Sam Pittman on if Kenny Guiton is candidate for full-time offensive coordinator job: 'Absolutely'
After hiring Dan Enos to be the Arkansas offensive coordinator in the off-season, head coach Sam Pittman made the decision to move on from him in the middle of the season. After that, Pittman promoted Kenny Guiton to interim offensive coordinator.
Now, Pittman says that Guiton is going to be a candidate for the full-time offensive coordinator job.
“The first part of that, absolutely,” Sam Pittman said. “I really don’t know how I could not look at him after that performance.”
Arkansas scored 39 points in the Razorbacks’ win on the road against Florida. It was the team’s first SEC win this season and was a massive turnaround for the offense, which only put up three points in a loss to Mississippi State in its previous game.
“I spoke with him a little bit about that as well, about our timeline, and what we’re going to do. But, absolutely. Then, I think what you would do at that point if you decided to stay in-house is figure out what position he would feel most comfortable with coaching from that coordinator spot,” Pittman said.
“Certainly, we haven’t made that decision yet, but I don’t know how he could’ve done a better job than what he did on Saturday, to be perfectly honest with you. With everything, just imagine you had Fall Camp and you played that way your first game. Then you add all the things that went on and you had a two week window to prepare, and I think he called a freaking great game and had them off balance. I think he did a great job.”
Kenny Guiton played quarterback at Ohio State, before a brief stint in Arena football and the NFL. He’s been coaching since 2015, primarily as a wide receivers coach.
Sam Pittman explained the OC change
Following the decision to move on from Dan Enos, Sam Pittman explained what went into that decision.
“We lost our spirit on offense and we’ve got to get it back. I think Kenny has a great rapport with the kids and he’s very knowledgeable, and I think the kids believe in him, and that’ll make us play better right then and there. We obviously have to block them better and do things like that, but we also have to have the enthusiasm to do that and I think that’s what he’s bringing to our offensive staff,” Pittman said.
“I think Kenny’s ready. He obviously knows the offense. He’s more knowledgeable than even what I thought in the run game. Obviously, I’ve been in every meeting. I stepped out of the one that I was in now to talk to y’all, but I’ll go right back to it, so I’m trying to help in every aspect I can in the running game. But he’s ready for it. More importantly than that, he believes that he’s ready for it and the players believe that he’s ready for it. So I think it’s been, I go back to Auburn last year and [Carnell] ‘Cadillac’ [Williams] going and him becoming the head coach and they beat A&M and they beat Western Kentucky, they played Mississippi State real tough, who was a really fine team on the road.”