Pittman not wasting time with speculation, just trying to win games
Sam Pittman was correct Tuesday afternoon when he said a lot of the media don’t seem to think there will (or should) be a college football season this year with the global pandemic.
“We’re in the winning business,” Pittman said on a Zoom conference call with the media. “So you’ll know we’re planning on Sept. 5.”
Which is probably going to happen unless something dramatic happens. In Arkansas, the governor on Tuesday gave the latest statewide numbers which now show a 98.7% survival rate from people who test positive from the virus.
That number is well over 99% for people under the age of 65. Yes, there are exceptions, but those are the overall percentages.
“We’re going off facts of what we know,” Pittman said. The coaches around the SEC meet every Thursday morning at 7:30 and the league office is in frequent contact with the member institutions.
The number to watch is the number of deaths which has dropped dramatically nationwide.
“We’re going on as planned,” Pittman said. “The media thinks we’re not going to have a season more than we do. We believe we’re going to play Sept. 5.”
Pittman didn’t announce any numbers. That information will come from athletics director Hunter Yurachek, not the coaches. It may be a little different in terms of how many fans are in the stadium and things like that, but everybody is planning to carry on with a full season that starts on time.
The “medical experts” in the media who were trying to figure out how coaches should be handling their teams at this time of the year are now predicting doom and gloom.
Everybody, including the computer models and national spokespeople, are turning into the equivalent of television weather people who look out the window, see a dark cloud and immediately issue an order to hunker down.
Pittman is aware of what people are saying in the media. You get the idea he is sort of chuckling over it to a certain extent.
“I learned a long time ago media’s very important,” he said Tuesday. “It can make your team or it can break your team if you pay a lot of attention to it.
“We can speculate for a month and some of us be right and a lot of us be wrong.”
As we said, Pittman isn’t in the business of speculating. He’ll leave that to the media experts.
His job is to win football games. Two people before him didn’t do that enough and they aren’t here.
“I’m just going off the facts the SEC commissioner tells us and we’re going on as planned to have a season Sept. 5,” Pittman said. “Honestly, I don’t know how you can prepare a team if you look at it any other way than that.”
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Burks due for breakout season and Briles could be guy to break him out
We saw glimpses of Treylon Burks’ potential last season but now there’s a new trigger man plus a new guy in charge of the offense that could actually let Arkansas fans see something special.
That’s not just me. It was fascinating that the previous staff of offensive geniuses couldn’t figure out how to get the hands in the best playmaker on the field.
“He’s one of those guys that anytime he touches the football — whether it’s the jet sweep or if it’s some kind of Darren McFadden ‘Wild Hog’ type of situation or if it’s in a receiver type situation,” former Hogs and NFL quarterback Clint Stoerner said Monday morning with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft (The Morning Rush) on ESPN Arkansas.
Last year Burks didn’t have a quarterback that could get the ball to him consistently or an offensive coordinator that couldn’t figure something out.
It really shouldn’t have been as hard as they made it appear. Kendal Briles has the pedigree and the track record of being able get the ball to Burks, Mike Woods and Trey Knox and let them make plays.
“I hope Kendal figures out a way to get (Burks) touches consistently,” Stoerner said. “Look, I’m a Texas guy. I know his dad (Art). I’ve watched him ever since he became a coach, watched him at Baylor, at U of H.
“If anybody can find a way to get certain receivers the ball if his last name is Briles you’ve got a pretty dang good chance.”
Burks is someone that’s going to be critical the Hogs bouncing back in any way, shape, form or fashion this year, Burks said.
“He’s gotta be the key cog (in moving the ball),” Stoerner said. “I’m blown away with his ability in the return game.”
The old saying used to be defensive and line of scrimmage but in today’s world of college football you better be able to put points on the board if you want to win games because the offenses are ahead of the defenses due to rules changes.
And that’s the side of the ball where the most talented players want to be now.
“In college football that guy’s the most valuable type of guy in the game and you’ve gotta find ways to get him the ball,” Stoerner said. “Not just in the passing game but throughout the four quarters in different ways in your offense.
“That’s difficult when you’ve got a Feleipe Franks, a Rakeem Boyd and those type of guys but, man, Treylon is special.”
Fans are hoping this is the year they find out just how special he can be.
Razorbacks CAN turn things around quickly but it’s going to be done by players
While things really haven’t fallen to the depths of the recent record in Arkansas football, they’ve been bad before and the turnaround has been fairly quick.
Just look at 1998.
Clint Stoerner was the quarterback getting beat up for a couple of 4-7 seasons. He also was behind center for a 17-7 run over the next two seasons that included a Cotton Bowl win over Texas.
“First and foremost the biggest part is, one, it can be done,” Stoerner said Monday morning with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft (The Morning Rush) on ESPN Arkansas. “Turning it over in one season it can be done.”
Certainly nobody in the media is predicting it and fewer fans expect much. That is not really surprising on the current 8-28 run the Razorbacks have seen for the last three seasons.
“Don’t wallow in the struggles of the last two seasons,” Stoerner said.
In 1998 a lot of fans were just hoping the Hogs could figure out how to beat an SMU team that had beaten them three years in a row. That included a 1-9-1 team in 1994 … yes, that one win was over Arkansas.
“When we turned the corner we didn’t know how good we were as a team, but we trusted in the system, trusted in the coaching staff and every win gave us more confidence,” Stoerner said. “You looked up and about four games in we were a pretty confident group. You get the idea you’re pretty talented and pretty dang good, that you belong in the SEC and from there on anything can happen.”
Accountability from within is going to be maybe more critical this year than most. New coach Sam Pittman hasn’t held a single practice with his team.
“The biggest hurdle for this coaching staff is to get these guys to put the phones down, forget about the girls, forget about your problems at home and get on the field consistently throughout the week and put the work in that’s necessary,” Stoerner said.
The talent is there. A lot of folks have criticized me for saying there is enough talent on this team to win games. That’s not to say they are going to jump into the playoff discussions but a good site better than 2-10.
“There’s a lot more talent than the last two seasons have shown,” Stoerner said. “I firmly believe that.”
Stoerner, Brandon Burlsworth and others came out of relative obscurity to make their names known with Hog fans in 1998.
Stoerner thinks there is that same opportunity for players now. If they are willing to, quite frankly, pay the price to be really good.
“The ones that can do it can separate themselves like never before,” he said. “It’s not as common to do that. If they’re putting that work in then we should see that on Saturdays if and when that happens.”
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