Win or lose, Arkansas commits are clear: They want Sam Pittman

Maybe it was gallows humor or maybe Arkansas coach Sam Pittman feels really good about this season’s team because during a recent address to the Little Rock Touchdown Club, Pittman was light-hearted, funny and ripping jokes left and right.

With a 30-31 overall record and only 14 SEC wins in five seasons, Pittman enters 2025 on the hot seat. But he thinks this year’s Razorback team can finally kick the program into high gear.

“The best recruiting class we’ve had since I’ve been here was last year (2025),” Pittman said. “We have some really, really good freshmen on our team.

“I don’t know what the guys who have never played a down predicted us but I know we have a really good freshman class. If you don’t want to rank us (in preseason polls) that’s fine, don’t you have to play all of them anyway? Roll that thing out there and let’s see what happens. That’s fine. We surprised a lot of people, you’re not surprising me. We have a really, really good football team and we’re excited to play.”

Arkansas commits are also excited to see their future team play – and many of them made one thing clear: No matter what happens this season, they want Pittman to be the coach in Fayetteville next season.

They’re coming to play for the Razorbacks. But they’re also coming to play for Pittman.

“Coach Pittman was one of the main reasons why I committed to Arkansas,” said three-star offensive lineman Ashley Walker. “His experience and knowledge in the trenches was something that stood out to me in my recruitment.”

Fellow three-star offensive lineman Ben Mubenga said: “Man, I love coach Pittman. He’s one of the big reasons I chose Arkansas. His track record speaks for itself. Coach (Eric) Mateos learned under him. That’s the best position I could of put myself in.”

Pittman said the 2025 recruiting class was his best – ranked No. 30 nationally – and that’s been sort of the problem during his time in Fayetteville.

The Razorbacks have not really struck gold on the recruiting trail yet as Pittman has never had better than the No. 24 class nationally in 2021. Arkansas hasn’t had a top-25 class since 2023 finishing No. 32 in 2024, No. 30 in what Pittman called his best class and now the Razorbacks are at No. 31 nationally.

It’s not horrible. It’s just not great enough to contend in the SEC.

But many recruits have shown serious loyalty to Pittman, love how he has recruited them and want to see if a nice guy can find big success in college football’s most cutthroat conference.

“Coach Pittman and coach (Deke) Adams are mostly the reason I committed,” three-star Ari Slocum said. “ I’m very excited to see what they can do and unlike most I believe they will be in the playoffs this year and compete for a natty.”

Three-star cornerback commit Jalon Copeland said: “We are going to shock a lot of people this upcoming season. It’s very important to me because coach Pittman is an amazing coach, has a great team, great staff and they will be a top team in the SEC. I’m still a hog no matter what and believe in coach Pittman.”

Those are lofty expectations but Arkansas should have some warm-ups before the SEC gauntlet starting with Alabama A&M this weekend followed by a first-ever meeting against Arkansas State.

Then the schedule gets insanely difficult with games against Ole Miss, Memphis, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Auburn, Mississippi State, LSU, Texas and Missouri.

Where the Razorbacks – and Pittman – are after all that can only be determined by playing the games. The 63-year-old Pittman, who’s coached at every level and across the country since the early 1980s, is fixing for a fight.

“Are there a lot of hours? Yeah,” Pittman said. “Do you get a lot of criticism? Yeah. That comes with the job. You want to punch a guy in the face every now and then, hell. When you were a kid, you fought, right? You’d say, ‘Hey, what time’s recess? Let’s go at it.’”

It’s almost time for Arkansas to go to school.