Sam Pittman shares how Arkansas will handle transfer portal window

The second college football transfer portal window opened up on Saturday. That gives college coaches across the country an opportunity to recruit talent at positions that have looked like opportunities during the spring. After their spring practices wrapped up on Saturday, the Arkansas Razorbacks could be in the market to acquire some additional talent out of the transfer portal. And after the Razorbacks’ Red-White scrimmage, head coach Sam Pittman explains what that process will look like for his team over the next two weeks.

“Yeah, I’m in keen shape, so I can physically handle it,” said Pittman. “It’s hard; we got 30 recruits on campus. There’s a lot of stuff going on. But I think we’re pretty well organized in recruiting, and our staff as go-getters. I’m gonna have the staff talk to their position and try to wrap that up by Tuesday. We’re not going out on the road this week; we’re trying to make sure everything’s good here at the home front.

Unlike the winter window, which is open for 45 days, the college football spring transfer window is open a third of that time, just 15 days. The second window officially opens on Apr. 15, and we’ll close on Apr. 30. So Pittman and his crew must be decisive with their actions in this window.

“I’m gonna start talking to the players on Wednesday. I’m not gonna talk to any of them until they’ve talked to their assistant coach; I made that mistake before too. You live and learn. But I’m going to let our coaches talk to them first. And then, we’ll have a team meeting on Monday. Hopefully, we’ll stay out of the portal with our team. And then our coaches will go out on the road starting next Sunday.”

Pittman evaluates where Arkansas’ program stands after roster turnover in the winter

Arkansas was one program that saw a lot of movement during the winter window. Still, despite the influx of players entering and exiting the program, Pittman is feeling good about the team, saying he feels like the group has a similar vibe to when they went 9-4 in 2021.

“I think it’s as good right now, as it was when we won nine games,” Pittman said after a recent practice. “I think our strength, it’s as good right now as it was when we won nine games. Our strength coach, our new coaches have a lot to do with that but we’ve got a lot of good kids on our team that’s working extremely hard. It’d be hard to be more pleased. In other words, I guess. It will happen, I’m sure, but we talk about the portal and who might go in. Kids go in for different reasons and all that kind of stuff, but I just don’t feel like there’ll be a mass exit or possibly any. I feel pretty good about where we’re at there.”

The team returns KJ Jefferson at quarterback while adding double-digit players from the portal and a top-25 recruiting class. However, they lost over 20 players to the portal.