Good, bad and the ugly of Sam Pittman's six-year tenure as Arkansas football coach

FAYETTEVILLE — How will Arkansas football fans remember Sam Pittman?

The Razorbacks were a dumpster fire — and that's putting it kindly — when he became the coach on Dec. 8, 2019. Pittman helped the program gain some respectability before it became too apparent he had already reached his ceiling. Athletic director Hunter Yurachek pulled the plug earlier this week after a 2-3 start to 2025 and named Bobby Petrino interim leader.

With another new era on the horizon, here's a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly of Pittman's reign as Arkansas coach. With a final overall record below .500 at 32-34, we've picked out four positives and five negatives from the last five-plus years.

The Good

SEC breakthroughs in Year 1

The Hogs were in the midst of a 19-game losing streak in the SEC when Pittman arrived. By Week 2 of his first season in 2020, the drought was over thanks to a 21-14 road victory over Mississippi State.

Arkansas went 3-7 against an all-SEC schedule, which was a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pittman backed up the victory over the Bulldogs with home wins against Tennessee and Ole Miss. After two years of misery under Chad Morris, there was finally renewed life inside the program.

Year 2 provides the best season in a decade

The 2021 season was the summit of Pittman's success. A 9-4 season began with an emotional home blowout over No. 15 Texas. It felt like a moment where Arkansas announced itself to the college football world as once again a proud program.

The Razorbacks followed that triumph with SEC wins against No. 7 Texas A&M, Mississippi State, LSU and Missouri. Those were Arkansas' most recent wins vs. the Aggies and both Tigers schools.

The year culminated with dominant performances from KJ Jefferson and Rocket Sanders in a 24-10 victory over Penn State in the Outback Bowl. Arkansas finished No. 21 in the AP Poll and had momentum building into 2022.

Postseason success

Pittman went 3-0 in bowl games at Arkansas. The Penn State victory is mentioned above, but he also closed out the 2022 and 2024 campaigns with wins in the Liberty Bowl.

The offensive thriller against Kansas in 2022 gave a disappointing season an exciting finish, and the Hogs cruised against Texas Tech in 2024 to generate further optimism on Taylen Green's development.

Tennessee victory extends tenure

Pittman registered the signature win of his career on Oct. 5, 2024. The Razorbacks took down No. 4 Tennessee in front of a packed home crowd. The fans stormed the field, and Pittman celebrated in the postgame interview with his trademark jolly relatability.

It's very likely that result also helped Pittman keep his job coming into 2025. Without the Tennessee win, Arkansas would have finished 5-7 and missed the 2024 Liberty Bowl. The Hogs would have gone the entire 2024 season without a ranked win and they would have finished with six losses in their final eight games.

The Bad

Failure to maintain after 2021

Pittman's downfall traces back to the 2022 season. Fresh off a 9-4 breakthrough, the Razorbacks began the ensuing year ranked No. 15 and climbed inside the top-10.

But a scare against Bobby Petrino's Missouri State squad snowballed into three consecutive losses. Arkansas went 2-5 against ranked opponents and couldn't parlay 2021 into sustained success.

Perhaps, even more damning was Arkansas' opposition to NIL during this time. There was a ton of momentum around the program, but athletic director Hunter Yurachek was fighting the concept of paying players rather than joining the likes of Ole Miss and Missouri in embracing this new era of college sports.

Portal overhauls

Pittman had his fair share of wins in the transfer portal. Landon Jackson and Isaac TeSlaa both turned into third-round picks. Taylen Green looks like a gem of a quarterback, and Arkansas was able to replace supposed big losses like Luke Hasz and Patrick Kutas.

But the quantity of losses year-after-year were too much to overcome. Pittman essentially coached a brand new team in 2024 and through the first five games of 2025. The best programs still have a level of continuity that did not exist at Arkansas.

Defeats to G6 schools

The 2022 home loss to No. 23 Liberty and this year's failure at Memphis are stains on the program.

Arkansas should rarely lose those types of matchups against schools who come from conferences that can't compete financially with the SEC. It's only slightly excusable given Liberty's top-25 ranking and Memphis' status as a College Football Playoff contender.

The Ugly

2023 and the hiring of Dan Enos

The lowest point of Pittman's career was a 7-3 home loss to Mississippi State. The result summed up the offensive ineptitude under offensive coordinator Dan Enos, who made Jefferson and Sanders look like shells of their past success at Arkansas.

Enos was fired after eight games. Arkansas finished the year 4-8 with one SEC win. The Hogs had a run of embarrassing moments that fall, including the Polar Express scandal at halftime of the home loss to Auburn. Pittman never recovered from this season.

Home embarrassments

The blowout defeat to Notre Dame was the last straw, but there have been too many abysmal performances in front of home fans across the last three years.

Auburn, Ole Miss and Missouri all left Fayetteville with wins by more than 30 points since 2024. In his final press conference, Pittman said he didn't know why Arkansas seemed to perform better away from the friendly confines of Razorback Stadium.

Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or follow him @jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Good, bad and the ugly of Sam Pittman's tenure as Arkansas football coach