FRISCO, Texas – Well, so much for running it back.
If Kendal Briles and Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson plan to run it back together, it will have to be in Fort Worth beating up on the newly refurbished Big 12.
So with TCU reportedly making plans to announce a move everyone expected as the transfer portal window began closing without a denial, Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman will once again have to head to the offices of athletics director Hunter Yurachek to see if he can get permission to borrow the university checkbook to do a little more coach shopping.
So what does Pittman need in a coordinator?
1. If there’s one thing that’s been easy to hear through the proverbial walls at Arkansas, it’s that Pittman wants a staff that is dedicated to recruiting as he was as an assistant. That means identifying talent quickly and working hard to build strong relationships with the players.
It should be hard to want to go play for an assistant at another school, and, if that happens, it should be even more difficult for players to want to go anywhere but Arkansas if they decide to hit the transfer portal because of pre-existing relationships.
2. There also needs to be a solid working knowledge of recruiting either the Georgia-Florida area or the Texas-Oklahoma-Louisiana region. This is especially important for North and East Texas.
3. He needs to bring a balanced offense that also incorporates RPO. Arkansas has an identity and it’s one of having a strong running game with an enviable stable of backs that is predicated on powerful offensive line play and the ability to use the quarterback as a runner.
The ingredients in the room dictate this be the case.
Jefferson fits this mold. Malachi Singleton fits this mold.
Raheim Sanders, AJ Green and Rashod Dubinion fit this mold.
Other quarterbacks and running backs who see Arkansas as a viable option fit this mold.
And as long as current running backs coach Jimmy Smith is on this offensive staff, it’s this team’s best chance at building a winner.
4. He needs to bring something Arkansas can point to that will win the press conference with both fans and recruits and also be able to relate to Pittman on a personal level.
So who fits the bill?
Two names come to mind right away – Alex Atkins, current offensive coordinator at Florida State and former UNT head coach Seth Littrell.
There are other names who Arkansas fans want considered that aren’t going to happen and there’s the low hanging fruit of offering Bobby Petrino what the Razorbacks were set to pay Briles on his new contract to lure him away from A&M, but the goal here is to not waste anyone’s time and zero in on a pair of legitimate candidates.
Alex Atkins
Pittman stole Briles from Florida State when he first got the Arkansas job, so why not do it again.
Atkins knocks out No. 4 right away. He’s a Broyles Award finalist and he’s a success story whose way from offensive line coach to offensive coordinator at a Power Five school was paved by hard work, determination and the early success of Sam Pittman at Arkansas.
He has 15 years of coaching experience, knows the SEC territory, and has proven he can recruit top linemen in Georgia, Alabama and Florida while even dipping into Texas.
He and Pittman will be able to speak the same language and relate in so many ways as fellow offensive line coaches who had to claw up through the ranks.
The Florida State offense averaged 270 yards passing and 214 yards running this past season as Atkins helped turn the Seminoles from a once-was into a 10-3 program on the rise.
The previous season, Florida State averaged 200 yards passing and 177 yards rushing. For anyone struggling in math, that’s an extra 107 yards per game in total offense that helped double the number of wins head coach Mike Norvell gets to put on his ledger.
In an added bonus, Atkins comes with an unusually low price tag when talking about coordinators. His current contract pays him $850,000 and doesn’t have a rising scale in any year.
He makes $850,000 whether it’s this year or Year 5.
That leaves room for Atkins to get a nice pay raise while also allowing Pittman to have enough money left over to convince Yurachek to let him hire a quarterbacks coach without having to let go of offensive line coach Cody Kennedy if Pittman just can’t bring himself to make the move.
As for Jefferson, Singleton and future quarterbacks, Atkins allowed quarterback Jordan Travis to throw for 3,214 yards and rush for 419 while three backs posted 650 yards or more, including Trey Benson, who ran for 1,134 yards.
Those three running backs also each averaged over six yards per carry.
Overall, Atkins bested Briles this season by 13 yards per game. His running backs averaged 1.5 yards per carry more and Jefferson’s total yards don’t even equal the passing yards put up by Travis.
The downside is Atkins only has two years of experience as an offensive coordinator. However, he also has assistant head coach, run game coordinator and recruiting coordinator in his background, so there’s a lot to work with.
If his name is the one announced, it will be a good day for the future of the Razorback football program.
Seth Littrell
First off, if Pittman is able to lure Seth Littrell to Arkansas, Razorback fans should consider themselves lucky.
There is no way he shouldn’t be a head coach. However, if Littrell wants to parlay his head coaching experience at the University of North Texas into one day coaching at a Power Five school, taking a few years as an offensive coordinator in the SEC isn’t a bad path to get there.
For those who think his name sounds familiar, let’s drag up a few bad memories for Arkansas fans.
There’s no doubt that Littrell has both guts and creativity. As far as his offense goes, UNT didn’t even need to waste such a crafty play on what was then a lowly Arkansas program.
Littrell’s offense nearly dumped half a hundred on the Razorbacks in a 44-17 blowout in Razorback Stadium that included a 68-yard Arkansas run with 50 second left to play to make things more respectable.
That season, North Texas averaged 460 yards of offense and posted 513 yards per game just two seasons later.
In 2022, in a season deemed a poor enough to warrant firing Littrell, the Mean Green went 7-6 while putting up 262 yards passing and 200 yards rushing with a Conference USA championship game appearance where UNT lost to UTSA for the second time in just over a month.
Obviously, Littrell brings a strong knowledge of recruiting Texas and Oklahoma. He did quite well bringing in and developing talent as part of a DFW triangle created by TCU, UNT and SMU in a recruiting area that is Ground Zero for Oklahoma, Texas and pretty much the entire SEC.
He also has a relationship with Pittman that goes back to when Pittman was an offensive line coach at Oklahoma in the late 90s. Littrell was captain of a Sooners group that would eventually make Bob Stoops a household name with a national title in 2000.
They’re both Eastern Oklahoma guys with Littrell growing up in Muskogee. He would provide a replacement for Odom as far as someone to swap tales of life growing up as an Okie.
He could also replace Odom as an experienced head coach with which to bounce ideas off when planning for each week.
Littrell coached running backs and tight ends most of his life, but knowing how well his quarterbacks developed at North Texas, it’s hard to imagine that he couldn’t step in and take on the role of quarterbacks coach if needed.
North Texas paid $1.35 million for his services in Littrell’s final season.
That’s a number Arkansas might be willing to match if it means landing someone with the experience, connections and success that Littrell brings.
Is there anyone else?
Anyone with a computer can drag up a long list of names. Washington coordinator Ryan Grubb is pretty good, but that doesn’t mean he’d be a great fit.
The one thing with Pittman is he’s got a lot of names hidden in that bowling ball bag of his and which one he draws out may well be a giant surprise to everyone.
He could just as well stroll up to a podium and tell the tale of how he stole the Texas offensive coordinator over a barbecue sandwich as he is to announce the wide receivers coach from San Jose State.
While that last part was clearly in jest, the wide receivers coach for the Spartans is a man by the name of Eric Scott. For the record, he fits none of the criteria originally listed, but he does open up the Los Angeles recruiting area.
And he’s as on everyone’s radar as the last two hires were when Barry Odom left.
There are several weeks between now and spring practice, so be patient. There’s no rush to hire someone for the sake of having some’s name on the coaches’ list.
So, hang tight through a lot of bad information from social media guys who think they know a guy and expect the unexpected.
We’ll let you know when there’s something real to actually talk about.
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