The big news as of late in the Arkansas Razorbacks Football world is the sudden absence of offensive line coach Sam Pittman. Pittman has been hired at the University of Georgia, prompting Arkansas fans everywhere to go on a Sam Pittman hating spree (or at least I did).

But was this all really a surprise to Arkansas fans? In some ways yes, because over the course of the time Bielema has been our head coach, our Hogs have become known for having powerful offensive linemen, or Hogs, as the key to our offense. So the loss of Pittman is a big heartbreak for fans.

However, this loss doesn’t necessarily have to be a surprise. Since Bielema arrived to Fayetteville in the 2012 season, there have been more than a few coaching changes made. In fact, a total of 8 Razorback coaches have left Fayetteville to pursue other positions in the college football field.

Here I have a list of all the coaches that have departed from Fayetteville since Bielema’s arrival.

Coaches Left During Bielema Era

George McDonald (2012)– Arkansas’ WR coach for just the 2012 season, he was hired at Syracuse to be an OC/WR coach. Taver Johnson (2013)– Johnson was the CB/LB coach for 2 seasons at Arkansas, but was later hired at Purdue as a DB coach. Chris Ash (2013)– Defensive coordinator at Arkansas, hired at the Ohio State University for the same job. Charlie Partridge (2013)– DL coach, promoted to Head Coach at Florida Atlantic. Partridge made the trip from Wisconsin to Arkansas with Bielema. Randy Shannon (2014)– The forner Miami Head Coach was the Hogs’ Assistant Head Coach/LB coach for just two seasons, moved to Florida to be a co-coordinator. Jim Chaney (2014)– Our OC for two seasons, left for the same job at Pitt. Chaney was also hired by Kirby Smart at Georgia along with Pittman. Joel Thomas (2014) – Razorbacks’ RB coach for 3 seasons. Thomas got called up to the NFL to be the RB coach for the New Orleans Saints. Sam Pittman (2015)– besides having a last name that sounds like an unneeded superhero, Pittman was the OL coach for the Hogs for (almost) 3 seasons. Recently he was hired as the OL coach for Georgia.

The coaching changes haven’t just been a problem since Bielema’s arrival at Arkansas. Just a year before Bielema’s was hired for the Hogs, he lost 6 coaches in the span of one season at Wisconsin. And it’s not like all of these coaches are leaving the Hogs for bigger and better jobs. Out of the 14 assistants that Bielema has lost since 2011, only 3 of them have made non-lateral moves.

Coaching changes aren’t always a good thing, especially when they happen at the rate Bielema has it at now. But even with the rate of change that Bret has this program at, he still continues to make improvements that help our team thrive.

Will this trend continue for Bret Bielema? It’s becoming a matter of how long we can succeed with this number of coaching changes. In some cases, it may not be such a bad thing. However, in Pittman’s case, we really lost a talented coach. Not only was he good on the field, he was also helpful recruiting-wise. Bielema claims that whenever there is a change like this, he will hire someone new that will get the job done and then some. Let’s hope he stays right about this.