Pittman’s approval rating soars

Sam Pittman is on TV so much these days that the unknowing viewer might think he’s running for political office.

The Razorback football coach revealed his media savvy to a national audience Tuesday night, spending five good minutes with ESPN “SportsCenter” host Scott Van Pelt. Pittman had the time, his team resting this week, and the platform, a 2-2 record after back-to-back 2-10 seasons.

As fans are getting to know his team, Pittman is receiving exposure outside the Southeastern Conference. Absolutely no one saw Arkansas coming in a season that started with a loss to Georgia, its 20th consecutive SEC defeat. Many feared the worst scenario possible (0-10) when the SEC announced an amended schedule of 10 games per team over 11 weeks in this COVID-infected season.

Pittman was regarded as the solid, if not exactly sexy, choice of University of Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek, who canceled the Chad Morris experiment. Lane Kiffin ( Ole Miss) and Mike Leach (Mississippi State) received more media coverage for their offseason hires than Pittman, who had been here before as a position coach under Bret Bielema.

Pittman’s specialty is the offensive line, where Arkansas was especially weak. An SEC team in particular that cannot control the line of scrimmage is doomed to failure. Morris was rapped for changing quarterbacks at a whim, but no one could have worked for long with the protection Arkansas’ offensive line could afford.

Arkansas fans remain miffed that Morris landed on the Auburn staff of Gus Malzahn, whose Razorback ties need not be rehashed. Still, revisionist historians may be kind to Morris because of two recruiting classes that netted players currently making waves.

I have not heard one peep about wanting John Chavis back as defensive coordinator. An SEC lifer like Pittman, Chavis deployed players who could not pressure the passer or cover receivers deep. An ex-Razorback quarterback, Ty Storey, playing for Western Kentucky last year, exposed the entire program as a sham, resulting in Morris’ nextday firing.

Pittman has answered two questions required of a new head coach: Can he assemble a staff? And can he motivate players? Most coaches now use the chairman-of-the-board approach that worked so successfully for Bear Bryant at Alabama, Darrell Royal at Texas and Frank Broyles at Arkansas. Jack Crowe, another first-year head coach, could do neither at Arkansas and was out after the first game of his third season.

Lou Holtz had the wisdom to hire Monte Kiffin (Lane’s dad) as his defensive coordinator, taking him off Tom Osborne’s staff at Nebraska. Lou let Monte handle things on his side of the ball while Arkansas went 30-5-1 with Ron Calcagni and then Kevin Scanlon at quarterback.

Lou got in trouble at Arkansas without Kiffin to stabilize the defense. An offensive guru before the term was used freely, Holtz took over the Razorback defense in 1980 after a first

game loss to Texas. The results

(7-5) were mixed with a bowl win over Tulane doing little to mask the weaknesses shown in blowout losses to league champion Baylor and SMU, the latter then illegally assembling an awesome talent pool.

Don Lindsey was brought in from Southern California to fix Arkansas’ defense but with the understanding that Holtz would keep his paws off. That didn’t mean Lindsey had final say over his assistants, three of whom were canned late in the

1983 season. Lou side-stepped around those moves like Fred Astaire: “If they say they have been fired who would know better than they?”

A “tired and burned out” Holtz fled to Minnesota on a December Sunday after a 6-5 season. Ken Hatfield then stepped in with Fred Goldsmith running a bend-but-don’t break defense effectively until a disastrous 1987 loss to Texas. That was the game that Goldsmith called timeout (the Longhorns had none remaining) “to set my linebackers” before Texas passed for a last- play touchdown. Hatfield never got over that one, though he coached Arkansas in back-to-back Cotton Bowl appearances before bolting for Clemson; Goldsmith was not fired but was shunted off to Rice, a job no doubt arranged by UA athletic director Broyles, who didn’t fool anyone with some apparent on- field promotions made as head coach. Frank could shed himself of unwanted aides while supplying other schools with needed head coaches. .

Pittman, most recently with Kirby Smart, a former Alabama defensive coordinator become head coach at Georgia, struck gold with his hiring of Barry Odom as defensive coordinator. Fired at Missouri, where no football coach can win long, Odom welcomed the chance for a fresh start.

Under Odom’s tutelage, Arkansas’ defense is the talk of the SEC if not of college football. The Razorbacks have nine interceptions in three games, three returned for touchdowns. Essentially coaching what players he found, Odom has come up with ingenious game plans that stymied Georgia ( for a half) and held off Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Basically, the Hogs keep everything in front of them, allowing little yardage after the catch and no one getting deep.

Walk-on Hudson Clark had three of the six interceptions off Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral with Grant Morgan (19 tackles) and Jalen Catalon each scoring on a pick- six return. Greg Brooks Jr. had the other “oskie”on Saturday, having taken one to the house for the first score against Mississippi State.

Razorback fans envision scenarios that Odom wins the Broyles Award as the top assistant coach in college football and that Clark receives the Burlsworth Award (named for the bespectacled offensive lineman who played at Arkansas under Danny Ford and Houston Nutt) for walk-on players. Clark and Morgan assumed the defensive load basically carried until then by Bumper Pool, another sure-hitting striker.

Arkansas fans may never get off the Auburn loss (30-28) but beating Mississippi State and Ole Miss, and their first-year coaches, is more than anyone had reason to expect from this team. Arkansas might qualify for its first bowl game since

2016, suddenly not a longshot any longer.

For now, Pittman’s the most popular man in Arkansas, making points on the home front with this comment to ESPN’s Van Pelt:

“This statement is probably going to cost me some money one of these days, but this is it for me. I’m not interested in any other program; Arkansas is truly the greatest program in America to me. I grew up

75 miles from here. I have a lake home in Lake Hamilton in Arkansas, my wife is from Pittsburg, Kansas, and this is where we want to be. This will be my last job.”

Frank Broyles, another man from Georgia, used that as his guidepost to sweeping success at UA. To that I say: Hi, neighbor.