Column: Less about money, more about losing
I've got to admit, I was pretty surprised to learn Monday that Arkansas linebacker Chris Paul Jr. intends to enter his name in the transfer portal.
Just over a year ago, I wrote a story about Paul's loyalty to the Razorbacks after he sent out a tweet on Nov. 29, 2022, saying he was recruited to Arkansas to help win a national championship.
There's no doubt in my mind that Paul's decision to enter the transfer portal likely had something to do with the losing culture that the football program in Fayetteville currently has.
As a redshirt sophomore in 2023, Paul totaled 74 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss and two sacks. His total tackles ranked second on the team in his third year as a Hog.
But the third year was the worst for Paul as far as winning goes. He was part of a 4-8 team that won just one SEC game and had way more than one off-the-field incidents come about throughout the year.
Naturally, everyone wants to point to a player like Paul being dissatisfied with the NIL money he's receiving rather than the fact that he just wants to win. When Paul — or any other football player — got into the game, it was about a love for the sport and not a love for money.
Former Arkansas tight end and 2010 Mackey Award winner DJ Williams took notice of Paul's growing frustration during the 48-14 embarrassment of a loss to Missouri on Saturday.
"I look at Chris "Pooh" Paul, love the way that he plays and I can see the passion," Williams said Saturday night on his podcast Fourth&5 with Josh Throne. "And he's out there just pissed at his own teammates. Not calling anybody (out) or doing all that, but he's just pissed, because he's like 'What are we doing?' All these mental mistakes. Just take this stuff serious."
There's no question that there's a culture issue at Arkansas right now.
An offensive coordinator emailing students, players watching the Polar Express at halftime, a freshman asking Missouri receivers if they have spots open publicly, closing practice to the media halfway through the season, blaming fans and the media for recruiting problems. That's not even all of it from the 2023 season.
Even before the first game of the year, cornerback Kee'yon Stewart was arrested for reckless driving. He was driving 126 miles per hour in zone that had a posted speed limit of 70.
"It's wild to me how some of these guys don't take it serious," Williams said. "But in this era, I get it. Because they're about to go home after getting their butt whooped and they're going to look at their bank account. And a lot of those guys have $80,000, they have $200,000 and they're like 'Okay, yeah we're fine.' I don't even know what to say anymore."
Williams makes a great point regarding the money aspect of college football. While NIL has taken over headlines, I wouldn't be quick to assume it's the reason a player decided to leave.
While speaking with Alabama head coach Nick Saban on the Prime Video series "Coach Prime," former Jackson State and current Colorado head coach Deion Sanders shared a story about a recruit trying to talk to him about NIL money.
"I got on the phone with one kid and he was like 'Let's talk about the business, coach,'" Sanders said in Episode 1. "I said 'Who do you think you're talking to? This is a conversation we're not having. Matter of fact, we will never call you back again, son. I appreciate you and I wish you the best.'
"When did that happen? A kid gets on the phone and says let's talk about the business, instead of thinking about the right scheme or how you're going to use them."
Saban nodded his head and agreed, saying that kids should be going to college to be developing value for their future, not based on the money they are going to make.
The easiest thing to do in Arkansas' situation is blame the head coach. Sam Pittman is the leader of this program and he just had a bad year on and off the field. DJ Williams said he thinks the players have a big part in it as well.
"It's just the environment and landscape of college football has changed," Williams said. "It has allowed players to be very hard to coach. It has created players with a sense of entitlement. It has created players that at any sign of trying to be told that they're wrong, they just fold and choose to go somewhere else. This is a product of trying to be friends with your players instead of making tough decisions and having tough conversations and telling them to their face something that might hurt their feelings."
While a select few fans are still holding out hope that Athletics Director Hunter Yurachek will take back his comments stating that Pittman will be the head coach of Arkansas in 2024, that's not going to happen.
Pittman seems to be feeling much better about the Razorbacks' NIL situation following Yurachek's public backing of the Head Hog.
"I do feel much better about it," Pittman said. "I think we’re going to be very competitive there and I’m really excited about that. Hell, nobody wants to sit up here like this. Nobody does, but I’m the head coach. I’m supposed to sit up here, good and bad, but I think there’s a big chance for us to change where we’re at, at 4-8, and I’m excited to have the opportunity to do it. I am excited about our NIL situation."
Say what you want about the NIL money and it swaying recruits from one school to the next, but winning should be talking just as much as the money does. With the amount of winning Arkansas has been doing, we might be surprised with some of the other names the Razorbacks will lose.
It's obvious that a handful of players gave up on the team late in the year. One thing Pittman has been able to hang his hat on for the majority of his four seasons is the fact that Arkansas wasn't getting blown out by opponents. Well, the Hogs lost two of the last three by 38 and 34 points.
It's also obvious that Arkansas' efforts regarding NIL needed to take a huge step up. I previously wrote about how the OneArkansas NIL collective for football needs a serious makeover, and that remains the case. The website doesn't have a single mention of an athlete that they've partnered with.
Editors note: After the publishing of this story, Arkansas announced "Arkansas Edge" as its new official NIL Collective.
RELATED: What is Arkansas Edge?
The next move should be hiring an offensive coordinator and Arkansas has been very quiet regarding who it might choose. The transfer portal will also open Monday, and it'll be all-out chaos.
Pittman has an opportunity to get the right offensive coordinator and the right kind of players to Fayetteville, but it's not going to be easy. Pittman might need to start taking pages out of the book of head basketball coach Eric Musselman, who is known as a transfer portal guru and he also just wrapped up watching 14 hours of film to solve his team's issues after losing three of their last four.