NWADG College Football

11 NWA COLLEGE FOOTBALL PREVIEW | 9.20.2020 Officially Licensed Razorbacks ® Jewelry Handmade in Fayetteville David Adams Fine Jewelry Goldsmith/Platinumsmith David Adams F i n e J e w e l e r s www.davidadams.com | 479-444-7778 battle in head coaching searches. "I think, No. 1, in all honesty I just want to do a good job for the University of Arkansas," Pittman said. "Would I like O-line coaches to have opportunities? Do I think there's guys out there who are worthy of head coaching jobs? Of course. But my main concern is I just want to do the best … job I can for the University of Arkansas." Pittman said he received hundreds of congratulatory texts and phone calls from the O-line club after his hiring went official. "There's no doubt I was one of them that sent him a text," said Matt Luke, the former Ole Miss head coach who picked up Pittman's last position as offensive line coach at Georgia. "He did the same for me when I received the opportunity, along with several other O-line coaches. It's just a very tight-knit group of guys, and we all pull for each other. I certainly wish him nothing but the best." Former Georgia offensive lineman Matt Stinchcomb, now an ESPN analyst, said unless a program uses the model like a Dan Mullen at Florida, a Gus Malzahn at Auburn or a Mike Leach at Mississippi State — head coaches who have generally called their own plays — hiring a coordinator or a position coach as a head coach doesn't matter all that much. "I will say that if you're an O-line coach, you are coaching the ultimate team position in the ultimate team game," Stinchcomb said. "So you, by very nature, have to find ways to get guys to work together, to build chemistry, to enhance strengths and address weaknesses and cover them up if necessary. "I mean, that's an O-line meeting room right there. So you expand that out to the scale of an entire team, I don't know that there's a better teaching ground for that type of job description or function than coaching the offensive line." Still, in the modern age of the no-huddle, Spread offense in college football, Pittman is somewhat of an outlier. He has never been an offensive coordinator. As athletic directors hustle to find the next offensive mastermind — a la LSU's Joe Brady last year — to solve the schemes of defensive ace Nick Saban and his growing ilk in an effort to scale the top of the college football mountain, they typically tab hot offensive coordinators and quarterback gurus for their head coaching jobs. So Yurachek's choice of Pittman last December ran a little against the grain. Pittman received a public push from a group of former Arkansas offensive linemen, like Travis Swanson, Dan Skipper, Frank Ragnow and Sebastian Tretola, who wrote or endorsed an open letter asking Yurachek to consider Pittman, who turned the Hogs' offensive linemen into household names and media guide cover boys between 2013-15. His ascension to head coach is inspiring to current Arkansas offensive linemen. "It's amazing," said junior tackle Dalton Wagner. "If you ever want to get into coaching, it gives you some hope that maybe an O-lineman can make it one day. Usually it's a QB or wide receivers or something to get the head coaching job. But an O-line coach as a head coach? I like it." Yurachek talked to the coaches du jour like Lane Kiffin, Leach and Arkansas native Eliah Drinkwitz, quarterback masters who all wound up changing jobs "I LOVE THIS PLACE, AND I WANT IT TO BE WHAT IT SHOULD BE... AND IT'S GOING TO TAKE A LOT OF WORK." SAM PITTMAN See UGLIES, Page 12

• Cover