Sam Pittman at Arkansas for haul: “They can fire me … but I can’t leave. Don’t want to, anyway.”
Arkansas football has been looking for an Arkansas man as head football coach for a couple of decades. Sam Pittman’s first two years on campus have suggested he’s the answer.
Pittman and the university agreed to terms of a new contract earlier in the winter after the coach led the Razorbacks to a 9-4 record, their best since 2011. Details of the deal have not been released and apparently still being finalized. But Pittman referenced it after Saturday’s scrimmage.
“I will tell you this, it’s going to have a non-compete clause in it,” Pittman said. “They can fire me whenever they get good and ready to, but I can’t leave if that makes sense. Don’t want to, anyway. So we’re using that.”
Pittman has been coaching under his previous deal, which paid him $3 million a season. His coordinators – Barry Odom on defense and kendal briles on offense – both agreed to new deals in the offseason, too. Arkansas is one of only eight teams in FBS that returns its head coach and both coordinators for a third straight year, something Pittman is using on the recruiting trail.
“We’re trying to sell this contract as stability,” he said.
