Arkansas lost its third straight Homecoming (!), and Saturday seems like a watershed moment for the Sam Pittman era.
News of Note
Two Hogs arrested. I’m not posting or linking to any photos as I believe it’s unethical to do so when someone has not been formally charged, as these two have not. But Myles Slusher and Anthony Brown were arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct after the game. It’s another black eye for the program, and the black eyes just keep coming.
Opinion: Pittman’s best season may already be already behind him
Let’s start with a simple premise: losing to Liberty in Year 3 is unacceptable. It just is. Combine that with the near-loss to Missouri State and the giveaway against Texas A&M, and this season has been a minor disappointment.
That said, we don’t want to overreact – the Hogs may well win out and finish 8-4 – but mounting evidence suggests that Sam Pittman quickly ascended to his ceiling as a coach and is bumping into it this year.
The theory here is that Pittman was the perfect coach to bring the Hogs out of the lowest point in program history and back into the middle of the SEC pack. But he may not be the perfect coach to bring the Hogs on to the upper echelon of the SEC. If the Hogs want to do that, they’ll need a new coach. That’s obviously not a call to fire Pittman, just a belief that he’s taken the program about as far as he can.
To have done that in two seasons is pretty incredible. He’ll be remembered fondly no matter what. But he could be remembered even more fondly if he hadn’t hired Jimmy Sexton last offseason and negotiated a large raise. That move caused him to go from overperforming to underperforming in a hurry. He’s not the lovable ol’ line coach who brough Arkansas out of the SEC cellar, he’s a big-name SEC coach who just lost to Liberty, and he has the agent and the contract to prove it. Riding off into the sunset is less likely now.
Underdog no more
Part of Pittman’s problem is that his “chip on the shoulder” mentality doesn’t really work when you’re not the underdog. Pittman started 5-7 in his first 12 games as a underdog, which is pretty incredible. He inspired confidence in a team that had none.
But as a favorite, especially a big favorite, there have been issues. Arkansas has been favored by 14+ points in five non-conference games over the last two seasons, and the Hogs trailed by double-digits in the first half of three of them: 2021 Rice, 2022 Missouri State, and 2022 Liberty. Getting his team ready to play an opponent they should crush has presented issues, and it finally bit the Hogs in the win-loss column on Saturday. Opportunities to use the “little ol’ us” narrative are diminishing for Pittman, a casualty of his own success.
In this way, I think Pittman is very similar to Houston Nutt. He’s probably a better version of Nutt, in many ways, especially related to ego and off-field drama. Nutt was great at firing the team up and winning big games. But wild week-to-week inconsistency and issues when expectations were raised was part of his undoing. He won SEC Coach of the Year three times – 1998, 2002, and 2006 – but it was the three seasons that followed those (1999, 2003, and 2007) that ultimately lost the goodwill of fans, as the Hogs underachieved all three years with high expectations.
Now what?
It took ten years to realize that Nutt’s ability to lift Arkansas out of the cellar of the 90s would not translate into anything more than middle of the SEC. We may have already figured that out in Year 3 for Pittman. He could probably hang around go 7-5 a few more times, and that wouldn’t be the end of the world given the tumultuous decade that Arkansas football is just now exiting, but in this day and age of college football, if you aren’t actively moving forward, you’re moving backward.
Of course, Pittman will get a chance to prove all of this wrong if he wants it. He could make changes at assistant coach. Another year of recruiting and development might build more depth and ensure that losses to Liberty don’t happen again. But the skillset he’s used to get this far isn’t suitable for the challenges ahead. Sam Pittman 2.0 will have to instill a more business-like culture that simply doesn’t even accept the idea of losing to a Liberty, or struggling with a Missouri State. That’s how you compete with the big dogs and consistently win at a high level.
Scores of Note
LSU 32, Alabama 31 (OT). Brian Kelly is a really good coach, so it shouldn’t be surprising that he’s doing well. It just seemed like a very weird hire and no one quite knew how to react to it. But the reaction is clear now: Kelly may not be the most likeable person, but he can coach football. LSU didn’t really play better than Alabama, but they made fewer mistakes and had the perfect call on that final two-point conversion.
Georgia 27, Tennessee 13. This wasn’t even a close game, as Tennessee’s lone touchdown came in the final minutes. The Vols are still good, but Georgia is the undisputed number-one team right now.
Kentucky 21, Mizzou 17. It’s looking more and more like the Tigers’ bowl hopes will come down to the season finale against Arkansas. After what happened in Fayetteville, there’s a good chance both teams will be 5-6 heading into that game.
Florida 41, Texas A&M 24. Speaking of bowl hopes, the Aggies now need to win out – including at home against LSU – to make a bowl. Things are not going well for Jimbo Fisher.
Mississippi State 39, Auburn 33 (OT). Cadillac Williams’ coaching debut – boy, that makes me feel old – saw Auburn compete but not win the game. State is bowl-eligible. Auburn now has to win out to make a bowl.
South Carolina 38, Vanderbilt 27. The Gamecocks are somehow 6-3 despite Spencer Rattler not looking good at any point this season. A fortuitous schedule has helped, but the Gamecocks have made a lot of their own luck too. They still have to play Tennessee and Clemson, so their goal now is to not lose their momentum right at the end.
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