What fired Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said after losing to Notre Dame football

Arkansas fired head coach Sam Pittman after the Razorbacks’ 56-13 home loss to Notre Dame on Saturday. This is everything Pittman said after the game before he was let go from his job on Sunday afternoon.

Opening Statement

Congratulations to Notre Dame. They’ve got a really good team, good physical football team, and they came in here and whipped us. Obviously, we have a better team than what we showed today, and so we certainly have to go to work on figuring out why we played this way. And with that, I’ll take your questions.

On of doubt creeps in for Arkansas after getting blown out

No, I mean, we just didn’t play. We played terrible and we couldn’t get off the field defensively. And it’s the same thing. It’s the tackling, it’s the coverage at times, it’s the off-coverage that we’re nowhere close to the guy, and then it’s the man coverage, where at times we leave him wide open. It’s the easy scores, it’s the power play here at the end, where we had nobody even close to the guy. That’s on everybody. It’s not just, obviously, on the players, that’s on all of us. But that’s been a trend now for five weeks. 

What has bailed us out a little bit before was offense, was scoring, and we didn’t finish drives today, and for whatever, there were several different reasons behind that. But you know, defensively, we’re still not tackling well. And I thought we had a really good week of practice, and the back-end swarming to the front end, but it didn’t show today at all. Do I still think we have a good football team? It’s hard to say after, you know, that embarrassment today, but I still think we have the capabilities of winning a lot of games. But certainly, we have a lot– We’ve got a lot to fix. 

On if Arkansas personnel or coaching changes are necessary during the bye week

Possibly, I mean, I’ve got some time to think about some things. And … possibly.

On if Arkansas ‘let off the rope’ vs. Notre Dame

You can not tackle well and still give good effort. You can try to cover and get beat. I think I probably need to look at the tape and see exactly what the effort was on it. I know there were several plays in there that we had guys there to make plays, and we didn’t for whatever reason. So, I think I’m going to hold that answer until I watch the tape.

On Arkansas struggling at home

Obviously, if I knew the answer, we’d have it fixed. I don’t know if that’s circumstance or if it’s something that we’re doing different. It’s not, you know, besides the travel and the preparation, what we do weekly, besides the things that we emphasize are the same as far as scheduling. So, you know, I really don’t know. I will say this. I’m as surprised that this happened today as anybody, and because I really felt like we were locked in and ready for the challenge that they have. They have a really good team. I get it, but not one to embarrass us like that.

On the roughing the passer penalty called vs. Arkansas

Well, I think it was offsetting penalties there, and we could have got off the field if you know, he didn’t go high, so obviously they saw that he went high on it. So, we’ve got to go below the shoulder pads there. Now, I thought they went low on Taylen there, so there is a rule between high and low, so those were offsetting there, but it gave them another chance 

On why the Arkansas backup quarterback didn’t enter the game

We’re trying to score and we want our best players out there, and if we did that, I felt like we were telling the kids we were giving up, and I certainly didn’t want to do that.

On the Arkansas fans booing their own team

I didn’t hear them. And I mean, (laughs) I didn’t hear them.

On what Notre Dame did to slow Arkansas down

You know, I think they were a little bit better in the secondary than possibly we might have thought. Really, I felt like we, you know, early in the whole first half, I felt like we protected him pretty well and we ran the ball real well. But, you know, we have put ourselves in a little bit of some third… That was one of our goals, to stay out of third-and-long, you know. And we had put ourselves into some of those situations this year and converted them, and really, we just didn’t today, but he didn’t run the ball as much. When he did, it went for a while. I think they had a little bit better, tighter coverage than maybe what we anticipated, and that means us getting off of that coverage as well.

On keeping Arkansas together with all the outside noise

It’s been that way for about three years. We’ve come back at times from this situation. Yes, it’s tough, but there’s a lot of teams out there that have tough situations that turn it around. Am I glad there is a bye week? Yeah, five in a row there and it’’s time that we look at ourselves and look at the team as well. There’s no doubt that we can get it turned… We got to figure out why this happened today because this one was very disappointing.

On if the Arkansas offense folded because of how bad the defense was playing

If we were making excuses for them, it is, but I don’t think so. I think Notre Dame had something to do with it. No, I don’t think so. I think if you’re a good competitor, you want to go out there and score whether you think you have to or whether you just want to.

On the Arkansas defense not improving

Well, I can add to you it was 420 yards at half. You’re giving me stats, I’ll add one for you and that’s an astronomical number and every touchdown. You know what I mean? So you’re 100% right what you said. We’ve been trying to figure out how to stop people defensively with different people and different schematics and we haven’t been able to do it. And again, to answer your question, we’re working on it as hard as we can and each week we like the plan against our opponent, but we’re still not tackling well and we still aren’t playing great man to man coverage.

On Arkansas wide receiver Jalen Brown’s injury

He broke his fibula, I believe. Is it fibula, tibula or both? Yeah. He seemed to be doing okay in that situation, but he broke both of those bones. 

On what he says to Arkansas fans who want a coaching change

I understand. I get it. If I was a fan, I’d be mad at me too. I’d be frustrated as hell with me. But here’s what I’ll say. As long as I’m the head coach at Arkansas, I’m going to fight my butt off to get the guys out there. How long that is, it is partly up to me because of what we put on the field, but that’s not my call. And if I’m worried about that all the time, I won’t be able to do as good a job as I possibly can. But I will say this, if I was the fans, I’d be mad at me too. Hell, I’m mad at me to be perfectly honest. 

On if there will be staff changes during rhe bye week

I don’t know. Let me see. The game got over, what, 20 minutes ago? Listen, we owe it to everybody to put the best product out there and so there’s a lot of things that come in play with that.