Colorado State Provides Stark Reminder to Pittman to Make Most of Second Chance

Yurachek takes big risk with current Arkansas Razorback football staff after giving grace to Chad Morris went so poorly

Author:
Kent Smith
Updated:
Nov 20, 2023 10:09 AM EST
Original:
Nov 20, 2023

In this story:

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – It's funny where life can lead people to be when a bookmark moment in life takes place. While word came down that Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek decided to make it social media official that Sam Pittman will get another season as head coach of the Razorback football team, my daughter and I meandered through the gorgeous mountains of northern New Mexico and up the height of Colorado to Fort Collins.

It was a chance for a final last minute adventure making sure she got to do the one thing I didn't when I was in high school, visit all the colleges she is seriously considering for her future. If anyone reading this ever gets a chance, it's a trip worth the time. Northern Colorado is the kind of place anyone who grew up in Arkansas can appreciate and Fort Collins is a wonderful town to help kill a few days.

However, the last time anyone directly or indirectly associated with the Arkansas Razorbacks made a trip up this way, it wasn't nearly as enjoyable. Catching a sneak peak of the Colorado State campus the night before we were to traverse it corner to corner in the daylight, we drove aimlessly, trying to recognize buildings and landmarks from our research over the past couple of months.

One facility that needed no identification was Canvas Stadium. Even in the dim glow of nearby lights, it was easy to be in awe of what may be the best Group of Five on-campus stadium by a long shot. It was here back in 2018 that Arkansas fans first got a glimpse into how bad the Chad Morris regime would be.

What was supposed to be an easy out of conference win with the new "left lane, hammer down" offense turned into a nightmare as Arkansas became helpless late, giving up 25 unanswered in the final 17 minutes to lose, 34-27. There would be no Club Dub in the elevations of Colorado.

Most people forget that devastating loss because the following week, in Razorback Stadium, North Texas pulled off one of the most iconic punt returns of all time after the Arkansas punt team assumed the Mean Green had signaled fair catch since the returner didn't immediately take off. This wasn't a close loss on the road to a team that would eventually win only two more games. It was a 44-17 beat down to a Sun Belt school and the first sign that drubbings by Group of Five teams would become a tradition under Morris.

Those embarrassing non-conference losses led the Razorbacks to a 2-10 record, half as many as Pittman has managed this season. Arkansas lost its final two games to Mississippi State and Missouri by a combined 90-6.

A newly minted athletics director, Yurachek had a legitimate decision to make. He didn't hire Morris. An interim AD was responsible for that setback. Not only was Morris not his guy, but the season was more than enough to justify a mulligan on that decision.

However, the Morris battle cry was the team was devoid of talent, a message he regularly expressed to anyone who would listen, including the players on the team. It was enough to convince Yuracheck to give him another season to prove Colorado State was a fluke and North Texas could never happen again.

Everyone knows the rest of the story. However, a lot of Arkansas fans equate this season to the Chad Morris years and also the decision Yurachek had to make in keeping Pittman. It's a lot easier to examine the situation from a full time zone away and see they're not even close than it would be under the cloud of a million emotions being screamed out at once in Northwest Arkansas.

Pittman pulled off what would have likely been three winning seasons complete with bowl appearances with young men Morris kept telling everyone weren't good enough to win more than a pair of games per year had it not been for the 10-game SEC schedule his first year.

He got very little time to recruit with his first class because of how long the hiring process drug out. The second season he couldn't visit schools because of the pandemic and in his third recruiting class, although he did reasonably well, Arkansas got caught unprepared as an athletic department to take advantage of NIL as it lept onto the national stage. All of that has shown this season.

So, for the record, Pittman had one rough year out of four with his hand tied behind his back in a lot of areas. Sure, some of the games that were lost were strictly on him, but it's hard to toss someone out under those circumstances for a single losing season.

The other issue is how strong the financial support was for getting Morris out the door as quickly as possible. He was doing generational damage to the program. This season definitely hurt, but it's not generational damage and it's not Pittman specifically causing all of it. A lack of organization and creativity in NIL has had a heavier hand in the direction of the program than a few stumbles in decision making on the field.

The Dan Enos thing was a tough one to swallow, but Pittman crushed it on all the other hires. Considering how many he had to make, simple math says at least one had to fail, and boy did it.

The financial support for replacing Pittman, plus the comfort of knowing whoever took the position could do a better job, wasn't strong enough to warrant pulling the trigger. It was a no-brainer with Morris. Anyone willing to stick around the Friday night before games could be seen as an improvement. Not so with Pittman.

As a result, for the second time in his tenure at Arkansas, Yurachek thought better of it and gave a struggling head football coach the benefit of the doubt. However, Pittman might want to hang a picture of Canvas Stadium with its green and white Ram images plastered all over the place as a reminder that his boss appears to only offer grace once. He has to right the ship immediately.

The road next season is tough. Arkansas travels to Oklahoma State and likely finishes the season on the road for its final three SEC games. That won't be an allowable excuse, and close losses will count the same as any other losses for the first time as head coach.

The road to wiping the slate clean begins Friday. Morris lost to Missouri 38-0 to close out 2018, a clear indicator the team had quit and things weren't going to be better the following year. If Eli Drinkwitz comes in and rolls over a lifeless Arkansas team similar to what Hugh Freeze and Auburn did two weeks ago, then the writing will already be on the wall.

Pittman's boss took a risk in giving him a second chance. It's now up to him to do a better job with it than Morris.