ATHENS, Ga. -- To understand University of Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman's deep ties to today's game against No. 2 Georgia, it's necessary to go back 41 years.
An impressionable senior at Grove (Okla.) High School in 1980, Pittman watched in fascination as Georgia powered its way to a 12-0 record and a national championship game win over Notre Dame behind super freshman running back Herschel Walker.
"You know, I'm in high school graduating in 1980 and yes, he's the biggest, fastest guy I'd ever seen, and they were rolling," Pittman said "So yeah, that's where it started."
That's how Pittman's fascination with Georgia football started. How it's going now is Pittman's surprising No. 8 Razorbacks (4-0, 1-0 SEC) face the Bulldogs (4-0, 2-0) and his former boss Kirby Smart today at 11 a.m. at Sanford Stadium.
Arkansas' revival -- after back-to-back 2-10 seasons in 2018-19 -- has taken college football by storm. Pittman's slow talking, honest commentary and dry wit has made him the darling of Razorback fans and many in the national media.
The Razorbacks have earned their first top 10 ranking since being No. 8 in Week 2 of 2012.
They are chasing a slice of history today. Arkansas has not won on the road as a top 10 team against another top 10 team since the No. 8 Razorbacks upset No. 1 Texas 14-13 during the 1964 national championship season.
Smart projected a stronger Arkansas program after Pittman's departure as his offensive line coach in December 2019 following a four-year run that included the 2017 SEC championship and a heartbreaking loss to Alabama in the College Football Playoff title game.
Neither man could have known their teams would meet in the 2020 season opener due to covid-19 dictating an all-SEC schedule before this regularly scheduled game.
"I mean, it's culture, it's creating the right atmosphere, it's getting key players at key positions," Smart said to describe Pittman's rapid transformation at Arkansas.
"With the portal and the transfer situation and recruiting the way it is, you can turn over a little quicker than maybe having to build it from the ground up."
Pittman's teenage self, who had gone to football camps at Arkansas under Coach Lou Holtz, liked the idea of one day coaching at Georgia.
"I always had a thing for Georgia, always, since Herschel Walker," Pittman told Dawg Nation last spring.
Walker, the Heisman Trophy winner in 1982, is the SEC's all-time leading rusher with 5,259 yards in three seasons. Georgia's Nick Chubb, whose college career overlapped two seasons with Pittman in 2016-17, ranks second with 4,769 yards and Arkansas' Darren McFadden is third with 4,590.
So Pittman, who had napkins with the phrase, "Run the Damn Ball" laid out for the UA search committee of Hunter Yurachek, Jon Fagg and Steve Cox at his home in Athens, Ga., has connections with and an affinity for the top three rushers in SEC history. McFadden has given Pittman ringing endorsements since his hiring less than two years ago.
The Razorbacks laid down their first marker in Pittman's first game as head coach, leading Georgia 7-5 at halftime and 10-5 early in the third quarter before falling 37-10 on Sept. 26, 2020.
While Pittman is clearly energized by playing Georgia and eager to visit with former colleagues like Smart, defensive coordinator Dan Lanning and others, he doesn't give away those emotions to his players.
"Coach Pittman is the same man every week," senior receiver Tyson Morris said. "Every day he comes in ready to work. He believes in us more than anybody in this building. Everybody believes in us, but he truly believes in us.
"He believes we're going to go out and play our heart out for him which we will. He's not over-hyped, but if you say over-hyped then he's over-hyped every week about every game because he wants to win the game that we have ahead of us. We're just focused on Georgia just like we were focused on Rice. Just like we were focused on Georgia Southern."
Pittman's desire to coach at Georgia underwent a lot of simmering as he rose from the assistant ranks in high school to junior college head coach to offensive line positions all around the country. It took a long, winding buildup and 36 years after the Herschel Walker Era under Vince Dooley for Pittman to get his chance with the Bulldogs.
Pittman had not really had a conversation with Smart before, but Smart initiated one as Alabama's defensive coordinator after the Crimson Tide edged Arkansas 14-13 at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in 2014. This came during Pittman's stint as offensive line coach and assistant head coach on Bret Bielema's staff from 2013-15, a time in which Pittman's nationwide recruiting drew attention and the offensive line mostly assembled by him graced the cover of the Razorbacks' 2015 media guide.
"He just came over and said that when he gets a job, he's going to make it hard for me not to go with him," Pittman said. "I told him, 'You'd better go back and look at the tape before you get to saying all that stuff.' And he laughed."
The remarks from Smart, a former Georgia defensive back, touched something in Pittman.
He went home and said he told his wife, Jamie, "I don't want to leave here, but if anything ever happens at Georgia and he gets that job, I'm going to definitely look at it if he's serious."
Pittman said he considered writing Smart a note telling him he enjoyed the on-field chat but decided to let things run their course.
"I'm not one of them calling guys and writing them notes," Pittman said. "That ain't my style. So I just waited and we went over there [to Alabama] and played them and he said some nice things then. Then whenever he got the job, he had his agent reach out to me."
Smart accepted the job at Georgia following the 2015 season and held true to his promise to Smart even after Bielema arranged for the offensive linemen to drop in on Pittman and ask him to stay.
"I don't want to get into that really, but once I told Jamie that's what we were going to do ... at that point in the business, once you tell somebody you're leaving, I mean, you're leaving," Pittman said. "At that point there's no, 'Hey, let me think about it a couple of days' once you say that.' I had said that."
In addition to the old fondness for Walker, Pittman saw a college powerhouse heading for an upswing with Smart.
"Georgia had an elite program, and part of me thought, I'd like to experience those things, of [winning] national championships and those things," Pittman said. "A big part of it, they were in the East at the time, and the East wasn't as powerful as the West. So there's a lot of things that went into that."
Georgia won the 2017 SEC championship in a 28-7 rout of Auburn in a rematch game, then outlasted Oklahoma and Baker Mayfield 54-48 in two overtimes in the Rose Bowl. The Bulldogs fell 26-23 in overtime to Alabama in the College Football Playoff Championship Game in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
"I never had the opportunities in my coaching career to do what we did at Georgia," Pittman told Dawg Nation. "In other words, I never got to go to the national championship game. Never went to the Rose Bowl. Never went to the Sugar Bowl. And the fans at Georgia are certainly incredible.
"I had some of the four best years of my life there at Georgia working under Kirby and learned a lot from him."
Smart predicted success for Pittman when he took the Arkansas job.
"I've got a lot of respect for Sam and his staff," Smart said. "They've done a tremendous job creating a new culture and energy there at Arkansas. We wouldn't expect anything less from him.
"Very thankful for what he did with our organization before he left and just an exciting atmosphere. I can't wait to see the atmosphere with our fan base. The early kick should be very interesting."
Pittman has credited Smart with ramping up he recruiting game and bringing that approach to Arkansas, as well as other facets of the industry.
"I learned a lot from Coach," Pittman said. "I mean, a lot about practice organization, a lot about assistants. I don't know if pressure is the word but putting demands on assistant coaches to be the best they can be.
"Obviously recruiting. You know, Coach, all he wants to do is win. I mean .. he's going to treat people right and all that. ... But he's at his alma mater and he wants to win for the state of Georgia, the University of Georgia.
"I mean, you've got to respect all that. His kids, they play extremely hard. You don't find many teams that are playing extremely hard that don't have high respect for the head coach, and they do."
The same could be said for how these resurgent Razorbacks feel about Pittman.
At a glance
RECORDS Arkansas 4-0, 1-0 SEC; Georgia 4-0, 1-0
COACHES Sam Pittman (7-7 in second season at Arkansas); Kirby Smart
(56-14 in sixth season at Georgia)
LINE Georgia by 18
SERIES Georgia leads 11-4
RADIO Razorbacks Sports Network