Guiton Goes to Booth After Testing Sidelines for Playcalling

Moving parts galore as everybody learns on the fly with new Razorbacks coordinator

Author:
Daniel Shi
Updated:
Oct 31, 2023 7:33 AM EDT
Original:
Oct 30, 2023

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — In a season of firsts, Arkansas continues to break new ground under coach Sam Pittman. Granted, most of it is bad.

The Razorbacks are on their first six-game losing streak since the Chad Morris glory years. The team is ranked last in the SEC in total yards (yes, even below Vanderbilt) and it would be the first time since the turn of the millennium that the Hogs finish last in their conference.

There's also another first for Pittman individually.

"I don’t think I’ve ever been through a mid-season coordinator change," Pittman said at his press conference Monday. "I’ve had a lot of jobs. I’ve been through some late-season head coaches getting fired. It’s terrible. But I don’t know. I mean it’s terrible for everybody: Fans, players, coaches. But I don’t know if I’ve ever been through that. What I wanted to do was make sure we brought life back into the program, brought enthusiasm back into the program."

Like any new job, there's a feeling-out process. When the announcement was first made, Pittman suggested newly-minted offensive coordinator Kenny Guiton would be on the sidelines, a shift from Dan Enos being upstairs. Just a few days later, however, Pittman announced Guiton would be shift to the box as well as he looks to find his footing by trial and error.

"He didn't think he would be comfortable on the sideline after he initially thought that's where he needed to be," Pittman said. "Part of that has to do with [new wide receivers coach Derek] Kief. Any coordinator to me that is especially young will be much better upstairs, but I gave him that opportunity to decide what he wanted to do, and he changed to wanting to be in the box."

Pittman is searching for answers and looking to make the transition as painless as possible. Guiton has a lot happening at the same time on top of being offensive coordinator. He also took over Dan Enos's role as quarterbacks coach and remains a big part of the wide receiver room despite the reins being handed over to Kief. Pittman has also closed practice to the media for the whole week for the first time all season. The playbook has also been cut by "about 30%."

"Kenny is involved with the receiver play, as well," Pittman said. "We’re trying to cut down some of the things that we do so they can do them a little bit faster, but no, I don’t think anything’s different [with Kief as receivers coach]."

Guiton will get his first chance to show what he has learned in the crash course of offensive play calling against Florida Nov. 4 at 11 a.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2 and FuboTV .