What do SEC coaches have to say about Arkansas?

In which we analyze quotes from anonymous SEC coaches

Folks! Welcome to the third edition of Pig Tales. As always, I’d like to thank you for being part of this project, and encourage you to subscribe if you haven’t already done so. We’ve still got a few spots left before we do that gift card giveaway, so if you’d like a chance to win that $150 gift card, now is the time:

It was a quieter week in Arkansas sports, but there’s still plenty to discuss, so let’s talk some Hogs!

Twitter Fingers

Athlon Sports yearly Anonymous SEC Coach Commentary is one of my favorite parts of preseason, partly because it means we’re close to the season, and partly because these coaches can get pretty catty with each other. The anonymity allows coaches to tee off on each other, and it always provides something interesting, and oftentimes something humorous.

Arkansas hasn’t been the recipient of much praise in recent years though, and while most of the criticism is fair, I want to take a look at each anonymous quote and see if it’s good criticism, or gamesmanship from rivals.

“It’s a total mess from top to bottom.”

Yeah, that’s probably fair.

"What's the identity of this program? Are they a hard-nosed smashmouth team? That didn't work. Are they going to beat you with spread and tempo and use Texas kids? That didn't work."

I think this is mostly fair. I think Pittman has made his calling card “toughness” throughout his career, and that phrase has been said several times since he landed in Fayetteville. That’s a nebulous concept in terms of identity though. I would imagine in terms of offense, we’ll see a pro-style rather than just ground and pound or spread and tempo, but it remains to be seen if “toughness” is enough of an overall identity to succeed at Arkansas.

"Last year was a total mess. They were vanilla on offense and defense the entire time Chad Morris was there. They were the worst-looking team on film in the conference, maybe in Power 5. Confused, out of place, low effort, no communication."

Finally, it feels like someone is saying what Hog fans have been thinking for the past couple of years. I understand that there’s a certain fraternity style relationship between head coaches, and nobody wants to talk out of turn about one of his brothers, but the amount of praise Chad Morris got and still gets is mind boggling to me. I agree with every bit of this criticism, and can’t believe that out of the entire national sports media apparatus, it takes an anonymous coach’s quote to accurately describe the Chad Morris era. Local writers call balls and strikes, but for some reason the national media is so soft on the worst coach in program history. I’m not saying you have to disparage the guy at every turn, but when guys I normally agree with like Greg McElroy are saying he wasn’t given enough time, I begin to feel like gaslighting is happening.

"That they landed on Sam (Pittman) is really telling. He's a well-respected career assistant who is great at his job, but it's hard to find what he can say or do with that program that could suddenly turn things around. They've got no personnel. The roster right now looks like NCAA sanctions hit them."

From the outside looking in, this is probably a fair assessment. I was a bit cold on the Pittman hiring when it was announced for this reason, though I’ve obviously come around on him in a big way, particularly because of how well he’s hit the ground running. I don’t think any Arkansas fan expects a “sudden” turn around. The lack of depth on the team does look like we received the death penalty from the NCAA. My fear is that COVID will stress the depth of every team if a season does end up happening. We are already facing a tough challenge, and having depth decimated doesn’t help. After reading reports of an entire Oklahoma position group being held out of practice due to COVID, one wonders if we might have to resort to pulling fans from the stands.

"(Rakeem) Boyd coming back was huge, he and Feleipe Franks are a decent place to start."

I wholeheartedly agree with this one, obvious as it is. Feleipe Franks is an SEC caliber quarterback, and Rakeem Boyd is an All-SEC caliber running back, so I expect a more solid offensive identity than those over the past two years. Having a set in stone QB1 matters, and for all intents and purposes, I think Franks is that guy this year. The revolving door at quarterback thankfully seems to be stopped.

"The offensive line isn't horrible."

Terse, but probably accurate— we know what Pittman can do with an offensive line, and will hopefully see a definitive improvement at a position that has struggled tremendously in recent years.

"(Offensive coordinator) Kendal Briles is a strange hire. They don't have the bodies to run that system, and he's had chemistry issues on other staffs. That hire told a lot of coaches that Sam wasn't alone in making the decisions."

This was perhaps the most interesting quote to me out of the bunch. I didn’t want Kendal Briles to coach at Arkansas. I know that there must be innocence until guilt is proven, and Kendal Briles has never been found guilty of anything, but I’ve had my doubts that he had absolutely no knowledge of the massive sexual assault scandal and cover-up at Baylor. I hope I’m wrong, but regardless, he’s our offensive coordinator. When Briles was hired, Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek released a statement declaring his involvement in vetting Briles, but seemed to state that his involvement with the hire was more advisory than hands-on. I’m happy to read that thorough vetting was done, but still feel like the press hasn’t held Briles accountable enough. A son shouldn’t pay for the sins of his father, but Kendal had a job at Baylor too. This anonymous coach’s quote makes it seem as though Pittman’s hand was forced. I don’t know that I believe that, but it is interesting to consider that a committee may have been involved in the hiring process of each assistant in Sam Pittman’s first head coaching gig.

"They want to score points, but they don't really get those dynamic Big 12-type of skill position bodies in recruiting."

This is dumb. How you can see current guys like Treylon Burks, Trey Knox, Mike Woods, and Rakeem Boyd, or former guys like Jarius Wright, Greg Childs, Joe Adams, DJ Williams, Chris Gragg, and Cobi Hamilton to name a few, and not see dynamic skill positions bodies is either intentional ignorance or bad faith criticism. Arkansas can get good skill position players, and Pittman has already proven that he can recruit that as well as anyone in the country. Find a new slant, anonymous SEC coach.

"Defensively they're terrible, but Barry Odom is one of the best coordinators in the country. He can't work miracles, but they'll blend schemes and figure out what fits who they have. They should go out and work the portal."

This quote excites me, namely because defense has been an issue for decades at Arkansas. I would expect Odom to make the jump back to head coaching as soon as he gets the opportunity, so we may not have him for long, but his Memphis defenses were great, and the respect he has from coaches in an elite defensive conference is encouraging. This year may be rough (if it happens), but I expect the defense to at least be in positions to succeed under Barry Odom.

Bonus Quote About Auburn (but relevant to us):

"Chad Morris was a disaster at Arkansas, but he's one of the architects of that Clemson offense. He's a great play-caller with his own style. So is this a total program commitment, or will Gus Malzahn yank it back the first time they run into trouble?"

This is what I was talking about earlier. How far removed do you have to be from past success for it to be discounted? Obviously Morris was instrumental in establishing Clemson’s offense, but after his tenures at SMU and Arkansas, I begin to wonder if Deshaun Watson could make anyone look like a genius offensive coordinator. He’s made Bill O’Brien look like a competent NFL coach in Houston, which is no small feat. Call it cope, call it bad blood— whatever— but I’m tired of hearing about Morris’ offensive genius. He was horrible at Arkansas, and our offense was embarrassingly bad. At some point, you have to hold him accountable for that.

Surprise, surprise… We have the hardest schedule ever.

It’s not enough to deal with a rebuild under a first-time head coach during an unprecedented global pandemic that threatens the very existence of the sport. No, at Arkansas, we like to do it bigger, so we’ve only gone and earned the hardest schedule in AP history. Arkansas will face SIX preseason Top 15 opponents:

Sure, Auburn had to do that last year, but Auburn wasn’t in the position we’re in right now. It will be insurmountably harder. ESPN’s FPI has our best chance at a win coming against Mississippi State, with only a 47.4% chance of winning that game. It’s no secret that a winless season could easily be on the table. For now, I’ll just be happy to see the Hogs play again. We knew this year was going to be tough, pandemic or not, so we can at least take solace in making some history along the way.

Socially Distant Networking

It’s obviously incredibly early to be talking about the 2020 college basketball season, but Eric Musselman had some buzz this week that made me feel some pride and a sense that we got the right guy.

A digital analysis by SkullSparks (yeah, I don’t know about the name either), revealed that Eric Musselman had the most engagement on social media out of any coach in college basketball this July.

It’s not particularly close either! As the world trends toward social networking as a news aggregator and hang out space (for better or worse), I think it’s a big deal to have that kind of footprint. Sure, a lot of it probably comes from rabid Arkansas fans, but recruits see that, and Musselman’s genuine, engaging content is worth something in that field.

Couple that with the fact that it’s a dead period in college basketball with little to no news, and you’ve got a heck of a marketing arm for the program.

I’m looking forward to what Muss can build with that kind of reach.

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