Arkansas hires Georgia assistant Pittman as new head coach

Arkansas hired Georgia assistant Sam Pittman as its head coach Sunday, giving the longtime offensive line coach his first chance to lead a college program.

Pittman, an Oklahoma native, has been coaching at the FBS level since 1994 and he’s been in the Southeastern Conference, including a three-year stint at Arkansas, since 2012. Athletic director Hunter Yurachek made the move official with Pittman on Twitter.

He has spent the last four years at Georgia, working for Kirby Smart, and has a reputation as both an ace recruiter and top-notch offensive line coach.

Arkansas is coming off a 2-10 season that led to the firing of coach Chad Morris after less than two seasons. The Razorbacks have not reached a bowl game since 2016 and are on their fourth head coach in less than a decade.

Pittman was part of Bret Bielema’s staff in Fayetteville from 2013-15. His last season with the Razorbacks was the team’s best since Bobby Petrino was fired in 2012 after lying to his bosses about the circumstances surrounding a motorcycle accident and the relationship he had with a woman in the athletic department.

Bielema was fired after going 29-34 from 2013-17, and Morris was hired after a search conducted largely without an athletic director in place. Morris was let go 10 games into this season, still without an SEC victory.

Yurachek was hired not long before Morris. Given a chance to run a search, Yurachek went after Lane Kiffin, who landed at Mississippi on Saturday. Arkansas moved quickly on Pittman after Georgia finished its regular-season in the Southeastern Conference championship game.