Normally, when a new coach is introduced, it may take a while for players to buy into what a coach is selling, but it didn’t take long for Arkansas players to buy into head coach Sam Pittman’s philosophy.
One of those players is Hogs quarterback KJ Jefferson, who says he has a great relationship with his head coach.
Jefferson talked about his relationship with his head coach on “The Paul Finebaum Show” this week, saying Pittman lets the players lead the way (via 247Sports):
“That relationship is awesome,” he said. “From Day 1 since he first came here, he always tells us that this is our team and he tries to make it a player-led team as much as possible. He tries to stand in the back a little bit and let the players, leaders, captains try to orchestrate the team. When he gets a feel for him to step in, he’s going to try to step in and let us know like, ‘Hey, this is what we need to do, this is how we’ve got to execute this.’ From that point on, he’s back out and the players just come along. The leaders, captains, all of us just bond together and come along, try to make sure it’s a player-led team, rather than us being robots or going through the motions each and every day.”
Players also may be more willing to listen when they have positive results, as the Hogs did last Saturday with a win over Texas.
Veteran journalist Stacey Mickles graduated from the University of Alabama and covers SEC football for Saturday Down South.
