Admittedly, Charlie Cooper is biased. Sam Pittman’s high school coach thinks the world of the new Arkansas football coach and will shout it to the Boston Mountains.
In fact, when a reporter reached Cooper on Wednesday, the former Rogers High School football coach was driving from his retirement home in Tahlequah, Okla., to do a Fayetteville TV interview to tell his favorite Pittman stories.
Cooper is pleased Pittman has returned to coach the Razorbacks and expects good things.
Cooper is a legend in Oklahoma high school circles. At 76, he’s been retired from coaching for eight years. He’s been in Northeast Oklahoma most of his career, but did some of his best work as head coach and athletic director for the Mounties from 1993-2001. He was inducted in the Rogers athletics hall of fame in 2004.
There were five years as head coach and athletic director at Grove, Okla. Pittman played two years for Cooper.
“Sam played tailback and linebacker for us at Grove. He moved in from Canton, a small town in the western part of the state. He was the only show in (Canton), but we had a good team when he got to Grove. We were in the playoffs both years and got to the (semifinals) his senior year.”
Pittman paid tribute to the Cooper stamp at his introductory press conference on Monday. He wanted Arkansas fans to know that the coaches that helped him the most were Butch Davis at North Carolina, Kirby Smart at Georgia and Cooper.
“My greatest coach was Charlie Cooper,” Pittman said. “He taught me I could take my mind and body much further than I thought. He made you tough. I called him (to say thank you).”
Cooper didn’t learn of his mention until a reporter called Wednesday. It was the second interview of the week and more were planned.
“I got a call from (Pig Trail Nation reporter Jason Carroll) to see if I could do something,” he said. “I told him sure. My wife and I planned to drive to Fayetteville to do some shopping today anyway. So I’ll sit down with them.”
Coach Sam Pittman reacts, Monday, December 9, 2019 during an introductory press conference at the Walker Pavilion in Fayetteville.
Any time is a good time for Cooper to talk about Pittman.
“It sure is,” he said. “I love Sam. I was around him a lot when he came to Grove. My two sons were about the same age. He was in our home as much as his home. They did a lot of things together, including work. They cut wood together.
“I think a lot of Sam and his parents. He’s got a good mother and father. I know them well.”
And, they learned how to work on the football field. Pittman is a hard-nosed offensive line coach. For those who played for Cooper at Rogers, it’s no surprise that those Grove teams worked hard, too.
“We were tough,” he said. “I have always believed in hard work. As far as contact, my teams at Grove when Sam played would do inside run drills two days a week. It was full go, ones against ones. I believed in that.
“You know what, I never cared that you would lose a player. I never got one player hurt in those. We didn’t have any cheap shots and took care of each other, but it was tough, physical contact. We did that same thing at Rogers, too.”
The word at Rogers was that if you were a good player, Cooper would try you first on defense. A Rogers booster said this week that Cooper’s legacy there was that his best 11 would start on defense.
“That’s right,” Cooper said. “If you are good on defense and the offensive line, you are going to win a lot of games. The fact that people are not doing that now is why the scores look like they do now.
“In my eyes, football is a game where you wear someone down and take away your will to play. That’s how you win. We did that at Rogers and that’s what we did with those teams Sam played on at Grove.”
Cooper said Pittman’s explanation of his physical abilities on Monday were on target. Pittman called himself “a one star” prospect when he came to an Arkansas football camp hosted by Lou Holtz in 1979. He said he was a tailback with only 4.8 speed in the 40-yard dash.
“That’s about right,” Cooper said. “But he was a good player. He just wasn’t fast enough for that level. But I’ll tell you how he played tailback; he ran it up in there with gusto. If he had just a little more speed, he was a Division I player.
“He was in what they called a little all-star game in Miami and the coaches at Pitt State saw him. He was a good player for them and made small college All-America.”
Cooper said he hates that he never got to Pittsburg, Kan., to see him play in college.
“I left Grove that same year he graduated and he went north to play college and we sort of lost contact,” Cooper said. “But when Bret Bielema hired him to be an assistant at Arkansas, Sam called me.”
It went the other way Sunday. Cooper heard in early afternoon that Pittman might be finalizing a deal to return to Arkansas as head coach.
“I wasn’t sure he was really involved or not, so I just texted him,” Cooper said. “He texted back in 10 seconds. So I knew it was real.”
That’s what Cooper calls his former player.
“He’s just real,” Cooper said. “He’s always been like that. He is what you see.”
And, you see more these days.
“You do,” Cooper said. “That’s what I told him when I came over to watch his Arkansas practices when he came back as an assistant. He’s fleshed out a little bit.”
Most expect the Razorbacks to “flesh out” under Pittman’s watch. He favors big people in the trenches. And they will probably get tougher and nastier. That’s always been a trait of his offensive lines.
“Sam made a good decision when he got into coaching to pick offensive line,” Cooper said. “I never asked why he chose to be an O-line coach, but it fits him. He’s really good with great knowledge of how to coach that position.
“I think you will see them get better up front on both sides of the ball with Sam at Arkansas. I think Razorback Nation is going to be real happy with what they get from Sam. I’ll be over to watch practice.
“Now, he’s different. He’s gonna get them tougher.”
Most think the Hogs lacked toughness over the last four years ever since Pittman left Bielema’s staff for Georgia. Some would even call them soft in the two years under Chad Morris.
“I watch almost every game,” Cooper said. “I’d say that’s right. They were not very competitive last year and it got worse as the season went along.”
As far as Pittman’s ability to coach, Cooper expects Arkansas to improve in the basics under Pittman. He thinks the coaching will be solid in all areas. The way he coached the offensive line will bleed over into all areas. He will stress accountability.
“I have watched him coach,” Cooper said. “He emphasizes technique and effort. He makes sure you are doing your job. When he got to Arkansas the first time, Sam told me to come to practice and I came. I liked what I saw.”
The other side to Pittman’s coaching ability centers on recruiting.
“He’s good and it’s simple; because he’s real,” Cooper said. “I know that’s what made him good in the living room with parents.
“I coached briefly at Coffeyville (Kan., Community College) and recruited. Parents are evaluating you as much as you are evaluating them. They want to know if they can trust their sons to you.
“They see his emotion. He is a lot like his parents. You get a good feeling when you are around them. He never changes.”
Some call it fire or intensity. In Charlie Cooper’s eyes, Sam Pittman hasn’t changed since he was charging ahead with the ball at Grove. His old coach calls it gusto.