FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — As Arkansas fans spilled onto the field at Razorback Stadium, Sam Pittman smiled and walked to midfield, flanked by team officials and security keeping fans from bowling him over.
The 19-14 upset of No. 4 Tennessee in October was the program’s first top-five win since beating eventual national champion and No. 1 LSU in 2007. It was the second time Pittman’s Razorbacks had ignited a field storm, dating back to a win over rival Texas in 2021.
There was jubilation in Arkansas.
Defensive back Doneiko Slaughter, a Tennessee transfer, said in the locker room after the game he finally had a story to tell his future kids.
“That’s powerful,” Pittman told The Athletic earlier this season. “You can’t buy that.”
Last year, athletic director Hunter Yurachek told the team in the locker room after a late-season win over FIU that he was backing Pittman amid a difficult 4-8 season and the coach would be back for the 2024 season.
— Hunter Yurachek (@HunterYurachek) November 19, 2023
Was the win over Tennessee validation and a sign of bigger, more meaningful moments to come? Or a blip in a tenure finally reaching its twilight? Was it proof Pittman’s controversial decision to bring back Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator — unthinkable to some — was paying off?
“He gets a lot of crap but that guy is a hell of a football coach,” Yurachek told CBS Sports after the upset of Tennessee. “He needs to get some credit for tonight’s win.”
Since then, the Hogs took a pair of lopsided losses to LSU and Ole Miss. Their lone wins came against Mississippi State, winless in SEC play, and Louisiana Tech. And overall, the results this season have been mixed.
Arkansas squandered an 11-point second-half lead in a road loss to Oklahoma State, the lone Big 12 team without a conference win. Three weeks later, Texas A&M made another escape with a go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter to beat Arkansas for the 12th time in 13 meetings.
Pittman’s team is 6-5 and 3-4 in SEC play as the Razorbacks travel to face a Missouri team Saturday that’s beaten them in seven of their past eight meetings. Arkansas has shown progress in Pittman’s five seasons, but for some, not enough.
Earlier this month, on the day the Hogs were slated to host Texas, someone paid for a digital billboard along Interstate 49, about 10 miles north of Razorback Stadium.
“Thank you for five great years Sam. A change is needed in order to compete in the SEC,” it read.
Pittman’s contract has an unusual quirk — and he’s enjoyed enough success to have it work in his favor: If his record was at or above .500 from the 2021 season on, he would be owed 75 percent of his remaining contract if fired. If it was below .500, he’d be owed 50 percent. Pittman is above that line, sitting at 26-23 in the past four seasons entering his final two games of 2024, including a bowl game. It would cost Arkansas $12.1 million to fire him after this season.
Pittman looks likely to return after guiding the Razorbacks to a third bowl game in four years. Quarterback Taylen Green has another year of eligibility, and Pittman’s recruiting results have been fairly typical for Arkansas, ranking in the mid to lower tier of the SEC. But in the portal era, projecting to the next season is more unpredictable than ever.
Can the program begin an ascent? Or is he spinning his wheels until the program decides a new voice is needed?
Five years ago, Arkansas football had lost 19 consecutive SEC games. Chad Morris had torpedoed the program into a 4-20 stretch in two seasons, the worst two-season run in the history of the program dating back more than a century.
Yurachek turned to Pittman. He had never been a coordinator, but had built himself into one of the sport’s most respected position coaches as an offensive line coach. Outside of two seasons at a junior college in 1992 and 1993, Pittman had never been a head coach. Now, he was leading an SEC program. In part because Yurachek believed. In part because no one else would take the job.
Pittman snapped the SEC losing streak in his second game. He had Arkansas to nine wins and the Outback Bowl in his second season. Besides winning, he embraced Arkansas and the pride fans had in their state and program.
Last season, he replaced offensive coordinator Kendal Briles with Dan Enos after Briles left for TCU.
Eight games later, after a 7-3 loss to Mississippi State, Pittman fired Enos. It was the biggest issue in a nightmare 4-8 season.
The Razorbacks lost five total games by one possession, including three losses to top-20 teams, two coming on the road at Ole Miss and at Alabama, when the Hogs had the ball at midfield trailing by three with six minutes left against the eventual SEC champions.
“In my time playing college football, I’ve learned the difference between 4-8 and 8-4 is not that much,” fifth-year defensive lineman Landon Jackson said.
But the season ended with ugly 38- and 34-point losses to Auburn and Missouri, respectively, sending fans into a lengthy, postseason-free offseason with a bitter taste in their mouths. Against Missouri, the Hogs trailed 41-0 after three quarters.
“If we don’t finish like we did, I don’t know if the people would have been so much like, ‘We gotta get rid of this guy,’” Pittman said. “We couldn’t hold it together and have that same fight late in the season. That was the biggest disappointment.”
It got bad enough that a vote of confidence from Yurachek was needed. And so was an offseason loaded with big changes.
Three-year starting quarterback KJ Jefferson left for UCF. Two-year starting running back Rocket Sanders left for South Carolina.
Pittman still needed to make an offensive coordinator hire, too.
Pittman’s phone buzzed. When he looked down, he saw a text from agent Christina Phillips, gauging Pittman’s interest in her client joining his staff as offensive coordinator.
Her client: Petrino, who in 2010 and 2011, ushered in the greatest run of Arkansas football since Ken Hatfield in the twilight of the Southwest Conference in the late 1980s.
But Petrino was also fired for cause three months after leading Arkansas to its first top-five finish since Lou Holtz’s debut season in 1977 and just the fourth time in school history. His tenure featured one of the most infamous, spectacular coaching exits in college football history.
Petrino’s career rebounded, and he coached Lamar Jackson to a Heisman Trophy at Louisville in 2016, but the program later eroded and he was fired in 2018. He’d been a head coach at FCS Missouri State for three seasons before becoming an FBS offensive coordinator. Barry Odom, the former Missouri coach and Pittman’s former defensive coordinator at Arkansas, hired Petrino at UNLV, but he left the program after three weeks to spend one season trying and failing to keep Jimbo Fisher from being fired at Texas A&M.
Pittman was intrigued, despite Petrino’s complicated history with the state and program and mixed results in the seasons since his exit from Razorbacks country. He likes having former head coaches on his staff.
Pittman and Petrino didn’t have a prior relationship. Pittman called Petrino, asking questions about football philosophy and fielding questions from Petrino about Pittman’s involvement in the offense following Petrino’s experience working under Fisher.
“I wanted to get to know the man. A lot about his family, my family, my wife, Jamie, got on the phone,” Pittman said. “I knew he could coach. I had some questions about his time at A&M, how that went. He was gracious about his time there. I talked to a lot of different people who had worked with him as a coordinator. Nothing but positive things to say.”
School policy required president Donald Bobbitt and chancellor Charles Robinson to sign off on rehiring an employee who had previously been fired for cause. After about 10 days of vetting and a seal of approval from Yurachek, Petrino was back in Fayetteville.
“I thought it would be very popular. I knew there would be some people who didn’t like it, but that’s everything in life,” Pittman said. “I’m good with how I feel about running the program. I don’t know that a guy with a huge ego could have done it. But I just wanted to win.”
The hire was met with skepticism outside the state, but days after the hire, Pittman sat alongside his new hire during the basketball team’s upset win over Duke. The crowd welcomed them with raucous cheers and “We want Bobby!” chants.
Adding Petrino has rocketed Arkansas’ offense to 18th nationally in yards per play this year, up from 116th a year ago, despite losing Jefferson and Sanders.
“We decided it was just as important who was not on the team than who was on the team. We were cautious about that too,” Pittman said. “I don’t mean they’re not good kids or not good players, but who fits in what we’re trying to do and who doesn’t? We love the guys who left and hope they’re kicking ass but I think that was important.”
The Razorbacks added running back Ja’Quinden Jackson from Utah and Green from Boise State. Pittman and Petrino were aligned on Green as their best quarterback option in the portal out of four quarterbacks considered. They also added offensive linemen Addison Nichols from Tennessee, Fernando Carmona from San Jose State and Keyshawn Blackstock from Michigan State, all starters this year.
Playing for a head coach who spent two decades as one of college football’s premier offensive line coaches was a powerful lure for players in the transfer portal.
“He gets what it’s like for us,” Carmona said.
They’ve also done it without being one of the more financially aggressive programs in the transfer portal. Pittman’s preference is to use more of the program’s NIL budget on retaining players and rewarding players who produce on the field, rather than using it as a lure for recruits and transfer prospects.
Pittman has taken an involved, but hands-off, approach to his coordinators since becoming a head coach.
Arkansas’ offense has improved, and Petrino’s presence — a major offseason headline — has been overshadowed by the on-field product. Petrino has been made available to reporters sparingly since his arrival and hasn’t made waves when he was. Whether he stays for a second season remains to be seen. He could be a candidate for Group of 5 openings this coaching cycle if he chooses to pursue that route.
“He was perfect for me and has been great ever since. I understand a lot of people wouldn’t have done it,” Pittman said. “All I want to do is win.”
Six times, Pittman, 62, has been part of a staff charged with a mandate: Improve or be fired. On five of those occasions, he was shown the door.
Those experiences, and the 35-plus other years spent coaching, give him a perspective different from one a hotshot, 35-year-old coordinator might have, even as he navigates a make-or-break season as a head coach for the first time.
“If I’m 40 and I had my dream job, which I have now, and I get fired, what am I gonna do for the next 20-25 years?” Pittman said.
Pittman has done his part to try and pass on to his team his ability to shrug off the pressure. Pittman’s never had an issue talking about his job status in innuendo or hushed tones. He addresses it head on. But he’s never talked about it with his team.
“The media can destroy your team. In this day and age, even more so,” Pittman said. “Once you start reading how much the coach sucks, it’s hard for you to not believe the coach sucks. And the guy playing next to you, he sucks. He shouldn’t be out there next to you. Hear that enough, and you’ll believe that guy sucks.”
Part of the pain of being fired, for any coach, is stepping into the unknown. There’s nothing unknown about Pittman’s next step. In 2021, he and Jamie purchased a 6,924-square-foot home on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs. A year later, he had a slobbering hog fountain installed facing the lake. Pittman plans to retire there when his time as the head Hog is done.
“I would rather say when I’m going to Hot Springs than the university (tell me),” Pittman said. “But I know where I’m going.”
Pittman can feel the years playing defensive end followed by 40 years coaching football on a practice field. They took a toll on his body. Frequent pain means walking with a heavy limp he hopes will go away next month. He’s got a worn-down hip with a simple treatment recommended by doctors: He needs a new one.
Pittman plans to have the operation after the regular season concludes so he can recover with an eye on the end of the recruiting dead period, the transfer portal opening and bowl practices beginning.
That limp should be gone by the time Arkansas’ bowl game kicks off. And Pittman will look more like a coach ready to keep running.
“We’ve had success here,” Pittman said. “When I look at our time here, it’s not that I’m like, ‘Man, I’m a failure.’”
(Top photo: Nelson Chenault / Imagn Images)
