Only two ways to look at former Hogs’ commitment to SEC rival

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — When the news of former Arkansas offensive lineman Patrick Kutas committing to Ole Miss on Friday, there are really only two possible answers. That is strictly based off what we’ve heard from Sam Pittman.

Either the Razorbacks didn’t think he was as good as Lane Kiffin thought or he straight up lied to Sam Pittman. There’s not really any other way to look at it after Pittman’s press conference Thursday that resembled a verbal cul-de-sac at times.

That’s when he laid out the “money ball” approach the Hogs are apparently going. Pittman didn’t call it that, but it’s strangely similar. In nearly 45 minutes of talking, the whole approach to NIL now is either that or their amount of money isn’t keeping up with the teams they are recruiting against. The thing about trying to get value in finding guys in lower divisions or haven’t played much are going to be those “difference-makers” Pittman is wanting to try and attract.

“If we weren’t able to match what the number was out there nationally for somebody, then we were saying ‘hey, we believe that we can go get somebody as good or somebody [and] two somebody’s for that amount of money,” he said. “We wouldn’t have had financially the money left to go out and get what we might consider big-time difference makers had we just said ‘yes, yes, yes, yes.’ If we’d said that to every one of them, as much money as we have, we would have ran out.”

Just read between the lines of that statement carefully. That’s playing money ball with the football roster. A bigger problem will be if that’s out of necessity and not a choice. Coming up with a solution to the whole problem is something others can try and solve.

“There’s been some guys that surprised me coming in saying they’re going to transfer,” Pittman said. “Most of the time it’s about finances and we have to make a decision on what we’re willing to do coming off a 6-6 team.”

You can look at all these lists ranking different “collectives,” but there’s a huge issue with that. It’s taking into account the NIL deals not being reported or at private schools like SMU, Duke or even USC (didn’t realize that was a private school, did you?). Some of those we don’t even know what the contract is for their coaches, much less what some wealthy boosters are willing to pay for however big they want to win games.

“Financially, it’s hard to get to better than .500 if you continue to pay a whole large pool of monies,” Pittman said. “What we’re thinking to kind of cut that down and go out and get what we would consider huge difference makers. Now we’re going to have to get roster count, we’re going to have to do that as well.”

What he didn’t say is that evaluation is going to be one of the two biggest factors going forward. They are going to have to look at video, adapt it to what they have on their roster before even trying to get them to town. The second factor is harder to know you’ve got.

That’s luck. It’s really as pure and simple as that.