Former Arkansas player and current New York Jets offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains likes what he knows about new coach Sam Pittman after talking with him on the phone a couple of times.
“I got off the phone thinking, man, what a great guym” Loggains told Derek Ruscin and Zach Arns (Ruscin & Zach) on ESPN Arkansas on Friday. “The impressive thing was as he’s talking and telling you everything, the strengths and weaknesses, he also tells his players.”
That won’t be earth-shattering news for Razorback fans. It’s pretty much the same thing everybody comes away with after talking with Pittman.
“You can feel that’s going to coach a guy hard,” Loggains said. “He’s going to develop the player as well as develop the man. It was really impressive. He did a really good job coaching those two guys that went in the first round and he’s got a long track record.”
Georgia offensive linemen Andrew Thomas (4) and Isaiah Wilson (29) went in the first round. In all, Pittman had three linemen from Georgia picked in the draft.
NFL coaches tend to notice things like that.
“He’s going to coach the man first and in doing that they’re going to become the best student-athlete they can be,” Loggains said. “He’s going to set them up to be successful after life. He’s also developing guys to play at the next level which is impressive.
“We’re in good hands. We’ve got a guy that’s got a lot of character and brings a lot of credibility. He’s coached in the SEC for a long time at a bunch of different programs.”
As an offensive coordinator he makes a living studying offenses and is familiar with what new offensive coordinator Kendal Briles wants to do.
“You can win a lot of different ways,” Loggains said. “I learned at an early age it’s not what you do but how you do it and you better do it better than everybody else.”
But he did point out it will be a different offense from what Bobby Petrino employed the last time the Hogs were winning games on a regular basis.
“He coached the passing game better than everybody else in that conference at that time,” Loggains said. “He knew how to practice, he knew how to rep things, he knew how to put pressure on the quarterback to get the most out of them.”
It will be different, even from the spread offense the last couple of years that was only consistent in backfiring and unable to move the ball.
Loggains is looking forward to seeing it.
“It will be a no-huddle tempo spread offense that a lot of people are running in college football right now,” he said Friday. “I’m excited to see how the wide splits … they are a little different than most people.
“It’s interesting when you go back and watch Baylor and how wide their receiver splits are, how they create numbers in the run game, the RPO’s, bubble screens and stretch people horizontally and vertically.”
