Sam Pittman Gets Historic Opportunity to Relaunch Razorback Football Program

Arkansas coach handed chance to reshape team in way that would normally take three off seasons in quest to be relevant in SEC West title hunt

Author:
Kent Smith
Updated:
Jan 1, 2023 9:51 PM EST
Original:
Dec 31, 2022

In this story:

Arkansas Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Much has been made about players just needing a fresh start in the transfer portal.

It's true. Sometimes a guy just needs to get away from everybody and everything and reset with a clean slate to have a coach see him for who he is without all the baggage to reach his true potential.

If it's easy for fans to see the benefits of a fresh start with an individual player, why can't the same be true for an entire program?

College football teams often get renewed energy and rebound to do great things with a change in voice and perspective when a new head coach takes over, so why can't the same be true in reverse?

In football, coaches haven't been able to essentially clear the room and hit the restart button on an entire football team, but Sam Pittman has the chance to do that.

He has already brought in a strong recruiting class that can be molded to the mentality he wants from his players. Now, Pittman has the chance to bring in a second full recruiting class made up solely of transfer portal players who should not only provide an upgrade in talent level from the personnel they are intended to replace, but they too get to fit a specific mental make-up needed to compete in the SEC.

If Pittman plays this right, he can create a fully revamped, dramatically improved football team while leaving behind any negative drama from the previous group of Razorbacks.

The Hogs were in desperate need of an overhaul. Outside of No. 3 linebacker Jackson Woodard and defensive lineman Isaiah Nichols, all Arkansas lost were guys who were rarely, if ever, going to get on the field, players with discipline issues hanging over their heads, or who got playing time, but shouldn't have been able to on a properly constructed SEC team.

Some will argue that Jalen Catalon was a significant loss and they would be right – two years ago when the Razorbacks actually lost him.

Talent does the Hogs no good if it can only be used to make UAMS commercials.

Had he gone into the season and blown his shoulder again in another no-contact moment, Catalon wouldn't have even been good for that. No one would take their athletes to UAMS if it looked like they weren't capable of getting a former projected NFL draft pick back on the field long term.

There could be a small case made for the loss of Trey Knox and Ketron Jackson, but you're talking about a wide receiver who had to be forced into the body of a small tight end and a wide receiver who was just starting to show a glimmer of hope at being able to develop into an SEC receiver after averaging less than a catch and 15 yards per game over two years.

Arkansas has a premiere tight end in Luke Hasz and possibly a second elite tight end in Shemar Easter who not only provide actual tight end bodies and experience, but now get more opportunity to develop quickly under tight ends coach Morgan Turner without Knox taking reps away and the potential awkward "Dowell Loggains said to do it this way" moments.

Transition to a new era at that position will now be clean.

It would have been nice to see if Jackson could get to the other side of the mountain and reach the promise he showed in high school, but that was a big if, and the transfer portal has a whole team's worth of receivers who bring what Jackson was going to provide or better, so the team improves by at least having someone of equal talent who wants to be at Arkansas.

Overall, the clearing of so much of the roster is a godsend for a program that was spinning its tires in the mud while in need of an opportunity to move on.

The Liberty Bowl win over Kansas was especially helpful with so many gone from the roster because it gave the coaches a chance to more deeply evaluate the talent left and see who has the ability to develop to the level needed to be an SEC West contender and who needs an honest moment of explanation in the value of playing time and education at a Group of Five school.

While the situation provides a full reset, it also starts the clock on Pittman in regard to showing he can produce a team that can compete in the SEC West and whatever mutant version of it that will exist once Texas and Oklahoma join the party.

He will be shed of everything but the most salvageable vestiges of the Chad Morris era. It will be a team truly of Pittman's vision.

Considering he is able to get three year's worth of teardown in a single offseason this year, the run to SEC relevance is two, three years tops, before a lack of high achievement could cause the house Pittman has built to get turned over to someone else.

It's a once in history opportunity Pittman has been gifted. The story of Razorback football over the next few years and perhaps into the coaching regimes that follow will be what he does with it.