Practice Moment in 2023 Shows Difference in Current Hogs

Pittman diverges from coddling Razorbacks, wants to see who can handle difficult times

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman talks with Nick Saban before the Razorbacks' game against Alabama. / Nelson Chenault – USA TODAY Sports

DALLAS – It was spring of 2023 and the Razorbacks were in the midst of a relatively warm practice on a rare day where the media was being given full access from beginning to end inside Razorback Stadium.

While the majority of the rest of the reporters and photographers were on the opposite sideline, I did what I could from across the way to see, shoot and hear something different than they might so as to not duplicate what other publications were putting out. It didn't take long for exactly that to happen.

A new transfer to the team stormed off the field onto the sideline right behind me where amid numerous demonstrative gestures, curse words and a level of whine typically reserved for four-year-olds who get told no when it comes to candy in the checkout line it became clear he wanted attention and someone to coddle him. Sure enough, a staffer tailed along behind begging him to settle down and just come back to practice.

He was being asked to practice some at a slightly different position to increase flexibility for the team to account for worst case scenarios later in the season once injuries start to pile up and he wasn't having it. He wanted to take his NIL and go home.

Eventually, the staffer was able to sooth the player's ego, and not only was he allowed to return to the field, he was part of the group of players brought out for interviews after practice. That one moment served as the perfect precursor for what unfolded in fall and a big reason why it happened.

It was a problem that apparently Arkansas coach Sam Pittman diagnosed at season's end and made a conscious decision to do something about it. Once he hit the SEC Network desk at SEC Media Days Thursday morning, he verbalized exactly how things have changed in the span of roughly 15 months since that incident without directly referring to it.

"I don't believe you know how to be tough until it's damn tough," Pittman said. "And we had a situation in offseason [this year] where we had a little problem there about putting your hand behind the line and going on the whistle. And we had a problem with it. And that's whenever I say, Okay, we're gonna dial it up, because we're not sitting around going 'Aw well, so and so's pouting on the sideline.' Hell no, they ain't gonna be pouting on the sideline because they ain't gonna be pouting out here when it's tough. Yeah, so that was a that was a big thing."

Instead of babying players, Pittman demanded his staff turn up the heat. There would be no more begging players to stay at the first sign of adversity.

Instead, he wanted his players to prove who could push through mentally and physically when things get hard and who was going to step up and demand everyone get through it together. It didn't take long to see who those players will be while forging a much tougher team than the one that struggled through last season.

"[Offensive lineman Fernando] Carmona came in, and on that day that we were having a hard time of putting our hand behind the line, Carmona went back and ran with the skill [players], and he said, 'Hey, okay, this is how hard it is,'" Pittman said. "We were at the Arkansas high school clinic, and so we heard all this. He's got that about him."

Pittman is looking for his team to be able to put the the last play behind and see the next play as an opportunity to dominate rather than fall into a doom and gloom or quitter's mindset. It takes an extreme level of mental toughness to maintain confidence the ability and desire to get the job done is still there when things start going against the Hogs.

"If you don't have confidence, you just cannot do it," Pittman said. "You can't do it. And so if you're not having success, you can't have confidence. You can have fake confidence, but that's not confidence. And so we had to find enough good people out front where we could go, 'Hey, look, throw that ball out there and let's go. Let's go see what happens.' We didn't have that last year."

However, the toughness Pittman is looking for isn't just on the field. He's looking for players who can develop possibly an even more difficult mindset to gain than pushing through hard times on the field – holding teammates accountable away from the practice field.

"Our coaching staff ain't going to be in that locker room showering with you." Pittman said. "They're not going to be in the players' lounge. They're not going to be at dinner with you every night. It's your damn team. Okay? So it's going to be tough, and it's going to be accountability, both of us."

When Arkansas won nine games in Year 2 of the Pittman era, many of those wins were in close games with a team that exuded toughness in all ways. However, in the months following the spring practice pouting and coddling session, the Hogs went 0-5 in close games.

"But the bottom line is, if you're accountable and you're tough, you got a chance to win them close ones," Pittman said. "We've got to win the close ones because we've got a good football team. We are the University of Arkansas.

After he demanded his coaches increase the intensity and pressure on the players, Pittman said things took a big turn. What followed is why he spent every second he had in Dallas telling anyone who would even pretend to listen that he likes his team.

"And then what happened was our kids are working as hard as they ever have, and they're having the greatest time they ever had, and it's tough, and they got no clue that it's tough," Pittman said. "When you do things that are hard and you don't have a clue that it's hard, you got them. And that's where we're at right now, and that's why I like this team."

HOGS FEED:

• Arkansas players, coaches expected to embrace philosophy

• Pittman confident in leadership ability of new quarterback

• In show of unity, Pittman should join Drinkwitz on this one

• Subscribe and follow us on YouTube
• Follow allHOGS on X and Facebook