Auburn’s 3-2 win over Mississippi State back in 2008 set the standard for awful SEC football. It was a game so bad that both head coaches ended up fired after the season.
The modern update to that game is Mississippi State 7, Arkansas 3. This was less of a “defensive struggle” and more of an “inept struggle.” Arkansas’ defense played great, but these are two bad teams. Mississippi State has more of an excuse: they have a new head coach, elevated to the job after their head coach unexpectedly died last year, and their starting quarterback was injured and missed this game. What’s Arkansas’ excuse? There is none.
This game, at a minimum, seals the fate of Dan Enos and Cody Kennedy. There is no universe in which either one is employed by the university after about December 1st. There still exists a possibility, perhaps small, where Sam Pittman offers Enos and Kennedy as sacrifices to save his own job. He can point to defensive improvement and strong recruiting. Hunter Yurachek gives him a chance to redo his offensive coordinator hire, and he hires an innovative coordinator and remains Arkansas’ head coach. Until Mississippi State 7, Arkansas 3, that was probably the most likely path.
But now? I’m not so sure. I now think that Pittman gracefully retiring to his Lake Hamilton escape is the most likely option, perhaps with a little nudging from Yurachek (maybe a “golden handcuffs” deal where he gets part of the buyout he’s owed for retiring with dignity). Speaking of that buyout, it has a 50% discount right now, as Pittman is 21-23 at Arkansas, and the buyout owed is halved if Pittman’s overall record is below .500. The Hogs would have to go 5-7 or better for Pittman to be owed the full buyout. That’s looking increasingly unlikely, so straight-up firing him is absolutely on the table.
Bad game management’s trickledown effect
Pittman would not be fired just for screwing up the offensive coordinator hire. There’s also the mind-boggling fourth-down decision-making miscues, and another one proved critical in this game. Down 7-3 in third quarter, the Hogs faced 4th-and-2 at the State 33. That’s a 51-yard field goal, well within Cam Little’s range. Pittman took too long to decide on sending out the field goal unit, and then didn’t take a timeout, so the Hogs got a delay of game penalty and punted. Those three points would have been helpful in the fourth quarter.
But it goes beyond just taking too long to decide. First, there’s the third-down playcall. On that 3rd-and-5, the Hogs handed it off for 3 yards. A 3-yard run on 3rd-and-5 in plus territory is not unusual; typically, that means a team tends to go for it on fourth down. Given Pittman’s postgame comments, it’s clear that Pittman was not thinking ahead at all, so he did not communicate anything to his offensive coordinator about his intentions, so Enos had to make the decision himself. Enos probably figured the Hogs would go on fourth given the four-point deficit, hence the third-down playcall. But Enos had thought more strategically than Pittman, as Pittman clearly only considered what to do after the down marker had changed to 4.
Now we see how bad game management from the head coach trickles down: because Arkansas ultimately wanted to kick on fourth down, running on 3rd-and-5 looks like a bad playcall. But I don’t think that’s Enos’s fault. In a proper in-game chain of command, Pittman would tell Enos that it’s not a four-down series, so Enos could go all-in on getting the first down. Or he’d tell him it is four-down territory, so Enos could stay conservative and set up a manageable fourth down. That’s clearly not happening right now.
Jimmy Sexton’s $6 million man
And this is where Pittman’s postgame admission that “I just didn’t know what to do” in that situation goes from sad to infuriating. Because Pittman invited this on himself. He thought he was a big-time coach, he fired his local agent, and he hired super-agent Jimmy Sexton and negotiated a contract that doubled his salary from $3 million to $6 million. But he’s not worth $6 million. He’s 9-12 (3-10 SEC) with home losses to Liberty and BYU during this contract. Oh yeah, and Mississippi State 7, Arkansas 3.
I sincerely believe that if he was still making $3 million a year, then more fans would be in board with letting him try the offensive coordinator hire again. But Pandora’s box can’t be closed. If you judge him by the standard he asked the Razorback Foundation to judge him by, he’s not getting it done.
Other Scores of Note
Alabama 34, Tennessee 20. The Vols led 20-7 at halftime and then promptly fell apart. The Tide retook the lead in the third quarter and outscored Tennessee 27-0 in the second half. This isn’t an elite Alabama team, but it’s still probably the best in the SEC West.
Mizzou 34, South Carolina 12. Eli Drinkwitz is now 7-1. Yes, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida remain, but patience and consistency are finally paying off. The Dowell Loggains experiment, meanwhile, is not going well for South Carolina.
Ole Miss 28, Auburn 21. I took nothing away from this game. It went exactly as expected.
Kansas State 41, TCU 3. Kendal Briles and TCU scored just three points in solidarity with the Hogs. However, they do not employ Travis Williams on defense. The Horned Frogs are going to go 6-6 at best, and they need to beat both Texas Tech and Baylor (doable) just to make a bowl.
UNLV 25, Colorado State 23. UNLV’s last bowl win was the 2000 Las Vegas Bowl, a 31-14 win over Arkansas. The Rebels’ only other bowl appearance since was in 2014. But Barry Odom’s boys are 6-1 with this win. He’s done an incredible job. He won’t be the top option, Arkansas could do much worse for their next head coach.
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