Sam Pittman addresses viral Polar Express video from Arkansas locker room

Motion capture computer animation was still in its infancy and the results show that in the Christmas classic The Polar Express. That keeps many people from watching it each year. However, that’s not why Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman might be skipping it this Christmas season.

During halftime of Arkansas’ loss to Auburn, The Polar Express was actually playing in the locker room and video of it playing was leaked. At the time, the Razorbacks were losing 27-3.

“I haven’t seen Polar Express. So, I don’t really know my thoughts on the movie,” Sam Pittman said. “In our locker room, I want to reward our kids by kids by letting them run through the ‘A’ if they practice well. So, we don’t have enough lockers in our main locker to house all the kids. So, some of them have to go in a separate locker. In a separate door to the locker.”

Arkansas was watching Polar Express at halftime of their game yesterday vs. Auburn 😬

They would go on to lose 48-10 pic.twitter.com/ASJtUv7ROx

— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) November 12, 2023

Importantly, this came from non-scholarship players in a separate locker room from the scholarship players and are dressing for the game as a reward for how they practiced. The video was also not initially posted by an Arkansas player.

“The young man made a mistake and I’ve already addressed it with him. He made a mistake. That’s why you don’t want cameras in the locker room for several reason, you know because of showering, this that and the other. But it’s hard because the music is on as well, you know what I’m saying. So that’s a team rule, you can’t have your [phone]. But it’s also a team rule that you don’t post anything after Friday night, after we leave on Friday,” Pittman said.

“So the young man made a mistake. Sent it to a friend, friend sent it to his brother. Brother put it on what have you. I’ve already addressed it and I think we’re fine there. It was just a mistake that a young man made and I wish he wouldn’t have. He came in and was very sorry for it, was remorseful for it. So, we’re going to move on.”

In the end, Arkansas lost to Auburn 48-10. The players in that locker room didn’t have much to do with the final score on gameday itself. However, this did become another problem for Sam Pittman to address within the program.

Pittman went on to explain that he didn’t even realize there was a TV in the non-scholarship locker room.

“Well it was halftime, so it wasn’t during the game,” Pittman said. “But, no. Look, I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t even know there was a TV in there. And somehow the TV got turned on. I don’t think, I’ll be perfectly honest with you, I don’t think that him being in the redshirt locker room watching a movie at halftime had anything to do with us getting our butts kicked.”

Sam Pittman on his job security

Despite Arkansas struggling to this point in the season, Sam Pittman doesn’t have concerns about his job security.

“I think it’s hard, obviously, to block out all noise. We’ve got a job to do. That is to get prepared each and every week. But Jamie and I, when we got here, we were planning on coaching here until whatever that date was that we were going down to Hot Springs and call it a day. I’m not close to that year right now. The plan is to get this program back to where it deserves to be and stay here as long as we possibly can,” Pittman said.

“So, it’s hard. It’s hard to block out noise. It’s more like for the kids, for the recruits. Once it starts, negative stuff, it’s about recruiting. I know what’s going on, Hunter Yurachek knows what’s going. But nobody else. It’s opinion. They don’t know what’s really going on. But it affects our recruits. We spent a lot of time yesterday with that as well. My job is to get ready for FIU. I’m not worried about my job security at all and I think I’m the guy for the university and I want to stay here for a long time.”