Bret Bielema remains bothered at Sam Pittman leaving for Georgia

HOOVER, Ala. – Bret Bielema is still upset at Sam Pittman.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was able to lure Pittman away from Arkansas at the cost of $650,000 per season. Pittman was one of the few coaches on Bielema’s staff who didn’t have a clause in his contract prohibiting from bolting Arkansas for an SEC program.

Therefore, when Smart approached Pittman about the Georgia offensive line coaching job, he jumped at it. It didn’t sit well with the Arkansas head coach.

“As far as what Georgia’s getting, you’ll have to figure that out on your own,” Bielema said.

Bielema initially thought he’d one-upped Georgia since Smart initially inquired about offensive coordinator Dan Enos away. But when Bielema hired Enos, he had an SEC clause written in his contract to prevent him from leaving to a conference foe.

“I stuck my tongue out, wiggled by nose and felt good about it,” Bielema said.

Then Smart landed Pittman and reunited him with offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, who he coached with at Tennessee and Arkansas. Chaney, however, took a job at Pittsburgh for the 2015 season.

Bielema hired Kurt Anderson, last with the Buffalo Bills, to replace Pittman. And in explaining the hire, Bielema took another side dig at Pittman.

“The thing Sam was great in, we’ve been trying to continue those forward,” Bielema said. “The areas he might have been a little weak in – I wanted a great technician, I wanted someone to really talk about pad level – so I wanted an NFL coach. I was able to bring in Kurt Anderson who I’m very excited about.”

Arkansas tight end Jeremy Sprinkle remembered when Pittman took the Georgia job and what it was like to hear about the team's offensive linemen visiting his house to try and convince him to stay.

“It kind of surprised a lot of guys because we weren’t expecting it,” Sprinkle said. “And then I heard most of the linemen went to his house the night before and told him not to leave. The next day he was just gone. It was kind of weird for a while.”

Sprinkle had some experience with Pittman during his time at Arkansas, since the offensive line coach likes for his tackles and tight ends to work together in tandem. He commended Pittman in how he could get the run concepts in sync with the linemen and tight ends.

“Working together on combination blocks, things like that,” Sprinkle said. “Getting that chemistry good. He had us work on the right and left sides with them. Just making sure we have our footwork right and things like that.”

Sprinkle, a fifth-year senior, also spent time with Chaney when he was Arkansas’ offensive coordinator in 2013 and 2014.

In 2014, Arkansas accounted for only 2,444 passing yards. But in 2015, the Razorbacks saw a spike in the passing game in Enos’ first season, totaling 3,486 yards through the air.

Based on Sprinkle's comparison between Chaney to Enos, it’s clear why Enos was initially targeted for the Georgia offensive coordinator position.   

“It was a transition because most of the run game concepts stayed the same but Enos added a lot of things in the passing game that really helped us and improved our passing game,” Sprinkle said. “He’s added more things this year that’s going to improve it even more this year.”

This story was originally published July 13, 2016 at 2:08 PM with the headline "Bret Bielema remains bothered at Sam Pittman leaving for Georgia."