ESPN analyst Rod Gilmore said during Saturday night’s Arkansas-Florida International broadcast that Sam Pittman had told him he wasn’t going to be fired.
ESPN analyst Rod Gilmore is reporting that Sam Pittman told him that he and Hunter Yurachek "had a 2 hour meeting this week" and Pittman was confident in saying he's not getting fired this year. Interesting. #WPS
— Connor Goodson (@ConnorGoodson) November 19, 2023
After the game, Pittman was asked about the exchange and denied it. Sort of. Then, on Sunday morning, Gilmore provided a bit more detail.
“I didn’t say he was ‘assured,'” Gilmore said. “I repeated only what Sam Pittman told us: that he had met with the AD on Sunday and that Pittman said he wasn’t ‘going to be fired this year.’ I didn’t say that the AD told him that. Pittman’s perspective was our focus—his words.”
Pittman’s job security has been a question for more than a month as the Razorbacks have struggled to a 4-7 record. Arkansas is Pittman’s first head-coaching job at a non junior-college level, so the questions about job status are new to him.
They’re not new to head coaches, though.
“I’ve got a wife and she’s a human being. People put out stuff that’s not true,” Pittman said. “I know it’s an opinion world now, but I don’t think I’m getting fired guys or he would’ve told me I’m getting fired. I’m not for sure why I have to answer these questions or not, but I think I don’t.”
In other words, nothing has changed.