Tye & Tommy on the anonymous SEC coach on Arkansas, loads of sports coming, Nick Kayal, and more!
Is figuring out Razorbacks’ identity biggest challenge facing Pittman?
Right now there are more questions than answers surrounding Arkansas football with a first-year coach that’s never been a head coach or even a coordinator at the college football level.
“I’m not sure many people know a ton about the guy other than reading his Wikipedia page or looking at his resume,” Nick Kayal of Athlon Sports on Wednesday morning told Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft (The Morning Rush) on ESPN Arkansas about new Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman.
That’s not as negative as it sounds. It’s more of a reflection of the lack of a track record to go on combined with Pittman being an offensive line coach and those guys aren’t in the headlines a lot.
College football insiders have known how respected Pittman is developing NFL-ready linemen and being a relentless recruiter.
Nobody has a clue how he’ll do as a head coach at a place where the football program has dug deeper down the chaos hole for several years.
“What a lot of people do when they look at a coach at a program in the conference, they automatically look at the head coach and if the name doesn’t have any glitz or glamour to it or if it’s not a splashy hire or sexy move we automatically assume he’s not going to get that program back to where it needs to be,” Kayal said.
Ole Miss hired Lane Kiffin for that.
The same with Mississippi State and Mike Leach. When things went sideways in the Missouri coaching search they grabbed Eliah Drinkwitz, who at least had one year as a head coach at Appalachian State.
The Hogs have been going through an identity crisis for over a decade. They had some winning years in there but it was clear (even winning 11 games just a few seasons ago) that wasn’t going to continue.
Nobody has really understood the uniqueness of the Arkansas program for over a decade. They’ve tried to create success and programs from other places into the Razorback program and it has failed miserably.
“They are going through an identity crisis right now from where they were five years ago with a guy like Bret Bielema to Chad Morris,” Kayal said. “From a physical, up-front trench team to more of a spread team. We’ve seen the differences the last five years. The win total go from 8 to 7 to 4 to 2 and 2.”
He compared the Hogs to Vanderbilt, who have actually moved ahead of Arkansas in the league. It was Craft who pointed out Arkansas has to get back to competing with the M’s on their schedule … that’s Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Missouri.
Let all of that sink in for a minute. When Missouri came into the league in 2012 there were media people in this state that laughed at the Tigers and said it would be years before they could compete much less win anything.
All they did was win the SEC East two straight years in their second and third years in the league. None of us know if the Hogs will ever get back to that level. Most will continue to predict doom and gloom.
“Now it just seems they’re facing a major identity crisis,” Kayal said. “Before you can rebound and become relevant again you’ve got to decide what you want to be and what you are. That’s the issue they’re going to face this year.”
Pittman at least understands what Arkansas is. He’s shown that in the few months he’s had the job.
But there are more questions than answers and he would probably admit that. Shoot, Pittman hasn’t even had a chance to see his players on a practice field with a ball.
And it’s all speculation … even for folks like Kayal.
“I’d be lying if I said he was going to fail or he was going to get this team back to eight wins in two or three years simply because I don’t know enough about the guy,” he said.
At least we can start seeing SOMETHING on Monday. That’s when the players officially start working out again.
And even that won’t provide answers.
Lots of questions about Hogs, Pittman, for preseason magazines this year
Aside from players returning to campus, which seldom draws more than a line or two, you know it’s headed towards football season when the preseason magazines start showing up.
Whether they are right or wrong.
“We get a lot right and a lot wrong every year,” Braden Gall of Athlon Sports on Tuesday afternoon told Derek Ruscin and Zach Arns (Ruscin & Zach) on ESPN Arkansas.
That also holds true for everybody else. You can always count on somebody at the top falling dramatically and another team will come from nowhere and be pretty good.
Arkansas fans are hoping they end up in that second category in Sam Pittman’s first year and Gall was right when he speculated that wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
“I don’t think this is the way they planned on it going,” he said. “I don’t think Missouri had it go the way they thought, either. Ole Miss and Mississippi State did that.”
Hunter Yurachek basically has stomped all around the fact he got talked into hiring Pittman, mainly by Pittman himself. The Rebels had Lane Kiffin in their sights all along and it was likely the same with Mike Leach in Starkville.
“Two guys (Ole Miss and State) targeted a guy they went and got,” Gall said. “Sam Pittman may be the best offensive line coach in the country and a great recruiter but how will he do as the CEO? That was the same thing they said about Jeremy Pruitt at Tennessee. It looks like they are trending in the right direction but they still haven’t beaten anybody in the SEC with a winning record.”
He admitted it’s a wildcard type situation. Few head coaches are hired that have always been a position coach. Clemson’s Dabo Swinney may be the case that’s worked out best. Ed Orgeron’s first head coaching job at Ole Miss was about par for the course.
Remember, Orgeron was supposed to be the hottest move in the country when the Rebels hired him in December 2004 and he proceeded to go 3-21 in the SEC over the next three seasons and was sent packing.
A lot of folks in Baton Rouge expected Jimbo Fisher to be the Tigers’ next coach.
“That it didn’t go down the way it was planned doesn’t mean it won’t be successful,” Gall said. “If you’re hopeful about Sam Pittman that’s the model. Most LSU fans will tell you they didn’t like the move when it happened.”
There are similarities with Orgeron for Gall, too.
“(Pittman is) arguably the best offensive line coach in America and a great recruiter,” he said. “It’s almost the exact tag line I would have used for Coach O on the defensive side of the ball.”
The biggest difference, even Gall will admit, is the talent level between LSU and Arkansas is quite a bit different.
Pittman knows that. But nobody knows exactly what type offense Pittman will have developed with new offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, although a lot of folks find it hard he will not figure out a way to run the ball.
Mainly because Gall believes sooner or later in the SEC you have to be able to win down in the trenches. That’s why he wonders what’s going to happen at Mississippi State.
“I don’t know if Mike Leach’s system is going to work in the SEC,” Gall said. “Sooner or later you’ve got to realize it’s a line of scrimmage league.”
Which is why he has questions like a lot of us in the media in Arkansas. Not negative questions, but just wondering how things will work with Pittman on the offensive side that has undergone a complete change of pace every few years for the last dozen or so.
Bobby Petrino had his pro style offense (that did run the ball effectively at times), then Bret Bielema took it the other direction and, finally, whatever that was Chad Morris tried for a couple of years.
“What is the identity going to be like under an offensive line coach?” Gall said. “There’s not a lot of precedence for offensive line coach to be head coaches. If you’re looking at an offensive line coach going back to his roots you’re starting back at zero again and you’re not sure how that’s going to take place.”
Which is the same question a lot of the Hogs’ fan base has.
We may — or may not — start getting some answers Wednesday. We have a Zoom meeting with Pittman early in the afternoon.
You can bet the offense is going to be one of the subject of questions because that might be the biggest one on the table.
And nobody except Briles and Pittman probably know the answer.
But in six weeks we may start to get an idea.
Former Razorback Berry on virtual instruction in Burlsworth Camp this year
D’Andre Berry played with Brandon Burlsworth at Arkansas and is now one of the former players working with the camp that is using a virtual format that started Monday.
Berry talked about the new way of instruction with Phil Elson, Matt Jenkins and Matt Travis (Halftime) on ESPN Arkansas on Tuesday afternoon.
Registration is free and still open to all ages on the foundation’s website CLICK HERE. For more information and updates, follow the Brandon Burlsworth Foundation on Facebook.
Razorbacks’ Moore gets freshman All-American honor from ‘College Baseball’
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas infielder Robert Moore has been named a 2020 College Baseball freshman All-American.
Moore, from Leawood, Kansas, is the 23rd Razorback to earn the freshman honor since Jeff King in 1984.
It is also the fourth consecutive year an Arkansas player has received the honor after Dominic Fletcher (2017), Heston Kjerstad (2018), Casey Martin (2018) and Connor Noland (2019) picking up the awards during that four-year stretch.
A mid-year enrollee, Moore reclassified in December 2019 to join the Hogs when school returned to session for the spring 2020 semester. He was immediately thrust into the lineup, starting all 16 games of the 2020 campaign, 15 at second base and one at shortstop.
He recorded a .317/.444.403 line at the plate over 63 at-bats, tallying 20 hits, with two doubles and two homers.
Moore also brought in 17 runs and scored 10, walking eight times, while going 3-for-3 in stolen base attempts. He was one of three Hogs with 20 or more hits in 2020 and one of six with 10 or more RBIs.
After a tough opening weekend, Moore rebounded to go 8-for-12 against Gonzaga with a double and a homer. He tallied nine RBIs, four runs scored, four walks and two stolen bases against the Zags and had a hit in all four games, including multi-hit performances in each of the last three games of the series.
He earned SEC Co-Player of the Week and Perfect Game National Player of the Week for his performance vs. Gonzaga (.667/1.000/.750), making him the first freshman Razorback to earn player of the week honors from the conference.
He would receive SEC Freshman of the Week accolades later in the season after another stellar showing against Grand Canyon on March 10-11.
Moore put together a .556 clip at the plate with five hits in nine at-bats, as well as three RBIs and a run scored in the two-game midweek set to end the season.
Moore was part of an offensive unit that finished the year with a .310 average, 175 hits and 118 runs scored in 2020. The Razorbacks finished with an 11-5 record and a top-15 ranking in all of the major polls.
Information from Razorback Sports Communications is included in this story.
Knox first round pick, Tom Murphy and more!
Tye & Tommy on if Chad Morris wasted offensive talent, Tom Murphy joins, plus Crutch leaving!
Baseball games back with Hogs playing in Perfect Timing games in Springdale
Baseball games started Monday afternoon and Arkansas players were involved in the Perfect Timing games in Springdale at Tyson Park.
Photos by Andy Hodges | HitThatLine.com
Burlsworth still confident new approach for ‘virtual camp’ will work well
The coronavirus pandemic has forced changes everywhere, but Marty Burlsworth talked Monday with Phil Elson and Matt Jenkins (Halftime) on ESPN Arkansas how it will be very detailed on technique this year.
Registration is free and open to all ages on the foundation’s website CLICK HERE. For more information and updates, follow the Brandon Burlsworth Foundation on Facebook.
Razorbacks’ assistant reportedly accepts job at DII school in Oklahoma
Arkansas assistant coach Chris Crutchfield has taken the head coach coaching position at East Central in Ada, Oklahoma, according to multiple reports.
He is the first coach on Eric Musselman’s staff to leave after a 20-12 (7-11 in SEC) season.
East Central is in the Great American Conference. Last seasonand went 17-12 (11-11 in the GAC). The former coach at ECU, Ja Havens, left the program to accept the head coaching job at his alma mater, Northeastern State.
Adam Nelson of HoopDirt.com was the first to report the news on Monday.
