Time for Pittman to look at options with Razorbacks' recruiting

If Arkansas coach Sam Pittman isn't having to re-think the way things have gone the past five years, he better start.

For a time that started well, that only lasted about a month or so. Then a global pandemic threw everything into chaos after Pittman was hired and by the time he'd been here two months the entire world had changed.

The Razorbacks haven't caught up since.

The problem is probably not X's and O's but the Larry's and Joe's. Whatever the reason (or excuse) is, the Razorbacks aren't getting them here in big numbers.

When they do get them, Pittman's development recently has looked more like a prep program for other SEC schools.

Maybe my friend Clay Henry over at WholeHogSports has it dead accurate. The Hogs aren't getting the best in the state to Fayetteville on a regular basis.

Even our recruiting guy figured it out. Jacob Davis has pointed out things are looking like it could be worse this year. They aren't even getting transfer portal players. Right now there isn't anything particularly impressive in the guys they picked up this year.

But let's get back to the whole in-state player issue. The Razorbacks apparently are in a position they could lose the top three players in the state of Arkansas. That's not good.

Former Hogs coach Houston Nutt knew the same thing the legendary Frank Broyles and even Bear Bryant knew at Alabama when he was piling up six national championships.

Nutt often was starting double-digit numbers of Arkansas players on his teams. He's on the list of coaches with the highest winning percentage along with Lou Holtz, Ken Hatfield and Bobby Petrino.

All of them had a heavy number of in-state players on the roster. Even Petrino, who had 21 wins over his final two years with a large number of players from Arkansas.

Trying to do what other teams win doing has never been a formula for success with the Razorbacks. For the last 60 years they've won with primarily over-achieving players that had great coaching.

In other words, they played above their star-ranking and had a desire to do that. You'll notice an overwhelmingly large number of players jumping out of the portal are from out of state.

Part of that is numbers. Considering the amount that's been recruited here the last decade or more has primarily been from out of the state. Petrino may have been the last coach that heavily recruited in Arkansas.

Now it's Pittman's turn. He might be interested to know why the legendary Bryant with the Crimson Tide always had his rosters stocked with a bunch of Alabama kids not many outside the state had ever heard about.

They kept making big plays late in games to keep winning and piling up champioships. Bryant was asked about it before his last national championship season in 1979 that concluded with a win over Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl.

"My three kid from some town in Alabama nobody has ever heard of is going to be playing like a five," Bryant explained. Nobody had thought to mention the stars back then. "That five player is going to be give out in the fourth quarter.

"I'm going to beat your every time because it just means more to that Alabama kid in the fourth quarter, even if he's only playing about two or three plays a game."

It's a theory that worked out. It might not put the Razorbacks in the national championship picture every year, but it might produce a better record than 30-31 over five years.

The results couldn't be much worse trying something new. Everybody knows what trying the same thing over and ever expecting a different result produces.

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