All Hogs

No Need to 'Make It Rain' at Arkansas

No need for Hogs to try to buy their way into relevancy like some desperate, bygone programs

Kent Smith

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – When Clint Stoerner posted a tweet about whether Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman should get involved in the chase for Biletnikoff Award winning Pittsburgh wide receiver Jordan Addison, it caused a bit of a stop-down. 

Is Arkansas trying to get in the running for this guy? The answer is that while they might want to be, it's not happening, and no philosophical debate is going to impact that outcome.

Stoerner is right. Pittman should not get involved with high money athletes looking for a quick big paycheck before they bounce to the NFL. 

We might as well say Pittman shouldn't also get involved in trying to lure Tom Brady's wife to become part of two-wife set because neither scenario is a viable option for considering if that were something Pittman even wanted.

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman addresses the team during spring practices.
Andy Hodges / AH Media

Arkansas head football coach Sam Pittman talks with his Razorback football team during spring practice. The Hogs are looking to improve on last year's 9-win season after rebuilding from the disastrous Chad Morris years.

Arkansas isn't in a position to get in talks with big money NIL kids. There are a handful of mega rich boosters in Arkansas, none of which are going to shell out the kind of money we are talking about to land a kid like Addison as a rental, nor should they.

Leave it up to desperate schools like Texas to spend absurd amounts of money competing with USC for in hopes of buying a culture that will get it out of perennial doormat status. Even if Arkansas had a deep enough donor bench to drop $7 million on a single player, one would hope there would be enough self pride to not do something that comes off as that desperate.

For right now, Arkansas is doing it the right way. Donors are spreading money across multiple sports, which is why the Hogs were able to dominate the SEC as a whole last year across the board. 

Winning and toughness is how a program is built. The NIL deals come to those who invest in the program and the community in a full-hearted way. 

Money-whipping a guy who is there for the money and himself is how you build a culture where your newly bought quarterback talks about his mother having to tell him about watching your team's glory days with him when he was two-years old despite a long history of top-notch recruiting class with low percentage in both wins and players drafted in the NFL.

Stoerner is right. Getting back to the Top 5 status to finish the season when it counts like the Hogs built to in 2010 and 2011 requires investing in the guys you've got. 

You've seen it over and over again on Twitter as prospects ask Arkansas fans to show them some love. The next step to that national stage means doing just that.

Show the players you've got the love from an NIL standpoint when they deserve it. Show prospects they are going to be cared for while they are up on the Hill. 

A steady dose of love will top a quick flash in the pan in the long run almost every time. Let those teams of a bygone age buy their way into relevancy again. 

No need for the Razorbacks to sell their souls.

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Kent Smith
KENT SMITH

Kent Smith has been in the world of media and film for nearly 30 years. From Nolan Richardson's final seasons, former Razorback quarterback Clint Stoerner trying to throw to anyone and anything in the blazing heat of Cowboys training camp in Wichita Falls, the first high school and college games after 9/11, to Troy Aikman's retirement and Alex Rodriguez's signing of his quarter billion dollar contract, Smith has been there to report on some of the region's biggest moments.