Hogs' Pittman Could Do Version of What DeBoer Did at Alabama
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It was interesting to see Kalen DeBoer introductory press conference at Alabama on Saturday. Especially when it got to a relationship with Nick Saban, who surprised everyone with his retirement last week.
It's different than anything that's happened with the Razorbacks since that December day in 1976 when Frank Broyles met Lou Holtz at Drake Field here. Everybody talked with the media. Frank and Lou got together an awful lot. Much of it was because Broyles was still the athletics director, but also because he was constantly fascinated with Holtz' offensive game plans.
None of the ensuing coaching changes have been quite that smooth:
• Ken Hatfield got on a plane to Clemson
• Jack Crowe was hired because he was the only got Terry Don Phillips got off the plane. "I thought they'd pick you," Hatfield told his offensive coordinator. He was fired after losing to the Citadel the first game of the 1992 season,
• Danny Ford sailed out of town right after getting canned in 1997. Nobody really thought to wonder a whole lot how fast or exactly how he got out of town.
• Houston Nutt went through kind of a press briefing with John White and Frank Broyles when he stepped down in 2007 and went to Ole Miss. That needed over a decade before he got a standing ovation at Razorback Stadium after being inducted into the UA's Hall of Honor.
• Bobby Petrino's exit was actually a little messier, which nobody saw coming when he was hired.There was probably enough animosity on hurt feelings on both sides to need a few years of breathing space for everyone.
• Bret Bielema did something. Exactly what isn't known, either, before going through some lawsuits after the foundation quit paying him full-time money to get jobs a half-step above being a janitor on an NFL staff.
• Chad Morris took off to Dallas in his car provided by the foundation and they had to go get it. Whether he left the keys in the window visor or under the floor mats isn't known.
Now Sam Pittman has a wide array of consultants who would be more than happy to be associated with the program again. Holtz has been in a town a little in recent years doing some promotional work for some companies. He would be a great person to speak to the team or talk offensive ball with Petrino. That would probably be a fascinating conversation I'd just like to sit in a corner and listen to. Holtz won 72.3% of his games.
Former Arkansas Razorbacks coach Ken Hatfield during a game.
Arkansas Communications
Hatfield lives here. It's not his personality to jump in and offer unsolicited advice, but he may have been the best purely technical football coach the Razorbacks have ever had. Hatfield also won 75.3% of his games over six seasons.
Those guys are available to talk or give Pittman whatever advice he wants to hear. Nutt has children and grandchildren living in Northwest Arkansas and could probably be talked into coming back if he could talk the wife into it. There's also talk of him being back involved with the foundation or some other way.
There are former players that would leap at the chance to be involved in any way they could. Guys that won games at the pace Pittman yearns to achieve again. Even Mike Irwin on Pig Trail Nation dropped hints about Nutt being involved in some way in the video you can see below.
Nutt also may have been the best motivator for pregame talks and explaining the culture around Razorbacks football when they were winning and competing for national championships. It was done with over-achieving players and great coaching.
And understanding a complicated fan base. They may criticize unmercifully at times, but it's kinda like brothers fighting between themselves. It's cause for eye-rolling until a third party gets involved then they have a full-scale war with 2-on-1.. They they resume fighting between themselves. I have sons and grandsons close enough in age to see that's exactly the way it happens.
Nutt does it better than anybody. He's even got a view of college football looking at things from 30,000 feet where you see everything. Because he wasn't working at CBS Sports last year, he could sit back and finally watch games for one of the few times in his life. He enjoyed it. Coaches don't watch games like fans and they know what they're looking at.
It's something Pittman might want to think about. It's been long enough where any hard feelings over departures is over with. Besides, the people involved with all of that are either dead or no longer around the Razorbacks.
As DeBoer said about giving Saban full access and getting at least one thing a day from him, it's pretty simple and Pittman could do the same thing with the Hogs. They're all former coaches and won't deliver a speech as long or complicated as some questions from some of the Razorbacks' media.
""I'd be a fool if that wasn't the case," DeBoer said in his press conference. Pittman may talk to Georgia coach Kirby Smart on occasion, who knows absolutely nothing about Arkansas. It's never been the same culture and will never be the same. What works there isn't going to necessarily work here, regardless how desperately Sam wants to think it might. Bielema tried something about as dumb.
You talk to winners that have done it here on a regular basis, you'll pick up something by osmosis. Holtz, Hatfield and Nutt averaged 8-10 wins a year over an extended period of time, Petrino did it for a couple of years but you can believe whatever you want about the possibility of that continuing.
That's four resources to give Pittman the information he obviously hasn't been getting in the right place. He better to figure out how to win at something like that pace or he'll be sitting on the dock on Lake Hamilton, having one of his cold ones and waving at boaters.
HOGS FEED:
FOCUS FOR RAZORBACKS RECRUITING NOW SHIFTS FROM HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS
RAZORBACKS DIDN'T HAVE SELLING POINTS FOR ALABAMA RECEIVER
BALANCED RAZORBACKS: OFFENSE CAN'T SCORE AND DEFENSE CAN'T STOP ANYBODY THESE DAYS
• Subscribe and follow us on YouTube
• Follow allHOGS on Twitter and Facebook
