Kansas University football coach Terry Allen has made his offensive line the Jayhawks’ top priority, so it should come as no surprise he hired an offensive line coach to fill the first of three assistant coaching vacancies.
Allen officially announced Thursday that Sam Pittman, a Pittsburg State grad who has served as line coach at Missouri and Oklahoma and as head coach at Hutchinson Community College, had joined the KU coaching staff. Pittman replaces Walt Klinker, who was dismissed late last month.
“I’m pleased to have Sam,” Allen said. “He’s a perfect fit for us. He has a Kansas background, a Kansas junior college background and a spread-offense protection background.”
Pittman, who coached last season at MU under since-fired Larry Smith, immediately went to work recruiting to the offensive line, which will lose three regular starters to graduation. Allen has indicated he hoped to restock the ranks with semester juco transfers.
“Sam’s already out bouncing around the country,” Allen said. “That’s why we needed to hire that position first. We’re trying to get some midsemester offensive linemen, and it’s hard to recruit when you don’t know who your offensive line coach will be.”
Pittman, a native of El Reno, Okla., was head coach at Hutch CC from 1992-93. He was an assistant at Northern Illinois from 1994-95, tackles-tight ends coach at Cincinnati (1996), offensive line coach at Oklahoma (1997-98) and offensive line coach at Western Michigan before joining Smith’s staff last season.
His hiring leaves two vacancies on the KU staff. Allen also dismissed defensive coordinator/defensive line coach Ardell Wiegandt, and tight ends coach Todd Middleton resigned to pursue other opportunities.
“You should see how many messages and voicemails I’ve received,” Allen said. “There are some real quality candidates out there. There is no shortage of candidates.”
Allen said he hoped to have a defensive coordinator in place by the first of the year.
“The other will fall into place after that,” Allen said.
He said he would consider candidates with NFL and college experience, and he might look to promote a current assistant to the defensive coordinator position.
“Anything’s a possibility,” Allen said.
Allen said the Jayhawks’ shorthandedness hadn’t hampered recruiting.
“The most you can have on the road is seven, and we can actually use our GA’s (graduate assistants), and all our GA’s are certified and recruitable, so it’s had no effect on recruiting,” Allen said.
Allen’s other offseason coaching move made in the wake of his fourth straight losing season was to promote assistant head coach/receivers coach Darrell Wyatt to associate head coach/offensive coordinator. Bill Salmon was stripped of his offensive coordinator duties.
“Bill called the plays the last couple of years,” Allen said. “What’s going to change there is, I’m going to do the play-calling I used to do a couple of years ago. The offensive coordinator is responsible for the offense when the head coach isn’t there, and he works in conjunction with the head coach to formulate schemes.”
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