How Arkansas is Preparing for Oklahoma State’s Home Atmosphere

An Arkansas football team has actually never played a game inside Boone Pickens Stadium. The last time the Razorbacks were in Stillwater in 1980, T. Boone Pickens hadn’t yet thrown enough money at the program to transform Lewis Field into what it is today. But Arkansas coach Sam Pittman doesn’t want to send his team into the unknown.

Pittman said Wednesday on the weekly SEC coaches teleconference that his staff has been implementing crowd noise during practice to prepare for the Razorbacks’ trip to BPS at 11 a.m. Saturday. He added that Arkansas even had crowd noise playing during five practices in the midst of fall camp, weeks before the Hogs’ first road game of the season at OSU.

The extra preparation for a loud environment was not only warranted by OSU’s crowd and its Paddle People, but also an SEC slate loaded with raucous atmospheres and a new communication rule where certain players now need to hear coaches through a mic in their helmet.

“Really, to be honest with you, the greatest advantage that home teams have is how raucous, how loud is their crowd,” Pittman said. “So we’ve been cranking it up quite a bit. To be honest with you, we did that as well, we did it five practices in camp knowing that we need to eliminate that potential problem. So we had five going in before the last two days of understanding communication and what we need to do — helmet, (offensive coordinator) Bobby (Petrino) to (quarterback) Taylen (Green), as well as Taylen to the team.

“I feel like we’re a very confident team in handling the noise. Certainly, we didn’t just wait and start this week, so we did it before so I think that just goes into our confidence about handling the noise of the crowd on Saturday morning.”

Arkansas is certainly accustomed to loud crowds from the SEC, though maybe not as close as fans are at Boone Pickens Stadium. Oklahoma coach Brent Venables hasn’t yet guided the Sooners through SEC enemy territory, but he has experienced a game in Stillwater, which OU lost 27-24 last season. He was asked on the SEC teleconference what the Razorbacks were in for at BPS on Saturday.

“I don’t necessarily need to educate anybody on what that environment is like,” Venables said. “Although, I will say that they do a great job game day. Fans there are passionate, they’re gonna be on top of you — really tight sidelines. It’s gonna get really, really loud. It’s always a good atmosphere in Stillwater for them.”