Sam Pittman rips off tie, talks upcoming Razorbacks football season

I don't know how your day has been going. Mine's been going pretty darn good y'all. Well, I was reading the other day, I think Scott sent it to me. He said an alarm clock or an opportunity clock. It made sense. I took it to the players. I talked to him about that. I appreciate that, Scott sent that to me, but I want to talk to you about my day a little bit. We got up, we, we had a staff meeting and, and I got on the plane and I started, do you guys ever scroll through pictures if you don't have Wi Fi and you scroll through? Well, I had one of last year of me and if you don't mind and no disrespect, but I had the same damn tie on and I am not gonna go through another season like that. So it's gonna start with taking this damn time. So number two, number two, I get on that fancy bus they meet with my damn belt exploded. I didn't forget it, Frank, it just exploded. So luckily Bass has put on about 50 and he came to my rescue. So thank you for gaining weight, my friend. You did a great job. Um Thank you again for being here. Um, um, we do have nine Little Rock Pulaski County kids on our team. Um Anton Pierce Preston Davis Mason, Sick, Alex Johnson and Marion Harris who is going to play a lot of ball force. Quincy Rhodes Junior. Same thing, uh, really coming into his own, Jerry Shaw over at Mills, Nico Davie, who's starting for us at defensive end and Charlie Collins who was a big get for us. I want to talk to you a little bit about nil and not in the, it's kind of been known as N I hell, you know, but a little bit about nil and I, all I want to say about it is this that, you know, as we're going around trying to raise money and there's so many people in here that without you, we'd be dead. I mean, without Frank Fletcher, we'd be done. And, um, and Todd and I mean, just so many, uh I got a list of them over here and I'm gonna miss somebody. So I'm not gonna say everybody, obviously, Warren Stevens and everybody. OK. But what it's done for me is the people that I've read stories about, about success, Doctor Mac Moore. Um and the, the successes and I read the newspaper about what they've done in their life and then to get to meet them personally and find out why they have had success Well, once you're around them, each and every one of those guys, you understand why they did. And it's really cool. So Nil has been a blessing to me because of the people I've been able to meet and uh and I've always had that respect for those names, but then once you meet the person behind the name, it's really special. So I really want to thank those guys and you know who you are. And I, I'm, I'm gonna leave you out if I go over the list, but without you, we can't function. And so, uh, much appreciated there. Ok. So I'm gonna leave that, you know, I'm looking at myself in this deal right here. I don't look too bad last year. Um, last year was tough. So, you know, the one thing we're trying to tell our team is, is that no matter what you did yesterday, it has really, it won't have an effect on what you today unless you use it as a positive or a learning experience, whichever way it is. So we're trying to flush everything every practice. We've had 16 really good ones and, uh last year was hard because we, we lost so many close games, you know, five and played better on the road than we did at home. So there are some things that we have to get fixed and I think we do, but I want to say this and I'll say it as many times I love this football team that we have right now. It's a good football team. You, I want you to be excited. I do. I mean, I want you to be excited about the football team. You got to get off this negative, this negative that, that ain't never solved no problems. You know, just listen, believe in the Hawks. You, you do, we've got a good football team. You're gonna enjoy watching the Hawks play and you're gonna enjoy it if hopefully you can get over there on Thursday night and watch us play here in the Great city of Little Rock. That would be if we could pack that, that would sure make a big difference. You know, Thursday night was something that we had to kind of figure out to be perfectly honest with you in that. Um, you know, every year they come to me about time to play the game and the, the hardest thing on a Saturday is, is that everybody, not everybody. A lot of people want to have the night game here in Little Rock on Saturday night. And, uh, honestly I did not and I didn't, because we would get back at 230 in the morning on a home game. And, uh, I didn't want to do it. Well, 11 a it was probably can't get drunk enough, I don't think. I mean, you, I think you can try, but, well, hell, I've done it a couple of times but I mean, but that's hard and get in the game, you know. And so then if you go at three o'clock, well, half time, it's time to everybody's passing out in the stands. So we thought that Thursday night might be a good, good deal. It would be good for us because we would have two extra days to continue to work on the next opponent. So I'm really excited to see how it goes, you know, and, and, uh, having a night game here in Little Rock, I think it's gonna be really fun. And, and Thursday night, we'd love to see you all out there and supporting us. We've had 16 days of practice right now and, uh, when we get back today will be, uh, obviously, we, um, are preparing, uh, our own team. We're not really headed towards Pine Bluff yet. Uh, but we're trying to get better as a football team, but we've had 16 really good practices and two of them were scrimmages. And so we've got a little, you know, it's a physical game out there. And so we've got a few dinks and things but nothing where a guy would miss any time, uh, right now, but I don't know how you get any better if you don't practice blocking and tackling and, and, uh, a lot of, a lot of football now is going to, oh, what it is, it's like a flag type deal in practice just so you can stay healthy to get to a game, but the games aren't any fun if you don't, if you're not ready when you get there. So we've been very fiscal. Uh obviously you guys, y'all know I hired Bobby Patrina or no, it wasn't a very popular move in the state and I'm going, damn, I should have hired somebody they wanted, you know. Ok. Uh Bobby's been super since he's come uh since, since he decided to come back to Arkansas, uh very passionate about, about the state of Arkansas, um uh been um uh been great is what it's been. Um, we, we were able to hire, you know, we lost a lot of the offensive staff and we were able to hire Ronnie Foch as a wide receiver who, who coached with Bobby and uh Kobe Smith, who coached twice with Bobby at running backs and he also played for the Chiefs. You remember that guys when he played for the Chiefs or no? I hope nobody says yes. And that way I'll tell him, hell, nobody remembered you. Uh And then Eric Matus, uh Eric was my G A and now I'm his G A at the, at the offensive line position and Eric Eric was here three years with me when I was here as an offensive line coach and he's doing a super job uh with those guys. But, um, the, the, the entire defensive staff is back, uh which we improved a lot last year defensively and I think having them all back will, uh, help us there. Uh, and then, uh, Scott Fountain is back. He's, I think he's the only coach on the staff that stayed with me the complete five years, him and Pat. But Pat's just coaching all the people in the building. Not, not the players, the schedule, I think right now we're about 48 50,000. Is that right? Pat season tickets? Is that right where we're at 48 to 50,000 season tickets sold, you had 15 students, uh, 15,000 students in there. Uh I think we're going to end up, uh, having full capacity, especially, you know, we're gonna have, what kind of season I think we're gonna have here. You better if you don't have your season ticket or, or your, uh, if you're not a student, you're a student, no grad student and you better get to buy them game tickets up because we're gonna have a hell of a season. I, I just, I, I love, did I tell you, I love the football team this year. You would too if you was out there. So I was flying to the SEC media days and I was going over what I was going to say and as you can tell I write some stuff down and then I never say what's on the piece of paper because a piece of paper, Frank is better than what's coming out of my mouth but I just start rambling, you know, and as I was talking, I said, well, we, you know, and I had Andrew Armstrong and I had, uh Lannon Jackson and, uh, and Taylor Green on the field and I, I was going, well, you know, I was talking, I was go, well, we, we play seven opponents in the top 25 and this, that and another and right when I got it, Andrew Armstrong said, hell, they got to play us too, you know, which, that's the kind of mentality that our kids have. And, uh, so let's just briefly do this and then ba let's go to work offensively. You're gonna love Taylor Green, big tall fast, got great leaderships, great leadership skills. Um, all running backs, we've got five of them and they can play. They're, they're good. You're gonna like Jonny Jack, you're gonna like Rashad do be, you're gonna like Raylan Russell, uh really has done a really good job and then we got a couple of transfers more in there. Our, our tight ends, they're all back. Luke has is healthy. Um, and they're all back. We added, uh, a tight end to our roster, Paula and then our offensive line, we added four out of the portal. Three of those four are starting us and we needed edge help. So there are two tackles and a center, those three we got, we hit on every one of them. Uh, you're gonna enjoy watching those guys play, uh, a wide receiver. We, we added in the portal, but we also had, we didn't lose anybody. We had our, our, basically our entire tire guys who played coming back. Ok, defensively, I like our two D there's a guy named Anton June co that came from Albany and he's a really, really good defensive end. I think you'll enjoy watching him. Landed Jackson. We can't, you know, we're having a hard time blocking him at practice him and CBA, they're really good players. Um, and then at linebacker, we've got 4 to 5 there, depth wise. I think you're, you're gonna hear about Spence. So a guy named Steven Dix and then Switzer, I think you'll, we got a young freshman from, uh, Hoover Alabama named Brad Shaw that I think you'll enjoy watching as well. And then in the secondary, um, got a lot of guys coming back with, with Braxton and Robinson and, and, uh, single, single Terry and, and, uh, uh, Stewart at the corners and then the safety, you know, you got Hud Hud's just, uh, been here, I think he's been here longer than I have Hudson. Oh, I forgot to tell you the wide receiver he had a birthday, Monte Harrison and he's now the third oldest guy in the building. Me, Bobby and then damn him. Damn 29. Um He asked him, could he return punts? He said, hey, have you seen me in center field if you can run down in baseball, you sure as hell can catch a football. I felt dumb. I'm going, oh, I, I didn't know that, you know, one place I didn't play when I played baseball was center field, Kesher. There you go. But, um, anyway, so I like the football team that we have a battle there going on at kicker. Ok. So we lost Cam Little and we have a battle going on there, uh, with Matt Matt Shipley and, uh Kyle Ramsey and, uh I don't, it's gonna go down to the wire there. They both really had good fall camps and, uh, then Devin Bell is going to be our punter for us, man. He's having a good, good camp too. And you know, these are, these are these when you get up in front of wonderful fans like you are, uh, you want, you want to preach some positive things you do, you want to pump up the people in the audience, but hell, I'm just telling you the truth. We got a good football team, a good group of guys that are leaders in the locker room. They work extremely hard and I damn sure think they're gonna make the state of Arkansas proud. Uh, on Sunday morning, you get up and go to church or if you don't or if you don't. Well, you still can be happy about the hogs, but I think you're gonna feel really good about this football team because we certainly do. Ok. So I'm gonna have Dave, uh, David ask me some questions and then I'll give him his belt belt back and then I'll take some pictures and then I gotta go home. Thank you. Everybody. Let me get your chair real quick.