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On Monte Kiffin:

SAM PITTMAN: I want to tell a story about Monte Kiffin. He was a defensive coordinator at Arkansas in 1977, '78, and '79. Lou Holtz was the head coach in those three years. With his expertise of coaching defense, the Razorbacks finished 3, 11, and 8 in the national polls when Coach Kiffin was the defensive coordinator.

In 1978 the Grove Ridge Runners played the Miami War Dogs, Coach Kiffin came over to the game. Now, I always knew I wanted to be a coach, and Coach Kiffin came over to the game. He was there to see Todd Berry. Todd Berry was the number one ranked quarterback in the state of Oklahoma. He was not there to see any of the Grove Ridge Runners.

We lost the game late 21 to 16, and Charlie Cooper, our head football coach there at Grove, Coach Kiffin came in and asked could he talk to the team. He came in and said some unbelievable things about our toughness and fight and our grit.

I remember the impact that his speech, that it made on me. I thought, you know, as I become a coach, how we can

change lives and how we can be meaningful to young athletes, young people by the way that Coach Kiffin talked to us that day. I'll never forget that as long as I live.

On Arkansas' culture:

SAM PITTMAN: They, along with a lot of guys, are developing a culture along with Ben Sowders in the strength staff that's like no other. I'm so excited about this football team and I'm excited about the talent level.

Also excited about the culture, about the way these guys treat each other, the way they talk to each other, the way they go out with each other, the way they compete against each other.

Over the past four years we have been invited to three bowl games. Two of the last three years at some point in the season we have been ranked in the top 10. I love this team. I love our coaches. Our expectations are as high as they've ever been for this season coming up.

If we can take 4-20 to 9-4, we can deal with 4-8, too, and that's what we're going to do. I'm very excited about the Arkansas Razorbacks.

On Bobby Petrino and staff:

SAM PITTMAN: Bobby has been a great resource for me. Not only do I think he's a wonderful offensive coordinator, he also was a very successful head coach. So there are a lot of times where I'm able to run things by him and we decide collectively at times what is best for the University of Arkansas football team.

Ronnie Fouch, our new wide receiver coach came in from Missouri State and has done a wonderful job. Kobe Smith with the Miami Dolphins. He is our new running back coach. Eric Mateos is our new offensive line coach. He's done a wonderful job with our offensive line. Very excited about that group.

On offense/defense:

SAM PITTMAN: On offense, we have a lot to improve on. We think we addressed that in the portal with four offensive linemen and three portal running backs. Obviously went out and got a quarterback as well. Our wide receiver group is returning.

But I think the most improved part of our football team this spring was our offensive line. I'm excited about that group.

Defensively we were much improved from a year ago. Fewest yards allowed since 2010, best defense since 2014, and let the nation in defensive touchdowns with five.

We have to finish the season. We did not do that well. We have to figure out how to finish, win the close games. We lost five games by a touchdown or less. We have got to figure that out. We feel like we're well on our way to getting that accomplished.

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SAM PITTMAN: Well, yes, we've obviously talked about the schedule. The deal with that is as long as we are involved in the game in Dallas and involved in the game in Little Rock, we're going to have home games. This one in Dallas is an away game. We're going to have home games that are away from our university.

I can remember -- I think we had a stretch in there where we had -- maybe it's two years ago -- where we had three home games on the schedule but played in Razorback Stadium one of those five games. Three of the five were home.

All I can say is we're going to embrace that. Last year we had the away games right there in a row, what was it, at Alabama, LSU, on the road. We needed to do a better job than what we did a year ago.

The difference is a little bit the time. There will be an 11:00, a noon, a night game, so we'll certainly have to get ready for that. I do know that our first two games are going to be at night and then in the morning, and then our third game will be in the afternoon. So we'll have covered all those, so then the fourth and fifth time we go to a new venue we should have been able to cover the time frame and the game and schedule that with the kids.

SAM PITTMAN: Well, I will say this: We hadn't played Texas for years and we played them a couple years back. It was the most excited our fan base has been in a while.

So I would say he's probably right, you know. The difference is Texas is certainly a different team than what we played. That was his first year there and now obviously he's a great coach, great guy. Got a wonderful football team.

But I'm glad that we're going to play them at home again. You know, I don't know if that's fair because they came there two years ago. But it's an early-morning game, so -- but he's probably correct.

You would have to ask the old hats of Arkansas, but he's probably right.

SAM PITTMAN: Well, I think it gives you life. I do. You know, we're all striving to get into the playoffs, including the University of Arkansas. You know, when you lose a game and it's a four team, you got a problem. Georgia last year, you know, one of the best teams in the country didn't get in the playoffs; lost one game.

So this is going to give -- I think you're going to see better football towards the end of the year because you're going to see some two-win teams get into the college playoffs -- two-loss, excuse me teams get in the college playoffs. It's going to continue to keep your team alive and moving forward. Going to see better bowl games, better teams in bowls.

I think this 12 team is going to make a big, significant difference in college football.

SAM PITTMAN: That's a great question. I think this: Ours is all about consistency and finishing. Again, we lost five one-score games. I think you're going to say that -- next year you're going to say you won them or -- it's hard in this league. So I think it's going to be consistency, better game planning, got to be able to run the football.

I think we can capitalize on that. Again, I really like this team. I really do. I'm not trying to win media days. I'm just going to tell you how I feel.

I really like this team, and I think with the culture and the tightness of the team, I think you can win those games a little bit easier than if it's the other way.

SAM PITTMAN: Yeah fair. Very fair. Talent-wise, we had to do better recruiting. You talked about my O-line background. Some somewhat -- well, we got to get better there.

We wanted to attack -- we had to go out and get two tackles. We have a player in Kutas that I really like. He lost his confidence out there. He was the best we had but he lost his confidence out there.

We move him inside, he's a heck of a player. One of the strongest guys on the team. Junior, Camona, Blackstock, and Nichols, those three guys, a little bit like Taylen Green in that his leadership is incredible but they are too.

When you have guys that don't just want to play on the O-line but want to lead. "Look, bro, we got to go. We got to go. We got to go, we got to do this, extra here."

When you have those guys in there, which we have, leading like that, I think that you can get a lot better. Eric Mateos is different because he doesn't only, "hey, you need to talk to him." It's not necessarily about the play that he messed up. It's about "hey what's going on at home?"

There are different roots to the problem. May not just be between the ears. It may be life, home, girlfriend. That's why I found Eric is great at that. The kids know he loves them and thinks about them and cares about them.

I hope that was a trait I had when I coached the offensive line. I don't know if I did or not. But I hope I had the trait that Eric has. He can make kids play better and harder by the way he talks to them and treats them.

SAM PITTMAN: Yes.

SAM PITTMAN: Sometimes what ends up happening is you're going high school, so our goal every year is to try to get to 20, okay? We did not. We want to try to get to 20 out of high school.

The next thing you do is go, okay, how many scholarships do I have? I need three O-line men, two D-linemen, and our guys at Arkansas ask me that all the time. Okay, where are you going to go?

There is the next number.

And then what you hope you get is a trade for a trade. In other words, you hope that if it's April and you get -- you would be fine if you -- you don't need anybody else. Somebody goes in the portal, you trade that position for that position.

That's what happened this year, and that's where the eight -- seven came in at the end, which made that number somewhat larger.

SAM PITTMAN: Well, you know, we try to put a six-hour radius around Fayetteville. Dallas is in that radius and we jump on down to Houston.

Texas, there are so many kids down here that can play. If you look at our state, you know, we just don't have a populated state, so we may have anywhere from six to eight kids that can play football in the SEC. At least in our opinion.

That doesn't make us right. But at least in our opinion. You may come into Dallas and get, what do you think, 50 probably SEC players at least just in this area. So the more we can get on the team obviously the more familiar, the more stories we can have, the better off we'll be and the better we can do here, Dallas, east.

SAM PITTMAN: Man, that's hard to say, because I'm not positive what happened over at A&M. Here is what I know:

I hire people. I give my opinion. He's the offensive coordinator, Travis is the defensive coordinator, and that's his responsibility. Eric Mateos is the D-line coach. I am the oldest GA in the country. I'm helping him.

I would want to work for me. I would want to work with me if I was an offensive coordinator because I'm going to let you go get them. Now, I've got any ideas and I'm going to come in and have my tape up there and go, okay, I see this, I see this, I see this.

But I would think if you ask Bobby and Travis and Scott, they say he gives me the freedom to run what I think is best, and I don't know about A&M. I don't know that. I just know we've given him the freedom to go score points.

SAM PITTMAN: It's been great. I mean, he's passionate. He likes to win, likes to win and score points. So it's been great.

Again, I mentioned it before. I had Barry before that I could bump some head coaching questions off. As I get older the questions aren't as many, but -- or as I get more years of being a head coach.

But it's like a security blanket. I got Bobby there. I had Barry there. I had Bobby there that I can run off things. Both of those guys are not, hey, we need to do this, this, this.

I'll ask them a question and I want their opinion and they know it. We'll agree on it or won't, but we're both grown men. If we do, we do. If we don't, we don't. We move on down the road.

That's been very beneficial to me, and I really like him and I have a lot of respect for him.

It's just -- he spends more time in my office than anybody, and I apologize to him. I don't know if he likes it or not. I do make him talk to me a lot.

SAM PITTMAN: You know, I had a question earlier today about close games, tight games. Some of our discussion has been about our aggressiveness during the end of games defensively.

You know, I think Travis did a wonderful job for us last year, but I don't want to handcuff him either. 52 of those plays, will it go up? Probably.

But I do think we're a little bit better at corner and a little bit better in the safety spot to be able to cover zero, cover true man.

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