College Football claimed another victim this past weekend, as Sam Pittman was relieved of his duties as head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. A catastrophic loss at the hands of Marcus Freeman’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish forced the front office to take the bull by the horns and make a leadership change moving forward.
While the latest loss to the Irish was a decisive one, it wasn’t the main reason why Pittman lost his position as head coach of the Razorbacks’ first team.
Marcus Freeman was, in a way, one of the main figures in this story, as his team soundly crushed their opponent last weekend at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. The Irish head coach spoke to the media about what unfolded after the game.
“You never want to see somebody in any profession lose their job,” he said. “He’s a man that has a family, but this is the profession we chose. So, the human side of you feels for him and his family. But he’s going to be okay because he’s a — I don’t know him personally, but I’ve heard he is a competitive, great human. Competitive, good, selfless people succeed.
Head Coach Marcus Freeman and head coach Sam Pittman.
“That’s what we need on our team and our world, like competitive fighters who are selfless, that put others in front of themselves. I’ve heard those types of things about him. My interaction with him pregame was great. Everything I expected from what I’ve heard about who he is.”
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Sam Pittman reportedly fired by Arkansas: What was his record as Razorbacks HC?
Controversial call by the Irish
Freeman and Notre Dame faced some backlash during and after the game for calling a fake punt early in the second half. With the Irish already leading by 29 points at the time, the decision was seen by some as an attempt to unnecessarily run up the score.
“In terms of the fake punt, I didn’t want to relax. We had to come out of that locker room with an aggression no different than the first half. There’s no lead that’s comfortable. There’s no lead that’s comfortable. When we went three-and-out, I think, on that first drive, I felt like it was the right time to send a message to our team. This was about our team that, hey, this is something we’ve worked on. Let’s go execute it,” Freeman said.
“That also is something on film for the next opponents, right? I’m not even thinking about this opponent, but I’m thinking about I want to make sure the next couple opponents see that. It could really make them think deeply about how they want to attack our punt unit.”
