Sam Pittman has a message for the Internet trolls: His Tweets aren’t for you.
So if someone scrolling his or her Twitter timeline doesn’t want to see Pittman’s positive vibes – and there’s plenty for the Arkansas head man, whose got his Razorbacks ranked No. 10 in the AP Top 25 – just keep scrolling.
Don ’t bother responding.
The hard-charging, momentum-building Pittman isn’t having it.
“I’d rather be ranked 10, I’d rather be ranked No. 1, but I’d rather be ranked 10 than 100,” Pittman said Wednesday on the Southeastern Conference’s coaches’ teleconference. “I’m proud of where we are today; it doesn’t mean anything about Saturday’s game but I’m proud of it, and certainly as long as we continue to do the things that got us to this point, we should play well on Saturdays.
“I believe if you get that high, then in recruiting, I believe we ought to use it.”
On Monday, when the Razorbacks soared to No. 10 in the AP and No. 11 in the AFCA Coaches Poll, Pittman Tweeted out a graphic that displayed Arkansas’ No. 10 ranking.
When he spoke to reporters about the decision to Tweet, Pittman emphasized it wasn’t for the benefit of anyone in the room – or, really, even the Razorbacks fan base.
It was, as so much of college football is, a recruiting mechanism.
“Well I think it’s a big deal, I do. Everybody always looks at the negative all the time,” Pittman said. “I Tweeted out that we were No. 10 and I got some responses that, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter.’
“Well, I ain’t Tweeting it out to you guys (in media) or a 50-year-old man. I’m trying to use it as recruiting. I really don’t care what the guy says. I’m trying to recruit. Not him or them. A recruit.
“So we’re proud of it, sure we’re proud of it. That doesn’t mean it’s where we want to stay, but it’s hard to be in the Top 10, we’ve done it two years in a row. The kids have done it, the assistant coaches have done it. I’m proud of it, sure am. Whenever it came out, I was smiling ear to ear.
“What that means right now, it means that we’re No. 10 today and I Tweeted it out. I’m proud of it.”
The Razorbacks host former head Hog Bobby Petrino Saturday when his FCS nationally-ranked Missouri State squad comes to town. They’ve already this season defeated then-No. 23 Cincinnati to open the 2022 campaign and followed up that win with a dominant, two-touchdown victory last week against South Carolina to open SEC play.
After the Missouri State game, Arkansas is scheduled to travel to No. 24 Texas A&M.