Sam Pittman goes on lengthy rant about outside hate during struggles

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman has experienced how difficult it can be from a coaching perspective to block out negative noise after a loss. He can only imagine it’s equally challenging for the players.

After the Razorbacks dropped their Week 3 contest 38-31 against BYU, Pittman opened up on the role that social media plays in the mental health of college athletes. He compared the modern era to how things were even just a couple decades ago, speaking on the added pressure of today.

“It’s hard,” he said. “It’s not a job, it’s my life. It’s what you do. Everybody don’t know you as a regular person. The kids are the same way. It’s hard because the addition of social media and the addition of, not opinions so much, but negative. It used to be like ‘You’ve gotta do better’ not ‘You suck. You’re fat. You’re this.’ Now the comments really have nothing to do with what happened in the game.

“It’s not just me, it’s all the kids. So I think it’s a time where it’s harder to recover from losses even when you’re a social media person. Your best friends will say ‘Man, you guys are gonna get ’em this week. Oh, by the way, stay off social media.’ So then you’re going ‘I had been. What’s happening?’ The kids are the same way so I think it’s hard.”

Arkansas held a 31-21 lead in the middle of the third quarter before a couple of mistakes allowed BYU to come back and tie things up. First, the Razorbacks turned it over on downs at the 50-yard line to give the Cougars a short field as they made a field goal. Then KJ Jefferson threw an interception on the ensuing drive to give BYU another prime start at the Razorbacks 20-yard line as they scored a touchdown.

Arkansas then missed a field goal to start the fourth quarter before BYU scored the go-ahead touchdown on a seven-yard toss from Kedon Slovis to Chase Roberts. The Razorbacks fumbled on their second-to-last drive of the game to cap off the disastrous ending.

After so many mistakes to end the game, it’s only natural the players would already feel down. To Pittman’s point, the social media comments only pile on.

Sam Pittman has been the Arkansas coach since 2020, recording a 21-18 record so far. In that time, he has learned to deal with the idea that nothing is perfect all the time and isn’t dwelling on the results from Saturday with a rivalry game against LSU on tap for Saturday.

He’s encouraging his players to do the same.

“You want to please the people that are employing you, the team, your wife, the state, media and you can’t always do that,” he said. “That’s the hard part about our job and I would imagine the hard part about being a student athlete. We all have feelings and when you let people down, you’re already beating yourself up on it. Then somebody starts beating the hell out of you with it and I think it’s a little bit harder to recover.

“But they’re gonna recover as I do. When I get to that meeting today, it’s gonna be all about LSU.”