Fondness remains between Georgia Bulldogs and Arkansas’ Sam Pittman

“I’ve got a lot of love for Coach Pitt,” Salyer said this week. “I’d tell him that right now if I could talk to him. He poured a lot into me while he was here, and I got better.”

Salyer did. He will start at left tackle for the Bulldogs on Saturday in Fayetteville.

Asked to share some memories about his old coach this week, Salyer immediately began to laugh. His thoughts turned to the pants Pittman was wearing the day Salyer and Thomas visited Georgia’s spring practice in 2017.

“Coach Pittman, he’s always trying to look good, you know, always looking for the new, hip thing,” Salyer said. “That’s just his style. So, he had on these really tight pants and these wild shoes. He had on these joggers and, yeah, they weren’t his style, let’s just put it like that. He looks at me and says, ‘you like these?’ I just said, ‘nah, Coach, I don’t think so.’ And then he said, 'how 'bout these shoes? I said, yeah, Coach, I like those.”

“The Pants” became a topic of discussion for Pittman and Salyer every time they saw each other over the next two years.

“The next time I came up, I asked him, ‘where’s those pants?’” Salyer continued. “He says, 'ah, man, I burned 'em. You never have to worry about them again. They’re gone.’ He’s just a character.”

A character indeed. But that interaction also illustrates why Pittman is considered a world-class recruiter. He has an extraordinary ability to find some way or another to connect with everybody he recruits.

With Salyer, it was the pants. With Isaiah Wilson, it was the family Yorkie named “Jax,” which Pittman brought a treat for every time he visited in Brooklyn. With sophomore Owen Condon -- who is slated to start at right tackle for the Bulldogs on Saturday -- it’s that the y’re both from Oklahoma.

That knack for connection was apparent even before Pittman got to Georgia. It was the case when he worked with Bret Bielema at Arkansas before Kirby Smart hired him away, and it was the case at Tennessee and North Carolina before that.

It’s almost forgotten now that Pittman’s offensive line at North Carolina, where he left in 2011, had six players make NFL rosters. Georgia’s Thomas, Wilson and Solomon Kindley are the latest Pittman players to make. Thomas and Wilson were both drafted in this year’s first round as underclassmen. Kindley, who went in the fourth round, is starting for the Miami Dolphins.

In his own words, Pittman took his recruiting "to another level” while at Georgia, and that’s the main reason he is now Arkansas' head coach. But his personal connection with the players is why they play so hard for him.

“They always talked about their relationship with Sam and how they felt about him, cared about him,” Smart said of Georgia’s O-linemen this week. “He got the opportunity (to become Arkansas' head coach) and a lot of our guys reached out. They were hurt by it, but not hurt like they were mad at him. They were very thankful for his opportunity, but they were going to miss that relationship.”

Pittman left abruptly. He actually won over Arkansas' leadership during an interview in Athens the week of Georgia’s SEC Championship game appearance against LSU. He left Atlanta and flew straight to Fayetteville and was introduced as the Razorbacks' new coach the next day.

Pittman has been all Hogs ever since. There was no backyard barbecue, as had become a custom with his Georgia linemen, or anything in Athens to say goodbye or give closure to the players that loved Pittman so.

Pittman explained this week.

“I sent them all a text and talked about how much they meant to me,” Pittman said on the SEC coaches' teleconference call Wednesday. “I’ll be honest with you, I’m a crier, and if I had to step in front of them I would’ve balled my eyes out. I love those guys to this day.”

They love him back.

“I respected just how family-oriented he was and his energy on and off the field," junior center Trey Hill said. "What you got on the field is what you got off the field, the way he takes care of his players and the love and support he gives them.”

Said sophomore guard Warren Ericson: "He was well-loved all around the building. Coach Pittman recruited me here and I have great respect for him. But he’s at Arkansas now.”

Georgia wasted no time in making what was considered a home run replacement of Pittman. The Bulldogs hired Matt Luke, who had recently been fired as the Ole Miss coach, the same week Pittman left for Arkansas.

Now all parties will get an impromptu reunion in Fayetteville.

“It’s going to be weird, for sure, since he’s the one who recruited me,” Condon said of seeing Pittman. “But we’re focusing on what we’ve got here in coach (Matt) Luke and we all love playing for him, too.”

As for Pittman, he didn’t think he’d have to deal with the emotions leaving his Georgia players for a while. Initially, he was able to put 100 percent of his focus on starting the process of rebuilding a team that hasn’t won an SEC game since 2017.

But then the coronavirus pandemic turned college football upside down. As fate would have it, the SEC’s altered, conference-only schedule called for the Bulldogs open the season at Arkansas.

“Never in my wildest dreams when I took the job did I think Georgia would be the first opponent, but it is,” Pittman said. "… Kirby gave the opportunity to go there and coach for four years. It was an incredible experience for me and without that I wouldn’t be the head coach here at Arkansas, nor Mel Tucker at Michigan State. So I’m forever grateful for that.

“However, am I nervous? Yes. Why? Because they are really good. They are an outstanding football team.”

No. 4-ranked Georgia landed in Fayetteville Friday afternoon as four-touchdown favorites. But that’s not what is on Bulldogs' minds.

“We are going against a very good friend of mine in Coach Sam Pittman, who did just an unbelievable job while he was here,” Smart said. “He and his wife, Jamie, meant so much to the community here in Athens and so many of our kids. He helped build the foundation of what we have now. I am extremely happy for this opportunity he has gotten.”