In 2022 we saw the rise and fall of Sam Pittman’s work in the transfer portal. Around this time last season, there was a buzz around the Hogs football team because of Pittman’s work in the transfer portal, nabbing SEC talent from rival schools.

By December, the Hogs barely earned a bowl bid and led the country in players transferring off campus.

It was inevitable for the media and fans to attack Pittman after the high expectations, but Pittman acknowledged his faults in handling the depth chart. 

“To be perfectly honest with you, I made a mistake last year,” Pittman told the media. “I believe that anybody that’s new, they need to earn the spot, even if the whole team knows that they’re going to be the starter. You’ve got to put them on the second, third team, somewhere in there.”

Any fan of the Hogs should be optimistic after hearing Pittman’s self-evaluation. Pittman realized giving the high-profile transfers starting roles as soon as they hit the campus and not allowing the cream to rise to the top in practice.

He didn’t say it affected the team’s chemistry, but from the outside, it’s not hard not to attribute that to the underwhelming team performances throughout the 2022 season.

“Last year, we did not do that with (Jadon) Haselwood. Haselwood came in, he was the only one,” said Pittman. “He came in, and he was the starter. And you know what? If we’d have waited a practice or two he’d have been the starter anyway. But we didn’t.”

We’ll see if Pittman has learned from some of those mistakes last season as Arkansas begins spring practices later today.

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Story originally appeared on Razorbacks Wire