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By Chris Marler
It’s hard to get people to agree on anything in 2025. It’s almost impossible to get SEC fans to do so.
It’s east to find things or people that SEC fans hate. Things like fat free ranch dressing, Notre Dame, and learning to eat–or spell–quinoa. However, finding something they all universally love is a rarity.
Not with Sam Pittman though.
Pittman is like if a three day weekend or extra fry you find in the bottom of the bag after leaving Chick-Fil-A were a person. Everyone loves those things. Whether it’s the molasses-like way his southern drawl seems to spill words instead of speaking them, or how he says “Col’beer” when talking about how he was going to celebrate a win.
Pour out a col’beer for ole Sam Pittman today. https://t.co/k8tEpdkrb0
— Biscuits & SEC (@biscuitsandsec) September 28, 2025
How he used to celebrate a win I should say.
Sam Pittman was fired Sunday morning. As much as I love him and as much of an apologist as I have been for him, it was deserved. That doesn’t make it any less frustrating to all sides involved.
Leadership change announced for Arkansas Footballhttps://t.co/yQmp7nsPPs
— Arkansas Razorback Football (@RazorbackFB) September 28, 2025
It feels like Arkansas has become snake bitten, cursed, or even worse, the college football version of the Cleveland Browns. They consistently find new ways to lose. Under Pittman, the Razorbacks struggled mightily to do the little things to win football games. And it felt like his team quit on Saturday against Notre Dame.
Pittman deserved to be fired. Arkansas fans and the program deserve a fresh start. That being said, what an uphill battle Pittman had.
Sure, the resumé wasn’t great. He finished his tenure 32-34 overall, 14-29 against the SEC, and just 7-24 against Top 25 teams. That means that 70.5 percent of his 34 losses were to ranked teams. It also means that 47 percent of his games coached were to ranked opponents. And if that isn’t difficult enough for a first time head coach and a team trying to get over the hump, realize that 19 of those 34 career losses were by one score or less.
Sam Pittman isn’t cracking any Top 10 or Top 25 college football coaching lists right now. It’s hard to justify that happening given how his career looks on paper. But there are a lot of asterisks that help paint the picture.
In his first five seasons, Arkansas played 29 games against ranked opponents. That’s not only the most in the SEC, it was seven more than the next closest team. Additionally, Arkansas faced at least four Top 25 teams in their first six games of the season in each of Pittman’s first three years.
If that doesn’t sound unique or challenging, remember that twice in the last three years we saw a Big Ten team go into the month of November before facing a single team that was ranked or had a winning record. To give some additional perspective, that’s more than Penn State and Michigan played combined during that same time span.
I wish coaches like Sam Pittman were given a little more credit where credit is due. More than anything, I wish he was used as an example to paint a much more accurate picture of his own schedule and record and the caveats that need to be mentioned in regards to their success.
Regardless, Sam Pittman never shied away from the pressure or competition.
The Hogs scheduled Texas, BYU, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, and Notre Dame in their non-conference schedule over the last five years. Four of the five were ranked. That was in addition to playing an SEC schedule that included six games against Alabama and Georgia in the first five years. And all of this was while his job security waned, health was on the decline, and 139 players left in the transfer portal including 102 in the last three years alone.
Unlike baseball and basketball, Arkansas football hasn’t been the hammer meeting the nail or perennial favorite against lesser programs. They are an ant under a microscope on the hottest day of the year, over and over again.
There’s been no privilege or feeling sorry for Sam Pittman. No breaks in the schedule or dodging cross-divisional opponents. Just a 12 game minefield to navigate with a ceiling being a 7-5 season ending at the Liberty Bowl and a floor of, well, unemployment.
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