Ranking Petrino/T-Will vs. Pittman's former coordinator duos

Early in his football tenure at Arkansas, Sam Pittman received widespread praise for his selection of Kendal Briles and Barry Odom as coordinators. Given his own lack of experience as a head coach, selecting the right experienced hands for these positions was critical. He seemed to have done just that.

During Kendal Briles' three years at Arkansas, he consistently scored more points per game than the year before, and in his final season the Hogs averaged about 32 points per game.

We need look no further than the Liberty Bowl to prove that 32 points per game and terrible defense can get you to a bowl game. Almost all of Arkansas' success this 2022 season has come from scoring, not goal-line defense. The Hogs were No. 15 nationally in total offense; Odom's overall defense ranked in the bottom ten in all of college football. While a number of injuries in the secondary certainly played a role, Arkansas literally ranked last in pass defense.

After the 2022 season, Briles and Odom naturally found better conditions at TCU and UNLV, respectively.

Sam Pittman's next coordinators

Hire new hires Dan Enos and Travis Williams. Among them, the script changed in 2023. The latter was the equivalent of an extraordinary home run. I'm going to leave Enos out of this story because he was thanked for his service after the eighth game in putting an offense on the field that looked like a YMCA team against a defense that looked like one, at least at times last season looked around 40th nationwide overall.

Last year was a complete failure in terms of hiring the offensive coordinator, so Pittman threw a Hail Mary and hired offensive guru Bobby Petrino. Petrino did such a good job his first time as head coach (on the field, of course), he was hired back as OC and we're watching the Hogs put up the same numbers this year as they did under Briles and Petrino 1.0, just faster than Petrino's first season as head coach.

So far, so good. Even in a loss like they did against Texas A&M, the Hogs outscored A&M by total offense 379-297, first downs 22-16 and pass yards 279-163. The Hogs also led them in turnovers, which is why Arkansas is not 5-0 (2-0).

Most fans are pretty happy with Arkansas' losses considering how well Oklahoma State and Texas A&M should start the fall.

It's hard to imagine how the Hogs become bowl eligible from here, but stranger things have happened. However, it should not be ignored that Oklahoma State was beaten by Kansas State on Saturday and fell out of the top 25, while Texas A&M is barely moving in the rankings. Heck, Ole Miss just lost to Kentucky, so some of the supposed frontrunners still have a lot of problems to work out.

It's only been five games, but it's not too early to see how the early returns of Pittman's current coordinator duo compare to their predecessors. Let's look at the numbers first, removing Pittman's first year, which was the 10-game COVID year.

Here's how it generally works:

• Briles/Odom: Very good offense and terrible defense. Won 16, lost 10 (62%)
• Enos/Williams: Terrible offense, good defense until they let go of the rope – won four, lost eight (33%)
• Petrino/Williams: Very good offense with very good defense – 3 wins – 2 defeats (60%)

Things aren't looking so good for the first guys if you count the 3-7 season against all SEC teams in 2020. If you add these results, Briles/Odom would have a record of 19-17, or about 53%.

So many changes in so few years make it extremely difficult to compare groups of coordinators, but all in all, the lead so far is clearly with Petrino/Williams. Arkansas has seven games left and needs to win three of them to be able to bowl in December or January. Depending on whether and how that happens will determine Pittman's future.

Nearly four and a half years into his head coaching career, it's remarkable how much depends on how Arkansas finishes this season. It's unclear whether Pittman's ultimate legacy is more in leading Arkansas from the Chad Morris wilderness to a 9-4 season in 2021 or in the way the wheels came off in 2023.

Can this Arkansas football team win even half of its remaining games in 2024? Here we'll see how much Pittman learned from last year's miserable finish and how good these coordinators really are.

To Pittman's credit, he seems to be doing a good job of allowing his coordinators to shine and do what they do best this season. Avoiding harmful interference or micromanagement is an art in itself.

The only part where he had a bigger impact in the offseason was supporting Eric Mateos on the offensive line. That makes sense considering his reputation as one of the best offensive coaches and recruiters in the country. That makes it even more confusing why the Hogs can't recruit and develop a line strong enough to prevent the QB from being killed.

That is problematic. If Sam Pittman can't improve the O-line, what can he do for the other position groups? Maybe a lot, maybe a little, but only time will tell what his and his staff's final grade will be. If the offensive line doesn't improve, the question of how well Pittman's recruiting went won't matter in a few months. Instead, everything will revolve around the philosophy of the new coach.

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