ARKANSAS’S SAM PITTMAN: A BETTER WAY TO PICK A COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACH?

 

College football’s postseason starts this month,

while we’re in the midst of another aspect of the sport worth watching. The coaching carousel has been spinning furiously.  As coaches get fired and hired, the amazing story of Arkansas’s Sam Pittman bears telling.

We’re all native Arkansans, though two of us (Henry and Rob) live elsewhere now. We retainan interest in what’s happening there, meaning we haven’t ignored the success of this year’s Arkansas Razorback football team.

Arkansas reached number eight in the polls before suffering a 37-0 loss to top-ranked Georgia and close defeats by Ole Miss and Auburn. The Razorbacks bounced back with narrow wins over Mississippi State and LSU and a convincing defeat of Missouri. They endured a hard-fought, down-to-the-wire loss to perennial power Alabama.

Arkansas finished tied for third in the rugged SEC-West, when the Razorbacks had been picked last in many pre-season polls. Most prognosticators forecast a five- win year. Arkansas finished the regular season 8-4 and will play Penn State in the Outback Bowl on January 1st. This all happened two seasons removed from a 20-game Southeastern Conference losing streak and embarrassing losses to teams like North Texas and Western Kentucky. How did the change happen? Start with the head coach, Sam Pittman.

 

An Unconventional Hire

When Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek fired Chad Morris before the 2019 season ended, Yurachek sought out the usual suspects -- head coaches and coordinators who’d enjoyed success at schools at or just below Arkansas in college football’s pecking order. He got a less-than-enthusiastic reception. Some pointed out weaknesses in Arkansas’s roster and recruiting obstacles for a major school in such a lightly populated state. Others noted the difficulty of winning in the SEC West, viewed by some analysts as the toughest division in the sport.  Many candidates worried about how much money they’d make.

Yurachek remained patient, perhaps because he had

an intriguing prospect in his pocket.  Though  he’d never been a coordinator, the typical training ground for head coaches, Sam Pittman commanded a following. He served four years as Arkansas’s offensive line coach under Bret Bielema. Players Pittman coached lobbied Yurachek about making him the head coach.

Pittman left Arkansas for Kirby Smart’s Georgiastaff where he helped the Bulldogs win three straight SEC East titles. He developed a long list of offensive linemen taken in early rounds of the NFL draft. Most of all, he became known as a tenacious recruiter.

Pittman wasn’t obsessed with how much money he’d make. He accepted the Arkansas job not knowing the figure. He’s a bargain at $3.5 million a year, compared, for example, with Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher at $9 million. His Aggies also finished 8-4 this season.  Yurachek said, “Sam just wanted to be the head football coach at the University of Arkansas.” The 60-year-old Pittman says he’ll stay at Arkansas as long as the school will have him.

In 2020, Pittman’s first Arkansas team went 3-7 against a brutal all-SEC schedule in a pandemic-marred season. The eye test and scoreboard results said he was changing things. His team was competitive in every game except against national champion Alabama and in the second half of an opening day loss to Georgia. In 2021, the Razorbacks roared to a 4-0 start that included victories over a then-ranked Texas team and SEC West rival A&M, followed by the mid-year slump and late season comeback.

 

Pittman’s Way

We see lessons for leaders of all kinds in Pittman’s work at Arkansas. Consistent with his team approach, he embraced other successful Arkansas programs by inviting men’s basketball coach Eric Musselman and baseball coach Dave Van Horn to share with him the pre-game football experience. When the Arkansas women’s basketball team upset their sport’s goliath, Connecticut, last winter, Pittman told his players they should aspire to be like the Razorback women.  

He has constructed a physical, tough-minded team

that wins with a punishing ground game, an efficient passing attack, and solid defense. For much of this year Arkansas has been in the top five in the nation in rushing. It’s among the SEC leaders in many defensive categories. Quarterback K.J.Jefferson reflects his coach’s high character, competence, and commitment. Thanks to Pittman’s relentless emphasis, Arkansas has steadily moved up the recruiting rankings. The 2022 class might land in the Top 20.  

Pittman convinced Yurachek to give him money

that let him hire experienced assistants, including defensive coordinator Barry Odom, formerly head coach at Missouri. When he’s talked about this year’s victories, Pittman has deflected credit onto his assistants and players. When the team fell short, he’s taken the blame andpointed out things he must do better.  He has been transparent, making clear he won’t lie to the media, even if “sometimes I just don’t say anything about certain things.”

Whether other schools can emulate the Arkansas/Pittman experience isn’t clear. Maybe he’s an outlier who found the right place at the right time.

Even if he is, the Arkansas/Pittman experience offers a model for coaching searches. Find a coach who wants the job and cares more about doing it right than about the money it pays or how it sets him up for his next move. Find a coach who shares credit for success and accepts blame for failure. Find a coach who recognizes the importance of having good people around him and who’s transparent.  It’s a formula that makes recruiting easier. What parent wouldn’t want their child playing for someone following that philosophy?  

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR WOMEN MAKES US STRONGER

TITLE IX AND THE ASCENT OF THE AMERICAN FEMALE ATHLETE 

Without women, the United States Olympic team would have been in a world of hurt.  The Tokyo

games ended recently and the world now assesses the meaning of a COVID-19 marred Olympiad, while looking forward to next year’s winter games and the 2024 summer games in Paris.

One thing stands out about the American effort in

Tokyo. U.S. women made their presence felt. They captured over 58% of the medals Americans won. That didn’t just happen. It directly resulted from action American legislators took almost 50 years ago. The success of U.S. female athletes shows what can happen with a dedicated commitment to equal opportunity. It offers lessons that apply across society.

The Governmental Action was Title IX

Mostly without anyone looking, Congress in 1972 amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act with a

provision that said, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.…”  Before that enactment, one in 27 girls participated in school sports. Now that number exceeds two in five. Despite grudging compliance by school districts and universities with the requirement of equal funding for women’s sports, over the 35 years after Title IX’s passage, female involvement in high school sports jumped 904 % and college participation increased 456%.

We shouldn’t forget the opposition Title IX encountered in its early years, much of it from the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The

NCAA feared loss of power and control over lucrative men’s sports, especially football and basketball, if colleges and universities had to fund women’s sports programs. The NCAA first argued for exemption of college athletic departments from Title IX requirements, contending the departments

didn’t receive federal funds. That argument ignored the fact college athletic departments are part of institutions of higher education, nearly all of which receive federal money. They also argued equal sports funding for women would mean a loss of opportunities for men (a few men’s programs did get cut at individual schools, though overall men’s participation increased). Finally, the NCAA asserted Title IX equity formulas should exempt college football. 

Ultimately, courts and government agencies charged with enforcing Title IX rejected these contentions. The NCAA decided it couldn’t beat the women’s sports movement, so it took it over. In

1982 it forced out of existence the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), the organization that had promoted women’s college sports while the NCAA was doing everything it could to undermine support for women’s programs. Even today, though, the NCAA often treats women’s sports teams as second-class citizens, as last winter’s weight room fiasco demonstrated. It provided men with state of the art weight training facilities at basketball tournament sites while giving women a few dumbbells. 

The Olympic Dividend

We can’t say Congress knew it was birthing an Olympic medals bonanza for the United States

when it passed Title IX. The law passed because of the efforts of a small, determined group of women (and a few men) who, in the late ‘60s, began agitating for federal and state legislation assuring women equal rights in education. As noted, few people paid much attention when it passed, though the NCAA soon perceived a threat. Then something funny happened.

By the early ‘80s, U.S. women began excelling in international competition in sports, like track and

field and basketball, previously dominated by the Soviet Union and eastern European countries like East Germany (many of those eastern Europeans probably were on steroids, but that’s a subject for another day). All of a sudden U.S. women who’d gone through college and university programs started winning championships.

By the ‘80s and ‘90s, the U.S. was producing female stars, like Florence Griffith-Joyner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee in track and field and basketball greats like Cheryl Miller and Dawn Staley. In 1996, the U. S. women’s basketball team kicked off a gold medal streak that has reached seven and shows no signs of ending, despite the likely retirements of five-time gold medalists Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi.

In Tokyo, the American team won 113 medals (China finished second with 88). Women won 66 of

the U.S. total. Had the American women been a nation, they would have placed fourth in the overall medal count. Since 2012, American women have won the majority of U.S. Olympic medals.

 

Pride and Inspiration– for all Americans

Women can take great pride in what U.S. women

athletes have accomplished in the Olympics, as can men. Those are our sisters, daughters, granddaughters, nieces, even wives, winning those medals. Their achievements should inspire everyone.  We’re reminded of what Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman told his players after the Arkansas women’s basketball team upset perennial power Connecticut last winter. “They wear the same logo on their uniforms we do,” Pittman said. “Let’s be like them.” 

We also can take pride in the progress American women have made in Olympic sports since the advent of Title IX because of what that progress says about our country. The law’s role in the development of American female athletes shows what can happen when a nation decides it will treat

all its citizens fairly and equally. Title IX, especially when juxtaposed with the NCAA’s obstructionism, stands as an example of what happens when societies don’t engage in zero-sum game thinking. Every time someone gains something doesn’t mean someone else must lose something. The rise of the American female athlete lifts US all and serves as a model for the world.