Sam Pittman's 'Country Boy' Logic May Have Showed Cause of Woes

Hiring Dan Enos was probably a mistake, but becoming clear why wheels fell off

Author:
Andy Hodges
Updated:
Oct 23, 2023 6:21 AM EDT
Original:
Oct 22, 2023

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Whatever the reasons, Arkansas' offense probably didn't need Dan Enos and Sam Pittman may have over-reacted when he tired of the Kendal Briles annual flirting earlier this year. He needed somebody as close to Briles' mindset he could find.

He also needed someone he could trust. While they had coached together for a year in the past with the Razorbacks, you never got the impression they were particularly close. For whatever reason, it obviously hasn't worked out and Cody Kennedy wasn't suddenly struck stupid on how to coach offensive linemen. It sounded like Pittman didn't believe that, either, after a shocking 7-3 loss to Mississippi State on Saturday.

But he wasn't giving a lot of specifics. Here's the exact transcript from the press conference Saturday with all of the Pittmanese intact. We'll translate it after giving you a chance to read through it all:

"Umm … I really don’t know how it got to today. Let’s keep it to that — today. (Long pause) When kids play extremely hard, they believe in you, you know what I mean? When you struggle, a lot of times when it’s not going your way, you’ve got to have something that can bring a spark to them. We just haven’t found that. You’re talking about pass protection, screens, running the football — even though I think we did hand it off and run it a little better today that what we had. When you get a four-yard run, I’m not positive that’s a celebration, but it has become that way. So you’re asking me how that’s become that way, I really… I don’t not want to answer it, but I don’t know that I have the perfect answer for it either."

Pittman, who made his bones as one of the top offensive line coaches in the country, didn't suddenly forget how the process works. He probably had a pretty good idea, but didn't know exactly where the problem lay, but had a good idea. All you have to do is use some country-boy logic and it's there. He may not have grown up on any kind of farm, but Grove, Oklahoma was country 50 years ago.

On the Hogs' new staff, only the tight ends coach and offensive coordinator changed this season. Since the tight ends are a combination of injuries and depth plus new coach Morgan Turner isn't in a position to make enough changes to send the whole wagon into the ditch, that leaves one person, Dan Enos, who also coached quarterbacks.

To summarize the whole thing, it probably became clear Enos — in less than a year — coached one of the top quarterbacks in the SEC to one of the worst in terms of production. Signing a bunch of No. 2 and 3 receivers in the transfer portal and not being creative enough to figure out how to use the fastest guy on the team was one thing. Forcing a new scheme on relatively inexperienced linemen made it clear where the problem was. It was obvious Saturday KJ Jefferson wasn't happy with something. He's too much of a professional to voice it though.

You can't scheme your way to a championship. We've seen coaching staffs over nearly the last 20 years prove if you can't modify your scheme to what the players you have available can do, someone's getting fired. It's usually the coach who's not flexible and wants things to change with guys who had never done that before. Mastering it in a few months is an unreasonable expectation.

Pittman can't fire the entire roster of players. At his age, being a sideshow in social media video clips probably doesn't sound that appealing. He probably doesn't want to replace his entire offensive coaching staff, either. The Hogs weren't this pathetic in 2022, and only one coach changed who could affect that.

The problem was resolved Sunday morning in probably the only logical manner it could. While fans howled for someone's head, for a change in sports, the right person was replaced. I wasn't a particularly big fan of Enos when he was here before, although I admired the public relations way he was portrayed as a coach who ran the ground-and-pound when, by the numbers, he passed more than he ran.

Nothing in the Dan Enos file suggested he was much more than an over-hyped fill-in as an offensive coach. The year with the Hogs everyone points to finished with an 8-5 record in 2015, primarily because of a miracle play he didn't draw up or have in the plan against Ole Miss and an experienced senior quarterback. Otherwise, the Hogs are a .500 team ... again.

Briles had a better record than that in 2021 with a quarterback in his first year as a starter coming off a year unlike any before or since with a global pandemic, a transfer portal and everything new. Now the biggest question is what does Pittman do to fix a mess that probably can't get worse?

On second thought, it probably could, but don't ask for a head count of how many guys will be around if that happens. The Hogs will try to limp this season to Thanksgiving with what's left and see what is done after that. What happens at that point is up in the air.