What would a successful 2025 season look like for Sam Pittman, Arkansas?

The narrative surrounding Arkansas Razorbacks football going into the 2025 season is very similar to what it was a year ago: What does Sam Pittman need to do to survive another season? 

Pittman, 63, is entering his sixth season as the head coach at Arkansas. After leading the Razorbacks back to national prominence in his second season in charge in 2021 — during which they went 9-4 and won the Outback Bowl — the Hogs have stalled out in recent years. 

Pittman survived a disastrous 4-8 2023 campaign and led Arkansas to a seven-win season and Liberty Bowl win in 2024. But as has often been the case for Arkansas football over the last decade-and-a-half, there was much more on the table. 

The goal for Arkansas in 2025? Capitalize on every possible opportunity, or Pittman's time on the Hill may be running out. 

Those opportunities begin with perhaps the most crucial four-game stretch of Pittman's Arkansas career. The lone "cupcake" on Arkansas' schedule, Alabama A&M, comes to Fayetteville in Week 1. After their season opener on Aug. 30, Arkansas doesn't play in Fayetteville again until Sept. 27. 

The Hogs will play Arkansas State in Little Rock on Sept. 6, Ole Miss in Oxford on Sept. 13 and will travel to Memphis to face the Tigers on Sept. 20. Should Arkansas drop more than one of those games, bowl eligibility could slip away before the halfway mark of the season. 

The good news for Pittman? Arkansas' home schedule is chock-full of major opportunities. Arkansas will host defending national runner-up Notre Dame on Sept. 27 and will also play host to Texas A&M and Missouri, two teams that could very well find themselves in contention for a College Football Playoff bid by the end of the season. 

Arkansas will also host Auburn and Mississippi State a year after it beat both the Tigers and the Bulldogs on the road. 

Arkansas' road schedule is no slouch, either. Aside from Memphis and Ole Miss, the Razorbacks will travel to Tennessee, LSU and Texas — all games that will be very difficult for the Razorbacks. 

With the schedule laid out, it's easy to see a path to bowl eligibility for Arkansas. It's also just as easy to see a path to a four- or five-win campaign that ends up being Pittman's last in Fayetteville. 

Perhaps the largest piece of the puzzle in Arkansas' success under Pittman in 2025 will be whether or not the Hogs have learned from prior mistakes. In the fifth year of the Pittman era at Arkansas, mistakes that have plagued the Razorbacks for years were a major factor in why Arkansas only won seven games: blown leads, coming out flat at home and poor offensive line play all continued to pop up throughout the season. 

That can't be the case this year — with a difficult schedule and a short leash, Pittman and the Razorbacks must find a way to win. 

The definition of a successful 2025 season for Arkansas is subjective, but without winning at least six games, it's hard to see how Pittman stays for another season. If the Hogs can get to the postseason, however, the conversation must shift to how Pittman can get Arkansas back in contention for championships — a height the program hasn't reached since current Arkansas offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino was the head man in Fayetteville (2008 to 2011).