There is no place like Arkansas. Not really, anyway.
That’s not necessarily a good thing.
The state’s flagship school is very clearly its flagship school. The only other FBS team that resides in the Natural State plays in the Sun Belt. The Razorbacks are the program, so living within the state’s borders tends to yield a perspective skewed from the norm.
The expectations for the Arkansas football program vary wildly depend one’s disposition, a disposition that has a correlation to geographical location. For example, you won’t find many hardcore Hogs fans outside the state’s borders. Well, not many who aren’t alumni or just recently moved. A bit of that is the product of being a rural, small-population state. Ohio State, Michigan, Florida, LSU, UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina. These are state schools with mega fanbases spread across the country.
Arkansas isn’t that. So when a portion of the fan base that has basically just the Razorbacks on which to hang their proverbial hat feel something, that feeling isn’t likely emblematic of what the masses think. Or, in the words of Mike Irwin earlier in the week, Arkansas’ brass isn’t concerned one iota with what the kooks who “bleed Razorback red!” are saying.
Not at all what I indicated. The booster said he and others don't open their checkbooks every time the Internet crowd demands a coach be fired.
They decide when it's time to spend their own money. https://t.co/3D3FImbEvz— Mike Irwin (@MikeIrwinPTN) October 7, 2023
And they’re saying plenty during this struggle of a season. They want Pittman fired. Not tomorrow. Yesterday. Some of the less vocal will wait until season’s end. The silent majority – to use phrase du jour – understand patience. But the silent majority hold that adjective, certainly.
Pittman isn’t on the hot seat. It’s hard to imagine it’s even being considered with any sense of reality, even. Over at The Athletic, Bruce Feldman released his list of coaches who are feeling a little burn on the tush. Only one SEC coach was named. It was Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher.
Arkansas is the worst team in the SEC West over the last 10 years, record-wise. The 1960s and 70s were a long time ago and the sport was much different then. Pretending those days are achievable again on the regular is folly. So is casting out Pittman, who has the best and third-best of those seasons in the last 10 years.
None of this is to say that Pittman is fully secure, either. In fact, there is no such thing. If Arkansas continues to lose games this year, things may be different in 2023. But it’s hard to imagine him fired unless Arkansas lost every single from Saturday onward. Even then, it’d be wise to give it a 50-50 at the absolute best.
So maybe relax on the calling for his job. It only makes you and the program you allegedly love so much look backward and foolish.
But, hey, there is no place like Arkansas.