Football Pete Nakos: With reshaped landscape, Sam Pittman on his future at Arkansas: 'Everybody's got an opinion'
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With reshaped landscape, Sam Pittman on his future at Arkansas: 'Everybody's got an opinion'
In an interview with On3, Sam Pittman discussed his future with Arkansas and how NIL and the transfer portal has reshaped his program.
Next week, Sam Pittman will travel to Destin, Fla., for SEC spring meetings. Or as the Arkansas head coach jokingly calls it, “sitting there and listening.” He’s also looking to find some solutions in college football, specifically around NIL.
But when he speaks with the media next week, Pittman will surely be asked about his future with the Razorbacks. He’s had an up-and-down tenure, highlighted by a 9-4 season in 2021 and a win over then-No. 4 Tennessee at home last year.
There was speculation late in the 2024 season that Pittman could retire. But he is back for his sixth season at Arkansas, touting a 30–31 record as the Razorbacks’ head coach. He underwent hip replacement surgery this offseason and has three remaining years on his deal.
Simply put, Pittman doesn’t care what anyone thinks.
“Everybody’s got an opinion, mine’s the only one that really matters,” Pittman told On3 in an interview on Wednesday. “I said, whenever I signed the contract after the 2021 season, I signed for five more years. And then we won seven-plus games, which was in my contract, one time that I could get an extension. So I have three years, and I always said that I wanted to coach through that obligation. That’s what I want to do, after that, I don’t know.
“Part of that saying was the way I looked. I had a hip that was terrible. I probably looked older than I am. I’ve been out walking two miles a day now, and I feel great. I love my job and this team. Everybody in this business is going through the same thing with portal rosters. It just seems to get magnified at times in our state. My goal is to coach, at least through what my contract is.”
Pittman’s health is back on track following his hip surgery. NIL and the transfer portal have not helped. Arkansas has consistently seen some of the highest portal turnover numbers in recent years, marked by losing 34 last year and another 43 this offseason.
That amount of churn has Pittman and his staff constantly evaluating the talent in the portal. Most recently, freshman quarterback Madden Iamaleava entered college football’s free agency just four months after enrolling. The Razorbacks are currently demanding $200,000 from Iamaleavea and had to immediately identify a portal quarterback.
Pittman has boiled down the portal process to a simple strategy: He’s now buying players.
“The toughest part about the job right now is that you’re not in revenue sharing, but you’re in collectives,” the Arkansas head coach said. “You’re buying players, and if you don’t have the same amount of money as somebody else, then it could be taken as if you don’t want the player. I’m obviously for revenue sharing, because I think it’ll even out.
“You’ve got to take the personal feelings out of it, because kids have the opportunity to make money. I understand every bit of that. But to turn over the roster each year, everybody does it. We just seem to have the biggest turnovers. That’s the most difficult part of the job.”
Arkansas hired Remy Cofield as the general manager of its athletic department. Pittman is hoping Cofield creates a buffer between the coaching staff and portal negotiations. The head coach currently gets approached by a new character nearly daily.
“There are too many hands in it,” Pittman said. “In other words, you’ve got the parents, you’ve got the kid, you’ve got the agent, you’ve got your university, you’ve got your budget. There’s a lot of freaking hands going through that. Hopefully, with our new GM, we’ll cut some of that down. Anybody in the country can be an agent, so you’re dealing with that. You think you’re about ready to get a commitment, and here comes somebody out of the blue. It’s very tiring.”
Pittman is the latest Power Four college football coach to decry the spring transfer portal period. The 10-day window creates an environment rife with cash shakedowns, an opportunity for players to make a final dollar before the upcoming season.
Back in January at the American Football Coaches Association convention in Charlotte, head coaches proposed to move the transfer portal to a 10-day window in early January after bowl games, with the spring window eliminated. Sam Pittman doesn’t care what it looks like, but he hopes to discuss the topic at the SEC spring meetings next week.
“For the life of me, I can’t understand how we would have a portal after spring football,” the sixth-year head coach said. “I can’t understand that in spring football, when you’re trying to figure out what your team’s going to look like. You’ve lost this senior, you’ve lost this guy in the portal. You’ve done this, you’ve done that. Let’s see who’s going to replace who, and what our team’s going to look like. And then after spring ball, we have another portal.
“At the end of spring ball, you should know who’s on your team. And, ‘Oh, man, we’re not very good at X position.’ Well, that’s just how it is. You can’t get somebody else. That’s your team. I’m not speaking for every coach, but I believe there are a lot of coaches out there who would agree with me. The second portal, you’re getting shook down twice.”
