Some needed Sam Pittman perspective as he enters unique territory in 2025 ...Middle East

I was curious if Sam Pittman knew the answer, so I put him on the spot.

“Can you name the list of SEC coaches that have been at their jobs longer than you have?”

The Arkansas coach thought about it for a second, but then answered, “I think so. (Mark) Stoops, Kirby (Smart). Ya know, there was a bunch of us that got hired at the same time. I don’t think there’s anybody else.”

If we’re counting Eli Drinkwitz and Lane Kiffin as a tie for also being part of that post-2019 coaching cycle (as we should), Stoops and Smart are indeed the only SEC coaches who have been at their jobs longer than Pittman.

“Year 6 now. That’s a long time in this league,” Pittman said on The Saturday Down South Podcast. “Of course, the average is about 3.5, so in that aspect, I’m kicking butt, ya know?”

He’s right that 6 years is a long time in this league. Here’s the list of SEC coaches who earned a Year 6 in the 21st century (that’s only including coaches who started at 2000 or later and excludes coaches like Gary Pinkel who didn’t have 6 seasons in the SEC):

To recap, 17 SEC coaches have accomplished that feat in the last quarter century. If we exclude active SEC football coaches who aren’t already on this list like Clark Lea or Shane Beamer, that’s 17 of 49 eligible coaches. That’s roughly 1 in every 3 SEC coaches that got a Year 6 like Pittman, who earned that after he knew his future was in question entering 2024. Then again, it’s fair to say that those coaches all inherited better situations than the one Chad Morris left for him after a disastrous 2-year run wherein Arkansas went winless vs. SEC competition and 2-4 vs. Group of 5 foes. Pittman’s 3 SEC wins in the COVID-shortened 2020 season gave him grace from AD Hunter Yurachek after a 4-8 campaign in 2023.

In those 5 years on the job, Pittman has experienced the highs of beating Texas in 2021 and Tennessee in 2024, and he experienced lows like the disappointing 2022 and 2023 seasons sandwiched between those victories. He’s coming off a 2024 season that wasn’t disappointing. A winning season that included a top-5 victory against Tennessee — one that Pittman said meant even more to him than the aforementioned Texas win — was a bounce-back year. Usually, Year 6 SEC coaches coming off 3-win improvements have close to unanimous approval ratings. Pittman has been around long enough to know that’s not the case for him.

“There’s a lot more positives going on, but negative sells. I get all that,” Pittman said. “I don’t think it’s fair for anybody, but if you’re in the public eye, you’re gonna get crushed. I don’t care who you are … it’s part of it. I’m a lot better than I’ve ever been. I’m certainly off social media, so that helps. I’ve asked my wife to be off (social media), too. It really doesn’t have a lot to do with me. It has more to do with your family, and the effect that it has. I’ve listened to (John Calipari) talk about it after one of his games, and it made a lot of sense.

“But the bottom line is, I want to be the head coach at Arkansas, so all that comes with it is not gonna be rosy. That’s just how it is. I’m dealing with it as good as I’ve ever done with it. Would I rather be at the lake or be the head coach at Arkansas? I’d rather be here callin’ them hogs.”

There’s plenty of time for Pittman to be at the lake, where his slobbering hog statue rests (it just had a new pump put in last Monday because it went out and Pittman had it replaced because he wanted the statue to “slobber a little bit more than it did in the past”). Even if that comes with jet skiers “flippin’ me off whenever they leave,” he still maintains the same perspective he had when he started in Dec. 2019. That is, this will be his last job in football. At 63 years old, Pittman is 5 weeks younger than LSU coach Brian Kelly, so he doesn’t have to walk around with the title of “oldest SEC coach.” At the same time, there’s a great appreciation for longevity after he had “the hottest seat in the country” in 2024.

“Of the 120 D1 schools, there are probably 60-70 guys dealing with something like that, and you never know when a guy is gonna leave,” Pittman said. “At least you know I’m not leaving here. I’m not gonna go take another job. I always use that as well in recruiting.”

As he should.

Pittman will have more recruiting to do when he pursues a handful of players in the spring transfer portal window, which opens on April 16. Managing the 105-player scholarship limit will be an ongoing battle, as will continuing to put the right pieces in place behind returning quarterback Taylen Green, who was hurt for about half the season in Year 1 with Bobby Petrino but still showed promise after transferring from Boise State. Arkansas should benefit from coordinator continuity with Petrino on offense and Travis Williams on defense, where the Hogs will have to find answers for a unit that only ranks No. 88 in percentage of returning production. That’ll be at the root of whether Arkansas can take another step and earn an AP Top 25 finish for the second time in the Playoff era.

But Pittman has faced steeper climbs during his time in Fayetteville. The good news for him is that he’s no longer climbing out of a Morris mess, nor is he climbing out the 4-win hole that he was working back from at this time last year.

Perspective is everything. And for Pittman, so is callin’ them hogs.

Some needed Sam Pittman perspective as he enters unique territory in 2025 Saturday Down South.

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