Arkansas fans need to stop acting like Pittman is Chad Morris, Bret Bielema

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas coach Sam Pittman is far from perfect.

He came into a program that was burned to the ground by his predecessors, didn't get to go out and recruit his first actual signing class because of COVID, and got NIL and the transfer portal dumped on him all while having to learn how to be a head coach on the job in what was at the time the toughest conference in America.

Factor in that his first season required him to play an SEC only schedule while randomly having players miss games because of COVID, and there was plenty of room for mistakes without any opportunity to ease into the job and learn with cupcake non-conference games. Every ingredient was thrown into the pot to make sure Pittman failed.

Bret Bielema had none of those disadvantages and currently has Illinois starting out as the No. 11 team in the 2025 preseason rankings. However, he performed nowhere near to Pittman's level as far as overall wins or winning percentage at Arkansas despite often having way better talent available and fewer potential stumbling blocks.

Yet, here Pittman is with more wins than the previous five men to hold the title of head coach at Arkansas combined, and he did it in five seasons while they had eight. If he can put together a typical Pittman season, he will take the lead among all Razorbacks coaches who were hired this century in overall wins, yet fans and certain corners of the media keep acting like every season has been 4-7 at best.

People keep pining for the days of Houston Nutt and all the success that was had back then, and, yes, there were a lot of great memories. There were so many great NFL caliber local players, and Nutt used them to their fullest.

Cedric Cobbs, Peyton Hillis, Matt Jones, Brandon Bulsworth, Shawn Andrews and Peyton Hillis only begin the list of local talent available for Nutt to mine from Arkansas. For whatever reason, the well around the state of Arkansas has dried up recently, lowering the number of on-field leaders who truly bleed Razorback red to get Arkansas over the hump.

The last time the Razorbacks had true on-field leadership out of local talent, Pittman squeezed all he could out of walk-on linebackers Grant Morgan and Hayden Henry while keeping wide receiver Treylon Burks' legs duct taped together well enough to get him through a productive season to pull out a nine-win season and a victory over Penn State at the Capital One Bowl.

Despite this, Pittman has had success that is highly comparable to Nutt even though he hasn't had as even of a playing field because of NIL. Razorbacks fans think back fondly on those final years of Nutt and recall knocking off No. 1 LSU and all the fun that came with the three-headed monster of McFadden, Hillis and Felix Jones.

However, the reality is, Nutt's final five seasons, no matter how fondly remembered, produced an average of seven wins per season. In comparison, Pittman's first five seasons have produced an average of six wins per season, but there is an asterisk with that.

Remember, in his first year, Pittman had to face an all-SEC schedule. He replaced a cupcake non-conference game to get his feet under him with No. 1 Georgia. Other cupcakes were also replaced with SEC teams.

Had Pittman been able to play a normal season in 2020, he likely would have finished with six to eight wins depending on whether the Hogs squeezed out three or four non-conference wins and how the bowl game went. And that would have put Pittman at the same seven-win average for his first five years that Nutt had to close his career at Arkansas.

Who knows what impact that might have had because the following offseason would have been the only normal recruiting window of Pittman's tenure had it not been for COVID. Considering the jump in wins and momentum, that team that followed with nine wins may have had even more talent and the base going into future years would have been stronger to keep things going until NIL really took hold.

Pittman would have at least four winning seasons out of five as compared to Nutt's three, and likely would be 4-0 in bowl games whether 2020 played out normally or TCU hadn't cancelled its Texas Bowl showdown with the Hogs because of COVID absences. Meanwhile, Nutt's teams went 1-2 in bowl games with the lone win being over Missouri in the Independence Bowl.

If the handful of fans who sat through the Missouri game at War Memorial in 2019 had been told the next coach Arkansas hired was going to end an 0-20 SEC streak and win a Capital One Bowl, two Liberty Bowls and essentially a forfeited Texas Bowl with blowout wins over the No. 15 Texas Longhorns and No. 14 Ole Miss, and wins over No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 4 Tennessee, and Penn State, the stadium would have completely emptied as everyone rushed to sign up for that.

Are there opportunities to have built this program even higher under Pittman? Of course.

His history of losing one-loss games has been particularly frustrating to the Arkansas fan base. Take the 2022 season for instance.

If Arkansas kicks a field goal against Liberty, No. 7 LSU and Missouri, the Razorbacks are looking at following that nine-win season with a 10-win season instead of barely squeezing out a 7-6 record.

That would have changed perception dramatically around this program. However, stop pretending this program is where it was the last eight years of the 2010s.

For those who are 22 or younger, no matter how hard they try, they can't remember the Arkansas football program being this successful. So, while it's OK to pine for the ball to bounce the Hogs' way a few times this season, allowing the Razorbacks to stretch up to nine or 10 wins once again, it's not OK to whine like it's 2019 all over again.

Give respect where respect is due. That 2011 season was 14 years ago and most of that NFL talent wouldn't have been at Arkansas if that same season with the same coaches were trying to make it happen today.

Fans don't have to be happy with another 7-6 season, but don't pretend winning at Arkansas isn't a big deal. The Razorbacks are one coaching move from potentially being back in the wilderness again, and suddenly 7-6 will become a dream season once again like it was for pretty much an entire decade before Pittman.