Pittman Coaching Hogs This Morning Proof Anything Can Happen
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The fact Sam Pittman is already halfway through Week 1 of spring practices at Arkansas is a miracle only bested by Jesus Christ himself.
A couple of days ago, in preparation for evaluating quarterbacks, rewatching the Missouri game became necessary because it provided a chance to watch clips of Jacolby Criswell against an SEC team. One thing that became apparent very early on is that game went way worse than anyone remembers.
Of course, fans will contend they remember clearly how awful that day was. To that it can only be said that, yes, everyone remembers that as a miserable experience, but it was tempered through weeks of seeing the Arkansas Razorbacks look worse and worse every week, especially along the offensive line.
The heat of an awful season had slowly been turned up all year long, so there was a certain level of numbness to everything going on. Going back and watching it in the glow of hope that is this new season with all the changes and adjustments on offense is as jarring as jumping face first into the ocean off the ice in Antartica.
Outside of a single drive late in the game, it is hands down the worst football ever played by a Power Five program. As Eli Drinkwitz sends a guy untouched off the edge to force what feels like the 12th turnover deep in Arkansas territory early in the third quarter to set up yet another touchdown where the Tigers look like they are playing against air, it's not hard to relate to Rocky as he watches Apollo get killed by Drago in the ring.
Someone should have stopped it, yet no one ever did. That voice of Apollo's manager literally crying and begging for Rocky to throw the towel just echoes around the brain as haymaker after haymaker sends Arkansas crumpling to the turf.
There comes a point where the shock wears off and reason begins to creep back in, leaving the viewer asking how it's possible Pittman didn't get Bret Bielema'd after the third quarter. Then, as if the announcers can read minds from months into the past, they explain something a lot of people have since forgotten.
Much to the chagrin of a lot of boosters who thought themselves powerful, Pittman wasn't coaching for his job. He had been guaranteed he would return the week prior to the official slaughtering of that team for good by Mizzou in Razorback Stadium.
Instead of wondering out loud whether Pittman could survive until Monday, the announcers instead reminded everyone he would name his new offensive coordinator by the middle of the following week as soon as he had a chance to have an obligatory meeting with Kenny Guiton about the job.
The only way to process it was to consider the very real possibility that Arkansas simply couldn't afford to fire Pittman. Quite literally not afford to make him go away.
Even if they could scrape up the money, whomever they might be able to drag in to take the job would face even more of an uphill battle because money that could have been used to be competitive in NIL had just finished financing the Pittman family lifestyle on the lake in Hot Springs for years to come.
However, hindsight has revealed the most likely scenario that led to that early announcement. Athletics director Hunter Yurachek called Pittman in for yet another frank conversation about how much pressure he was under to bring this era to an end when Pittman threw the Hail Mary of all Hail Marys.
It's the impending announcement of an offensive coordinator that makes this most plausible. Pittman simply pitched Yurachek on a Razorbacks team with Bobby Petrino running the offense and Eric Mateos running the offensive line as soon as the Hogs could pawn Cody Kennedy off on someone else.
Everyone saw how Arkansas fans made an immediate 180 on literally everything once word got out Petrino and his Harley would back in Fayetteville again. It's also well documented how much effort Yurachek put into make sure that could happen.
He fell under the same spell all the Razorbacks fans fell under. "Bobby P" running the offense, out on the recruiting trail trying to lure and develop quarterbacks and receivers. All those boosters who had been angry when he got fired would fall in line and everyone would become glassy eyed at the smell of imminent victories.
It was truly worth it for Pittman. He was under such a dark cloud it was impossible to see and difficult to breathe. Yet, here he is smelling sweet as the dogwood blooms around Lake DeGray this time of year.
People ask him point blank if he's concerned about Petrino possibly taking his job. Pittman's not, because even if Petrino is, that's going to take time. That hiring bought Pittman a lot of leash.
"I just wanted to win," Pittman said on the "Paul Finebaum Show" earlier this week. "To be honest with you, I thought Bobby gave us the best chance to win. That was really the reason I picked up the phone and called him. Then after I visited with him, his love to come back to Arkansas and his drive to come back and be a part of the university. I know a lot of folks may think he came back to be a head coach and all this stuff. I don't worry about any of that. I just want to win. I want to win for the university and the state of Arkansas. I want to make the people proud and I thought this was the best way we could do it."
After pulling off such a bold move in the most dire of circumstances last November, Pittman has an aura of confidence about him that hasn't been there since his days of literally sitting on a throne back in 2021. Now, any situation can be salvaged out of nowhere.
"I'm the head coach at Arkansas today and I'm going to be the head coach in my opinion for a long time here," Pittman said. "I just gotta get it turned around. I believe that we can do it together. I really have a strong belief and love for the Hogs and I have a strong belief in myself. We did it in much worse circumstances when we got in here than where we're at now."
He's right to believe. The fact he's walking around the indoor football facility today as the Razorbacks' head coach after how bad things went in the Missouri game is proof he can pull off just about anything.
HOGS FEED:
• Decision to change signing day has benefits for Hogs' staff, recruits
• Petrino's back, still stressing little things which isn't new
• Will Battle return to Arkansas line-up next season?
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