Sam Pittman-Texas A&M — Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman talks with officials during the 23-21 loss to Texas A&M on Saturday night, Sept. 24, 2022, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. (Michael Morrison / allHOGS Images)

Best Razorback Team in History Flipped Sam Pittman from Sooners

Shocking Oklahoma in Orange Bowl in 1978 nearly won national title, but also may have helped get a coach

Author:
Andy Hodges
Updated:
Jul 24, 2023 8:17 AM EDT
Original:
Jul 23, 2023

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Growing up in Oklahoma, Razorback coach Sam Pittman was "Boomer Sooner" all the way. That is until a shocking 31-6 win by the Razorbacks in the Orange Bowl made him change teams, which really isn't that surprising for high school kids.

By then, Pittman was living in Grove, Okla., which is about 75 miles from here. It was closer than either Norman or Stillwater, where OU and Oklahoma State are located. He's never backed off that, but he certainly couldn't avoid hearing about what was happening with the Sooners.

"Grew up a Sooner fan until I moved out to eastern Oklahoma and became a Hog fan," Pittman said at SEC Media Days in response to a question about Texas and Oklahoma coming to the league next year. "It will be a big deal for the SEC and specifically Texas because of the old Southwest Conference rivalry."

The team Pittman referenced was actually the 1977 team, but that Orange Bowl was Jan. 2, 1978. The Hogs probably had as good or better of a claim to the national title than eventual winner Notre Dame or No. 2 Alabama, but few people were expecting anything like that from that team. They were maybe the deepest and most talented team from top to bottom at every position on field.

They even had a defensive lineman in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Anybody who can vote for the College Football Hall of Fame knows Dan Hampton is on the ballot and you don't know enough to keep voting if you don't check his name. Pittman liked that team enough to change loyalties.

But he couldn't ignore the Sooners, who were still one of the top teams in the country at the time and had been getting headlines for decades and still are. That's probably not going to change anytime in the foreseeable future. Pittman was an assistant there for a couple of years (1997-98) in the John Blake years.

"Oh, I got a bunch of (memories)," he said about the Sooners. "Brian Bosworth, you know, was one of them. One of them was when Arkansas in '78 ... OU has got to win the game and Arkansas got them, 31-6. You have Billy Sims. There's a lot of great memories. We couldn't really afford to go to the game or anything like that, but a lot of great memories, Oklahoma, Barry Switzer, of course, Stoops, now, was the next one. Yeah, a lot of great memories. Powerful program. Great program."

There's a lot of Pittmanese in there, but you get the point. Nobody really expected the Hogs to win that game. It was taken off the betting boards because coach Lou Holtz had kicked three offensive starters off the team over a dorm incident, including the top two running backs (Ben Cowins and Michael Forrest) and a top receiver in Donny Bobo.

Now Pittman has to do almost the same thing with a team that has low expectations for the coming season with a lot of questions and nowhere near enough answers to make any sort of reliable prediction. A lot of folks do it because so many fans want affirmation, not information. All Sam knows he needs to do is have most of those questions answered positively and everybody will forget about it.