On board with Sam and Hogs
Never trust anyone over 40: That mantra surfaced in the 1960s, during which man went to the moon and the followers of Charles Manson went joy-riding in the Hollywood hills one August night like something out of “The Clockwork Orange,” a future Stanley Kubrick movie.
Arkansas people are different in a lot of ways, in case you haven’t heard. Which other state would cast its lot with Fulbright, Rockefeller and Wallace, as ours did on Election Day 1968, and not think anything amiss? This is a state that elected a youthful Bill Clinton governor and sent him to the White House two times, but now finds the Democratic Party all but powerless in state and national affairs. And where a disciple of Donald Trump has raised a mighty war chest in pursuit of the governor’s office, which her father once held.
Born in Oklahoma, Sam Pittman, technically, is not one of us, as we Arkansans say. And, like your correspondent, the University of Arkansas football coach does not fit any of the key demographic groups advertisers covet.
Then again, someone doesn’t usually land his first head-coaching job at age 58, much less in the Southeastern Conference. At an age when retirement has clear, definable features for some, and in a successful coach’s case it can be used against him, Pittman is just getting started.
He has achieved virtual rockstar status after two seasons of 13-12 at Arkansas, which he has transformed from possibly the worst Power Five program into a bowl winner. With the help of super agent Jimmy Sexton, whose clients once included ex-Razorback coach Houston Nutt, he has consolidated his gains into a new contract starting with the 2022 season.
Against a schedule in which all 12 opponents played a postseason game last year, Pittman has a chance to state an emphatic “thank you” in response. If Arkansas goes 9-4 (after the bowls) again, he might get a statue on the Fayetteville campus, something NCAA-winning basketball coach Nolan Richardson said once he might receive if only he and his sport were more popular.
All this has come because Pittman wanted the job to begin with and, unlike past washouts Bret Bielema and Chad Morris before him, started restoring Arkansas football to the level fans were accustomed. Back when no season was considered complete without a preseason ranking and a postseason game (preferably on Jan. 1 against a name opponent in a warm-weather site). Like Penn State, which Arkansas beat in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida.
The trickle-down effect has left Razorback fans especially giddy before Pittman’s third Razorback team takes the field. Though the opening game Sept. 3 pits Arkansas against Cincinnati, a higher ranked team last year and a trendy upset pick on the road, some forecast a tremendous season. No less than 11-1 has been spotted on some message boards, to which a Fayetteville contact says he would like to see lab results on the poster after a drug test.
Pittman’s success comes during a time of warm feelings generated by Razorback teams in general. Fans now hang on every word of his like for Eric Musselman in men’s basketball and Dave Van Horn in baseball, like they once did for Frank Broyles in football.
In Hunter Yurachek, UA has an athletic director who has made some smart hires while cultivating friends in athletic offices in Jonesboro, Little Rock, Conway and Pine Bluff. The scheduled 2025 football game in Little Rock between Arkansas and Arkansas State looms as a milestone in our state’s athletic
history. (Imagine: They might fill War Memorial Stadium for that; nothing else has lately.)
Shortly into his first Arkansas season, Pittman saw a local restaurant name a sandwich in his honor. Hot Springs hasn’t produced a Razorback football recruit of note in some time but, with a house on Lake Hamilton, the head coach has made it his home away from home. One route to town brings me down Pittman Road, long bearing that name.
Best of all, he’s just getting started, even if beating Texas, Texas A&M, LSU and Penn State in the same season will be an act hard to duplicate. As a former Arkansas coach liked to say, one who won his first two bowl games but fell into disfavor, that’s uncommon.