Pittman Staying Course Despite Season Struggles

For fear of showing panic, Pittman tries to keep a calm exterior while being 3-7

Author:
Daniel Shi
Updated:
Nov 16, 2023 9:49 AM EST
Original:
Nov 15, 2023

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas coach Sam Pittman continued to insist his players are getting his message. With the Razorbacks' 3-7 record, Arkansas has fallen to 22-24 under Pittman. Still, he's hoping to draw on previous success to pull his team out of the rut.

"We’ve pretty much been status quo with how we do things," Pittman said. "If you start doing a lot of changing, you have panic in the building and it’s worked in the past, it will work in the future. We got to find a way to win close games and things of that nature, but no, we haven’t really changed a whole lot communication-wise with the kids."

It's a vote of confidence in his style for getting the message across to the team after a 48-10 shellacking by Auburn on home soil. Now with bowl eligibility out the window for good, Pittman must show something in the final two games to avoid a ripple effect into coming seasons.

"It’s recruiting," Pittman said. "You can handle it several different ways. You can handle it as, ‘Hey we need you to help us win the close games,’ or ‘We’re losing guys at your position.’ Whatever it may be. But, I don’t think there’s a lot of difference from what we’ve done in the past as far as recruiting."

The players don't have much in terms of tangible goals they can achieve. With the elusive six-win mark now mathematically impossible, the players are looking elsewhere for motivation.

"At this point it's a point of pride," offensive lineman Josh Braun said. "We're going out there to put on a show. We're not playing for championships. We're not playing for anything except our brothers and our fans and our pride in ourselves. I hope that's the product we put on the field on Saturday."

If the status quo of Enos emails and Polar Express-Gate doesn't change and lead to a win game against FIU, Pittman may soon find himself the change to the status quo.

The Hogs will take on FIU 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18 at home. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU and fuboTV .