SPRINGDALE — That wasn’t your run-of-the-mill rubber chicken circuit talk coming from the mouth of fifth-year Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman at the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club luncheon at the Home 2 Suites by Hilton on Wednesday.
Eight days out from the Hogs’ season opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff in Little Rock, Pittman spoke candidly about the pitfalls of having imbalances in name, image and likeness (NIL) in the locker room, which he said negatively impacted last year’s 4-8 team.
Pittman also spoke about expectations past and present and said the current version of the Hogs will be better after the coaching staff bolstered multiple positions, including offensive tackle, linebacker and running back.
Near the end of his question-and-answer session, Pittman went right to the core of the average fan’s mindset when he was addressing why he felt confident Arkansas will bounce back this fall. The question referenced Pittman’s remarks at SEC media days in July, when he said if the Razorbacks under his leadership could recover from the program he inherited from Chad Morris — which had gone 4-20 over two seasons — to go 9-4 in 2021, then it could climb back from 4-8.
“There ain’t nobody in this room thought in two years we’d be 9-4,” Pittman said. “There may not be many of you that thinks I’m not going to get fired. … It doesn’t really matter. We’ve got a good team. We’re out there working hard and I’ll tell you I’m not worried about (being fired) one ounce.
“I’m worried about the kids in the (football) building, these guys, the fans. And we can win now, and we’re going to. That’s why I was hired. We had a bad year, but hell, if we’d won 11 last year we couldn’t live on that either.
“So if we can take it from 4-20 we should damn sure take 4-8 into something good and that’s the plan.”
Those were Pittman’s final remarks and they drew a big round of applause from the crowd at the season debut for the sports club’s luncheons for the 2024-25 school year.
The betting site bookies.com published its odds for the first college football coach fired in 2024 on Wednesday and Pittman topped the list with a 25% chance, ahead of Florida’s Billy Napier (20%) and Baylor’s Dave Aranda (20%).
Pittman, dealing self-deprecating humor as usual, mentioned he had spoken at the Little Rock Touchdown Club on Monday and wryly added that maybe he should be out coaching the football team instead of doing all this talking. The Razorbacks transitioned to evening practices this week, opening the door for lunch time speaking engagements for Pittman, who is 23-25 as Arkansas head coach.
Pittman pointed out a table of eight attendees when creating an anecdote about NIL concerns. He began pointing to each person at the table and said he would pay them differing amounts ranging from $50 up to $150,000.
“Then I’m going to let y’all get in the same room for eight hours a day and you all just have a great time,” Pittman said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
“Now, multiply that by 15 and that’s what I’ve got. … That’s the biggest fear is handling (NIL disparities).”
Pittman said revenue-sharing, which is on the immediate horizon for college athletics, will help reduce that concern for coaches.
“We have to have some way to get it regulated,” Pittman added.
He told a story about joining the staff of Coach Butch Davis, a former Razorback defensive end, at North Carolina and Davis saying if he heard any coach or his wife talking about their salary he would fire that coach.
“He knew that if salaries got out it would be separation of his staff,” Pittman said. “Well, imagine you’ve got 18-, 19-, 20-, 21-year-old kids, that’s the biggest thing in trying to keep (team unity) tight.”
Pittman touted the improvement of depth on the roster on both sides of the ball and how that should help the Hogs rotate personnel, cope with potential injuries and also bolster the coverage units in the kicking game.
He gave stories of quarterback Taylen Green and offensive tackle Fernando Carmona, both first-year transfers, and how they rapidly grew into leadership positions in the locker room.
Pittman said strength and conditioning coach Ben Sowders sent him a video of Green working in the indoor facility on his own, practicing his footwork while watching that day’s workout script on a laptop set on top of an overturned 5-gallon bucket.
Carmona, he said, earned respect by running sprints with his “big-man” group, then going back and not only running with the skill position players but also hitting their timing standard for the sprint.
Pittman said Carmona turned what was a potential problem on the team into a solution on the spot, winning respect.
“There’s a problem, and then there’s another problem, or there’s a problem and then there’s the fixer,” he said. “And guess what? Ain’t no problem.
“So the more guys that there’s a problem and they become fixers, the better off your football team is going to be. We’re better off in all honesty. Those two (Green and Carmona) just stick out, but we have several.”
Pittman added that when there is potential locker room separation based on NIL issues “it can go downhill pretty fast, but it’s our job to try to get it back the other direction. But if it never starts going downhill because of the kids on the team, you’re probably going to have a pretty good ball club.”
