By DON KAUSLER JR.

The end of the Arkansas football team’s 2023 season is upon us. No bowl.

The Razorbacks’ irregular season will end with a 3 p.m. CST home game Friday against No. 9 Missouri (9-2, 5-2 in the SEC). Arkansas (4-7, 1-6) is an 8½-point underdog in a game that will be televised nationally by CBS.

The season will be remembered for a 6-game losing streak that ended with the program’s first victory at Florida.

It will be remembered for an ugly 7-3 loss at home to Mississippi State and an even uglier 48-10 loss at home to Auburn. Both losses were sandwiched around the 39-36 overtime victory over the Gators.

It will be remembered for 6 close games, 5 of which ended in 1-score losses. Three ended in losses by 4 points or less, including a 24-21 loss at Alabama, a national championship contender.

But this is not the end of the Sam Pittman era at Arkansas. Pittman will be back for a fifth season, Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek announced last weekend.

That’s where this preview will begin. …

FIRST DOWN

More Pittman: After the Razorbacks defeated Florida International 44-20 on Saturday night at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Yurachek visited the Arkansas locker room.

"Our team was extremely excited last night after the game when I informed them that Coach Pittman is our head coach and will be moving forward into the 2024 season," Yurachek said Sunday in a message on social media. "This has not been the season any of us anticipated. We have work to do. I am confident that together, we can meet the goals and expectations of our program. I want to thank the many Razorback fans who have supported our team this season. I look forward to honoring our seniors and cheering on this team on Friday as we take on Missouri.”

Pittman said Monday that he didn’t know Yurachek was planning to address the players after the game.

“There’s a lot of emotion in the room,” Pittman said. “… It was really cool because of the kids. They went off. It was … a special moment to be a part of.”

Pittman appreciated the public announcement.

“I think it’s really big, because we’re getting a lot of negative from coaches in recruiting,” he said. “… I look at this as an opportunity for us to change our team. Keep the ones that are good players for us, good kids, change our team and give us a chance to do that. Financially, I think we’re going to have the money from the NIL to do that. I think when all that happens, I think we can field a really, really good football team. I’m excited about (Friday), but I’m really excited about the future. It was really cool.”

Pittman can square his Arkansas record at 24-24 with a victory over Missouri. The surprising Tigers have clinched second place in the SEC East. They were picked in the preseason to finish sixth.

SECOND DOWN

Rivals: The Battle Line Rivalry Trophy will be at stake Friday, but some people scoff at the notion of Arkansas and Missouri being rivals. Not Pittman, and not Missouri Coach Eli Drinkwitz.

Based on social media posts, Drinkwitz has said the rivalry is “pretty strong.”

“We enjoy that people think it isn’t a rivalry, because we believe it’s a rivalry,” Drinkwitz said.

On Monday, Drinkwitz said the Battle Line Rivalry means much to both programs.

“Any time you play for a trophy, as a competitor, it means something,” Drinkwitz said.

Pittman is 1-2 in Battle Line games; Drinkwitz is 2-1.

Missouri is 9-4 against Arkansas in the all-time series that dates to 1906. The Tigers joined the SEC in 2012 and have faced Arkansas annually since 2014. The Razorbacks are 2-7 against Missouri in that span. They won the trophy in 2015 and 2021.

“Barry was over there for 4 of them,” Pittman said, referring to Barry Odom, Missouri’s head coach from 2016 to 2019.

Odom was 4-0 against Arkansas. He was Pittman’s assistant head coach from 2020 to 2022 and now is the head coach at UNLV.

“They’ve had better seasons than we have over the last [decade or so],” Pittman said of the Tigers. “Most times it’s a really close game, and we just haven’t come out on top.”

THIRD DOWN

Little RB, big problem: Missouri’s Cody Schrader leads the SEC and ranks No. 6 in the nation in rushing with 1,272 yards. Two weeks ago, the senior running back ran for 205 yards and added 116 receiving yards to become the first SEC player to gain at least 200 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving in a single game.

He’s 5-foot-9 and weighs 214 pounds, which explains how he ended up at Division II Truman State out of high school in St. Louis. In 2021, he led Division II with 2,074 yards rushing and scored 24 touchdowns. In high school, he ran for almost 7,000 yards and scored 99 touchdowns. Last season, he walked on at Missouri. Now he’s a star wit an NFL future.

Pittman said he is impressed with Schrader’s determination and drive.

“Obviously he’s very talented,” Pittman said. “Fast. Reads holes unbelievably well and can run over you. … He fits Missouri well. He would fit into our place. Tough, physical programs. What he’s done is earned every accolade.

"He’s over 1,200 yards rushing, and obviously you have to have a really good offensive line, wideouts blocking on the edge and stuff. I’m happy for him that he took that chance, went in there and is one of the top running backs out there in the country. It’s a really, really neat story.”

FOURTH DOWN

Looking ahead: Pittman already is looking forward to the 2024 season enthusiastically. One reason is a flow of money for NIL purposes that will help in recruiting and retention.

In his first 2 seasons at Arkansas, Pittman rebuilt a program that had lost 20 consecutive SEC games. What lessons from then can help him rebuild now?

"It's a different world than the first years I was here, because you did it through the portal and senior transfers and all that stuff," Pittman said. "Now, you're doing it through recruiting and NIL. It's just things have changed. I actually think it's easier to change a program now than when we first came in. …

"I think we can recruit against anybody. It's just that you can't recruit against [everybody] financially. And I really feel good about where we're sitting now, and if that's the case, we can go out and recruit very well against anybody in the country.

“We just need to go out and we’ve got to get the offensive line,” Pittman said. “That’s No. 1. Continue to develop the guys we have now.”

The Razorbacks will need to reverse their fortune in close games.

“I think that’s got to be our biggest studying the offseason,” Pittman said. “Did it just happen and we played really well? The last drives, what did we do? What were my decisions during the game that affected the game positive or negative? Really, we’ve got to sit down and figure that out. We obviously do that each week per game, but in totality we haven’t this year.

“We need to do that and figure out how we can. It’s not just as simple as somebody’s got to make a play. There’s a lot of reasons that go into that. It’s not the last quarter as much as it might be you wasted 4 points in the first quarter. … How can we change that to be, maybe more aggressive with our play-calling. Maybe we’ve got to change our roster. Maybe I’ve got to do a better job. Whatever it is, but be brutally honest with how to win those close games. That’s the difference.

“Look at Missouri and how they’re playing. They’ve really played well and blown some teams out, but they’ve also won some close games as of Saturday. So, we’ve got to figure all that stuff out.”

The Tigers are coming off a 33-31 victory over visiting Florida. They drove 62 yards in 12 plays over 1:29 to set up a game-winning, 30-yard field goal with 5 seconds left.