All Hogs

Arkansas Highway Sign Shows How Little Hogs Fans Think Things Out Sometimes

Money wasted to send call for action Razorbacks athletics can't take right now

Kent Smith

Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman prior to the game against the Texas Longhorns at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman prior to the game against the Texas Longhorns at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. / Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas fans need to stop.

All anyone wanted to talk about Saturday morning was a tactless digital sign along the interstate calling for Arkansas coach Sam Pittman to no longer be employed. It was a bad look for the fan base that not only potentially hurts recruiting, it's ill informed.

Pittman isn't going anywhere as head coach unless he loses to Louisiana Tech, and the damage to the program that would follow by having to fire him at that point in time would be something no reasonable fan would ever wish upon his or her favorite team.

If Pittman was going to be fired, the bye week that just concluded would have been the time to do it considering the current NCAA calendar. Firing coaches after the season is a fool's errand these days.

Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman talks to former quarterback KJ Jefferson prior to the game against Florida International.
Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman talks to former quarterback KJ Jefferson (1) prior to the game against the FIU Panthers at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. / Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

Signing day is Dec. 4 this year. The portal window opens five days later.

The Hogs finish their season in Columbia, Missouri on Nov. 30. There's no athletics director who should have a job who would be dumb enough to fire the head coach and leave himself a window of four days to find a coach, get the man to town and ask the new head coach to assess the program, spend literal hours pulling together a recruiting class and not much longer trying to hold together what can be salvaged of the current roster.

On top of it all, there's the financial uncertainties that come with this particular year. Where things stand, Pittman is owed 75% of his remaining contract, his assistants would have to be bought out, there would be the issue of a buyout for any coach worth replacing him, and the cost to pay a whole new staff. Normally, that would be enough for pause, especially considering a lot of that money would have to come from a group of boosters who are currently struggling to provide enough cash flow for Arkansas to buy a roster capable of staying barely above .500.

But, this isn't a normal year. The 2025-26 athletics cycle comes a major uncertain shift that is going to change the college sports landscape in as nearly as monumental a way as the introduction of NIL and the transfer portal.

In addition to all of those costs, the Razorbacks athletics department is expected to come up with just over $20 million to pay all of its athletes out of its own budget for the first time. That's a big chunk of change to tack onto all the costs that come with firing a coach.

The point being, firing Pittman after the season, or at all at this point, would not only devastate the football program for at least a year on the recruiting front (which would probably compound naturally following a poor season), it would be financially crippling when the Razorbacks can least afford to fall behind on yet another shift on paying players.

A fool and his money are quick to part ways. That's certainly the case for whoever gave good money to pay for that sign.

HOGS FEED:

• Believe it! Arkansas-Texas is truly a rivalry for the ages

• Pittman Hushes Critics of Longhorns 'Fine Team'

• Razorbacks ready to face Longhorns’ “simple” defense

• Arkansas' defense has four tasks it must accomplish to win

• Rivalry between Texas, Arkansas highly questionable

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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.