When former Georgia assistant Sam Pittman left for Arkansas after the Sugar Bowl, he ended up taking part of the Bulldogs with him.
The number of departing Georgia staffers for Arkansas rose to five on Thursday when Fernando Velasco announced that he had accepted a job offer from Pittman to be the Razorbacks’ director of player development.
Five UGA staffers, including Velasco, have been hired away from Pittman, who is now the Arkansas head coach. The others are Scott Fountain as an assistant coach, Marshall Malchow as director of player personnel, and Jamil Walker and Ed Ellis as director and associate director of strength and conditioning.
Back to Velasco: He played for Georgia from 2003 to 2007, and then had success in the NFL after being undrafted –playing seven seasons with six teams. The 34-year-old Velasco joined coach Kirby Smart’s staff in 2016, and worked as the team’s assistant director of player development the last three years.
Pittman’s departure as Georgia’s offensive line coach was initially viewed as a devastating loss for Bulldogs, but Smart quickly responded by hiring former Ole Miss head coach Matt Luke in the same role. Luke earned rave reviews for pretty much keeping intact UGA’s star-studded recruiting class of offensive linemen, most notably 5-star Broderick Jones of Lithonia, Ga., and 4-star Sedrick Van Pran of New Orleans on signing day earlier this month.
