Berry Tramel Show: OSU-Arkansas for the first time since 1980: 'A shame that it's been that long,'

welcome to the Barry traml show and this week we've got a very special guest Oklahoman Sam Pitman coaches the Arkansas Razer backs the Hogs will be in Stillwater on Saturday for a showdown against OSU historic game this is a an old old rivalry that's been dormant for 44 years it renews on Saturday Sam tell us uh tell us about the excitement level of Arkansas playing Oklahoma State the nearest major college football prog to fville is in Still Water yeah it's kind of a shame uh that it's been that long to be honest with you um 1979 was my I graduated in 80 but um 79 was my um last High School football season you know and I remember uh Arkansas played Tulsa and they played Oklahoma State a lot back then um and had and and and it had became a pretty good rivalry obviously because of distance and the kids you know were probably recruited by both universities and and uh so uh certainly are excited to get to still water and and uh and have an opportunity to play Oklahoma State when you look at this uh when you look at this matchup Cowboys coming off a a pretty good year Arkansas coming off a pretty disappointing year but it looks to me like the the teams are fairly close in Talent level what's what's your take on on this matchup well first of all they're Oklahoma State's really well coached and and have been for a long time and play extremely hard have a lot of talent a lot of returners coming back um you're going to have to beat them they're not going to beat themselves um you have to you're going to have to uh find ways to um uh be patient and and uh do a good job schematically and uh but you know watching them last week U uh very very good football team a lot of great skill U certainly have at each level on defense uh uh more than one but some outstanding players on each level you know the defensive line uh uh linebacker and then secondary I I just like nine I think I think uh uh Rucker a really really good player you know along with Martin and Oliver but then they have more than that but uh you in offensively obviously they've got the big horse you know running the football and and their quarterback is uh extremely efficient with what they asked him to do and you know they went in the portal and got a I think an outstanding wide receiver uh transferred in from Washington State and they already had some and then of course the kid from bsby uh they're going to get in the football Pressley he's been Dynamic for a long long time their special teams are very very solid you know they're kicker made a 52 y last week so uh and I know their home crowd they're right on top of you so it'll be just a really big challenge for us uh but we're excited about it Sam let's let's talk a little bit about your Oklahoma ties of course you were born in aleno uh raised a good chunk of your childhood in Canton um moved to Grove your dad got a coaching job in Grove and that's where you graduated high school most Oklahomans have spent some time Grove been on Grand Lake uh a lot of people don't know where Canton is in Northwest Oklahoma I actually do in 1956 my dad coached basketball at Longdale about he was over at Longdale eight miles north of can on my in my office there's a picture of the 1956 Longdale basketball team with my dad coaching it so you know when I was at Canton Longdale went to I'm I'm going to say eighth grade and then they merged over and the the kids came from Longdale over to Canton I actually uh was at Wanga Gary Canton so I'd go to the bla County track meet I knew everybody every kid at the track meet you know and then uh my 10th grade year we went spring break Barry we went to Grove my dad uh the superintendent uh Jim Bradford at kanton had took the superintendent job at Grove and so my dad said hey let's go for spring break you go to class and do you know whatever their spring break isn't spring break so go to class and meet some of the kids I didn't know what he meant but uh basically I think my dad knew he had a job at Grove and he wanted me to go over there I didn't have a say so and whether we was going to move over there or not but my dad uh uh my dad back then recruiting was different I wasn't a very good player but uh was good enough to play at some college level and uh so my dad moved moved us over to Grove and I think a big chunk of that was so I might have an opportunity to get recruited and get my college paid for which I did at Pittsburgh state but um you know the lake Canton has a lake as you well know and uh so I was raised on a lake there and and then Grove having the lake was a a lot of fun and now Jamie and I have a a retirement home in Hot Springs on Lake Hamilton so kind of has gone that way throughout my whole life love to fish and love to get out there on the boat so but the experience growing up in Oklahoma uh when I was in central Oklahoma I was a big Oklahoma Sooner fan you know uh as a lot of lot of folks are U moving over to Eastern Oklahoma became either Oklahoma State or Arkansas and I had come to a camp between my junior senior year at the University of Arkansas I fell in love in Arkansas they didn't they didn't know who I was in Lou Holtz didn't and he still doesn't you know but and I don't blame him I wouldn't recruited me either but I came over I fell in love with the Hogs I had a uncle and Aunt that lived in Dober Arkansas that had great passion for the Hogs and and I for whatever reason it fit me uh wanted to be a part of the program was not a good enough player to do it but I always had a love for the for the Hogs well you embark on a coaching career that takes you a lot of places including OU but you landed Arkansas I don't know a decade or so ago and little longer than a decade and then you take uh get hired Away by Kirby Smart and when Arkansas needs a head coach they come calling back I've always been impressed with assistant coaches who leave a place for another job and the original School wants them back as head coach what was it about your connection with the Razer backs when you were an assistant that you you became really connected with them and they wanted to stay connected with you well I think you know a lot of times we're on the first train smoking you know as an assistant the Portal's been in existence for coaches for a long long time um when I first got here I was here about four weeks as offense I'd come from Tennessee and and uh I was here about four to six weeks and I'd gotten offered the offensive line coach at Alabama and um my mother uh said have you had a meeting with those kids I said yes ma'am she said you talk about loyalty yes ma'am you talk about trust yes ma'am she said well then I didn't raise a kid that would be somewhere for four weeks and leave and so that was kind of the end of that conversation I think that meant something to the state of Arkansas it got out that I'd been offered the job and you know i' I got offered the old line coaching job at the Buffalo Bills my my buddy Rex Ryan who's an Oklahoma kid as well uh had offered me that job and and uh decided the timing wasn't good and I stayed here there so I think part of the Loyalty part of that uh me being and I we had Jamie and I had bought a we had bought a place in Hot Springs so we were going to retire here after our Georgia days so I think all that had something to do with it and and then I think everybody here knew I had a strong passion for the state of Arkansas the people and the university and and a few guys had had to turn the job down too you know uh but it all worked out well for me one thing you've been known for throughout your career as a great recruiter which uh sometimes that goes along with offensive line coach coaching sometimes not what what is it that makes you uh do you think why have you been able to establish yourself as a really good recruiter well I think recruiting is hard work you know you have to be willing to you know I always wanted to lay my head down at night going I've done everything I need to do I want always want to be the best assistant in every phase uh that the head coach hired I want to be good in recruiting I want to be a good coach I want to be loyal to him uh part of the being a good coach is you better have good players and so I knew if I want to be known as a good position coach I I needed to go get the players and and uh you I was a not writer I still do now I write notes and the texting and the and uh eror of and the X I guess they call it now and uh I still write handwritten notes I was I'd sit down and write 25 every morning and write to Mam and daddies and it was just work and uh obviously the logo that you're recruiting to it matters as well you know it matters who you can get and who who you possibly can't but um I think it's just being yourself understanding who's a decision maker it's changed a little bit now Barry obviously with the finances involved in recruiting um you can do a great job we have to understand that as head coaches with our assistant coaches too they can do a great job and they can work hard but if the dollar amount is significantly different than somebody else's dollar amount you're going to lose the kid uh so it has changed a little bit and it's changed a little bit for me as a head coach too uh because of money being involved you know the Aransas job that you have has changed over the years um all jobs sort of uh change throughout uh throughout time but uh whether it's uh changing conference changing opponents it it looks to like the the Razer back's job has gotten both uh perhaps easier and perhaps harder but the easy part I see is in this in this uh nil era you're a basically a one school state when you're talking about the power conference everybody's pulling together got a lot of prominent uh boosters and companies that want to see the Razer backs do well that plays right into nil on the other hand the dang League adds Oklahoma and Texas and just makes it harder on everybody where do you see this Arkansas job and how it how it fits in trying to trying to climb that SEC ladder I certainly think the University of Arkansas should be able to compete in the SEC history says it's been difficult you know when we were in the Southwest Conference we had quite a bit more success than uh what we've had over the last I don't know what it is now maybe 30 Years or or so since we've been in SEC maybe more um but at the same same time um you you you take an Arkansas job because of that you know you want that you want that um our state has not over time uh and it's not it's a lot like Oklahoma too you you know it doesn't uh produce because of population uh the number of kids that the Texas schools do and you know the bigger States and more populated areas Georgia um so that makes a little bit more difficult as well well because you you know you don't have those guys that have grown up as many uh that love the Hogs now the the ones that that do they they love the Hogs but there's just not as many uh so that has been a little bit uh more difficult uh in recruiting even though we're the only ones out there uh in the power five conference but uh I agree with you ad in Oklahoma and Texas uh could give you a little bit of juice in recruiting you're going to play these guys every year along with LSU and Alabama and all these teams uh and at the same time uh it makes your schedule much more difficult and you have to figure out who you're going to play nonconference and then you look around you're going to Oklahoma State a top 15 program in the country along with all the other teams you're play in SEC very very difficult but that's why we get we got in this conference Sam in the off season you did something that uh a lot of coaches wouldn't do it it to me it was a it was a sign of a coach very comfortable in his own skin but you brought back as offensive coordinator a former Arkansas head coach who had been very successful Bobby patrino uh what what led to that decision how has it gone and was that a difficult decision it wasn't difficult for me after I talked to him and after I talked to people that knew him it wasn't at all I I just want to win Barry you know and I felt like Bobby would give us the best opportunity to win um you know who gets credit and all that that that means to be honest with you nothing to me uh you know we we're doing this for the kids and for the state and uh we we want to have a good football team I felt like Bobby patrino was the best hire that I possibly could make if I knew it was available before I probably would have went after him before um but um you know over the last 20 years I think we've had nine plus winning seasons three times um three different three different people have done that uh obviously Houston nut uh myself and Bobby and uh having two of those three in the same building uh and I knew Bobby loved Arkansas uh I think I think we can we can make a good run at it and that's the reason I hired him because I felt like he was really really good at what he does and as I've found out uh he's such a helper in a lot of different areas but he's a good man he's low as hell to me and uh uh the credit I know he's going to get some but let me say this whomever the offensive coordinator is if you're doing well he's going to get credit and you're happy that he does and hopefully he can move on and get a head coaching job and all I don't know what Bobby's you know he's he's older he's my age you know so he may just want to be here and and do well for the state but uh ego people think about thems eles and ones that don't have think about others and hopefully I don't have that ego I just want to win for the state and win win for the kids and and U so that's why I hired him well Sam you've uh had a great couple of years uh in 21 and 22 23 was a rough year you go 4 and eight you lose I wrote it down you lose uh by seven to BYU by three at LSU by seven to om Miss by three at Alabama and by four to Mississippi State how close were you last year to being a really good team and is that really what you've got this year do you have the do you have the foundation of a good team we do we have we we we have a good football team um uh we did well uh in the portal we had to you know exchanging players nowadays whether that be they go on the portal or whether that graduation um we found the guys that fit us so I feel really good about that you know we went on a I believe maybe five out of six weeks in a row where we were on the road and we were losing you know at Alabama by three at LSU we were tied they they they drove down we had the ball down three at Alabama and couldn't score uh we were ahead of Old Miss in the fourth at Old Miss and and we just lost all of them you know and and very very difficult now we did go to Florida towards the end of the year and won in overtime and that was that certainly was a a good game for us but uh yes I you know records sometimes don't indicate what kind of football team you have um and I felt the the disappointing thing to be honest with you Barry about last year was the way that we finished I mean we you know you can live with you don't want to you got to figure out how to win the close game which we lost several of those but the disappointing thing was the two out of three the Auburn game and the Missouri game uh two of our last three games where we just didn't we we got our ass kicked and it was just disappointing that we didn't play well and play harder and and all that starts with me and and so we had to figure that out but uh this year here I really like the feel of our team uh uh I think we are like a little bit like Oklahoma State I think we have the right people in the right skill positions uh and we're good at uh three levels on defense as well and I think it's going be a hell of a game on Saturday well Sam I sure appreciate the time good luck uh in Boon picking stadium and from all Oklahoma thanks for bringing the Razer backs over here this is a series that should have been renewed a long time ago I agree with you listen you've been good to me for a long time and you're great at your job and I when they asked me to uh if I'd be interested to talk to you I said bar tra hell yeah I'll be interested to talk to him I have a great respect for you I have for a long time thank you much for your time well thanks Sam I appreciate it we will see you okay