FAYETTEVILLE — Sam Pittman’s weekly news conference Monday dealt mostly with serious business about Saturday’s game at LSU, the Arkansas Razorbacks’ penalty problems, his pending raise and the team’s just-earned bowl eligibility.
But the second-year University of Arkansas coach also had some fun with topics like Larry the bowling ball and his wife Jamie’s turn at the interview podium on Saturday.
The Razorbacks (6-3, 2-3 SEC) clinched their first bowl eligibility via normal NCAA standards with last Saturday’s 31-28 win over No. 17 Mississippi State. Arkansas will surely could be one of the teams in the conversation for earning a spot in one of the final few places the College Football Playoff rankings by the selection committee tonight. Pittman said Saturday he thinks the Razorbacks belong in the CFP top 25.
Pittman celebrated the program’s sixth win with a corny introduction to “Larry,” the bowling ball, which he actually rolled in the joyous locker room.
Pittman asked director of football operations Pat Doherty to find him a bowling ball last week in anticipation of breaking out the shtick.
“He went somewhere and he said, ‘Man, they’re expensive.’ So I said, ‘Go down to the bowling alley and they may have one or two laying around,’ so he bought Larry for $20,” Pittman said. “I did actually.
“And it was great because when he brought the bowling ball back, it had the name ‘Larry’ on it. And I thought it was awesome.”
The UA’s social media team captured the postgame moment and Pittman’s on-target roll of Larry through a parted sea of players in the locker room.
Pittman said he was also aware of Jamie Pittman and his agent Judy Henry taking the podium Saturday night in the media room while the bowling fun was going on in the locker room.
“I mean, I don’t want to comment on it,” Pittman said. “I don’t know what Jamie’s doing up here. One day she asked a question when we were at, I think it was A&M. Jamie became a news reporter, and now she needs to come back here and sit back here and smile and be happy and we’ll roll out of here together.”
Saturday’s win triggered an incentive clause in Pittman’s contract that guarantees a raise of $250,000 for 2022 to take his annual salary to at least $3.25 million. He could qualify for two more raises of $250,000 each if the Razorbacks can notch wins No. 7 and 8 this season.
Pittman, whose salary ranks 12th among the 13 SEC coaches at public institutions, said the win-level raises were not of his planning.
“I didn’t have an idea,” he said. “They had a contract and I had a signature. There was no idea about it.”
Pittman said UA Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek “had a laptop, and he opened it up, and he started reading and I started signing. It was a pretty simple deal.”
Pittman credited the coaching staff for much of the team’s success this season and noted the staff will all receive bonuses as he does for qualifying for a bowl.
“You know, I don’t do a whole lot,” he said. “I really don’t. I stand down there and do whatever. You hire coaches to help you win games and then you go recruit players.”
Arkansas begins its final three-week stretch with Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. road game at LSU (4-5, 2-4), which took sole possession of last place in the SEC West from the Razorbacks after Saturday’s 20-14 loss at No. 2 Alabama.
The Razorbacks have been installed as a narrow favorite. Pittman was asked if he could have believed his team could be a road favorite against an opponent that won the 2019 CFP national championship.
“I think it’s a little bit a combination of both teams, obviously,” Pittman said. “I don’t know. You know, I’ve got a strong belief in the University of Arkansas. We came here to try to win football games the best we know how. But no, going to LSU at night and being favored in year 2, probably honestly, probably no.”
Pittman rationalized part of the Razorbacks’ penalty problems, but his frustration level with the sheer amount and yardage on infractions against his team was evident.
Arkansas is tied for 122nd out of 130 FBS teams with 8.56 penalties per game. In the SEC, only Mississippi State (8.78) and Ole Miss (9.89), which is dead last nationally, have more penalties per game. The Razorbacks are 117th nationally with 71.33 penalty yards per game.
LSU leads the nation with the fewest penalty yards per game at 31.44.
“You’re going to get penalties,” Pittman said. “It’s the ones you really can control [that are more bothersome].”
Pittman pointed out how holding flags and a certain amount of false starts, which sometimes come as center Ricky Stromberg is making calls and quarterback KJ Jefferson is clapping for the ball, and things like pass interference are just inevitable.
“Those things you’re going to get,” he said. “It’s the stuff like we pick a pass and hit somebody behind a play which is basically an automatic personal foul no matter what. No matter how hard you hit him, no matter where you hit him, it’s behind the ball. We call it a defenseless player.
“And then we all saw it, the false starts on offense and defense. Those are the ones that are coaching. We have to get that fixed. We had several in the first half.”
Pittman added, “To give them things, that’s what was so frustrating about the first half and them scoring at the very end. We had to fight at halftime the feeling that we’re behind, you know, because I was frustrated. But, to answer your question … we work on them but they have to get fixed or we’ve got to get players in there that can fix it."
Arkansas had an array of false starts on three different offensive linemen — Dalton Wagner, Beaux Limmer and Brady Latham — plus a pair of unnecessary roughness penalties on Tre Williams and Simeon Blair, and a pass interference at the goal line on Myles Slusher on a play in which a tipped-ball interception by Blair was wiped out. The Bulldogs scored on Will Rogers’ 3-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Walley on the next snap with 7 seconds left in the first half.
Blair’s personal foul occurred behind the play on Grant Morgan’s 11-yard interception return to the Arkansas 42, backing the Hogs up to their 13.
“We had three in the second half, but we shot ourselves in the foot with offsides, personal fouls and things of that nature,” Pittman said Saturday. “That is coaching and that’s my responsibility, and it has to get better. We made a big emphasis on it all week, but it has to get better and that’s my job.”