Sam Pittman reveals what led him to hire Travis Williams as defensive coordinator

This offseason, Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman had to replace both his offensive and defensive coordinators. On offense, he brought in Dan Enos while on defense he took Travis Williams away from UCF.

While at SEC media days, Pittman broke down what led to him hiring Williams, including his SEC experience.

“A lot to do with that, it had a lot because he understood recruiting,” Sam Pittman said. “Understood urgency. It’s just different. Urgency of coaching in the SEC. Urgency of recruiting in the SEC, it’s different, man. Anybody says it ain’t, they’re lying. It’s different.”

Prior to UCF, Travis Williams was a player and a defensive assistant at Auburn. He followed Gus Malzahn to UCF ahead of the 2021 season, taking the opportunity to become a defensive coordinator there.

“So, I wanted somebody that understood that and, obviously, I liked his style. He’s very, very aggressive. I liked his style. I like the fact that he’s going to keep four linemen on the d-line in the game, even if he’s in an odd front, he’d walk one up.”

There are a few key changes to Arkansas’ approach that are going to come with Travis Williams. The first is that Williams runs a 4-2 defense instead of a 3-3-5 base. On top of that, Williams loves to blitz with the goal of creating havoc plays like sacks and turnovers.

“But he was so positive and he had a reputation before I ever went in there as a recruiter, and in the world of the [transfer] portal, you better have some guys that can recruit. Because if you can’t, you’re gonna be gone, and I just felt so at ease that if I hired him that he could help me replace somebody if they did go in the portal and he might be a reason why some of them might not go in the portal. If that makes sense, just by what kind of character, what kind of man he is,” Pittman said.

“I love the guy. He’s a wonderful, wonderful person.”

Sam Pittman praised Dan Enos

The new Arkansas offensive coordinator, Dan Enos, is coming over from Maryland but has his own experience in the SEC. For Sam Pittman, this hire represents another style change but it’s one that he’s incredibly excited about.

“I think the first question that Dan asked me when I talked to him about the job was, ‘What do you want? I know what you got. What do you want? Do you want him running the ball?'” Pittman said.

Enos was asking about what Pittman wants from quarterback KJ Jefferson. As Pittman explained, the biggest thing is keeping him healthy.

“I said, ‘No, no, no, no. I want him healthy and I want him throwing the football,’” Pittman said. “Now, he’s going to run the ball because he’s going to decide that when he wants to. So I said, ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ I was really interested in how he could develop KJ. And I just think between what he did at Alabama, what he did with Brandon Allen. I think we hit the jackpot.”