Sam Pittman reveals biggest issues Arkansas must address to turn program around

It’s a make or break year for Sam Pittman as he enters his fifth season as the Arkansas football coach. The Razorbacks are coming off of a 4-8 season that had many questioning Pittman’s job security after winning only one SEC game.

It’s a new-look roster in 2024 as starting quarterback KJ Jefferson and running back Rocket Sanders are both gone to the transfer portal. Arkansas addressed both of those needs by going out and adding quarterback Taylen Green and running back Ja’Quinden Jackson.

Still, Pittman has questions about a couple of different position groups as the Razorbacks prepare to start spring practice Thursday. He joined The Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday to discuss what it will take to get things back on the right track.

“I think we’ve got to sew up the offensive line,” Pittman said. “That was a big issue for us last year. We felt like our younger guys we’ve played are gonna be much better and of course we’ve had three guys that we think are good players out of the portal. We felt like we needed to add a running back. We felt like we needed a quarterback. I feel like we’re in great shape with the guys we have on the team defensively. The only concern for the public would be our linebacker group.”

Arkansas was one of the top rushing teams in the entire country in 2022, averaging 236.7 yards per game to rank seventh in the country. However, the Razorbacks took a massive step back in 2023 to 87th with just 139.0 ground yards per game.

Some of that can be attributed to Sanders dealing with injury for most of the year as he played only six games. However, the offensive line clearly could have been better as well. The Razorbacks ranked 131st in the country in sacks allowed per game with 4.2.

Sam Pittman brought in Eric Mateos to serve as the Arkansas’ new offensive line coach and hopefully whip the group into shape. It will also take returning players such as Ty’Kieast Crawford and Patrick Kutas to improve their play as well, and Pittman believes they can.

“Being young doesn’t mean you can’t play,” he said. “It just means you don’t have the experience yet. So we’re gonna open up our Saturday practices and things of that nature to show our fans in the crowd so these guys can be able to play in front of people. Hopefully that’ll help them when the fall comes. We know our issues. We know our problems. I think we’ve done a heck of a job addressing that and, again, the right people on the football team.”