Sam Pittman weighs in on the notion that more people need to dislike him

Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman has one of the most admired personalities in all of college football. Pittman is commonly referred to as the kind of guy ‘you’d want to have a beer with’, and at his press conference to open up fall camp was asked about his ‘non threatening’ persona and if he needed more people to dislike him.

“It’s not me versus Jimbo or me versus Nick Saban, it’s our team versus their team and that’s how I always kind of looked at it. I like the guys, I like the head coaches in the SEC but I kind of want to mind my own business. I ain’t worried about somebody’s else’s business, I’m just worried about mine and our team and what we do and I think you can cause some friction and some problems whenever you worry about somebody else’s team. If I want to worry about their team I’d go interview for the job you know? That ain’t got nothing to do with me, so that kind of how I feel about it. You know I rant but I don’t know, I just answer your questions and I am who I am so some people like it, some people don’t,” Pittman said.

Pittman is always good for an amusing sound bite, and seems like he won’t be giving out any apologies for being himself anytime soon. But however you feel about Pittman’s personality, his production at Arkansas can’t be denied. His first season in 2020 with the Razorbacks was tough, finishing 3-7. But Pittman quickly followed that with a 9-4 finish last season, along with their first bowl victory since the 2015 season.

Pittman and the Razorbacks are hoping to keep that momentum going as they open up the season against Group of Five powerhouse Cincinnati at home September 3.

Sam Pittman reveals his thoughts on SEC in-conference transfers

The transfer portal has become one of the biggest hot-button issues in college athletics. It’s debated at many different levels, with differing opinions on how it should be regulated. Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman is no different. Now, Pittman has opened up about his thoughts on in-conference transfers. 

“Well, it’s hard to say anything negative about it whenever we’re doing it too,” Sam Pittman said. “You know what I mean? When we’re going and getting players from LSU and Georgia and Alabama, you know?”

“I think you have to transfer within the conference if you’re gonna have a transfer rule. Because most of the time the players that we’re looking for are in this league. So, I guess, I’m for the rule that we’re no separate than anybody else. I guess.”

Ultimately, Sam Pittman is in favor of letting transfers move within a conference. In this case, that means within the SEC. To be against it, would be hypocritical to his actions. At the same time, it’s also clear that Pittman didn’t expect the transfer portal to be used this way.

“I think originally in the portal, I thought, it was for kids that were overrecruited,” Sam Pittman said. “In other words, they come to Arkansas–mistakes not the word–but we overrecruited them. They can’t play here. Allow them to be able to move without punishment to a MAC school, or to somewhere else. Now, I know MAC plays really good ball too. I don’t mean that negative, either.”

“But, really, what it’s come down to now is, a lot of it is, I’m not playing as much as I want to. I see somewhere else that I can go to and play right away. Some of it has to do with NIL money. You know? Managing your roster, right now, is the hardest thing to do, in my opinion, as a head coach in college football, right now. It’s hard.”

On3’s Daniel Morrison contributed to this report