A humilating, 56-13 home loss to visiting Notre Dame was the last game for Sam Pittman atop the Arkansas football program.
Arkansas leadership announced it was firing Pittman Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the Razorbacks dropped their third-straight game and saw Pittman's overall mark atop the Arkansas program drop to 32-34.
In a move less-shocking than the unsurprising dismissal of Pittman, Arkansas also announced that Bobby Petrino would be the program's interim head coach moving forward.
"I want to thank Coach Pittman for his service and dedication to the University of Arkansas throughout his team as head coach," Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yuracheck said in a statement issued by the school. "From Day 1, you could tell how much this opportunity meant to him. At this time, however, I feel a change is necessary to put our student-athletes and program in the best position to be successful.
"The goal for our football program is to be highly competitive within the Southeastern Conference and compete for national championships. As we move forward in the process of finding our next head coach, I am certain we will be able to provide the necessary resources to our staff and team to reach our goals."
Yurachek serves on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.
Pittman was an unorthodox hire when he took over the Razorbacks program after the 2019 season, when Arkansas had dismissed Chad Morris.
After struggling through a 3-7 season during the 10-game, 2020 COVID-19 year, Pittman appeared to have the Razorbacks trending upward in 2021, when the team routed long-time rival Texas and closed out a nine-win campaign.
But Saturday's blowout-loss to visiting Notre Dame, the worst of Pittman's entire tenure at Arkansas, also marked one of the program's worst losses in history at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
It also marked the third-straight defeat for Arkansas, which had lost at Ole Miss and at Memphis in the two preceding weeks.
Petrino served previously as Head Hog, leading the Razorbacks program through four seasons from 2008-11. In the process, he guided Arkansas to 34 wins, deployed some of the SEC's most-explosive offenses and took the Razorbacks to back-to-back New Year's Day bowl games in a pair of the events -- the Sugar and Cotton bowls -- that most resonate with the program's fans.
However, Petrino was involved in a motorcycle accident the following spring and in the process an inappropriate relationship outside of Petrino's family was ushered into the spotlight. Arkansas parted ways with Petrino, who then sat out a year of coaching before returning to college at Western Kentucky, embarking on a comeback-tour that included coaching star quarterback Lamar Jackson at Louisville before he was fired by the Cardinals.
Sources told FootballScoop last week that Petrino both eyed the interim coach's post in what seemed to be the inevitable dismissal of Pittman and also viewed the opportunity as a potential tryout for the full-time head coach's job if Petrino gets the Hogs on track.
He'll have ample opportunity to state his case on the field: following an open date this Saturday, Arkansas still has games remaining against Tennessee, Texas A&M, Auburn, Texas, LSU and Missouri.
Pittman's dismissal already marks the fourth Power Conference coach firing before the calendar turns to October. UCLA and Virginia Teach fired DeShaun Foster and Brent Pry, respectively, two weeks ago and earlier this week, Oklahoma State dismissed 21-year veteran coach Mike Gundy. Additionally, Stanford has former NFL head coach Frank Reich leading its program in an interim capacity this season after earlier this year firing Troy Taylor amidst an off-the-field investigation into Taylor's behavior and treatment of subordinates.
Arkansas will owe Pittman approximately $9 million -- 50% -- of his remaining contract.