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Arkansas

Sam Pittman takes exception to the idea team isn't building toughness in spring

IMG_0985by: Griffin McVeigh04/19/22griffin_mcveigh

Sam Pittman has been trying to bring some toughness into the Arkansas Razorbacks football program. It’s in his DNA, being a former offensive line coach — Pittman wants to bring taller, faster, stronger, and tougher players onto the roster through both recruiting and the transfer portal.

Working with the roster he constantly has, Pittman recently took exception to a question about his team possibly not building toughness. He said this spring has been one of the best from that aspect since he has been at Arkansas and if they did not believe him, they could ask any of the players.

“I think if you ask any of the kids, they’d say we’ve fighted harder than we ever have here,” Pittman said. “Toughness, to me, is about doing what we ask them to do. So you’re o-line, your d-line, your linebackers, it doesn’t matter to them. Except for the tackling, it’s live in there everyday no matter the tempo you call. The secondary guys, that’s where Barry (Odom) and them have to tackle them individually. You got to block em. As wide receivers, you have to block in individual and all of those things. I think if you ask our kids, they would tell you this is the most physical spring that we’ve had, if I am being honest with you.”

Pittman went on to talk about a recent scrimmage, saying they were not able to have as many reps as they liked due to weather. If things were normal, a lot more full-speed/contract plays would have been run by the Razorbacks’ head coach.

“Now, we had half of a scrimmage,” Pittman said. “We had half of the ones and two the first time and I am talking about live scrimmage. And then one this week. In a normal spring we would have had another tackle to the ground, another probably 75, 80 plays of live tackle than what we did this spring but I do believe we’ve gotten a lot better than what we have. Which, our practices seem to be more physical that way.”

Pittman talked about how he built his roster to compete in the SEC, with his staff emphasizing size. Now, after a full spring of practices and working out, he thinks Arkansas will be ready to be one of the toughest inside of the conference. Even if they’re not, Pittman will have fall camp to accomplish his goals.