Sam Pittman on Dan Lanning vs. UGA in head coaching debut: 'There will be some butterflies'

As far as assignments for a head coaching debut, going up against a Georgia football program that Kirby Smart has built into one of the nation’s best isn’t exactly easing into the job.

Sam Pittman has a good idea of what Dan Lanning is up against this week as Lanning prepares No. 12 Oregon for a Saturday showdown with a very familiar opponent in No. 3 Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta.

“It’s hard for him because he doesn’t know his team quite as well maybe even as Georgia’s,” Pittman told the Athens Banner-Herald. “He’s getting to know his team, hasn’t been out there in the battle with them yet, but if it was like me, he’ll have much respect for the players, the coaching staff. Had a lot of friends obviously on Georgia’s staff. He’ll want to do really well, you know? He’s got a good team. There will be some butterflies there.”

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Pittman’s first game as Arkansas head coach in 2020 came against his former boss, Smart who he had worked under the previous four seasons in Athens as offensive line coach. Lanning also spent four seasons with the Bulldogs, the final three as defensive coordinator including in the national title season of 2021.

“Obviously, I have intimate knowledge of that team,” Lanning told ESPN at Pac-12 Media Days in July. “They have intimate knowledge of me. But we’re going to adapt. I think it’s a great challenge for our players early on.”

Said Pittman: “We all that come from a tree, we want to play really, really well to show the coach appreciation. I think that’s how you show appreciation that you worked for that you prepare for this opportunity. You want to play really well for your own team, but you also want to play really well to show appreciation for getting the job.”

Pittman took over an Arkansas program that had lost 19 straight SEC games and went 9-4 in his second season. He’s 0-2 against Smart and 12-9 against everyone else on his schedule.

Lanning landed a plum Pac-12 job after leading a defense last season that was one of the best this century in the college game. Oregon played for the national title in 2014 and 2010 and won the Rose Bowl in the 2019 season when it finished No. 5 in the nation under Mario Cristobal. He has 54 newcomers on this year’s roster.

“Watching what they did in the spring game, and knowing the intensity and the organization and the leadership that Dan has, they're going to be a hell of a team,” Smart said Monday. “They've got a lot of good football players on their team.”

Lanning knew when he took the Oregon job in December that he would be opening back in Georgia against the Bulldogs.

Pittman’s game with Georgia on Sept. 26, 2020 to open a season that was in doubt to the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t announced until less than six weeks before the game was played.

“I knew pretty much that Kirby wasn’t going to change,” said Pittman, whose only previous head coaching experience came on the high school and junior college level more than 25 years earlier. “I had been with him for four years so we kind of knew what to expect coming into the game. He would always throw a wrinkle or two into the game. You had to find that out. That was probably the biggest advantage—if there is such a thing--of playing Georgia is that because it was the first game of the year, we pretty much knew what they were going to do. The problem is blocking and tackling the guys on their team.”

Arkansas led 10-5 in third quarter against a Bulldogs team that pulled D’Wan Mathis in the first half for Stetson Bennett at quarterback. He led Georgia to a 37-10 victory.

Pittman brought several with him from the Georgia staff: special teams coordinator Scott Fountain, strength staffers Jamil Walker and Ed Ellis and two support staffers.

Lanning didn’t hire anyone directly from Georgia’s coaching staff. Former Georgia director of player personnel Marshall Malchow, who serves as chief of staff to Lanning, was previously on Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M staff. Recruiting on-campus coordinator Lydia Gibbs was previously a recruiting specialist with the Georgia Bulldogs,

“I think Dan will have a little bit more easiness about him, understanding what he’s getting ready to see and teaching his team what they’re getting ready to see in a first game,” Pittman said.

Arkansas coaches provide a game plan on individuals on the opposing team to their players so Pittman and those with Georgia connections has some inside skinny on that with many of the Bulldogs.

“They really didn’t have any guys that we could necessarily go after,” he said. “We did have a great idea of the talent and if there was a weakness we had an idea of what it was, but very hard to find on Georgia’s team.”

Cornerback Kamari Lassiter, who could start for the first time in college, could be someone that Lanning would target opposite preseason All-American Kelee Ringo.

“I’m not really sure,” Lassiter said. “Coach Lanning, he’s a great coach, but we have great coaches here as well. I know the coaches are going to put us in the best position to be successful.”

Georgia center Sedrick Van Pran-Granger thinks he has a good idea of what’s coming.

“I think you have to kind of anticipate that Coach Lanning will do what he loves to do, send those pressures and things like that,” he said. “At the same time, I think we should also expect a bit of a mix up. Just something that he may have seen that we do from being around us.”

Smart acknowledged Lanning’s deep familiarity with the Bulldogs roster.

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“Yeah, he knows our players,” Smart said on 960 The Ref before a Touchdown Club of Athens appearance last week. “But B-Mac knows their players. There’s not a lot you can gain from that information. Maybe try to attack somebody, attack a weakness. Maybe that kid’s gotten stronger. He went through spring and he corrected his mistakes. You target that guy and that guy’s done better. He’s more prepared for the moment.”

B-Mac is Georgia wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon who spent the last two seasons at Oregon and was interim coach for the Ducks’ last game in the Alamo Bowl.

“It’s college football,” Georgia inside linebacker Smael Mondon said. “Everybody moves around especially if you’re as good of a coach as Coach Lanning. It’s going to be exciting to see him again.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia football again sees familiar coaching opponent in Dan Lanning