The point of no return has been crossed in the Land of the Ozarks. The Sam Pittman era of Arkansas Razorbacks football needs to come to an end, preferably sooner rather than later. Not only have they dropped back-to-back-to-back games to fall to 2-3 on the season, but Pittman's Hogs do not play a lick of defense. This is perhaps best illustrated by the crushing 56-13 home defeat to Notre Dame.
This latest loss for the Hogs comes on the heels of blowing a massive lead on the road to regional rival Memphis at the Liberty Bowl last week and not doing enough defensively two weeks ago vs. rival Ole Miss in the Nutt Bowl. With only SEC opponents remaining, there is a chance Arkansas has won its final game under Pittman as head coach. He could be out of a job as soon as this article is written.
What this effectively does is take some much-needed pressure of Wisconsin's much-maligned head coach Luke Fickell. Outside of Florida's Billy Napier, he was sitting on arguably the hottest seat in all of college football. Needless to say, the bye is doing wonderful things for Fickell right now ahead of what will probably be another loss for the Badgers program when they take on Michigan over in Ann Arbor.
How quickly Arkansas moves on from Pittman could influence what Wisconsin opts to do with Fickell.
Sam Pittman may jump Luke Fickell in line to be the next head coach fired
Heading into this week, the four hottest seats in the Power Four after Mike Gundy's unorthodox termination on Tuesday afternoon are Fickell, Napier, Pittman and to some degree, Northwestern Wildcats head coach David Braun. While people do feel bad for the state of the Northwestern program Braun is coaching, nobody seems to be batting an eyelash at the other three being let go.
As it is with everything in college football, people react to what they just saw. Wisconsin's brutal beatdown at home to Maryland had everyone in college football asking for Fickell's head on a pike. He was able to keep his job, but nobody really thinks he is long for it. As for Pittman, Arkansas fans, and more importantly, their big-pocketed boosters, have seen three straight high-profile losses from him.
In the end, all of these head coaches who have been mentioned are not expected to keep their jobs heading into next season. Although firing head coaches before we even get to October seems to be the growing trend, every program is built differently, even the bad ones like Arkansas and Wisconsin. For the time being, Fickell can rest a bit easier knowing that Pittman is about to get roasted alive here.
Odds seem to be in Pittman's favor to be the fourth Power Four head coach fired over Fickell now.