Arkansas HC Sam Pittman shuts down potential controversy ahead of game against the Tennessee Vols

The Arkansas Razorbacks raised a few eyebrows in East Tennessee this week when it was announced that a couple of former UT players will serve as captains for the program's game against the Tennessee Vols on Saturday night.

Former Vols defensive back Doneiko Slaughter and former Vols offensive lineman Addison Nichols transferred from Tennessee to Arkansas after the 2023 season. They'll both be captains on Saturday night when the Volunteers visit Fayetteville for a showdown against the Razorbacks.

Some fans immediately speculated that there might be some bad blood between the former Vols and Tennessee.

Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman, however, shut that idea down on Wednesday night during his weekly call-in show.

"Listen, I want everybody to understand this, there wasn't an unkind word or anything said about the University of Tennessee," said Pittman . "Those guys for whatever reason, and both of them had separate reasons, they wanted a new chance. You know, the portal and NIL's been open for coaches for years. We've had the opportunity to leave and you get more money....certainly guys leave our program, guys come into our program. But I do think it will mean something to those guys to be able to represent the University of Arkansas against their former team."

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Nichols spoke earlier this year about his decision to leave Tennessee. He noted that he felt like he needed to transfer to reach his full potential, but he also had nothing but great things to say about Josh Heupel and the Vols.

“Coach (Josh) Heupel is a great guy, a great coach and has a great program,” said Nichols earlier this year. “Couldn’t say a bad thing about him. Definitely learned a lot through my time there, but at the end of the day, I just didn’t see myself hitting my full potential in the room I was in ."

“Like I said, nothing bad to say about the program at Tennessee," added Nichols. "There’s some great people, Coach Heupel does a tremendous job with the program and culture. I learned a lot about football and being a man during my time there. It’s just one of those things where, looking forward, I needed more .”

Nichols and Slaughter are both starters for Arkansas, so they'll have plenty of opportunities on Saturday night to compete against their former Tennessee teammates.

Related: Internet rumor that quickly spread about Tennessee Vols football gets debunked