FAYETTEVILLE -- The day before his first national signing day as head coach at the University of Arkansas, Sam Pittman is chatting with one current Razorback player after another in the midst of 80-plus interviews over parts of three days.
A reporter slips in and shakes hands, and the 58-year-old Pittman eases back around his desk and slides down in his chair in the never-hurried manner that defines the laid-back, longtime offensive line coach.
Now in his 10th day as Arkansas football coach, Pittman turns to Kyle Parkinson, UA associate athletic director for communications, and says he'd like to land eight signees during the early period that runs for the next three days.
While programs around the SEC and other Power 5 conferences will sign huge chunks of their incoming classes in this period, the Razorbacks hope to get about one third of the 25 allowed by the NCAA.
There is time to attract more talent when the standard February signing period rolls around, but by then about 75% of the FBS-level talent will be on board with the 130 programs.
Pittman and his staff will repeat the difficult assignment former Hogs coach Chad Morris faced just two years ago of landing signees on short notice. Arkansas and Florida State are believed to be the only Power 5 schools to have two coaching transitions in the three years since the December signing period was enacted.
"Now, because of early signing day, you get basically six days to sign a class," Pittman said after referencing his first season at Georgia when Coach Kirby Smart had the opportunity to hold one recruiting weekend in December, then three more in January before signing the 2016 class.
"So any new coach, unless they were held over or they held a bunch of their staff from the previous head coach, then you're just going in brand new and just basically trying to get any good player, good person to sign with you.
"It's going to be hard to sign 25 over the three weeks that they give you in January, especially with whatever the percentage is ... somewhere around 70-75-80% of the players are going to sign early.
"So your pool certainly shrinks down at that point. So it makes it very difficult on a program that has a new head coach to sign a full class. I didn't say you couldn't sign good players, but I'm saying to sign a full class, where you can keep the numbers on your team correct."
Pittman said he averages four hours of sleep per night since he took over the Razorbacks.
He has defensive coordinator Barry Odom in place, along with offensive line coach Brad Davis and wide receivers coach Justin Stepp, the lone carryover at this point from the previous staff. On Tuesday, the coaching search site footballscoop.com reported that Rion Rhoades, the 13-year head coach at junior-college Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College was expected to join Pittman's staff, likley as linebackers coach. Rhoades played linebacker at Hutchinson during Pittman's final season as head coach of the Blue Dragons in 1993.
Pittman's offensive coordinator hire is expected soon so that person can have a say in the rest of the offensive staff.
"I think possibly by the end of this week, and possibly earlier, we could name our offensive coordinator," Pittman said. "I didn't feel like there was anybody on our board that naming an offensive coordinator in the first six days would necessarily change who we could get in the early signing period.
"I felt like it was way more important to sign the right offensive coordinator than the quick offensive coordinator. So we've had interviews, and whenever I feel like the right guy walks through the door, then we're going to make a decision and we're going to hire him."
Pittman was asked about the candidacy of Kendal Briles, who was last at Florida State and seemingly a fan favorite judging from social media reactions to his name Tuesday.
"I don't want to talk about anybody that I may or may not have interviewed," Pittman said. "I want to make sure that whoever I've interviewed has the privacy of that."
Among the offensive coordinator candidates in the mix are Briles; Alabama offensive analyst Major Applewhite, the former Houston head coach; and former Notre Dame offensive coordinator Chip Long, who was also a graduate assistant for the Razorbacks under Bobby Petrino. Others such as SMU coordinator Rhett Lashlee, a Springdale native, and former Ole Miss coordinator Rich Rodriguez also could be candidates.
"I want him to have a lot of the same beliefs that I do, the same coaching philosophy I do," Pittman said of his offensive coordinator hire. "The same way to treat players that I do. And the same way to communicate with players that I do.
"And that's really why -- well there's a lot of reasons why -- Barry Odom was hired. But that's one of them, is that I trust him, I love him. He's like a brother to me. We've been 20-year friends. I knew his philosophy on how to treat people and talk to people were identical to mine."
Pittman touched briefly on whether he has a plan on how and where to delegate recruiting areas.
"I do," he said. "It's not in stone. I have to kick it off my staff a little bit.
"I do think we're a regional recruiting team. I think every state that borders us, I believe that's Louisiana and Missouri and maybe Kansas might touch us, Oklahoma, Texas of course, Tennessee and Mississippi, and then I think we're going to have a presence in Georgia for sure because of my relationship with the high school coaches in the state of Georgia.
"And there's a lot of good ball players. Obviously, we'll hand-pick players out of every state that there is, like we did when I was an assistant coach here."
Pittman pointed out the strategy that virtually all Arkansas coaches have emphasized over the years.
"We have to get kids on campus," he said, "so going way away from here, I don't know if that makes a lot of sense. But the biggest and best sell we have is our campus and our state and our fans, and the only way you can get that is getting them here on campus. If you go too far away, it's hard to get them here."
Pittman beamed when the topic of the long-running player interviews came up.
"I love them," he said. "They've been great. I love the team."
Pittman said the discussions haven't been about what's happened in the past, but what's going on in their lives, including their family background, their grades, how the coaching staff can help them, and whether their tutors and dorm conditions are suitable.
"It's all about trying to get to know the young men, because I haven't had much time," Pittman said. "I've stood in front of them two times as their head coach, and they're listening to me all the time. I thought it was time for me to get to know them more.
"So we've had I don't know how many through now, maybe 70 at this point. I have maybe 10 or 15 left. But it's been awesome. I need to get to know my team.
"Has it been hectic with signing day and recruiting and all that, and interviews? Yeah, it's been hectic. But it's also been, like I said before ... it might be day 10, but it's been the greatest 10 days of my coaching career and it's continued to be that way."
Sports on 12/18/2019