We May Find Out if Loyalty a Two-Way Street with Razorbacks
There's not really a good reason anybody has to doubt Sam Pittman's vow of loyalty to Arkansas.
What we didn't know is there may be a price tag for it.
The report from Wally Hall at ArkansasOnline.com on Saturday says the number on that price tag might already be set. One that might be big enough to choke some Razorback folks who would have to pony up the money.
More than double the price on Pittman's latest contract is the reported number agent Jimmy Sexton sent to athletics director Hunter Yurachek on Friday.
Sam Pittman's new agent reportedly sent Arkansas new contract for double the money.
Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman reacting on the sidelines in a gave against LSU in Baton Rouge on Nov. 13, 2021. (Kirby Lee / USA TODAY Images)
Nobody's had any real reason to think Sexton has any particular loyalty to the Hogs. To be fair, that's not his job. His responsibility is to get the biggest deal for his clients.
"I don’t want my loyalty to the university to be tested," Pittman said last Sunday. "I’ve said that I would never leave the University of Arkansas, and I’m not going to. Getting an agent doesn’t mean that I’m leaving. Getting a new agent has nothing to do with that. I’ve said this is my last job and it’s damn sure going to be that."
For a coach who told us all a few months ago he would never lie to us, but was only going to tell us what he wanted us to know, it's an interesting series of events.
The only conclusion to all of this is apparently there is a price tag to Pittman's loyalty and he expects loyalty to be a two-way street.
While there was some talk Yurachek was prepared before the season to do a new contract with Pittman, the change in agents from Judy Henry in Little Rock to Sexton may have changed things a little.
Pittman has said he wanted the Arkansas job so bad he didn't really look at the first contract Yurachek had for him and he may not have.
Somebody looked at it later, and after guiding the Hogs to an 8-4 season, a New Year's Day bowl game and heightened expectations, Pittman may just figure, though, he's got the leverage right now.
He's also got a contract that doesn't demand any sort of do-over, particularly to double what he was making. Exactly how that will play out with the folks who are going to have to write a check to cover it is not known.
There will be no knocks on Pittman doing this. Getting out in front with a public relations comment last week to claim that high ground was a pretty good move.
It will be interesting, though, to see how the demands of a coach that has a .500 record over two seasons wants to double what he's making while holding a perfectly valid deal.
The last time an Arkansas coach successfully pulled off an extortion scheme was when Bret Bielema, with a 10-15 two-year record, got a raise and extension from then-AD Jeff Long in the celebratory mood after a Texas Bowl win over Texas.
It took the Hogs four years after dumping him to get all of that settled.
According to Pittman, who has said repeatedly (and adamantly) this is his last job, there can't really be any termination clauses that void the contract if he doesn't look for new employment if this doesn't work out.
He's on the record he's not going to be looking and will be on Lake Hamilton in his new house when this gig ends.
Some will say paying Pittman is investing in the future to keep things on the upward trend he's got the football program headed.
Others will say it's another extortion scheme. There is plenty of verbal justification for both arguments right now.
How it plays out, though, will be interesting.
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