Considering their status in a state that loves its Razorbacks, it’s easy to forget that Arkansas coaches are people, too.
Just like the common man with a 9-to-5 job, they’ve been known to crack open an “ol’ cold beer” after a long day at work, do fun things over the weekend or take a vacation when the calendar allows it.
Even a Hall of Famer like John Calipari had to escape to the Jersey Shore to “catch a breath” after his first summer session in Fayetteville. Eric Musselman famously went to MLB games all over the country during the summer. Just this weekend, Dave Van Horn made his way over to Harrison to see Zach Williams — a Christian rock artist from Jonesboro — perform a show.
For fifth-year Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman, his fun usually centers around spending time at his lake house in Hot Springs and going to concerns with his wife, Jamie.
In an interview on the debut episode of The Chuck & Bo Show on ESPN Arkansas, Pittman said they did get away for a couple days this summer to Las Vegas, where they saw a Lionel Richie concert. Other than that, though, they dialed things back on the music front.
“I didn’t get to see a whole lot of concerts,” Pittman said. “Usually Jamie and I go to a whole lot of concerts. Didn’t get much of that this summer.”
For a guy whose catchphrase involves turning on a jukebox, that was probably quite the sacrifice. It is also probably an indication of Pittman recognizing that 2024 is shaping up to be a make-or-break season for him and his future at Arkansas.
The Razorbacks are coming off a 4-8 season in which they won just one SEC game. There was speculation that he might not even make it through last year, so when Hunter Yurachek opted to retain him, Pittman immediately became one of the top “hot seat” coaches in the country.
Just as he has taken on a larger role with the offensive line — becoming, as he likes to say, the highest-paid graduate assistant in college football — Pittman preferred to stay closer to the UA campus this summer. With Hot Springs less than a four-hour drive away, he made up for the lack of concerts with lake time.
“I love the water and all that about it, the people of Hot Springs and Arkansas,” Pittman said. “But the other thing is I’m not too far away from the university and if I need to get back and come back in the morning and watch the workouts and then get back to the lake, it’s not that difficult. I hate to go too far away from the kids in the summer, even though we need our time as well.”
What Pittman Didn’t Dial Back On
Another noticeable difference for the Razorbacks this offseason was an increased physicality in practice, both during spring ball and fall camp.
Part of that was to change the mindset of a squad that seemingly let go of the rope at the end of last season. While five of Arkansas’ eight losses were decided by seven points or less, it was outscored 96-24 in its last two SEC games.
The physicality was also a necessity because of how many new players are on the team. Of the Razorbacks’ 84 scholarship players, 39 played elsewhere last year — either in college or high school — and a third of them weren’t even in Fayetteville for spring ball.
“It is just a new era of football and you really don’t know exactly what you have,” Pittman said. “That’s why we went live four different times in the fall camp. Now, two of them were full scrimmages and two of them were situational football, but it was live, and we did the same thing in spring. We’re trying to find out who we have before we have to really figure it out.”
Expectations for Arkansas Football
With the season opener against UAPB in Little Rock now just three days away, excitement for Arkansas football is building.
That means some fans are starting to drink the Kool-Aid, with social media and message boards littered with predictions of the Razorbacks returning to a bowl game.
On a national scale, though, the expectations aren’t nearly as high. Most sports books have set Arkansas’ win total at just 4.5, meaning it could hit the over and still not play in the postseason. ESPN’s Football Power Index has the Razorbacks projected to win 5.5 games with just a 48.4% chance to make a bowl.
Perhaps the reason for optimism amongst fans, beyond blind loyalty, is the message coming from the man leading the program.
“I think part of that optimism is that we have more depth than we’ve had in the past, and then we have some really, really good SEC players on our team at critical positions,” Sam Pittman said. “I just like the feel of the team. I like the leadership of the team. Once we get tested, we’ll figure out how good our leadership is, both through the coaching ranks and through the players, but as of right now, I really, really like all those things.”
That leadership aspect might be the most important factor in whether or not Arkansas truly turns things around in 2024. As Pittman indicated, though, it probably won’t be fully understood until Sept. 7 against Oklahoma State, at the earliest.
“Your first test is going to be when you get down going into the second half, going into the fourth quarter,” Pittman said. “How do you respond if — and hopefully we don’t — but if we lose a game, how are we going to respond?
“Those are where you get championship (teams), a big bowl, playoff teams — whenever you have a team that can respond the right way. And I just feel very, very confident that that’s what our coaches, staff and our players are going to do. So I feel as good as I’ve felt since Grant Morgan and Bumper Pool and those guys were running the team back two and a half years ago.”
Impact of Bobby Petrino
It also doesn’t hurt that the Razorbacks have a new offensive coordinator.
Just like last year’s hire, it’s someone fans remember from a previous stint — but that’s about all Dan Enos and Bobby Petrino have in common.
Sam Pittman would never stoop to the point of insulting the former, but if his midseason firing didn’t already do it, his praise of the latter tells you everything you need to know.
“The feel is different because of the confidence that they have that they’re going to go score,” Pittman said. “Now, we know they’re not going to score every single time they go out there, but the belief that they can, that part of it certainly has changed. Then once you believe that you can score, then you’re carrying and you’re going through the whistle and your motivation becomes different when you believe that you should and are going to go score every time you have the ball.”
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Watch the entire interview with Pittman starting at the 1 hour 31 minute mark here:
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