Early on in his Arkansas football tenure, Sam Pittman received much praise for his choices of Kendal Briles and Barry Odom as coordinators. Given his own lack of head coaching experience, it was critical to choose the right seasoned hands for these positions. He seemed to have done just that.
In Kendal Briles’ three years at Arkansas, he continually averaged more per game than the year before and in his final season, the Hogs averaged about 32 points per game.
We need to look no further than the Liberty Bowl to prove that 32 points per game with a terrible defense can get you to a bowl game. Pretty much all of Arkansas’ success in that 2022 season was due to scoring, not defending the goal line. The Hogs were No. 15 nationally in total offense; Odom’s overall defense was in the bottom 10 of all of college football. While a slew of injuries in the secondary certainly played a role, Arkansas was literally ranked dead last in pass defense.
After that 2022 season, of course, Briles and Odom found greener pastures at TCU and UNLV, respectively.
Sam Pittman’s Next Coordinators
Enter new hires Dan Enos and Travis Williams. Under them, the script flipped in 2023. The latter was the equivalent of hitting an out-of-the-park home run. I’m going to write Enos out of this story because he was thanked for his service after the eighth game for putting an offense on the field that looked like a YMCA team vs. a defense that, at least for a time last season, was around 40th in the country overall.
Last year was a complete error in terms of the offensive coordinator hire, so Pittman threw a Hail Mary and hired offensive guru Bobby Petrino. Petrino did such a good job as head coach the first time around (on the field, of course), he was hired back as OC and we’re watching the Hogs put up the same kind of numbers this year as we saw under Briles and Petrino 1.0, just more quickly than it took in Petrino’s first season as head coach.
So far, so good. Even in a loss like to Texas A&M, the Hogs outgained A&M in total offense 379-297, first downs 22-16 and passing yards 279-163. The Hogs also led them in turnovers, which is why Arkansas is not 5-0 (2-0).
Fans, for the most part, are pretty comfortable with Arkansas’ losses considering how good Oklahoma State and Texas A&M were supposed to be heading into the fall.
It’s hard to see how the Hogs get bowl eligible from here, but stranger things have happened. However, it shouldn’t be ignored that Oklahoma State was crushed by Kansas State on Saturday and has dropped out of the top 25, while Texas A&M is just barely hovering inside the rankings. Hell, Ole Miss just lost to Kentucky, so a few of the supposed frontrunners have plenty of issues to fix.
Early Returns for Arkansas Football
It’s only been five games, but not too early to see how the early returns of Pittman’s current coordinator duo stack up to their predecessors. Let’s first look at the numbers while removing Pittman’s first year, which was the 10-game COVID year.
Here’s how it goes, generally speaking:
- Briles/Odom: Very good offense and terrible defense. Won 16, lost 10 (62%)
- Enos/Williams: Terrible offense good defense until they let go of the rope – Won four, lost eight (33%)
- Petrino/Williams: Very good offense with very good defense – 3 wins -2 losses (60%)
Things don’t look as swell for the first guys if you count the 3-7 campaign against all SEC teams in 2020. Adding in those results, Briles/Odom would have a record of 19-17, or about 53%.
So many changes in so few years makes it exceedingly difficult to compare sets of coordinators, but all things considered, the edge clearly goes to Petrino/Williams so far. Arkansas still has seven games left and needs to win three of them to go bowling in December, or January. Depending on if, or how, that happens will determine Pittman’s future.
Nearly four and a half years into his head coaching career, it’s notable how much is riding on how Arkansas finishes this season. It’s unclear whether Pittman’s ultimate legacy will be more defined by leading Arkansas out of the Chad Morris wilderness into that 9-4 season in 2021, or by the way the wheels came off in 2023.
Can this Arkansas football team win even half of its remaining games in 2024? This is where we’ll see how much Pittman has learned from last year’s abysmal finish and how good these coordinators really are.
To Pittman’s credit, he seems to be doing a nice job of allowing his coordinators this season to shine and do what they do best. Abstaining from harmful meddling or micromanaging is an art in and of itself.
The one part where in the offseason he intervened more was helping Eric Mateos out with the offensive line. That makes sense, considering his reputation as one of the best offensive line coaches and recruiters in the country. That makes it even more perplexing why the Hogs can’t recruit and develop a line strong enough to avoid getting the QB killed.
That’s problematic. If Sam Pittman can’t make the O-line better, what can he do for the other position groups? Maybe a lot, maybe a little, but only time will tell what his and his staff’s final grade will be. If the offensive line doesn’t improve, the question of how well Pittman’s hiring has gone won’t even matter in a few months. Everything, instead, will be about the philosophy of the new coach.
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