Sam Pittman opens up on how team has handled offensive coordinator change
Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman needed to make two coordinator hires this off-season. One of those, defensive coordinator Travis Williams, worked. The other, offensive coordinator Dan Enos, didn’t.
Now, after parting ways with Enos mid-season, Pittman has opened up about how the team has handled that change at offensive coordinator.
“Hard to say. I think there’s a little different feel in the building,” Sam Pittman said. “I think everybody has taken to Coach [Kenny] Guiton. I think everybody is excited for him.”
Sam Pittman decided to part ways with Dan Enos after only scoring three points in a loss to Mississippi State. This led to the Razorbacks’ bye week and another SEC game, this one against Florida.
“Obviously, I think we’ve got some bumps and bruises healed up a little bit better than what we had before. It’d be hard to say. I’ll know a little bit more how we adjust to the new offense and things of that nature – or the less offense, I guess would be the better way to say it. We’ll know more about that as the week progresses, I think.”
Arkansas is just 2-6 this season and 0-5 in SEC play. That includes six straight losses that defensive back Al Walcott admitted has become frustrating for the team.
“We’re frustrated. It’s visible. You can see it. But the thing I love about this team, we’re not going to bend. We’re still together, we’re going to hold together,” Walcott said.
“It’s frustrating and it hurts. Nobody likes to lose. But this team is so close-knit that we’ve gotta move on to the next game. We have a bye week, so that gives us a chance to rethink and think of the things that we need to fix. But we’ve still got four more games to play, so we’ve got to just finish. … We know we’ve got to finish the rest of the season and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
Sam Pittman explains OC change
Following the decision to move on from Dan Enos, Sam Pittman explained the decision to make that change when he did.
“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,” Thamel said.
“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.”