The first move that Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman made after the 29-27 loss at Missouri to end the 2022 regular season was letting strength and conditioning coach Jamil Walker go.
Following a game that Arkansas averaged just 3.0 yards per rush while Missouri averaged nearly double, Pittman made it clear that physicality was an issue.
“They played a very physical game,” Pittman said in his opening statement following the Missouri game. “They out-physicaled us tonight on both sides of the ball. It's unfortunate. We had several chances to win the game, but we couldn't convert on offense and couldn't stop them on defense. They had the more physical team tonight.”
The next morning, news came out that Walker was no longer part of the coaching staff and the Razorbacks had their first staff opening to fill.
While Pittman had plenty more fish to fry over the next two months — transfers leaving, transfers coming in, replacing both coordinators, etc. — the strength and conditioning coach position is one that he feels he got right.
Back on Dec. 7, Arkansas announced the hiring of new strength and conditioning coach Ben Sowders, who previously held the same role at Louisville.
“He's done an outstanding job with the kids,” Pittman said at SEC Media Days last Wednesday. “Holds them accountable. You'll see the three that we brought. We've got a whole bunch of guys that look like that, and that's a credit to Ben Sowders and his staff.”
The relationship with Sowders was previously established when the two worked together at Georgia during the 2018-19 seasons. Sowders was the assistant director of strength and conditioning, while Pittman was the offensive line coach for the Bulldogs.
“Ben Sowders; I loved him,” Pittman said. “I liked him as a man. I like his work ethic. I like what he's about. He's a Christian man. I like everything about him. When we had a turnover there, he was the first and only call that I made.”
After he was hired at Arkansas, Sowders said he probably wouldn’t have taken the job if the head coach was anyone other than Pittman.
“I believe in Coach Pittman, not only as a coach but as a man,” Sowders said on Dec. 14. “I know how he does things, he's genuine, he truly cares about the players. He cares about the staff, he cares about this program. It was a no-brainer when he gave me the opportunity to come, I knew I was coming."
Sowders has put in the work to get the team in the proper physical shape for SEC football, but that meant the players had to grind during organized team activities (OTAs) over the summer.
“Arkansas has been known for toughness and I’m not for sure that we, at times, didn’t get away from that,” Pittman said on The Morning Rush on Wednesday. “So we doubled our OTAs. We went June, we’ve gone the full eight weeks of OTAs. Five days a week lifting instead of four.
“We went out in the heat of the afternoon every single time that we went out. We never went in the morning in our team run. The mind is so powerful and we just wanted to make us a stronger mental football team. The hard times, we needed to see them in the summer.”
The straining, sweating and grinding was obviously extremely tough in the summer heat for the Razorbacks. It’s fair to say that the coaches were not liked at times, but that’s something Pittman said they need to be okay with.
“You’ve also got to get comfortable being not liked at times,” Pittman said. “I think a lot of times we wanted to have the approval of the team. I’m not talking about treating them bad. I’m talking about treating them where we can go win our close football games. So we went back to old school Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, and I think it’s going to pay off for us.”
The toughness aspect will have to pay off for the Razorbacks, who would have benefited from it last season. Four of the team’s six losses came by three points or less and maybe things would’ve played out had the team played with more physicality.
While the Razorbacks haven't played a down of football in 2023 yet, the fruit of their labor in the offseason is showing. Look no further than junior defensive end Landon Jackson, who is up to 280 pounds compared to the 236 he weighed at the end of last season.
“Obviously we’ve got to get better in the trenches,” Sowders said on Dec. 14. “This game, this league, you’ve got to win in the trench. That’s O-line and D-line, so we’ve already put a huge premium on that. Our lifting and running, we start with our bigs on everything we do.”
“That’s just to set the mindset of everything starts with you. We’re going to win and lose up front and for us to be successful, our O-line and D-line have to understand that they lead the charge. So I think putting a premium on that.”
Sowders has delivered on his word to this point, but the work is far from over. Fall camp will begin next Friday, Aug. 4 and the team will hit the ground running from then until their Week 1 matchup with Western Carolina at 3 p.m. CT on Saturday, Sept. 2 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
