Sam Pittman, Arkansas head coach, tells McElroy & Cubelic what he likes about this year's team, what Bobby Petrino is bringing to the offense, and why O-Line was their main focus in the Transfer Portal
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Welcome back at McElroy and Kubrick in the morning, live from Radio Row, SEC Media Days, day four, going right to the Buyer's Right Hotline, which I think this may be the first time we've done it all week. Hey, Coach of the Hogs, Sam Pittman, joining us on his way to SEC Media Days here today. Coach, how are we doing this morning?

Guys, I'm doing great. How about y'all? Doing well? You still got enough gas in the tank? Just a little bit. We're having to dig deep. We got you coming today, Coach. Are you on a layover right now in Little Rock? Where are you at? What's going on? Why can't we get you in person, buddy?

I have no idea. I don't run that media stuff. I just say yes, sir. We've gone through our fourth quarter program, Coach, so we're good. We're going to be able to make it today. We've got a little bit left. I'm interested because of so much change, obviously, at offensive coordinator and through the transfer portal. And you've picked up some players that are going to be able to help your football team. Just kind of where are you on the temperature of your team right now? How do you feel about your group?

Yeah, I like them. I like the culture. I like the kids. I think our strength staff has done a wonderful job with these guys. And they were in there squatting yesterday and had a DJ in there. And I tell you, they love each other. And you win a lot of games that way. Obviously, you need talent, which I believe we have as well. But I really like this team. I think we went out and we had some problems that we needed to get fixed. And I really believe that we fixed them.

What have you really tried to emphasize throughout spring and now, obviously, a month or two into summer? What has been maybe the biggest point of emphasis as you guys try to kind of grow into this offense that Coach Petrino's installing?

Yeah, well, I think the first thing is the entire team is about toughness. You know, a lot of times it's not as important about who you have on the team as who you don't have on your team. And we want to make sure that we have tough people on our team, guys that were going to be there in tough times, coaches and players. But Bobby...

You know, we want to be able to run the football, and we didn't do either one. We didn't protect it. We didn't throw it. We didn't run it well last year. So we had to go out and correct this portal. We had to correct our offensive line. I think we hit on three of our guys. We got Joe Moore. We don't know a lot about him yet, but he was the fourth addition because he came in late. But Bobby and I both, we want to run the ball. We want to throw play action.

And Taylor Greene has got leadership skills like no other and can throw and can run. So going back and watching all the spring practice, we got better each week. We installed each week, and I think we're right where we need to be through what we've done in OTAs this summer.

Coach, speaking of running the football, if you need somebody to offset a couple carries, you've got a freshman tailback named Braylon Russell coming in that's listed at .252. Now, you and I both know once you get over .250, the listed weight is usually being a little bit kind. Give us the story on Braylon Russell and how much could we expect him to see him actually carry the football this year?

I'll tell you what. I think he's going to be in perfect shape because, you know, I think we've got some older guys in front of him, and I think he's just going to continue to get more and more and more reps.

As we go, you know, confidence is a big thing, as you well know, and we certainly don't want to lose his confidence. So we'll probably start slow with him, but he's a big man that can run, and we're going to play him as needed. But I think he's going to have a hell of a year for us his freshman year.

Coach, with the offensive line, and you've addressed already how you've gone to the portal, hopefully Coach Petrino I think will do a great job of taking a little pressure off those guys and utilizing some things outside the tackles and do some pin and pull stuff, change the looks. I think Coach Petrino's really, really good. He is. I've always thought that, dating back to when he scored in three plays on us in 2010. Yeah.

Looking at kind of the offensive line, though, and knowing that the defensive lines in the league are maybe not what they once were. Not that they're not good, but they're not as many dudes that can just flat out kill you. How much has the offensive line position changed in your eyes over the last 10 years or so in college football and in particular in Arkansas? Well, I mean, you have to...

You have to build your own line outside. You have to have tackles. You have to. You also have to have a center. I think that's exactly where we went in the portal for it, and I think we hit on all three of them. Obviously, you have to have depth.

I've gone, y'all know I'm an O-line coach at heart, and I've gone from playing five in a year to playing 12. And obviously, you'd rather play five than 12 because that means you're healthy. But I think this, I think I was a big zone guy, zone guy, zone guy, and we still are a zone. But this pin and pull and this tossing the ball outside and this getting back to his face,

You don't have to be quite as good up front, you know, move in the pocket, play actions. You don't have to be as good up front as a six-man protection. Your back doesn't have to be quite as good. So some of these things I think will help us get better just because of schematics.

Sam Pittman, head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks, joining us on the phones. We're live on Radio Road, SEC Media Days. When I look at your personnel defensively, Coach, and some of the guys that you grabbed out of the portal that we've seen play before, they've been players, it feels like versatility might be something that you might have to your advantage more so this year than you did a season ago.

Yeah, I agree with you. You know, a few years back, COVID came and obviously you didn't know who was going to play on a Friday morning, you know, so

So I think it taught us all a lot about, hey, if he can play boundary safety, let's make sure he can play free safety. Let's make sure he can play the hog position. We do have guys. Now, they have to have the bodies and the speed and athleticism to do it. But we have guys like Larry Worth. We got him in. I think he's an inside linebacker. I know he can play the nickel position. So you're exactly right. We have bigger kids.

That can run, and that gives us versatility to go from a three-man front to a four-man front to put other good players on the field. You know, when Barry was here, we were three-man front. We really didn't have that fourth guy. A guy can stand up, a fourth can go down. We do now. So I think it gives us a little bit more versatility on how Travis can call the defense as well.

Coach, when you look at just how the league has changed and how it's adjusted, and this is more off the field, I want to get back to Paul, but I'm just curious about this and haven't had a chance to visit with you. With the additions of Oklahoma and Texas, you're already going head-to-head against A&M for the last 10 years in the league.

How has that adjusted and changed your recruiting philosophy with having so many teams in close proximity that you're now recruiting against? You used to be able to flash that SEC badge and, hey, we got action. Now it's probably a little tougher, I would imagine. So how has that kind of impacted your approach?

Well, I think you still try to go out and you try to get your 17 to 20 high school kids. And obviously, I'm not for sure, guys, if Oklahoma and Texas coming in has affected as much as how much money you have in your NIL pot, you know, to be perfectly honest with you. So I think it's all about adjustments on how you're going to distribute money. Yeah.

and whether your philosophy is what you're going to do with high school kids, you know, be...

or are you going to save money for the portal or save money for the guys on your team? So I don't know that bringing Oklahoma and Texas into the league has adjusted as much as what are you going to do with your revenue sharing in a year's time and what are you going to do now with your collectives and things like that and how you're going to use them. And right now, I think for us,

We won't do well in high school, but we also want to maintain the guys we have on the team and be able to get instant help from the portal. Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman joining us on the Biosphere Hotline. We're live at SEC Media Days. You mentioned running the football. Getting back to running the football.

We feel like some of it's coming back full circle a little bit collectively as a conference, but how full circle could this be coming back for you guys, be it personnel groupings, formations? You mentioned some of the play calls a little bit earlier that you might be going back to. How sort of, I guess, old school could this ability to run the football be for you guys this year?

Well, I guess you could go back to the OI formation because we sure as heck ran it this spring. You know, 21 personnel, rockin', stockin' robots. There's a place for that. And you have to have the personnel to do it, but there's a place for that. You can slow the game down. You can beat people up physically that way. And so I think, you know...

The better your offensive line goes, the more you can get creative in your running game. And I do believe that it's going to change. I think people are going to hand the ball off a little bit more now. Certainly, you know, the RPO game came in, and it's very hot and still very good. But I think you're going to see the people hand the ball off a little bit more. Coach, you realize you've got a lot of people my age salivating when you say I-formation. Correct.

A lot of people my age are saying, what the heck is that? We did it this frame. Hell, we ran iso. 43-44, let's go. Amen, baby. Coach, you know what part of that is? Think about the average weight of all these linebackers in this league. Most of them 218, 221, 210 nowadays. I doubt they've ever had a kid have a seven-yard head start and they've been told they've got to take them on head on.

Well, probably haven't. And, you know, that was half an individual back in our days. Fullback, you may not get out of there alive with a linebacker or a fullback, but you got tougher. Coach, we appreciate the time today. Hope we're able to bump into you at some point here at Media Days when you arrive. Thanks for joining us, and we'll catch up again soon. Love to see you all. Appreciate you. Yes, sir. Thank you, Coach. Sam Pittman joining us on the Buyer's Right Hotline. We're live at SEC Media Days.

Let's go to that for a moment, Greg, because now we have maybe even more evidence that some of this, at least offensively, could be coming back full circle. If you could find a way to pull that off personnel-wise, 21, maybe even 22, you had the guys.

I talked to a couple defensive coaches in this league and said some things like this. Different heavier formations are popping up, and there's now younger defensive position coaches in this league that have said, I've never seen that. You joked about it, but...

I mean, there are DB coaches, D-line coaches that haven't seen I-formation before. And you've got a bunch of lighter linebackers that have been asked to cover and run for a long time. Now all of a sudden you're going to say, oh, yeah, you've got to take that guy head on. He's got a seven-yard head start at you. Yep, come thumb. I don't feel like a lot of linebackers in today's football are going to enjoy that too much. No, they're not going to like that very much. I think that, and let's be real, would we be going in this direction if the defensive lines in the league weren't,

what they are. I don't think so. The defensive line is in the league compared to what I played against. That's why we spread it all out. 100%. And what we saw in the mid-2010s, it was just a different level. It didn't matter what team. I mean, you could go play a

The Mississippi State team win five games, and they got Fletcher Cox right in the middle of defense. It's like, goodness gracious alive. This is brutal. Or Jeffrey Simmons or whatever. Everybody had one or two that were going to play ten years on Sunday. And the league, as a result, said, why are we trying to run against a brick wall? I mean, I'm not Les Miles. I acknowledge the other team's good. We can't run on these guys. So the league became very spread-oriented.

And as a result, the athletic aspect of playing defense has grown significantly. I can see it coming back. I mean, there's not really five defensive linemen in this league that scare me to death anymore. There's really not. Especially inside. I mean, scare you to death. We can't move that guy.

Yeah, I'm with you. I think you'll be all right. So I could see it reverting back to little I formation, downhill, you know, ISO, lead, toss sweep, boss schemes, back on secondary support. Make you rep it in practice. Make you prepare for it. Make you defend it.

And as we've talked about, you know, with this whole communication situation, some of that's going to become discombobulated. We look at it as this giant advantage. You and I had a different angle of it. We had XFL-UFL games, and we heard how it can be confusing more than it can be helpful at times.

if the quarterback or the defensive player is not ready for it. And so that's going to be a feeling out process, too, of just, well, hold on a second, Coach. I have formation. How do we get lined up for this? We don't have the personnel for that. We don't have time to change the personnel for that. Who do you want to walk inside and how are we going to play that? Some teams play exclusively nickel. Most. And they're Husky, Rover, Star. How many depth charts do you see that have three off-the-ball linebackers listed?

How many depth charts do you see with three off-the-ball linebackers listed that are over 240? Not many. Zero. There's none. I mean, the NFL draft, I think the heaviest linebacker that we looked at was like 234.

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For some of the things we were just referencing. Back with more Mac and Cube right after this. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than a player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Gap or wherever you get your podcasts.

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