It's not unusual for coaches to reach a certain age and want to do things their way. Especially when they've tried (or been forced) to try things a little out of their comfort zone. That's exactly where Arkansas coach Sam Pittman may have found himself going into a fifth season.
The question for him was about starting spring practices before 8:30 in the morning, which is not something he's done before. Unless it's wildly successful, don't expect it to be repeated, especially in fall practices.
"I’m so damn old that I’m used to what I like," Pittman said Tuesday afternoon previewing the spring. "We’ll have a big discussion at the end of it. I don’t really know for sure if we’re going to like it or not. I have liked the offseason, the 7.5 weeks. But we haven’t had spring ball with it yet, so maybe that would be a good question after spring ball."
He's willing to try it in the spring. After a 4-8 season if somebody said he'd win more games cartwheeling down the sidelines between plays he might figure out some way to do it. It doesn't sound like something that will continue through to the fall practices that will get under way around the first of August.
"I’m still having a hard time wrapping my mind around fall," Pittman said. Monday’s are so valuable to us that you’re going to need Sunday to wrap up the previous game, and then you’re going to need at least five hours that night to work and then you’re going to need the other five-six (hours) to get ready and continue the work towards a Monday practice. I don’t know that we’ll do it in the fall. I just haven’t been able to wrap my mind around losing a Monday practice. I don’t want to take Monday off and Sunday on. I don’t think you can prepare your kids Sunday for a practice when you get home at two-three o’clock in the morning."
It may be part of what sounded like a reduction of the paranoia level. It could also be part of what some common sense dictates. All this hiding things from other teams has always been a little ridiculous because by the second week of the season everybody's going to know what you have.
Maybe the great Tom Landry said it best one time when someone asked him why he was so open with the media or worrying about the other team knowing what special plays he had.
"It really doesn't matter unless they know when I'm going to call it," he said. That was after he switched to calling the plays during a game using a phone handset that was connected because wearing a headset would interfere with the fedora he always wore on the sidelines. "We all know everyone has special plays, but nobody knows when it will be run. Or at least they shouldn't ... that would be a problem."
A lot of that may be behind apparently more access and availability to players and coaches for fans and media this year. Three Saturday spring practices will be open to the public and media, including scrimmages. That will make some folks happy and is a big change.
"We’re so worried about people knowing this and that and the other about us," Pittman said. "I’m talking about our opponents, not our people in the state. But if our state knows it, our opponents know it. We’ve been worried for so many years about all that, and I have too, but the bottom line is we’ve got to get ready to play Pine Bluff and that started in January. By the time we play Oklahoma State (in the second week), they’re going to know a lot about our team anyway because we just played a game. We believe that we can grow the love back for Arkansas, or grow the love back for the Razorbacks by opening it up and us benefiting from it as well. I don’t know what the answer will be in the fall, but I’m assuming that it’ll be much more lenient with access to the players and coaches and things of that than what it has been in the past."
That whole part may be the key. Pittman knows the apathy around just about everything right now is especially bad for football. After a decade where winning 9 games is considered nearly cause for a parade, now there just isn't a lot of hype around Razorback football.
Maybe letting the fans and media in can help that a little bit. Like he probably has seen, it can't get much worse than last season when a dark cloud seemed to hover the team from spring practice through the season.
It also may be the last chance before some changes have to be made. If the Hogs can even afford to get out from under any mistakes. They haven't seemed to figure that part out for awhile.
• Live Blog: How Razorbacks managed to get past pesky UCA team on Tuesday afternoon
More must-reads: