Arkansas is moving on from Sam Pittman.
The Razorbacks fired Pittman on Sunday afternoon, the school announced, after Arkansas fell to 2-3 following a 56-13 home loss to Notre Dame in Week 5. The defeat to Notre Dame came a week after Arkansas blew an 18-point lead in a 32-31 loss at Memphis.
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Offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino will take his place on an interim basis.
“I want to thank Coach Pittman for his service and dedication to the University of Arkansas throughout his time as head coach,” athletic director Hunter Yurachek said in a statement. “From Day 1, you could tell how much this opportunity meant to him. At this time, however, I feel a change is necessary to put our student-athletes and program in the best position to be successful. The goal for our football program is to be highly competitive within the Southeastern Conference and compete for a national championship. As we move forward in the process of finding our next head coach, I am certain we will be able to provide the necessary resources to our staff and team to reach our goals. We will begin a national search for our next head coach immediately and that search will include Coach Petrino, who has expressed his desire to be a candidate for the full-time job.”
After the loss to the Irish, Pittman said he understood unease among the fan base and said that if he was worried about his job status all the time he wouldn’t “be able to do as good a job as I possibly can.”
“I understand. I get it. If I was a fan, I’d be mad at me too, you know? I’d be frustrated as hell at me,” Pittman said.
Arkansas hired Pittman after the 2019 season and the Razorbacks improved from 3-7 in 2020 to 9-4 in 2021. But Arkansas didn’t win more than seven games in any of the next three seasons and mustered only Liberty Bowl appearances since that Outback Bowl win at the conclusion of 2021.
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Pittman’s firing comes with one of the most unique buyout clauses in college football. Arkansas owes Pittman nearly $10 million since the team is above .500 since the start of the 2021 season. After Saturday’s loss, the Razorbacks are 29-27 in that span and 32-34 overall in his time with the team.
If Arkansas had a losing record since 2021, Pittman would be owed just under $7 million.
The coaching change also happens weeks after Yurachek told boosters that the football program was not set up to contend for national championships. Arkansas last posted a 10-win season in 2011 when the Razorbacks went 11-2 under Petrino. Months after the season was over, Petrino was fired after his infamous motorcycle crash.
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Now Petrino is back in charge. At least on an interim basis.
In his first stint at Arkansas, Petrino was 34-17 over four seasons. This interim run with the Razorbacks will be his fifth head coaching stint at three FBS schools not counting his time at Missouri State when the Bears were at the second level of college football. Overall, Petrino’s teams are 119-56.
Will he give Arkansas a spark to get to a bowl game and possibly position himself for the permanent head coaching job?
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