Indeed, the Razorbacks held fourth-quarter leads in losses at Oklahoma State (39-31 in double overtime) and against No. 10 Texas A&M (21-17) before losing 34-10 against No. 16 LSU on Oct. 19.

Pittman and Kiffin have split four games against each other. Arkansas won 33-21 in 2020 and 42-27 in 2022, and Ole Miss won 52-51 in 2021 and 27-20 last year on the road.

Captains called

Pittman announced on his weekly radio show Wednesday the game captains for Saturday against Ole Miss.

The offensive captains will be offensive guard Patrick Kutas, who made his season debut last week after recovering from a back problem, and Jordan Anthony, who had his first touchdown catch as a Razorback with a 27-yard grab in the second quarter at Mississippi State.

On defense, end Quincy Rhodes of North Little Rock and linebacker Alex Sanford will be the captains.

Injury report

Arkansas listed tailback Rodney Hill (MCL) as probable and tailback Ja’Quinden Jackson (ankle) as out on the SEC’s availability report for Saturday’s game.

The only other injuries were cornerback Jaylon Braxton and kicker Kyle Ramsey, who were both listed as out.

Ole Miss has a more significant amount of injuries. Two players are out, four listed as questionable and six as probable.

Among the probables are defensive tackle Walter Nolan, offensive tackle Jayden Williams of Conway and fellow linemen Micah Pettus and Jeremy James, as well as tight end Caden Prieskorn.

Among the “questionable” players for the Rebels are Tre Harris, the SEC’s leading receiver, as well as offensive lineman Nate Kalepo and running back Matt Jones.

SEC only

Ole Miss leads the SEC in total offense with 538 yards per game, in passing offense with 354 yards per game and in second in scoring with 39.5 points per game.

Meanwhile the Razorbacks are second in total offense (482.5), more than 55 yards per game behind the Rebels, third in the SEC with 199.3 rushing yards per game and fifth in scoring (33.3 ppg).

However, in SEC play the statistics tell a different story.

In league games only, Arkansas leads the pack with 419.6 yards per game while Ole Miss is seventh (405.5) behind the Razorbacks, LSU, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Auburn.

Texas A&M has the best scoring average (33.4 ppg) in league games, with Arkansas eighth (25.6) and Ole Miss 11th (24.0).

Hasz rebounds

Arkansas tight end Luke Hasz battled through a back injury and a lighter role in the passing game early this season before breaking out last Saturday.

Hasz had a big 30-yard catch and run early in the game and wound up with 4 receptions for 59 yards and 2 touchdowns in the Razorbacks’ 58-25 win at Mississippi State. All three of those figures were season highs for the sophomore, a 4-star signee from Bixby, Okla.

“I struggled for a couple games with my back, but now I’m 120% healthy,” Hasz said Tuesday night. “I’ve felt the best I have since I got here, and even in high school.”

Hasz scored on a 43-yard seam pass from Taylen Green in Week 2 at Oklahoma State but his back was ailing and he went quiet for basically a month.

The 6-3, 241-pounder had no catches in the campus opener against Alabama-Birmingham. He followed with one catch apiece against Auburn, Texas A&M and Tennessee for a total of 21 yards.

Hasz was asked if he had to deal with frustration during that time period.

“Not really, because all we can do as a tight end room is just put wins on tape for receiving stuff, and that’s what we’ve been doing at practice and just trusting Coach [Bobby] Petrino and his plan,” Hasz said.

“At the end of the day it’s about us winning games, and if he wants us to go in there and block, then we’ll go in there and block. If he wants me or any of the other tight ends to get out and run routes and catch balls and be explosive, we’ll do that, too. The big thing was just trusting and not letting anything frustrate you — because if you do that, it’ll ruin your game.”

Hasz was part of a breakout day for Arkansas tight ends against Mississippi State, scoring his first touchdown on a 14-yard pass on a fourth-and-1 play-action throw famously known as “Cowboy Get It” from Petrino’s days as head coach at Arkansas from 2008-11.

Hasz and Andreas Paaske combined for four touchdowns on the day before what is known as National Tight End Day in the NFL.

“Saturday, being able to get those two touchdowns, and then, Andreas getting those [two], I was honestly more happy seeing Andreas get those touchdowns,” Hasz said. “It was just a really good day for us as a room and as a team.”

Paul power

Kiffin noted Chris Paul’s play against his team as an Arkansas linebacker last season and was happy to snag the redshirt junior out of the transfer portal over the winter.

“I just thought he was so physical and played so hard,” Kiffin said. “And actually in our game, I felt there was a difference…he got hurt in our game against them a year ago, and I just felt like there was a difference when he was in there.”

On Wednesday’s SEC coaches teleconference, Kiffin added, “He’s awesome and he’s such a good kid, an old-school player. I just love how he practices, how much he cares.”

Paul leads the Rebels with 59 tackles and 7 quarterback hurries, and has 8 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, 3 pass breakups and 1 fumble recovery this season.

“We’ve always known he can run, and he’s running side-to-side, tackling very well,” Pittman said. “Looks like one of their leaders on defense and doing exactly what I what I thought he would do when he went into the portal wherever he went….He was a great player for us and doing the same thing at Ole Miss.”

Perfect mark

Arkansas senior kicker Matthew Shipley went 3 for 3 on field-goal attempts at Mississippi State last week.

That marked the first perfect game on multiple attempts for an Arkansas kicker this season and the first game without a miss by a Razorback with at least three attempts since Cam Little did it in back-to-back games against LSU and Texas A&M early last season as part of a stretch of 13 makes in a row.

Shipley converted on field goals of 27, 32 and 29 yards at Mississippi State to improve to 5 of 6 on the season. Shipley replaced Ramsey, who opened the season 7 of 12 before going out with a groin injury during a 19-14 win over Tennessee.

“I think part of it last week was the field goal range was significantly shorter,” Pittman said. “It was good because we needed to build confidence in Shipley. He’s had an outstanding week. He went 4 for 4 [Tuesday] at practice.

“You know kickers get in streaks sometimes, and he unfortunately got in a bad one there a little bit in spring ball, early in [training camp] and has turned that around. A lot of that is consistency with the snapper and holder as well, keeping the same guys in there.”