3 Sam Pittman replacements Arkansas football should have on speed dial

There is no way around it, this one breaks my heart. Everybody loves Sam Pittman, which makes this so incredibly difficult. A career offensive line coach got the opportunity to have his dream job when he took over the Arkansas Razorbacks after a stellar run coaching the big uglies in the trenches at Georgia. For a minute there, Pittman had Arkansas playing like a top-25 program. But now, it is over.

Pittman's Hogs got roasted alive vs. Hugh Freeze's upstart Auburn Tigers on Saturday to the tune of 48-10. This blowout loss came on the heels of a surprising three-point road victory over Florida. With this latest defeat to Auburn, the Hogs have dropped to 3-7 overall and 1-6 in conference play. All that remains for the Razorbacks this year are two home dates: FIU next week and Battle Line vs. Missouri.

Although Pittman would theoretically leave Arkansas in a far better place than he found it, it is abundantly clear that he cannot succeed at an SEC program without great coordinators around him. Losing Barry Odom to the UNLV job was a death blow, but seeing Kendal Briles go to TCU last minute was the ominous final nail in the coffin. Pittman is not Chad Morris, but he is not Houston Nutt either.

Here are three potential replacements for Pittman should Arkansas want to make a change for 2024.

Arkansas football: 3 replacements for Sam Pittman as Hogs head coach

3. Mike Elko is about to get paid some serious cash by somebody, alright

Even though the Duke Blue Devils lost a thriller in overtime to arch rival North Carolina on Saturday night, Mike Elko is still a fantastic head coach. In his two years since arriving at Durham, he has taken a bad news bears Blue Devils team and made them competitive as hell. Although not having star quarterback Riley Leonard available for most of the season, Elko has still found ways to win games.

The reason why Arkansas should at least kick the tires on Elko is because if they do not, he could just go to Southwest Classic rival Texas A&M as Jimbo Fisher's replacement. With Fisher out of College Station as of Sunday morning, Elko could be the No. 1 target to right the ship at A&M. He was Fisher's star defensive coordinator prior to taking over the operation at Duke. Elko can handle this A&M job.

Truth be told, he could stay at Duke if he gets a substantial raise. It is nowhere near as high-profile of a job as Arkansas and Texas A&M would be in the SEC. While I would not say the Hogs would be the favorite to get Elko, they need to at least gauge's his interest by speaking to his agent. Plausible deniability is a great thing. No matter what happens, Elko is probably going to see his salary double.

Hiring Elko would be like hiring Barry Odom, but also twisting the knife a bit into the A&M program.