Arkansas wide receivers react to departure of Kenny Guiton
Arkansas wide receivers react to the news of receivers coach Kenny Guiton leaving the Razorbacks.
Rumors began to surface publicly Tuesday that Arkansas could lose wide receivers coach Kenny Guiton, and a report from FootballScoop on Tuesday evening all but confirmed his departure to take the same position at Wisconsin.
After spending three full seasons at Arkansas, Guiton left a lasting mark on all of the receivers on campus, and that was put on display best by the reactions from his players on social media.
A handful of Arkansas receivers went live on Instagram on Tuesday evening to talk publicly about Guiton leaving, which basically confirmed the reports that are still not official.
Redshirt senior Andrew Armstrong, redshirt freshman Isaiah Sategna and true freshman Davion Dozier all said they received calls from head coach Sam Pittman, likely meaning they learned that Guiton is in fact leaving.
"I'm so sick right now," Dozier said. "He came to my house, bro. He came to talk to my momma, bro. He's the reason why I came up (here)."
Dozier is a former four-star recruit out of Moody, Alabama, and he caught just one pass for a 14-yard touchdown in the season-opener against Western Carolina.
Also a former four-star, Sategna didn't have to go far from home to play for Guiton, as the speedy receiver was a standout at Fayetteville High School.
"If it wasn't for Kenny, I would not be a Razorback," Sategna said.
Armstrong came to Arkansas by way of Texas A&M-Commerce prior to the 2023 season, when he led the team with 56 catches for 764 receiving yards and five touchdowns.
Guiton arrived in Fayetteville in 2021 from Colorado State, where he was also receivers coach in 2020. The former Ohio State quarterback followed former Arkansas offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, who Guiton also coaches with at Houston in 2017-18.
When Briles left for the offensive coordinator job at TCU prior to the 2023 season, Guiton stayed with the Razorbacks to work under new offensive coordinator Dan Enos. When Enos couldn't make it past eight games without being fired, head coach Sam Pittman turned to Guiton to be interim offensive coordinator.
Guiton's offense averaged 26.8 points and 370 total yards over a four-game span. The Razorbacks averaged 26.6 points and 327.3 yards per game as an offense in 12 total games this season.
When Arkansas hired new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, Guiton resumed his role as receivers coach. HawgBeat reported the morning of Dec. 20 that an offensive staff change would be coming, but Pittman went out of his way to say in an afternoon press conference on Dec. 20 that he didn't expect more staff changes.
"Not that I am aware of, no," Pittman said when asked if he expected other staff changes.
Less than a week later, it came out that Pittman would be losing another staff member. Arkansas had to hire two coordinators and four new on-field assistant coaches last offseason and now the Hogs have hired one coordinator, one offensive line coach and they will need a new receivers coach this offseason.
Guiton helped Arkansas sign three receivers in the 2024 recruiting class. Four-star Ashton Bethel-Roman out of Missouri City, Texas, highlighted a trio that also featured Bentonville three-star CJ Brown and New Orleans two-star Krosse Johnson.
During his time with the Hogs, Guiton also recruited names just as former five-star Jadon Haselwood from Oklahoma, Matt Landers out of Toledo, Andrew Armstrong from Teas A&M-Commerce and even Sategna was a big four-star signee in the 2022 class out of Fayetteville High School.
Arkansas now needs to fill another assistant spot, and HawgBeat has already listed the favorite to land the job on The Trough premium message board.
