Pittman Loses Way More Than Running Backs Coach

Departure of Smith for TCU huge blow to Arkansas recruiting, internal stability with players

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas football took a huge hit in recruiting Friday that it couldn't afford to take.

Just as the arrival of running backs coach Jimmy Smith has had a dramatic effect on the Razorbacks' ability to overcome deficiencies in recruiting while simultaneously opening up a pipeline to the far southeastern corner of the SEC, his departure will create a massive void that is going to be felt heavily. 

The football program has a lot working against it. There's very little history of success, especially as it pertains to the lifetime of incoming recruits. Arkansas hasn't been a notable name in its own division, much less the conference or overall football world.

The number of elite in-state recruits are few and it's in an area that is hard to access. Driving there has improved over the years, but as far as flying, there are few flights to Northwest Arkansas and the ones that exist are many times more expensive than people are used to paying. Getting there from a place like Georgia or Alabama requires flying to Little Rock, Tulsa or Kansas City and then renting a car for a long drive.

Other than facilities, the town itself, and the allure of playing in the SEC, there's not a lot working to Arkansas coach Sam Pittman's advantage when it comes to convincing elite recruits who live more than five or six hours away to join the Razorbacks. However, the one ace he's always had to help tip the scales with a lot of recruits and their families was Smith.

In a world where modern athletes were evolving into something to which the overwhelming majority of college coaches couldn't relate, Smith brought the experience and training needed to do exactly that. He was the only member of the staff who had gone through the immense amounts of staff development going on at the high school level to deal with a group of young men whom science has shown have brains that are vastly different than their predecessors as a result of constant screen time, social media and a communication set drawn out of less one-on-one verbal contact.

Smith's role is so important and necessary to the success of this staff that he was labeled the one Arkansas assistant who couldn't be allowed to leave a few years ago. If there was an issue of money, Pittman needed to find it because what would be lost doesn't have an equal monetary value. In April, he was literally referred to here as "the model for future hires and a catalyst to help other coaches adapt."

In December of 2022, as Pittman was facing an impending turnover of his staff, allHogs did a breakdown of who was left and what things needed to look like going forward. An honest evaluation based on player feedback and a strong knowledge of what was coming through the pipeline as far as the mentality of athletes coming out of high schools landed the spotlight squarely on Smith.

"That brings us back to Smith. He was a high school coach not that long ago.

He's not exactly that experienced when it comes to recruiting and planning against college defenses. Yet, when you talk to recruits, especially right after they arrive on campus, regardless of which side of the ball they play on, Smith's name is always mentioned.

Words like "relatable" and "cares" come up a lot.

One dynamic which has evolved that people who don't work with large numbers of teenagers on a regular basis might not realize is the extreme change that has taken place over the last four to five years.

For pretty much the entire existence of the sport, the young men coming through were pretty much the same from year to year. There were a few minor differences, but not much.

Therefore, coaching was coaching. It was a lot like baking the same cake over and over.

However, around 2017 or so, a massive change happened in the upcoming group of teenagers. It was so extreme that it's almost as if a different subspecies of humanity had risen.

Their brains work in dramatically different ways that can keep them on a non-stop emotional overdrive. Teachers and coaches retired by the droves as they struggled to relate or be able to manage this new crop of young men and women.

Those who found success were willing to listen endlessly and ride out the non-stop wave of rising and falling emotions. They found ways to maneuver through the never-ending minefield of eggshells that could trigger emotional breakdowns, sending countless teenagers running from the room in tears, leading to calls for administrators and SROs to comb the campus looking for the student in question before things could get worse.

Coaches who relied on yelling or just expecting athletes to do what they're told watched as a mass exodus of players left their rosters. Even those who were simply stern when they felt the moment called for it struggled to manage the room. The ability to handle even the most basic adversity became a fading trait.

This new generation of athlete has begun to hit campus. Smith was a head coach in high school when this change started to take place. That has put him in position to have the tools and understanding for managing this current crop of young men older coaches don't have yet, and may never have."

In April of last year, when evaluating the new defensive staff, it was easy to see Smith had indeed provided the blueprint for what Pittman sought in his latest group of assistant hires. The approach to coaching athletes on the field and the relationships on display were evident.

Pittman may not have understood how valuable someone who can wrap his mind around modern athletes is on the field, but he places a high price on recruiting and could easily tell he needed more Jimmy Smiths out on the road. 

Pittman is in a better place to absorb the loss of Smith now than he was at the end of 2022. Back then players and recruits spoke as if he were the only coach on staff who truly understood them. 

However, being in better position to absorb the loss is like the difference in having the car break down 25 miles from the nearest house while having two broken toes as opposed to a broken leg. It's still not ideal and it's going to be a painful ordeal to overcome.

The one silver lining is this isn't something that blindsided Pittman. He's had time to mentally prepare and think out a possible course of action in the event Smith left. 

Last week it appeared he would soon leave to take the running backs job at Georgia. No one would have been upset with Smith or even batted an eyebrow about whether is signaled any instability within the staff because it was a chance to return home, possibly win a national championship and increase his coaching profile with a perennial Top 3 program.

However, when that didn't work out, everyone outside the Razorbacks athletics offices took a huge sigh of relief. A huge blow had been seemingly avoided. But, all indications are Pittman knew Smith was on his way out if at all possible.

He finally took a job Friday with his old offensive coordinator Kendal Briles at TCU. Sure, it's in a Big 12 that is going to struggle to gain national media attention without Texas and Oklahoma dragging teams into the spotlight, but it's in a system in which he is comfortable with hundreds of elite recruits within a stone's throw and two major airports just down the road.

It's a situation Pittman has had at least a couple of weeks to think out, although it's probably been a little longer. Now he just has to make the right call to minimize the damage done.

He followed the model created by Smith's presence last year on the defensive side of the ball. However, Pittman went with what was comfortable for him in regard to the offense with the hiring of Dan Enos rather than choosing what was best for the players and their families. 

The temptation will be to simply hire who is best for Bobby Petrino. Letting him bring in an old buddy is the easiest route that creates the least resistance. However, one thing that can be said of Pittman is he has done a good job of learning from his past mistakes as a head coach.

He's seen the potential damage opting for personal comfortable can create and also the success that using a specific model while reaching out to coaches with whom he has no personal connection can generate. The balance is going to be finding a coach who can understand and communicate the offensive concepts and philosophies Petrino values while also finding someone who brings the recruiting and relationship prowess Pittman so appreciated in Smith.

That's a small, but necessary target to hit. Arkansas has a strong running back room and has a lot of players outside of that room who have stuck around because of their relationship with Smith.

If there weren't another transfer portal window on the horizon, there would be a little wiggle room, but with the prospect of an April exodus, there simply isn't. Pittman has to nail this hire and do so quickly. 

His new hire (latest indications are he is considering Kolby Smith of the Miami Dolphins) has to be able to get on campus and immediately set about proving he is relatable and that he cares. As the saying among high school teachers and coaches goes, "They don't care what you know until they know that you care."

Whomever comes in needs to study players' biographies and social media as hard as he would expect his athletes to study the play book. He needs to go out of his way to carve out one-on-one time with each player beginning with the running back room and working outward. 

It's important he knows what matters to them and who they are outside the football field. What each has been through in life, what makes them happy or frustrated, and how each prefers to be coached must be part of a long list of understandings. 

If all a player can learn from a coach is X's and O's and all the coach knows about his athletes is how they execute those X's and O's, there's simply no value in him being there because he is a failure. Smith embodied that idea to the fullest, and as a result, had success to the highest degree when it comes to the true measure of coaching.

He is going to be almost impossible to replace. However, doing so will have more impact on what goes on behind closed doors than nearly any hire Pittman will have made to date. 

This has to be seen as more than hiring a running backs coach. What's being replaced is so much more than that. Pittman has to get this one right. Anything short of utmost urgency in the approach to finding Smith's replacement can have dire repercussions.

HOGS FEED:

• New rule has helped players pick up Petrino offense quicker

• New Razorbacks' OL Coach Eric Mateos' graduate assistant catches everyone's attention

• Pittman coaching Hogs this morning proof miracles still exist

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