Sam Pittman praises Brian Kelly for calling two-point conversion against Alabama

College football coaches get scrutinized constantly. Comes with the territory, really, when your team plays in front of millions of fans each week and you make millions of dollars to coach ’em up. Knowing that, Arkansas coach Sam Pittman praised LSU‘s Brian Kelly for his gutsy two-point conversion decision in overtime against Alabama.

Not every coach is willing to gamble like that.

“You know guys, I think a lot of guys would do different stuff if they didn’t worry about coming in here after it didn’t work, you know what I mean?” Pittman told reporters. “Whenever he called it, it was like that’s the thing to do, get the game over with. If you’re saying, ‘We can beat Alabama from the 3-yard line we can beat them and they can’t do anything about that,’ that’s what he did, and it worked. But it takes guts to do that now.”

The decision paid off. Quarterback Jayden Daniels‘ pass to freshman tight end Mason Taylor connected, sending LSU off 32-31 winners.

It was enough for LSU fans to storm the field in Tiger Stadium for the second straight time, incurring a $250,000 fine from the SEC. Ask any Tigers fans — shoot, probably even Kelly and some in the administration — and they’ll tell you it was well worth it.

After all, LSU ended the weekend on top in the SEC West, on the verge of clinching the division’s berth in Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game.

But Pittman knows how gutsy the call was because he’s been on the other side of that two-point decision. It’s never a guarantee to work.

“I did it against Ole Miss last year and we didn’t make it,” Pittman said. “I know, you can say it was on the road versus at home. I get all that. But that takes guts and he did it and it worked. More power to him.”

Sam Pittman, Brian Kelly to square off Saturday

Pittman will get to test his wits against Kelly in person this weekend, when LSU comes to Arkansas with designs on putting itself one step closer to sealing the SEC West.

Arkansas is fresh off a loss to Liberty, trying to figure out what went wrong.

Energy, for one.

“We were trying to simulate it in practice with the fast starts and all these types of things, I don’t know why, but it was flat and you could feel it,” Pittman said. “We couldn’t get it turned around fast enough, to be honest with you.”

The Razorbacks will be looking for a better start Saturday against the Tigers in a game that kicks off at noon ET on ESPN. They know Kelly won’t be afraid to go for the jugular.