The loss of Sam Pittman

[ChromDome35]

For CBB's first three years the team showed steady improvement and by year three our O Line was talked about as "one of the best".  We were lining up and dominating the line of scrimmage.

The last two years, we have regressed.

What is the one thing that changed...we had Pittman as O Line coach those first three years and not the last two.  Where did Pittman go and where are they ranked now?

Maybe I am too simple, but the problem is clear to me.  The Pittman loss was THE major factor in our downward slide.  The team has lost its identity, we've gone from a big nasty O line and running team that pounds it's opponents into submission to the team we see on the field now.

[JOKERHOG]

For CBB's first three years the team showed steady improvement and by year three our O Line was talked about as "one of the best".  We were lining up and dominating the line of scrimmage.

The last two years, we have regressed.

What is the one thing that changed...we had Pittman as O Line coach those first three years and not the last two.  Where did Pittman go and where are they ranked now?

Maybe I am too simple, but the problem is clear to me.  The Pittman loss was THE major factor in our downward slide.  The team has lost its identity, we've gone from a big nasty O line and running team that pounds it's opponents into submission to the team we see on the field now.

Agree that the pittman loss was huge.  Couple that with the incompetence and lack of leadership from BB and here we are

[Piggfoot]

Don't forget Partridge. We've lost both line coaches and the Florida pipeline through Partridge. It shows.

[parallaxpig]

Don't forget Partridge. We've lost both line coaches and the Florida pipeline through Partridge. It shows.

The loss of whole coaching staff. Compare first year staff with current staff. That will give you the answer your looking for. 

[PygmalionEffect2]

When Pittman left, I remember seeing posts on another board from posters I respected bashing Pittman as a sub-par recruiter and thinking CBB would get someone better.

Looking back over the CBB era, those are still the stupidest posts I've read, from otherwise fairly informed posters.

It's amazing what some people can convince themselves to believe in if they want it to be true bad enough.

[onebadrubi]

People thinking like this have a short memory.  Pittman was way better than what we have now, SURE!!!  But we were stuffed NUMEROUS times on short yardage plays and we ABSOLUTELY did not dominate the line of scrimmage. 

Pittman was better than what we have now though.   Our O line is crap at the moment and our strategy and play calling is not helping them out. 

[PorkRinds]

When Pittman left, I remember seeing posts on another board from posters I respected bashing Pittman as a sub-par recruiter and thinking CBB would get someone better.

Looking back over the CBB era, those are still the stupidest posts I've read, from otherwise fairly informed posters.

It's amazing what some people can convince themselves to believe in if they want it to be true bad enough.

Pittman did drop the ball in recruiting in his last year.

[ballz2thewall]

For CBB's first three years the team showed steady improvement and by year three our O Line was talked about as "one of the best".  We were lining up and dominating the line of scrimmage.

The last two years, we have regressed.

What is the one thing that changed...we had Pittman as O Line coach those first three years and not the last two.  Where did Pittman go and where are they ranked now?

Maybe I am too simple, but the problem is clear to me.  The Pittman loss was THE major factor in our downward slide.  The team has lost its identity, we've gone from a big nasty O line and running team that pounds it's opponents into submission to the team we see on the field now.

this overstates our OL at the time and our level of overall improvement.

our OL was never, ever, the beast as reputed. no where near.

even in the improved years there were the same inconsistencies and so forth.

the two bright spots were the emergence of the defense in part of 2014, and enos's playbook when he first hit campus. even then, we found our way back to mediocrity and plain awfulness throughout those bright spots.

[hawgXi]

Pittman did drop the ball in recruiting in his last year.

iirc, pittman ended up taking one of his razorback recruiting targets to georgia.

btw, how are team chaney/pittman doing down there?

[PygmalionEffect2]

Pittman did drop the ball in recruiting in his last year.

His last recruiting year for us was 2015,

unless you're making the point that Pittman wasn't a very effective recruiter for us in 2016 while coaching at Georgia?


2015 - Jalen Merrick, Zach Rogers, Colton Jackson, Hjalte Froholdt.   That's 3 four stars and a high three star.

2014 - Frank Ragnow, Brian Wallace, Sebastian Tretola.  2 four stars and one 3 star, just the recruiting services got it wrong on which one should have been the 3 star.

2013 - Denver Kirkland, Dan Skipper, Reeve Koelher, John McClure.   Three four stars, all of whom didn't commit to the Hogs until after Pittman was hired.

In four years, 2013-2016, we had one in-state offensive lineman.  It should have been a disaster except for the fact that CBB brought an Oline coach with him that could attract four star talent from all over the country.

[PygmalionEffect2]

Three recruiting classes,

Eight four star offensive linemen, all from out of state, in just three years.

I don't think that level of out of state recruiting on the offensive line had ever happened at Arkansas going back to when recruiting services started keeping up with recruiting information that fans could follow.

I doubt you could find any three year period with more than 4 or 5 four star OL recruits from out of state, if that many, and I'm thinking of mostly Texas.

Weak recruiter my ass.

[Hawgphish]

The loss of whole coaching staff. Compare first year staff with current staff. That will give you the answer your looking for.

this is so true.  one of the obvious failures has been replacing quality experienced asst. coaches with the same.

[Vantage 8 dude]

For CBB's first three years the team showed steady improvement and by year three our O Line was talked about as "one of the best".  We were lining up and dominating the line of scrimmage.

The last two years, we have regressed.

What is the one thing that changed...we had Pittman as O Line coach those first three years and not the last two.  Where did Pittman go and where are they ranked now?

Maybe I am too simple, but the problem is clear to me.  The Pittman loss was THE major factor in our downward slide.  The team has lost its identity, we've gone from a big nasty O line and running team that pounds it's opponents into submission to the team we see on the field now.

Only addressing one of the MANY problems/issues plaguing this program. Kind of like saying the Nazis' eventual defeat had totally to do with their not finishing off the BEF-British Expeditionary Force-at Dunkirk. While that decision would indeed come back to bite 'em in the rear, their decision to invade Russia AND declare war on the U.S. after Pearl Harbor when they weren't required to had far more serious and far reaching consequences to the outcome of WWII.

Pittman's firing (or whatever) was only one of a litany of missteps and screw ups by CBB. Issues that obviously continue plaguing us until today.

[PygmalionEffect2]

Combined with the fact that he was a great developer of the talent he recruited.

His offensive line led the SEC for three years in a row in the lowest sacks allowed for a season, one at Tennessee, and two here.

We had very strong rushing statistics while he was here.  One year we had two 1,000 yard rushers on the same team, the only team that year to do so in all of college football.

Any criticism of Pittman while he was here is just sour grapes or very uninformed.

[ballz2thewall]

Combined with the fact that he was a great developer of the talent he recruited.

His offensive line led the SEC for three years in a row in the lowest sacks allowed for a season, one at Tennessee, and two here.

We had very strong rushing statistics while he was here.  One year we had two 1,000 yard rushers on the same team, the only team that year to do so in all of college football.

Any criticism of Pittman while he was here is just sour grapes or very uninformed.

i'll bite.

how about the abject failure to drive the ball on the ground when in the zone. we were notorious for it.

i'm not really here to knock pittman, but access those memory banks before reflecting on the glory of our OL under pittman.

we were balanced, but we were not a power team. people thought we were because we said we were, and people listened. fans knew better. just go back in time and surf the posts here.

[PorkRinds]

His last recruiting year for us was 2015,

unless you're making the point that Pittman wasn't a very effective recruiter for us in 2016 while coaching at Georgia?


2015 - Jalen Merrick, Zach Rogers, Colton Jackson, Hjalte Froholdt.   That's 3 four stars and a high three star.

2014 - Frank Ragnow, Brian Wallace, Sebastian Tretola.  2 four stars and one 3 star, just the recruiting services got it wrong on which one should have been the 3 star.

2013 - Denver Kirkland, Dan Skipper, Reeve Koelher, John McClure.   Three four stars, all of whom didn't commit to the Hogs until after Pittman was hired.

In four years, 2013-2016, we had one in-state offensive lineman.  It should have been a disaster except for the fact that CBB brought an Oline coach with him that could attract four star talent from all over the country.

He left the month before signing day. That last class was his, and it was weak. He knew he was leaving and didn't work that hard. It is what it is.

[Hoggish1]

My chromdome, great thinking.  You must work for espn... 

[Hoggish1]

iirc, pittman ended up taking one of his razorback recruiting targets to georgia.

btw, how are team chaney/pittman doing down there?

My dog and I could do well down there.  What's your next question?

[bville_hog]

The problem is no college coaches want to work for him which is why he has resorted to hiring from div 1aa or NFL assistants-assistant for all of his recent hires except coordinators.

[bigdogbitting]

Coach Pittman is doing such a poor job at Georgia that they should fire him immediately. Whats up with all that pass blocking for a freshman QB and rushing with 3 different backs every game against any opponent. Fire him now. Do what we did, replace him with the asst to the asst offensive line coach from Buffalo. Then you to can go into the season not knowing who's going to start on the O line. After five games I'm sure we are getting closer to settling on the starters. Just a thought.

[PygmalionEffect2]

He left the month before signing day. That last class was his, and it was weak. He knew he was leaving and didn't work that hard. It is what it is.

He left on December 14th, 2015, closer to two months than one month.

Being that the really highly rated out of state players tend to commit towards the end rather than early, it's not accurate to assign the 2016 class to Pittman. 

Based on his historical performance, I'm sure Sam would have landed one or two 4-star linemen between Dec. 15th and signing day.  He had done it the three previous years.  Ragnow, Kirkland, Koehler, Skipper, signed late.  Can't remember on Wallace and Merrick.

I don't doubt he slacked up towards the end of the season when he knew he wasn't staying but that's not a reflection on his ability as a recruiter and developer of talent.  He was the best we ever had.

[Sed76]

Even when Pittman was supposedly mailing it in and not doing his job the teams were miles ahead of the mess Kurt Anderson has put on the field. Just hard to believe that an assistants assistants was the best hire Bielema could have made.

[onebadrubi]

iirc, pittman ended up taking one of his razorback recruiting targets to georgia.

btw, how are team chaney/pittman doing down there?

w

You are prolly thinking of bolles, the OT, he ended up out west, maybe Utah?

[onebadrubi]

Combined with the fact that he was a great developer of the talent he recruited.

His offensive line led the SEC for three years in a row in the lowest sacks allowed for a season, one at Tennessee, and two here.

We had very strong rushing statistics while he was here.  One year we had two 1,000 yard rushers on the same team, the only team that year to do so in all of college football.

Any criticism of Pittman while he was here is just sour grapes or very uninformed.

My only two negatives to Pittman are his lines didn't have good push when needed and he could not get our oline numbers up.  He should have been taking a 3 star local guy if need be to build some depth but he didn't, this could be argued though that he was t allowed. 

[Captain Morgan]

For CBB's first three years the team showed steady improvement and by year three our O Line was talked about as "one of the best".  We were lining up and dominating the line of scrimmage.

The last two years, we have regressed.

What is the one thing that changed...we had Pittman as O Line coach those first three years and not the last two.  Where did Pittman go and where are they ranked now?

Maybe I am too simple, but the problem is clear to me.  The Pittman loss was THE major factor in our downward slide.  The team has lost its identity, we've gone from a big nasty O line and running team that pounds it's opponents into submission to the team we see on the field now.

Samantha Pittman underachieved also