Evidently he gets a $100K bonus for making any bowl game (and got it last year for the Texas Bowl even though we didn’t play) and $150K for a group of 6 bowl, such as Outback or Gator. But what if he makes the Citrus, or a New Year’s Six bowl?
Thanks. I was looking for that PDF and couldn’t find it. It doesn’t define Tier 1 and Tier 2 but evidently Citrus would be Tier 2 and an NY6 game would be $200K bonus.
Also of note is that Sam’s buyout if he took another job was cut in half today. Thus even more urgency to get him locked down.
His wife loves hot springs and they just upgraded their home. Obviously want to make him feel appreciated, but don’t think locking him down is necessary. Or locking anyone down for that matter. If a coach isn’t happy here, it aint gonna work. Contract doesn’t change that.
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Better lock him down more than he is right now. He isn’t a 9 million guy but he ain’t a 3 million guy either.
In sec coordinators are almost making that now.
Tier 2 bowls are defined in the contract that he signed after the offer letter, but oddly the Citrus isn’t one of them (the seven group of six games are listed). I think that’s probably just an oversight. I assume his bonus will be $150,000 for the bowl game regardless.
Why do you keep rattling the cage? Is it foreign for you to think that Sam is in his dream job and trusts Hunter to do him right? Can it not be that simple to you? We finally have a coach that truly wanted to come put out this dumpster fire and restore the pride of the Arkansas Football team, simply because he truly loves this state and program. He’s already being paid life-changing money…for him. Why does everyone think that Sam Pittman should, all of a sudden, become money hungry? I just don’t think that is in his nature, and I, for one, am very happy that it is not.
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Good post Jeremy.
BTW it’s not who Sam is. What’s so hard to understand that. HY will do his job, IMO and keep what he has in FB, BB, and Baseball, ya think?
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I wish I shared your outlook on people. In my profession when folks say it is not about the money or it is the principle or my beliefs it is ALWAYS about the $$$$$$
Him changing agents maybe something or maybe nothing. However a change like that is generally made for financial benefit.
I like him and enjoy his style. I also think other schools may as well. Also believe if you beat a bunch of guys making a lot more than you then you yourself wanna get paid similar to your competition.
I totally get your point, but I don’t think you get who Sam is.
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I get who we all want Sam to be and maybe he doesn’t change. The job of head football coach in the sec has changed. There is no loyalty in the position. It is almost a weeke to week survival fight to get your before you yourself get gotten.
We both want the same things and are both hoping Sam is different from others.
Thank you, Jeremy
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Everybody has an opinion, including me, but I wonder if those who are of the opinion that when someone says it is not about the money, then it is always about the money are speaking more about themselves than the person in question. I suspect Sam understands where he is in life, with fewer years left in the coaching world, so he may factor that into his thinking. He may also recognize that getting into the openings conversations to leverage his salary can change the climate.
I would think that his relationship with Hunter is close enough that each know the other’s expectations and they will work through this. I am also not sure that Sam’s story and it’s link to the Arkansas culture that he has so skillfully revived is automatically or easily repeated or transfers to new locations. It seems that a big part of Sam and the uptick is Sam AND Arkansas.
I know it is a new frontier, but nearly four million annually is or was a pretty nice salary, or least until the flood gates reopened. Sam would be smart to use some if not most of his leverage on staff salaries. He is the face and heart of the program, but clearly a benefactor of strong assistants.
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My opinion, and it is purely that, is that Sam didn’t care what the salary was when HY walked into his house in Athens two years ago because all he wanted was a chance. He got that chance, and he has taken it and run with it. But coaches are competitive people, and Sam is beating coaches whose paychecks are a lot bigger. There are two ways coaches keep score: The big one in the south end zone on Saturday, and the dollars hitting their bank account every two weeks. Now, with the crazy numbers that are being thrown around (Billy Napier was making $2 mill in Lafayette and I suspect that’s more like $5M now, never mind the SAO Kelly got in Baton Rouge), he might think he’s underpaid.
I think HY is aware of this, and he’s going to properly take care of Sam.
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It is really naive to assume Sam Pittman is going to pass on a multi-million dollar raise because he just loves Arkansas.
Big time college football is about the money. If a school has a coach who is happy, it’s not hard to keep them, you show them the money — and they stay. If you don’t, they leave.
Arkansas has never lost a coach over money. For years I have read folks saying “they will go to x school, so they can win a National title, no matter what we pay” — that’s not how it works, you pay the money and they stay. 7-5, 8-4 and a periodic breakthrough to 10-2 gets you retirement and happiness at Arkansas. It gets you fired at the Floridas and OUs of the world.
Pittman appears to be the best coach we have had since Coach Hatfield. He took a program that had been left for dead, and in two years has revived it to a level of winning not seen in a decade. And I am talking about character as well as his x and o ability. If we want to keep him, we got to pay him. If another school offers him 6 million and a 20 million dollar buyout, and Arkansas says “if you don’t love it here enough to make half that, goodbye” — then he’s gone. I have read folks say Arkansas does not have the money to compete with some schools, not true.
Arkansas can pay whatever is necessary to keep a coach.
Coach Hatfield is a good example of why those who are head coaches have to get the money while they can. Hatfield was and remains the winningest coach in UA history; what did we do? We ran him off. The fans always turn on a coach and second-guess everything. Fans eventually lose their appreciation for consistent winning and run off the coach. It’s just how it is these days. So a winning HC has to get paid before it happens. And at Arkansas we love to turn ungrateful and run off winning coaches. But in fairness, except for maybe Kentucky football, so does every school.
So, we will pay Sam or we will be starting over again. If we lose Pittman over money, our management will have made a mistake that could prove fatal. I don’t have much faith in the management of Arkansas athletics. They ruined Arkansas basketball for 20 years and almost drove football into oblivion. But……we’ll see. The current AD so far has apparently made the right moves when challenged.
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Not quite true. After the surprising 1954 season, Bowden Wyatt was given a raise (to $15,000!) and new Cadillac by the fans – and promptly drove it to Knoxville to take over as HC of the Vols, breaking a five-year contract at UA to do so, because EOE paid more. But then Wyatt had broken a contract at Wyoming to become our coach, so we shouldn’t have been surprised.
Given the fact that we lose a lot of quality players this year and we have possibly an even tougher schedule next year, we might fall short of 8-4.
Past experience with perfect fits for the UA job (Hatfield and HDN) indicates fans will start the “He can’t get us to the next level” garbage.
Pittman needs to take money if he can get it.
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True, I remember reading about it.
I should have prefaced by saying “since I have been alive”…
Jack Mitchell left Arkansas to go to Kansas. Don’t know any details concerning relative salaries.
Mitchell was 17-12-1 at UA and finished midpack in the SWC all three years. I doubt we put up much of a fight. He did recruit my dad though.