Sam Pittman appears to have made a bit of a miscalculation ahead of a critical offseason for the Arkansas football program.
A couple of weeks ago, the fifth-year coach told reporters he didn’t “think the portal will be quite as big of a deal” for the Razorbacks this year. In his eyes, revenue sharing was set to level the playing field in terms of financial discrepancies within the SEC and Power Four.
While he is right that Arkansas will soon have an extra $20-plus million — which will be spread out across all sports, with the biggest chunk reserved for football — Pittman might have failed to recognize that every other school will, too, and the differences in NIL still exist. Prices for players are admittedly “a lot more” than he expected, with revenue sharing driving NIL contract amounts up “four or five times” compared to last year.
Instead of the transfer portal being no big deal like he had hoped, there are 22 Razorbacks on their way out of the program — including nine starter-level players.
Some of the departures have strictly been about playing time, but others have been financially motivated and prompted some tough decisions by Pittman and his staff.
“We as a staff, we’ve got to make all those decisions on whether the financial asking price is what we determine the value of the player is,” Pittman said. “If it is, then we try to keep him here. If it’s not, then obviously we wish them well. If it’s strictly about the financial piece, then we know at that point we’d be out of it.”
Roster transition was the first thing Pittman was asked about Thursday afternoon in his first press conference since the end of the regular season.
The early signing period that concluded last week and the upcoming Liberty Bowl against Texas Tech were the intended topics of discussion, but the state of the program dominated the nearly 37-minute interview.
Barely two minutes in, Pittman went out of his way to convey he wasn’t complaining about Arkansas’ financial situation.
“I do want to be very specific here: we have money,” Pittman said, unprompted. “Our donors have been very good financially to us… So we’re not losing these kids because we don’t have money. We’re losing them because what our value is compared to what maybe they can get elsewhere has been, at times, substantially different.”
If the Razorbacks couldn’t match what his players were being offered elsewhere, his strategy was to let them go and use that money to get a transfer replacement — or maybe even two players for the price of that one.
Essentially, rather than using most of his resources on retaining players from this year’s team, Pittman chose to save it to make a splash in the portal.
“We wouldn’t have had financially the money left to go out and get what we might consider big-time difference makers had we just said, ‘Yes, yes, yes, yes,’” Pittman said. “And if we’d said that to every one of them, as much money as we have, we would have ran out.”
Pittman Sticks to his Plan
To his credit, Sam Pittman has stuck with his plan despite being blindsided by the market for his current players.
On at least five different occasions during his press conference, he referenced the Razorbacks’ 6-6 record and each time, the subtext was that mark wasn’t good enough.
“We were a 6-6 football team and we’ve got money,” Pittman said. “So we need to use it wisely.”
Later in the interview, Pittman said it’s “really hard to upgrade your football team” without going out and getting “huge difference makers”
He never came out and directly said it, but reading between the lines, it seems as though Pittman believes the players on his 2024 squad were good enough to get to .500, but new talent from the portal is necessary to make that jump — even if it’s at the expense of returning starters.
It’s a calculated risk by a coach who will likely still appear on preseason “hot seat” lists next year. But it’s one he’s willing to make because he’s confident in his ability to rebuild the roster.
“I think we’re in pretty good shape,” Pittman said. “We know exactly how much money that we’ve spent. We know exactly how much money we have left in the portal. Are we willing to pay a guy a little bit more if we really think he’s fantastic? Yes.”
Good News Coming for Arkansas Football?
He also left the door open for some of his players in the transfer portal to return, which is a stark contrast to early in his tenure when he drew a hard line against such waffling.
“If I asked (my wife) Jamie if I go to transfer for a week and figure it out, would she let me come back? I’m pretty sure the answer would be ‘no,’” Sam Pittman said at SEC Media Days in 2021. “That’s the way we feel about that, too.”
Times have changed, though, and Pittman’s philosophy has evolved. He’s previously allowed guys like Jalen St. John and Malik Hornsby to return and would do so again as long as the player in question “left the right way” by discussing it with him man-to-man.
Then there are the new players Arkansas is going after in the transfer portal. As of Thursday afternoon, Pittman said they already scheduled 29 visits – a number he later said could actually be up to 32 – with 15 in the next five days alone. He expects to sign 20-23 transfers.
The good news actually started flowing in the hours following his press conference. Cornerback Selman Bridges, a former top-100 recruit, withdrew from the portal and will play his sophomore season at Arkansas, and then Oregon transfer Jac’Qawn McRoy – a top-100 offensive lineman in the 2024 class – announced his commitment to the Razorbacks.
Those are the first steps to what Pittman believes could breathe some life into an Arkansas football program that desperately needs it.
“All I would ask is that (fans) be patient to see over the next week and a half, if I can not bite off more than I can chew,” Pittman said. “See if we get out of the portal what I think we can get. If we do, I think they’ll be very excited about that.”
Only time will tell if Pittman’s gamble results in a better roster – and better results – in 2025.
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Arkansas Football Players in Transfer Portal
Here’s a look at Arkansas football’s 22 scholarship players in the transfer portal…
- QB Malachi Singleton
- TE Luke Hasz
- TE Ty Washington
- TE Luke Hasz
- WR Isaiah Sategna
- WR Davion Dozier
- OL Patrick Kutas
- OL Joshua Braun
- OL Addison Nichols
- OL Amaury Wiggins
- OL Ty’Kieast Crawford
- DE Nico Davillier
- LB Brad Spence
- LB Alex Sanford
- LB Carson Dean
- LB Kaden Henley
- DB TJ Metcalf
- DB Jaylon Braxton
- DB Tevis Metcalf
- DB Dylan Hasz
- DB Dallas Young
- LS Eli Stein
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Watch Sam Pittman’s full press conference here:
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Check out how the 2025 Arkansas football roster is shaping up here:
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More coverage of Arkansas football and the transfer portal from BoAS…
