Sam Pittman: Players can't reach their full potential when motivated by fear

Sam Pittman and his Arkansas team have been one of the pleasant surprises early on in the college football season.

In just his second season leading the program, and after inherting the Razorbacks after they hadn't won a an SEC game in two seasons, Pittman has managed to knock off both Texas and a top 10 Texas A&M squad to start 4-0 and have earned an early season top 10 ranking.

Asked about his coaching approach, and how he is loudest at practice when players do something good and where that philosophy came from, Pittman talked about his experience as a young coach.

"It came from when I was younger, and I would go to other practices, and I would be wowed by what was going on at the practice."

"I don't think that you can reach your full potential out of fear. I think that you can out of want-to."

"If I'm getting ready to take a rep, and I'm worried about the coach chewing me out when the rep is going on then I am not going to play as well, in my opinion and I may be totally wrong."

"But if I believe that the coach has confidence in me, and he has taught me what to do, I can at least try and go at my highest level to complete that task. That is what I believe, and I also believe that if someone brags on you, and someone else hears it, they want the same thing and it kind of gets contagious."

"You guys have been at practice. You know I get mad. But most of my disappointment is effort. I'm not disappointed if we get whipped. We can teach them how to do better. Effort is what gets me. If we give effort, we've got a chance."

See Pittman's full response below.

The Razorbacks have a top 10 match up with #2 ranked Georgia on Saturday with kickoff set to take place at noon EST before taking on #12 Ole Miss next weekend and #22 Auburn the weekend after that. This will be a critical stretch to see how good Pittman and his Razorbacks really are.