Difference Between Pittman and Petrino? Player Development

Pittman has yet to develop similar recruiting classes into substance

Author:
Daniel Shi
Publish date:
Dec 10, 2023 8:00 AM EST

In this story:

Arkansas Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Let's all take in a shot of reality. Arkansas will always struggle to reign in top recruits compared to the cream of the crop of the SEC. The Razorbacks have never had a recruiting class ranked higher than No. 7 in the SEC since 2007 according to On3 Sports.

Even during the Petrino glory years, the recruiting classes were only marginally better nationally (albeit consistently) than Pittman's recent recruiting classes.

Petrino:
2008- 20th
2009- 18th
2010- 21st
2011- 22nd

Pittman:
2020- 31st
2021- 25th
2022- 26th

Lots of attention will naturally be on the transfer portal, and rightfully so in this day and age, but let's not forget that there is still and always will be room for player development.

"We had those guys that were together, grew up as little kids, got beat up on when they were freshmen," Petrino said during his introductory press conference. "I remember Joe Adams saying, ‘They're just not beating us, they want to kill us.’ And two years later, he was like, ‘That's what we're going to do to everybody.’ But now you don't have that window. Now you’ve got to do it in a shorter time. So it's just a different challenge that you have to attack."

It begs the question, is there anyone on the 2023 roster who over-performed preseason expectations not due to injury? The list is not long if such a list exists at all.

Conversely, there are plenty of "blue chip" recruits (defined by On3 as four and five-star recruits) who are in desperate need of a jump in development to make the roster tenable in the SEC. Patrick Kutas, E'Marion Harris and Andrew Chamblee all received four-star ratings from various recruiting databases but were all part of a substandard offensive line that was the crux of the problems of the team offensively.

The impending massive overhaul of the coaching staff should help. Offensive line coach Cody Kennedy is out in favor of Eric Mateos. Petrino himself should be able to focus more on development as offensive coordinator.

Lost in the frenzy of who's coming and going in the portal are the returners who need to translate their blue chip status into actual wins on the field.