re: Honestly, who was a better hire at the time on paper? Orgeron or Pittman?

If you mean Orgeron at Ole Miss, then Pittman for sure. By the time LSU hired him, he had gone 6–2 two times in a row as an interim and looked like a completely different coach. I suspected that Orgeron would be at least as good as Miles had been. Plus, places like LSU, Georgia, and Florida State can hire a first-timer and expect different results because of their built-in recruiting cushion. Arkansas and Ole Miss don't have that luxury, so we're a bit more of a gamble. A place like Tennessee is right in the middle when they hire a guy like Pruitt.