Ask Mike: The Hogs’ “Chippy” Freshman, Dangerous Two-A-Days & More “Will Petrino Be the Head Coach?” Questions

Our first question is from Hawgredneck who asks: Are we back where we were a year ago with the defense dominating preseason scrimmages because the QB has no time to find his receivers? Sam Pittman is starting to sound a lot like he did last year.

A. The key is “sounds like” because we didn’t see it and from what I’ve been told Sam Pittman made it sound worse than it was. Take the 8 sacks. The QBs are not tackled so it’s a touch football scenario which favors the pass rushers. Then there were the 8 interceptions. It looks like only one was thrown by Taylen Green and that was on a tipped pass off the hands of a receiver.

Bobby Petrino also explained that he was testing the passing game. Having his QBs take some chances to decide what plays need to be put on the shelf for a while and which belong in the playbook when the season starts. The QBs were without two of the three starters at receiver and a couple of key offensive linemen and were held out.

Finally the defense is better than it was last year. I think it’s going to be a major plus this season. The offense wasn’t going up against air in that scrimmage. I think the defense had a green light to really test the offense.

When I think of PR, Sam Pittman is the opposite of that. He could have made that scrimmage sound better but he just gave the facts without a lot of context.

Q. mousetown wants to know: Did Pittman seem depressed to you after Thursday’s scrimmage? His body language in that press conference looked to me like he’s expecting another bad season with no blocking and no offense.

A. Actually Pittman looked to me like a 62 year old man who’d been working outside in the 95 degree heat for 2 1/2 hours and suddenly found himself in a room full of reporters asking him a lot of questions. I played golf that day. I came home and my wife starting asking me a bunch of questions. I told her I’d talk to her after I took a cooled off some. Pittman doesn’t have that luxury. His biggest problem was keeping the sweat out of this eyes and letting his thoughts clear a bit after coming out of the heat.

Q. TNRich asks: Does Sam Pittman get fired if Arkansas finishes the season with a 4-8 record? Could Bobby Petrino potentially improve Arkansas’ performance if he were to take over as interim head coach after the Tennessee game?

A. If Arkansas started the season out slow how would making Bobby Petrino the head coach change things for the better. Do you seriously think that Petrino would run the offense better if he got dumped in his lap all of the responsibilities that a head coach has? Right now he has one job. Make the offense work. Giving him other jobs won’t make that better.

Maybe you think that the defense would work better if Petrino was the head coach. It wouldn’t. Sam Pittman has turned the offense over to Petrino and the defense over to Travis Williams. Both of those guys know what they’re doing.

I suppose you could be implying that with Petrino running the team, sideline decisions would be better but Pittman’s already said that both coordinators will have a major say in sideline decisions.

Petrino does not want to be the head coach. Its amazing that so many fans don’t get this. I’ve watched this team in the spring and all through camp. It is much better than it was a season ago. With the two coordinators they they have and this staff of coaches they will turn this program around. It might take two seasons but it will happen. I don’t think Pittman is going anywhere.

Q.Pigsfeat says: I have read articles about Pittman being on the hot seat and that his replacement is Coach Petrino. Is this even a possibility based on the fact that he could only be hired this time in a position where could neither hire nor fire employees?

A. No one has said that officially but that’s what I was told when Petrino was hired. It’s important to remember that he was fired as the head coach at Arkansas for hiring a woman he was having an affair with who was not as qualified as other applicants. That’s a serious situation at a university that receives federal and state funding. It opened Arkansas up to potential lawsuits.

I was told initially that once you’ve been fired at the U of A for something like that you can’t be rehired. So how did Petrino get rehired? It wasn’t for the same job. As an offensive coordinator he hires and fires nobody. That’s the head coaches job.

In addition to this I’ve been told that Petrino doesn’t want to be the head coach at Arkansas or anywhere else. He wants to finish his career as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He likes working with Pittman and is committed to helping him turn the offense around.

Q. The Hawk Hawkins wants to know: Is Coach Pittman being too cautious with these injuries? It looks like most are very minor. Wouldn’t it be better to let them get hit in the scrimmages so they’ll be ready for OSU?

A. That’s what the UAPB game is for. The guys sitting out are veteran players. We’ve seen them perform in some of the early practices. Andrew Armstrong and Tyrone Broden will be ready. I though it was interesting that Ja’ Quinden Jackson was back for part of the the second scrimmage and we’ve seen video posted of one really impressive run. I don’t think Pittman is holding anybody out who is 100% but stuff like turf toe or an ankle sprain, I think he’s being cautious so those players will be 100% when the season starts.

Q. MS_HogFan wants to know: Which freshmen do you expect to get serious playing time this year?

A. Serious playing time indicates a starter or somebody in a position like receiver where there is a lot of rotation of players. He’s not a typical freshman but I think Monte Harrison, the 29 year of former MLB player who is walking on this season with MLB paying for his education, will play a lot. He’s 6-4, he’s fast, he’s got a serious vertical jump and he’s got really good hands. Considering that he popped up out of nowhere last spring, he may end up being the surprise player on this team.

Another freshman who will play a lot is running back Braylen Russell. Right now he is transfer Ja’Quinden Jackson’s backup at running back. It’s hard to say how much Petrino will rotate that position but it sure looks like Russell will play a lot.

There is also freshman cornerback Selman Bridges. He’s been working with the second unit during camp and has been very impressive. Corner is a position were there will be rotation so Bridges could also see a lot of playing time.

Q. PorkBilly says: M Robinson at DB appears to be a media fav suddenly. He’s a senior and sounds a bit chippy. Maybe a lot chippy. What got my attention was his former team putting a whuppin’ on Okla State last year…at Stillwater.

A. Marquise Robinson is a former JUCO player who spent two seasons at South Alabama before transferring to Arkansas. After a really good 2023 season he transferred to Arkansas in time for the winter conditioning program. He’s was impressive in the spring and has been looking very good in camp. He had a key interception in South Alabama’s 33-7 win over Oklahoma State. He said in a presser last week that he’s been telling his teammates all about OSU offense and what Arkansas need to do to stop it. The kid does not lack for confidence that’s for sure.

Q. The_Bionic_Pig wants to know: Which fanbase & boosters has the least capacity for patience with their new Head Coach?
Texas A&M Football: Mike Elko
Alabama Football: Kalen DeBoe
Kentucky Basketball: Mark Pope

A. That’s a toughie. DeBoer has the toughest act to follow because Nick Saban is the greatest head coach in the history of college football. It’s crazy at Aggie-ville but Elko isn’t exactly replacing a coach who tore it up at A&M. Also Kentucky kept Cal well past his best years there. It’s a crazy fan base but again they don’t go around firing coaching there at the drop of the hat.

Having pointed that out I’d go with Mark Pope just because of how sensitive Kentucky fans are about Cal coming to Arkansas and the failure of Kentucky’s AD to land a big name coach. If Pope struggles there I think he might be on the hot seat sooner than normal.

Q. sglies says: I saw where college hoops coaches think that Calipari was hand down the biggest hire after last season. Hog fans have to love it. Kentucky fans will hate it.

A. A CBS online writer says that he conducted the poll with over 100 coaches responding. He says that Cal got more votes than the number two through number five choices combined. He also pointed out that Cal was the only Hall of Fame coach hired after the 2024 season. Hog fans are excited. Practices are about to start back up after an end of summer break. I’m hoping at some point that the media will be able to see one of those practices.

Q. WVHogfan asks: Please tell us about Arkansas alum Hunter Woodhall who will be participating in the 2024 Paralympics.

A. It starts August 28th in Paris. The bad news is he has COVID which obviously has affected his training. He said he’s been traveling a lot. He was in Paris to support his wife, long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall, at the Olympics. He said he knew traveling that much was a risk so the COVID diagnosis was his fault. But he also says he will beat COVID and will be ready to go in time for the Paralympics.

Q. T.L. Slaten says: It seems to me that August practices are not as tough as they were back in my day. Two-a-days have been banned and coaches avoid the heat which never happened to us. The worst was puking on on the field. You don’t see that much these days.

A. Two-a-days were banished to cut down on heat exhaustion deaths that were popping up every August. It was a dangerous practice for a number of reasons. Basically there is not enough recovery time for the body when you practice twice daily in the heat. Also the belief that going hard in the August heat will get players in better shape once the season starts is false according to various studies. These days there are all kinds of protocols that trained conditioning coaches use to reduce heat related injuries and prevent deaths from heat strokes. So maybe the practices aren’t as tough from the standpoint of roasting in the heat but that was a bad policy. When it comes to having players in top condition for the season opener, most coaches to a better job these days.