Sam Pittman excited for start of 2024 season

FAYETTEVILLE — Sam Pittman held his first presser on Tuesday and he’s excited for the start of the 2024 season.

The first practice is Wednesday afternoon at 5 p.m. Pittman feels the chemistry was good last spring and has only gotten better.

“I think all the culture, we start that,” Pittman said. “But it really happens by the kids. I mean it really does because if you look at it, we might be with them two and a half hours out of the day and there’s 24 in a day. Whether they hang out with each other, how they are in the locker room, how they are in their lounge. Do they hang out together. I think that happens with people. I can say a whole bunch of them. Cam Ball is one of them. Landon Jackson is one of them. Taylen Green came in and took the team. Once he earned the starting spot he took the team. It wasn’t anything about me, me, me. It was about us, us, us.

“(Fernando) Carmona, (Keyshawn) Blackstock, (Addison) Nichols, those guys are team oriented. And if you look at our O-line and our D-line’s camaraderie, a lot of times you know you’re battling and you get tired of each other. They’re close. They hang out together. So I think it has to do with who we get on the team, possibly who’s not on the team. A lot of things go in with culture. You guys are in the workforce and you’re with people and I guarantee your mind can think of ‘that guy’ or ‘that lady’ and you’re thinking, ‘If he wasn’t here, how much, or if she wasn’t here, how much different would it be.’ 

“This ain’t a ‘Hey, I want to tell you who that person is right now.’ I’m not calling anybody out. But sometimes you get that and your culture becomes very powerful. It can become powerful either way and right now it is very, very strong in a positive way.”

All four practices this week will start at 5 p.m., but will go to mornings next week. Pittman explained why the late starts Wednesday through Saturday.

“I’ll be honest with you, we have acclimatization,” Pittman said. “We have plenty of time, in our acclimatization period to get used to the heat, whether… So, I really did not want to go in the afternoon this week. However, because school is still in session we would lose too many guys if we went in the morning. So, I would rather go in the morning the whole time, obviously. Moving the game up and getting into camp two days earlier cost us a few more days of school. So, we’re going to go the first four. We’re going to try to keep those first four before the break exactly the same. And we went to the afternoon.

“Now, we’re going to go outside/inside. We’ll start outside and come inside after our second special team period. But I’m trying to have good practices. I know it’s going to be really hot, so I am concerned about that. I have the right to change that and bring some of that inside, as well. I don’t think we have to worry about this 25 practice period of going, ‘Well, we’ve got to get acclimated to the heat. We’re still going to have plenty of time once school starts to do that. The only reason we did it is because school is still in session. We’d have too many guys who would miss practice if we went in the morning.”

Pittman said the Hogs have gotten bigger this summer which should allow them to play more physical football on offense under Bobby Petrino.

“Certainly the plan,” Pittman said. “It was that way from when we went into the portal. Bobby obviously likes to throw a lot of play action, and it’s not any good if you can’t threaten them with the run game. I like all the schematics that we’re doing up front with our line. We’re doing a lot of different — other than just running full zone-type schemes, we’re doing a lot of different pin and kickoff and pin and pulls.

“And off of that, if we can run the football and we felt like we had a good spring of physicality on both sides of the ball, then I think we can do the play-action as well. So we want to get back to that physical football. It’s hard to do if you don’t practice that way and you don’t have quite the kids ready at their position to do that. But I feel really good in our two deep in all our areas that we have. We’re a little thin in some places after that.”

Pittman is set to begin his fifth season with the Hogs. He was asked on Tuesday if he has made adjustments during that span?

“Oh man, we got a lot time to answer that question… I think we learn all the time,” Pittman said. “I go back to some of the decisions. I think I’m just going to let my mind and my eyes see what I see and go from there. The one thing about it is if you’re always worried about ‘what if something happens wrong with what you decide,’ then you’ll never take a chance. So my first 2-2.5 years, I think I just decided what I wanted, so that’s one of them — be positive in the preparation, understand where we’re going to go if we decided to do something. If we decide to go for it, understand where we’re going. Are we confident? If I hear a doubt of confidence on the headset, just say, ‘Okay, let’s put the ball or kick the field goal,’ whatever it may be.

“Organization-wise, I think I’m better with the overall staff. Not just the football staff, but the overall staff and the importance of all what they do. I think I have a better grasp of NIL than I had before and handling that better. There’s a lot of stressors in our job. You’ve got them, too. And trying to eliminate as much stress helps you make better decisions. I feel really good. I feel good about where we’re at. I feel good about the staff. So I’ve learned a lot of things. I’m still going to make mistakes. In other words, you’re going to make a decision that’s going to turn out and not be the correct one. I have more patience than I used to have. I’m not as dictatorship as I used to be. I think I’ve learned a little bit that way. Hope so.”

Pittman did list three players who are injured and likely out for the season.

“(Linebacker) Justin Logan has the shoulder,” Pittman said. “(Cornerback) Jaden Allen’s got a knee — cartilage repair. (Offensive lineman) Zuri Madison had his ACL. So those guys probably will not play this year.

“Other than that, (linebacker) JuJu Pope got a hamstring that’ll probably limit him for the first week, week and a half. I think that’s about it.”

Arkansas plans to practice approximately two hours on Wednesday beginning at 5 p.m.