Nutt’s new job is to beat Arkansas
Posted on Wednesday, November 28, 2007
FAYETTEVILLE — Houston Nutt didn’t have to go far to find new employment.
Nutt, who resigned after 10 seasons as the Arkansas Razorbacks’ football coach Monday, accepted a job offer from Mississippi later that night and will be formally introduced as the Rebels’ coach at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts on the school’s campus at noon today. Ole Miss announced the hiring in a three-paragraph e-mail sent out by Athletic Director Pete Boone on Tuesday.
A source in Mississippi said Nutt’s new deal will pay him $ 9. 5 million over five years. The source also said Mississippi state law prohibits state employees from having contracts longer than four years, but that Nutt has been guaranteed a one-year rollover at the end of next season.
Attempts to reach Nutt on Tuesday were unsuccessful, and details surrounding his hiring remain sketchy. Nutt deflected questions about rumors linking him to various job openings during Monday’s news conference to announce his resignation.
The source in Mississippi said Ole Miss was believed to be close to reaching an agreement with Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Rick Neuheisel — for as much as $ 3. 5 million per year — as late as Monday. The source said talks could have cooled because of the current opening at Georgia Tech and the possibility that the UCLA job will be open soon. Neuheisel, who had headcoaching stints at Colorado and Washington, played at UCLA from 1979-1983.
Regardless of how it unfolded, Nutt’s hiring by Ole Miss didn’t seem to bother at least two members of the Arkansas administration. Outgoing Athletic Director Frank Broyles said he is happy for Nutt, and that there’s no animosity concerning his move to another program in the SEC West.
“That’s life,” Broyles said. “That’s not the first time that’s happened where a coach left one school in the conference and went to the other. That happens a lot.” Current coaches Steve Spurrier, Tommy Tuberville and Nick Saban all are coaching at their second SEC schools.
Broyles said the possibility of prohibiting Nutt from moving to another SEC school never came up during settlement negotiations.
“Absolutely not,” Broyles said. “I would not have supported that at all. That’s just not the way life is. He’s given us 10 years of wonderful football, and he has a right in my judgment to go where he wants to go.” Broyles also said he was unaware of any talks between Ole Miss and Nutt, and that Nutt’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, probably handled negotiations.
“That’s the way it is in life today,” Broyles said. “We interviewed a number of basketball coaches through a search firm and to my knowledge they didn’t get approval [from the schools ] to do it. I think that’s the accepted way to day.
Arkansas Chancellor John White said he’ll root for Nutt in every game but one.
“ If we had to lose him, I am pleased that he will be at Ole Miss,” White said. “Chancellor [Robert ] Khayat and I are very close. I know he and Houston will work well together.
“ Houston will be a formidable opponent once a year in football; the other games, I will be rooting for Ole Miss to do well — just not better than Arkansas.” Rebels players seemed excited about the arrival of Nutt, who replaces Ed Orgeron. Orgeron was fired on Saturday, one day after Ole Miss completed its first winless SEC season since 1982.
While Orgeron was 10-25 in three seasons at Ole Miss, Nutt went 75-48 with two SEC Championship Game appearances during his time at Arkansas.
“It’s human nature not to like change, but I think in this case, change is going to be a good thing,” Ole Miss fullback Jason Cook said. “Especially as a player, you get excited when a guy gets hired like Coach Nutt. He’s more than proven in the SEC and proven as a coach that he can take talent and work with it. We’re very excited.” Boone said on last week that all the members of Orgeron’s coaching staff would get a chance to talk to the new coach about staying on in Oxford. Boone flew to Fayetteville to meet with Nutt on Tuesday, and told reporters upon arriving back in Mississippi that as many as four current Ole Miss assistants could receive strong consideration from Nutt.
Perhaps the most likely to stay is defensive coordinator John Thompson, who served as Nutt’s defensive coordinator at Arkansas in 2000-2001. Thompson, a Forrest City native and former Central Arkansas athletic director who was reported to be recruiting on Tuesday, is ending the first year of a three-year deal that pays him nearly $ 1 million.
Wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Hugh Freeze is another candidate who could be appealing to Nutt. Others believed to have varying odds of remaining at Ole Miss include offensive line coach Art Kehoe, tight ends coach Tony Hughes, defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator Chris Rippon and defensive line coach Ryan Nielsen.
Nutt takes over a program that has struggled since winning 10 games in 2003 under David Cutcliffe. The Rebels won a share of the SEC West that season with Eli Manning at quarterback.
Since then, Ole Miss has had four or fewer victories in four seasons. Boone fired Cutcliffe in 2004 for a lack of effort in recruiting. He had hoped Orgeron, who helped build two national title teams at Southern California as Pete Carroll’s recruiting coordinator, would bring the kind of energy needed to compete in the nation’s best football conference.
Boone and Chancellor Robert Khayat endorsed Orgeron midway through the season, but decided to go in a new direction after the Rebels lost five of six to end the year.
Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press, Democrat-Gazette Press Services and Bob Holt of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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