Sam Pittman Leaves Little Tidbits on Knowledge of Social Media

For a coach that doesn't post a lot, he has people telling him what's going on a lot

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Oct 3, 2023 12:36 AM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — There was one interesting thing Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said at his press conference Monday that may have offered some clues on social media. It's becoming obvious everybody in those football offices either checks it a lot of those minions running around tell them about it all.

Pittman is very aware of what Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin is up to on the social media platforms these days. He made a point of talking about it near the end of his closing down the post-mortem on a loss to Texas A&M and playing the intro for this week's matchup with the No. 16 Rebels.

"(Kiffin)’s great at it," Pittman said. "He just doesn't care. I can't speak for the man, but if somebody says something, he’ll come right back on. I bet it don't bother him an ounce if he wants to make a joke on there about something. He’s special."

Pittman certainly doesn't do that. Apparently offensive coordinator Dan Enos started blocking people on some platforms Monday after the wolves have started howling after this highly-anticipated offense is sputtering to a start in the first five games. Either these coaches have rabbit ears or somebody's been directed to try and block all negative comments, similar to the way a lot of overly-sensitive high-profile folks do these days.

Kiffin is active and he probably doesn't block people unless they do something ridiculously personal, which is over the line. The feeling is nobody's going to manage his social media unless it's someone really, really close to him. He seems to embrace negative comments that come his way and just knock them right back up the middle.

"He has a special gift there that I don't think it bothers him," Pittman said about Kiffin. "It might, I don't want to speak for him." Apparently he also handles things better than most coaches after losses, which isn't that surprising. Another former coach in Mississippi also had that same knack.

"Mike Leach, he had a special gift of after the game whether he won or lost he was like, 'Well, we prepared, we did the best we could and dadgummit Sam we missed a field goal and I'm going to go on social media and say it's open tryouts.," Pittman said about the Mississippi State coach that passed away back in December. "He just had a gift and I would watch him when I watched TV and coming off after losses, he would be so nice. We’re all nice, but you know what I mean, Genuine, happy for you, we’ve got to play better, whatever it might be."

It's some traits Pittman sounds like he would prefer to adapt, but doesn't feel comfortable doing it. Part of that's age. He's a little younger than I am and I certainly don't follow social media at all. My accounts also don't block people that I know about simply because I don't even know what they say.

"Lane’s got that same ability with social media," Pittman said. "Instead of fighting it, he just goes with it. Obviously, I wish I had that same ability. I don’t. I respect how he handles all that. He takes some jabs and things of that nature, but I think it's all in good nature though."

Yeah, he probably does have that ability. What he doesn't have is the knowledge to do it or the time and inclination to learn that much about the whole thing. I can understand that completely. I still don't do it, either and not wasting the time to learn it. Somebody needs to get through some folks' minds, though, that blocking just makes you come off sounding like a teenager.