Can Razorbacks' Pittman survive recent flurry of coaches being fired?

Arkansas is two mistakes from being 4-0, but boosters rarely have patience when losing

Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman might look worried but he's determined to turn the Hogs' season around. | Ted McClenning-allHOGS Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Hunting season is officially open. In college football. The first big name went down Tuesday when Oklahoma State bagged Mike Gundy (apologies to Virginia Tech and UCLA which also abruptly fired their coaches).

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Sam Pittman hopes the firing fever doesn't reach Arkansas, but it's obvious some big boosters are nervous about the future of the program.

It's been that way for a couple of seasons, but Pittman has broad shoulders and the calm, mature demeanor to withstand the pressure and not let it affect his coaching or his team.

Question is, how long will some of the malcontents with deep pockets keep their distance and their opinions to themselves?

Will Pittman be afforded the time and financial resources to turn the Hogs into a perennial eight-win or better team?

Personally, I hope so. Arkansas could be, should be you might say, owner of a 4-0 record and perhaps a spot in the Top 25 polls.

But late-game fumbles on what appeared to be game-winning drives resulted in losses at Ole Miss and Memphis, both road games against unbeaten teams.

Oh my goodness, Memphis just forced an Arkansas fumble in the final 90 seconds

WOW!! This is a DISASTER for Razorbacks

That’s Stoerner-esque pic.twitter.com/mfLhM5XEah

— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) September 20, 2025

Pittman deserves to finish season if Hogs do this

If Arkansas stays competitive, the hope here is boosters don't pull the trigger to hire a new coach during the season.

Popular opinion is that it's necessary these days to let a guy go to get the next one in place, even if an interim coach finishes the season.

But I say let the man finish the season, see if he can carve out a 4-4 SEC record, win a bowl game and post a 7-6 mark.

That's be two straight 7-6 seasons, three in the last four, sandwiching a 4-8 disaster in 2023.

Mediocrity is not the answer is what most boosters are saying.

Will Notre Dame embarrass Hogs in Fayetteville?

Of course, Pittman plans on winning every week. Realistically, 8-4 seems out of reach, although beating Notre Dame is well within the Hogs' grasp.

Both teams are up against the wall as the Fighting Irish started 0-2, losing at now No. 2 Miami and No. 9 Texas A&M by a total of four points before pummeling Purdue last week.

Pittman knows the stakes are high this weekend against the Irish, both for his team and his job.

“It'd be kind of hard to have more pressure,” Pittman said during his weekly Monday meeting with the media. “I've kind of had this same type pressure for, I don't know, three years now. It seems like 40, but I think it's been about three.”

Cowboys now targeting right man for job in Stillwater

Oklahoma State's Gundy felt the pressure during several stretches of his time coaching his alma mater, despite building a 170-90 record.

Gundy was the colorful, sometimes funny, other times acerbic, coach of the OSU Cowboys for 20 seasons.

He'd been Oklahoma State's star quarterback and was a popular choice for a good part of two decades as the head Cowpoke.

Not any more. He had a team ranked in the preseason polls a year ago and finished 3-9. One of those wins was an overtime victory against Arkansas. OSU is 1-2 this year.

Mike Gundy, former OSU football coach, led the Cowboys for 20 seasons. | Todd Pendleton / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

A 69-3 humiliation by No. 6 Oregon was bad enough, but OSU's 19-12 loss to Tulsa— which is worse than being beaten by the undefeated Memphis Tigers — for the first time in 27 years was the final straw.

But hey, Gundy opened with a 27-7 win over UT-Martin. That was an indicator, though, that the Cowboys were not headed in the direction boosters wanted.

Now the OSU folks are beginning a search for the next guy and they'll probably be happy if he wins 65% of his games. That's what Gundy did before wearing out his welcome.

Who will be fourth Power 4 coach to get pink slip?

Gundy isn't the first coach to be sent packing this season, but has the highest profile. UCLA canned coach DeShaun Foster and Virginia Tech axed Brent Pry.

While we're talking about Power 4 conference coaches moving on, let's not forget Auburn Tigers basketball coach Bruce Pearl, who resigned of his own volition Monday.

Pearl promised he's not seeking the Alabama U.S. Senate seat of former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, who announced in late May that he's running for governor of Alabama.

Pearl leaves the Auburn bench with his son sliding over to be the head coach. Steven Pearl, 38, succeeds his 65-year-old father, the winningest coach in Auburn hoops history.

The elder Pearl had reportedly pondered the change for months and announced the decision on the day teams could formally engage in full practices.

Which brings us back to Sam Pittman. Will the Hogs' coach be afforded the opportunity to go out on his own terms?

Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman hopes to leave the program on his own terms, at his chosen time. | Ted McClenning-allHOGS Images

To do so, he probably needs to lead Arkansas to a fifth bowl game in his six seasons since leaving Georgia, where he was associate head coach and offensive line boss.

Odds are against it, but the odds would've predicted Pittman wouldn't ever become a major college head coach.

The percentages were really against him leading a program at an SEC school, after spending the last 26 seasons as an assistant for 11 different teams.

So don't count the man out. Even though the Razorbacks are likely an underdog in at least five of their final eight games, Pittman might find a way to come out on top again.