Another week in college football means we start the Sunday Summary with another coaching purge. There is no waiting until the end of the season anymore, even if it costs the school a lot more money.
Notre Dame, Arkansas, and Sam Pittman
The odds of the Arkansas coach making it through the season were slim and getting slimmer by the week. Slim got anorexic on Sunday afternoon when Pittman was fired by Arkansas.
Pittman had 36 years as an assistant coach at different places before taking on the head coaching job of the Razorbacks in 2020. There was no upside to his record. Usually, you can get the “Yeah, but he did this or did that, and so needs more time.” After all, he came in after the Chad Morris debacle of an era. But he is 32-34 overall. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he is 14-29 in SEC play.
No one, not even the happiest Hog, expected Arkansas to beat Notre Dame Saturday night. But the Irish stuck the pigs 56-13 in Fayetteville. At some point, the players still try to say the right things, but the play on the field just says, it’s not there for them anymore. One could say that with so many of them getting well paid now, they need to suck it up and fight harder. But that is a big picture discussion for another day.
In the here and now, Pittman is gone. The school could have saved $3 million on his buyout if they waited a few more weeks to fire him. But they felt an odd sense of urgency to do it now. The once or twice disgraced Bobby Petrino is the interim coach for the rest of the season. And yes, Petrino will be a candidate to get his old job back.
The Future Head Coach?
In case the Petrino scandal was too far back for you to remember, well, that is what we are here for…to dredge up people’s ugly past.
Back in 2012, Petrino was injured in a motorcycle crash on a two-lane highway about 20 miles southeast of Fayetteville. Petrino said the sun and wind caused him to lose control of his motorcycle, and the school bought the story. The police report was a different story.
The police report revealed that Petrino had someone else on his motorcycle with him: former Arkansas volleyball player Jessica Dorrell, who was 25 years old at the time, or about 30 years younger than the married, father of four, Petrino. He was fired for cause (for the inappropriate work relationship) about a month later. But forgiveness for the sake of football could be a thing at Arkansas this year.
Sssshhhh
You know what howling fan base has gotten temporarily quiet lately? The folks in Tuscaloosa. After the season-opening loss to Florida State, far too many of them were ready to help Kaeln DeBoer pack his house and move out. But it turns out Florida State is a decent team so no shame there. And Saturday night, DeBoer and the Tide continued a tradition unlike any other. They beat Georgia.
Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart has a record of 108-20 in his 10th season at Georgia. But he is 1-7 against Bama, including the 24-21 loss Saturday night in Athens.
But hey, guess what? Alabama’s Ty Simpson, it turns out, is a good quarterback. He was 24 of 38 passing Saturday night for 276 yards and two touchdowns. And the former Heisman candidate, Georgia candidate Gunner Stockton, was 13 of 20, throwing for 130 yards and a touchdown. And yes, we used the past tense to describe his Heisman candidacy.
Bama has won three in a row, and the fan base is looking to repurpose the moving boxes they set aside for DeBoer.
Speaking of Heisman
We told you two weeks ago that we were starting the bus on the Trinidad Chambliss bandwagon. The Ole Miss quarterback, it turns out, is not a fluke.
In the 24-19 win at home over LSU, the transfer from Ferris State engineered 480 yards of offense. He threw for 314 yards with one touchdown and an interception. Since taking the starting spot in place of the injured Austin Simmons three weeks ago, he has thrown for 974 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception. That is in three games. And of course, the Rebels being undefeated helps his hype.
The Trinidad Train Heisman campaign is just getting started.
Have You Talked To Kirby Smart This Week?
As we pointed out above, the Georgia coach is 1-7 against Alabama. We are thinking there is a support group to be formed, starting with him and Penn State coach James Franklin. Top 10 Oregon and quarterback Dante Moore went to Happy Valley and “whited out” the Nittany Lions, 30-24. Moore, in his first full season as the Ducks starter, far outperformed PSU’s Drew Allar.
But the real stats that matter? James Franklin, in his 12th season at Penn State, is 4-21 versus Big 10 schools that are ranked in the Top 10. We have gotten used to him losing to highly ranked Michigan and Ohio State teams. Now we add Oregon to the kryptonite list for Franklin.
Let Us Listen In
We continue to be big supporters of the ACC’s transparency. And no, we are not talking about the statement the conference issued Saturday night after the officiating crew completely missed a big offsides penalty on Georgia Tech in the game at Wake Forest.
We are talking about showing the official reviews of plays during games. We are talking about showing us the conference operations center during the reviews and letting us hear the conversation between the replay officials and the referee at the game. It lends great insights into the process. Every conference needs to follow that lead.
Connecting Dots
Inductive reasoning can be tricky, but here we go. Number 23 Illinois beat number 21 USC. That comes a week after number 11 Indiana trashed Illinois 63-10. Therefore, Indiana is really good. How did we do?
Far from a one-year wonder, the Hoosiers are living high with quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the transfer from Cal. He is second in the country with 16 passing touchdowns and is throwing at better than a 70% completion rate. Mendoza is good = Indiana is good.
Vehicular Violations
We have seen monies raised to fly banners over games and athletic facilities demanding that coaches be fired. But in Los Angeles, it is about your vehicle. So it can’t be surprising that a transport vehicle was used last week to drive around the campus area demanding that UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond be fired.
The black van had the messages “UCLA Football deserves better Fire AD Martin Jarmond,” “Empty Rose Bowl & Huge Debt UCLA Football Fans Know AD Martin Jarmond Has To Go,” and “$7 Million Buyout For UCLA’s AD? Failure Never Paid So Well,” and “DeShaun Foster Is Still An All-Time Great Bruin.”
UCLA has a new chancellor, one who actually cares about college athletics, Julio Frenk. So Jarmond’s tenure at the school is shaky, following his firing of head coach DeShaun Foster two weeks ago. But we doubt the van will be the deciding factor, and we look for it to be converted into an ice cream truck for the campus in the near future.
Main Image: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports
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