Pittman gets Coach of Year honors for Football Coaches’ region

Arkansas’ Sam Pittman, who has engineered one of the most remarkable turnarounds in all of college football, was named the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Region 2 Coach of the Year on Monday.

Three coaches with state connections were the winners in their regions.

Under the second-year coach, the Razorbacks have won eight games in 2021, the most regular-season wins for the program since 2011, after winning eight games total in the three seasons prior to Pittman’s tenure at the helm.

The Hogs started the year with an unblemished 4-0 mark and rose to No. 8 in the Associated Press poll, the team’s highest ranking since 2011, as Pittman became one of only 14 SEC coaches in history to take over a team with a losing record and lead it to the top 10 in the AP Poll in their first two seasons.

This year, Pittman’s squad won four non-conference games, going undefeated outside of league play for the first time since 2016, and posted a 4-4 mark in Southeastern Conference action, the most league wins since 2015.

For the first time in history, Arkansas captured all three of the program’s trophy games, beating No. 7 Texas A&M in the Southwest Classic, winning at LSU in the Battle for the Golden Boot and topping Missouri in the Battle Line Rivalry.

Pittman led the Hogs, who are one of an SEC-record 13 bowl eligible programs, to a third-place finish in the SEC West, the team’s best finish since 2015.

He is the fifth Arkansas head coach in history to lead the Razorbacks to a bowl game berth in each of their first two seasons, joining Houston Nutt (199899), Ken Hatfield (1984-85), Lou Holtz (1977-78) and John Barnhill (1946-47).

The AFCA recognizes five regional Coach of the Year winners in each of the Association’s five divisions: Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Championship Subdivision, Division II, Division III and NAIA. The winners, who are selected by active members of the AFCA who vote for coaches in their respective regions and divisions, will be honored on Sunday, Jan. 9, during the 2022 AFCA Convention in San Antonio, Texas.

The AFCA will also announce the 2021 Werner Ladder AFCA FBS National Coach of the Year on Sunday, Jan. 9.

The regional winners, including Pittman, Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell (Region 1), Michigan State’s Mel Tucker (Region 3), UTSA’s Jeff Traylor (Region 4) and Utah State’s Blake Anderson (Region 5), are finalists for National Coach of the Year.

Traylor was an assistant coach on Chad Morris’ staff with the Hogs in 2018-19 and Anderson is the former coach at Arkansas State.

Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.