ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press poll, No. 1 in scoring offense (54.0 ppg) and No. 2 in the nation in scoring defense (7.0 points per game).

Not impressed?

Tennessee is also ranked No. 3 in total offense (565.8 yards per game), No. 3 in rushing offense (290.0 ypg), and No. 33 in passing offense (275.8 ypg).

Oh, and the Volunteers rank No. 1 in total defense (176 ypg), No. 2 in rushing defense (50.8 ypg) and No. 4 in passing defense (125.3 ypg).

Might as well call the National Guard.

Arkansas (3-2, 1-1) is a 13-point underdog in a game that will kick off at 6:30 p.m. CDT at Reynolds-Razorback Stadium. Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit will describe the action on ABC.

Tennessee is coming off a bye week. On Sept. 21, the Vols won 25-15 at then-No. 15 Oklahoma for their first road victory over a top-15 team since 2006.

Arkansas is coming off a 21-17 loss to Texas A&M. Yes, another close loss for head coach Sam Pittman, who is 6-16 in one-possession games in 5 seasons, including 0-2 this season and 1-5 last season.

At least Arkansas has led in the fourth quarter of all 5 of its games this season, including losses to Oklahoma State and Texas A&M.

Previously pass-happy Tennessee Coach Josh Heupel now has a balanced offense and a stingy defense. 

“The standard at Tennessee is to be elite on defense,” Heupel said on Sept. 7 after a 51-10 victory over then-No. 24 North Carolina State. “This is the home of Reggie White, Al Wilson, Eric Berry.”

White was a star defensive lineman and a Pro Football Hall of Famer. As a linebacker, Wilson led Tennessee to its latest national championship in 1998. Berry, a safety, was the 2008 SEC defensive player of the year.

Pass rusher James Pearce Jr. is the Vols’ current defensive star. He anchors a deep defensive line that is the team’s strength. Tennessee has held 5 consecutive opponents to less than 250 total yards, a string that started with a Citrus Bowl shutout of Iowa in January. Tennessee held Oklahoma to 222 yards in its first SEC game. 

The Sooners did end the Vols’ streak of 19 consecutive quarters without giving up an offensive touchdown, Tennessee’s longest since it shut out 15 consecutive opponents between 1938 and 1939.

FIRST DOWN

Poor pass protection: Tennessee’s strength is its defensive line. Arkansas’ weakness is pass protection. That could be a big problem for the Razorbacks.

Arkansas ranks No. 103 in the nation with 12 sacks allowed. Texas A&M had 3. According to Pro Football Focus, quarterback Taylen Green has faced pressure on 80 of his dropbacks (37.8%). That’s the most in the SEC and second in the nation.

“I think we’ve had so many pressures that we’ve got a lot of problems. We’ve got a confidence problem," Pittman said. "We have a quarterback that’s not confident. There’s times when he can stand in the pocket [when] there is one there. There’s times when he stays in the pocket and he gets hit."

Run blocking has been an Arkansas strength, but Green has made some costly mistakes because of poor pass protection. What’s the problem?

"It's not fair to ask him to be perfect," Pittman said Monday, referring to Green. "There's a lot out there on his plate. … He's certainly working at it. [Offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino] is working with him on it. I'm not really concerned about him getting better at it; I think he'll get better at it and have a good week."

One problem has been snaps from redshirt sophomore center Addison Nichols, a transfer from Tennessee. A fumbled snap killed a drive early in the Texas A&M game. Some snaps simply have been off-target.

“We’ve got to help him get the snap down the middle, where it’s supposed to be, so he [Green] can have a little bit more time to make those decisions,” Pittman said.

Tackles Fernando Carmona and Keyshawn Blackstock must do more to give Green space and time to step up and throw, Pittman said.

Blackstock has allowed a team-high 16 quarterback hurries, 3 sacks and 2 quarterback hits this season, according to Pro Football Focus. He has the team's lowest pass-blocking grade. Carmona has allowed 5 hurries, 2 sacks and 2 hits.

Arkansas ran for a season-low 100 yards on 30 carries against Texas A&M.

“I think the only way that we can get better is maybe take a little bit of the pressure off and run the ball a little bit more, hopefully stay out of those third-down situations and move the ball a little bit more on the ground,” Pittman said.

Injuries to tight ends also have hindered pass protection. Starter Luke Hasz has had back problems. Ty Washington left the Texas A&M game with an unspecified injury. Adreas Passke has missed 2 games because of a concussion and is “very doubtful” for the Tennessee game, Pittman said.

“They're one of the point-of-contact blockers. … They're as important as the center,” Pittman said of the tight ends. “They've gotten better and are doing a good job. It's just, certainly when you don't practice, it takes a toll on some of the looks that you're seeing. … You can watch it [in practice], but you can't do it, and there's a big difference between the two.”

SECOND DOWN

'Bad to the bone': Both Arkansas and Tennessee can run and throw. Vols RB Dylan Sampson leads the SEC with an average of 112.2 yards rushing per game and ranks second in the nation with 10 touchdowns. The Razorbacks’ Ja’Quinden Jackson ranks third in the SEC in rushing (101.8 ypg) and fifth in the nation with 9 TDs. Green ranks No.13 in the nation in total offense (414.4 ypg) and No. 39 in the nation in passing (247.2 ypg). Tennessee redshirt freshman Nico Iamaleava is averaging 223 yards passing per game. The Vols have not yet needed much of his arm.

"I really like Dylan Sampson, their running back," Pittman said Monday. ... "He breaks a lot of tackles.

"He's bad to the bone. He's a good player. I mean, he's really good. Can make you miss, can run over you. … Can catch. I like him a lot. … A really good player."

Iamaleava, a 6-6 quarterback from Long Beach, Calif., impresses Pittman with an ability to prevent mistakes that makes him "scary."

“Really good, really good. [He's] mature," Pittman said Monday. "It’s just like [Texas A&M QB] Marcel Reed. Reed did what he needed to do. He didn’t turn the football over. I’m not comparing them. I’m saying Nico … does what he needs to do. He’s got a lot of opportunities to shine in his offense. He doesn’t make mistakes. And then he does it at a high, high, high, high level. He’s scary, because he’s not going to make mistakes, and he is going to run the offense to perfection. And for a young guy like that, he's just really impressive.”

THIRD DOWN

Praise for Pittman, Petrino: Heupel was full of compliments Wednesday when asked what he has seen from Arkansas on film.

"I just think that they're playing extremely well in all three phases of the game,” he said. “They play smart football. Don't give up a ton of big plays defensively. They've been really good against the run. They're big, strong, physical.

“I think on the offensive side of the football, the quarterback is a difference-maker for them. As a complete team, they're playing extremely well together. And like I said, they're a couple of plays away from being undefeated.

“I have a ton of respect for Coach [Pittman]. I think he does a great job and is one of the good guys in the business. I can tell that his team believes in him and that they play extremely hard for him."

Heupel was asked what stands out about Petrino’s offense.

"Coach [Petrino] has done a really good job for a really long time on the offensive side of the football,” Heupel said. “That's him being able to subtly tweak what he's seeing from the structure on the other side of the football, the defenses that he's facing. [He] puts his guys in a position to be successful.

“They're playing smart football, assignment-sound on the offensive side of the football. The line is playing extremely well. They put their quarterback in a position where he's got a chance to impact the football game."

FOURTH DOWN

‘Take me back’: Pittman’s introduction to the SEC came in 2012, when he served nearly a year on Coach Derek Dooley’s staff at Tennessee. He reminisced about that experience this week.

Pittman was on the staff at North Carolina when he interviewed for a job in Knoxville, Tenn., that he didn’t think he would get.

“I remember when I went for an interview, and the GA [graduate assistant] took me over to the stadium, and I’d never been there before,” Pittman said. “In between the time I was interviewing – I think the head coach was talking to the AD about if he could hire me, how much he’s going to pay me and all that – and I went and walked in the stadium, and I told the GA, I said, ‘Take me back.’ He said, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘Hell, they ain’t going to hire me to coach in a stadium like this.’ It was unbelievable. It was like the Coliseum, you know?”

Neyland Stadium’s capacity was 102,455 at the time.

“I said, ‘I’m not getting a job. Take me back,’” Pittman said he told the graduate assistant. “And he started laughing. When I got back, I had a contract and had a job.”

Dooley was fired before the end of the 2012 season, and Pittman joined first-year Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema’s staff and has remained in the SEC to this day. 

“It’s an SEC school,” Pittman said of Tennessee, “but it’s one of those places that has a lot of history and is a really great place to live. Good opportunity at the time to obviously get in the SEC as well for me.”