Sam Pittman: "Some guys bring iced tea, and some guys bring liquor."

The Week 1 schedule blesses us with many a great game from Thursday to Monday. So many, in fact, that a game like Cincinnati-Arkansas gets overlooked.

In one of three games pitting ranked opponents (Oregon-Georgia and Notre Dame-Ohio State are the other two), the No. 23-ranked Bearcats look to build off their 13-1 season against a 19th-ranked Razorback squad coming off a 9-4 breakthrough of its own.

Arkansas is one of just eight Power 5 programs returning both coordinators for a third straight season facing.... a Cincinnati team that no one ones what to expect from. On the one hand, the Bearcats lost seven defensive starters and nine draftees, led by franchise quarterback Desmond Ridder. On the other, Cincinnati returns its entire offensive line and is 44-7 since 2018. It takes more than nine good players to go 44-7 in a 51-game stretch.

On Monday, Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman, in the most Sam Pittman of ways, talked about not knowing what to expect out of Saturday's opponent.

"They've got two separate quarterbacks, who knows who's going to play. I'm not positive who the running back's going to be, and they've got a new (offensive) coordinator. You don't know exactly what they're going to do," Pittman said.

"I think we've got enough defense in that we can attack whatever we see. I think the first couple series are going to be really important to figure out what they're bringing to the party. Some guys bring iced tea and some guys bring liquor. You've just got to figure out what they're bringing." 

Saturday's game begins at 2:30 p.m. local time (ESPN), and Pittman thinks the first two series on both sides of the ball will be crucial. So we should know by 3 o'clock or so whether Cincinnati came to Fayetteville for an afternoon picnic or a drunken brawl.