Long addresses coaching search
Arkansas’ incoming athletic director Jeff Long said Wednesday he is still in the process of conducting the search for the Razorbacks’ new head football coach.
Long, who will take over the athletic department Jan. 1, addressed the media at halftime of the Arkansas-Missouri basketball game. He discussed a range of topics concerning the quest to find Houston Nutt’s replacement, but refused to go as far as to name potential candidates.
He did refute reports that an SEC West coach believed to be Tommy Tuberville had been pursued by Arkansas, calling them mere “fantasy.” He did, however, say that coaches in the SEC and the National Football League have expressed interest in the job.
If Long went the route of trying to hire somebody in professional football, he said he is specifically looking for someone with college coaching experience. Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin, who was an offensive coordinator at USC, has been mentioned as possible candidate.
“The University of Arkansas can offer a competitive financial package in the SEC and we will certainly do that,” Long said. “The job has not been offered to anyone yet.”
Long said he has conducted phone interviews and met “face-to-face” with potential suitors.
“I haven’t spoken to as many as has been reported,” Long said. “But we have been working very hard for the last two-and-a-half, three days.”
Long said he didn’t want to rush the search, but said he understood he was walking a “fine line” because the football program needs someone in soon to ensure that there will be a decent recruiting class come February.
“Really, I’m focused on getting the best coach for our student-athletes, for our program and one who can compete in the SEC, because we all know if you can compete in the SEC, you can compete nationally” Long said.
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I don’t know if you read fan’s comments on the various internet sites and sometimes I think there is a pulse out there that has some amount of value. I have always tried to be objective and fair. I am somewhat obsessed with Jimmy Johnson being the next head coach but I am going to support your decision and get behind you as a fan. You have a TOUGH job and I don’t envy you. I was born in Benton Arkansas in 1958. I was very, very young when I first heard broadcasts of the razorback games. The funny thing is it was my father’s mother who would amazingly master the crossword puzzles while listening to the radio broadcasts. She was a master of words and she seemed to enjoy the commentary and style of the speaker(s). I watched my first razorback games on TV in 1963. Dad got us a sears model color TV that year. I was hooked on razorback football from then on. I watched the Ark vs. Neb. game with my uncles and that was so exhilarating to see everyone glued to every play and a final win. I left Ark to come to Texas in 1986. I never forgot my razorback family. I have bragged, talked up and shot my mouth off about how good we would be each year. I have had egg on my face plenty of times but I still love my razorbacks. Funny isn’t it, that we humans can be so attached to a football team and a state even after we have been away for so long.
Jeff you came into a tough situation and I for one believe in you so far. It’s the changing of the guard at Ark. and I can only hope you’re not hamstrung in any way to get the best replacement for the job. I want to reunite with all my razorback fans and feel good again about our future. The basketball programs seem to be in very good hands and the track teams as well. I think we need a solid winner that is going to be eaten up with the desire to assemble a staff that will validate the razorback nation once again. I want that coach to validate your decision as well. I hope your decision puts the football program on the national scene for years to come. We don’t expect a perfect season year in and year out. We just want a staff that gets mentioned along side the traditional top 25 teams every year. Why can’t we be mentioned in the top 20 teams during preseason and work our way up to the top for the big game every few years?
I’ve heard Mike Leach’s name thrown around. One person on ESPN.com’s meesage boards said that some of his sources said that Leach and the UA are nearing a deal. Mike could put together the offense that us hog fans have been begging for. At least he knows how to do something besides run 95% of the time. At Texas Tech he doesn’t stand a chance in recruiting with the likes of UT and A&M around, but at Arkansas just think of all the great talent he could bring in and take Arkansas to the next level. Especially since he has been able to recruit and put together fairly descent teams in the past. Although I would haveto put Jimmy Johnson #1 on my list. Ol’ JJ could figure out the SEC in a heartbeat, not to mention the rest of the nation. Unfortunately I don’t think Jimmy really wants to get back into coaching. So if we can’t get him Leach would be an excellent choice if we could pry him away from Texas Tech. How about Jeff Bower the Southern Miss coach that got fired? Get this, 14 consecutive winning seasons at a school that scrapes up the recruits that bigger universities pass over. Jeff was very successful, but then again he didn’t coach in the SEC, and that could raise some questions. Nonetheless, pretty impressive. If I was AD here is the list of coaches on my list:
1. Jimmy Johnson
2. Mike Leach
3. Jeff Bower
4. David Cutcliffe
The 2002 SEC championship game is on CSTV if you can stomach the pain! Started at 12:30.
My short list would include:
1. JJ - self explanatory
2. Mike Leach - has the offensive mind and could recruit the defensive players at UA, unlike in Lubbock.. Also, given his tenure at Tech, he is stable enough to stick around for a while [unless the OU job opened up in the near future]
3. Reggie Herring - players and most fans love the guy. He’s tough as hell on both himself and the players and they respect him. Give Reggie a top notch OC and he could be a very good head coach. If LSU and Nebraska can consider outstanding assistant coaches, and they will, UA might want to, as well. Reggie would also have an immediate settling effect with recruits, provided he surrounded himself with the right staff. His press conference yesterday on offensive philosophy and delegating authority was very impressive. http://www.hogwired.com
Note: Lane Kiffin scares me to death. Kiffin’s a west coast guy. He was just on Pete Carroll’s staff for two years and had some major talent on offense. His brief tenure in Oakland has been unimpressive. Reminds me a great deal of the Nebraska situation.
GO HOGS!
How about hiring Reggie Herring as Head Coach and try to lure Cutcliff in as OC. Cutcliff does a great job as OC but his track record as Head Coach is questionable. Also, a good Defensive Coordinator is a must. Maybe John Thompson at Ole Miss would like to come back.
Whatever happened to (Ray Lee?) Dunn? I really liked his style.
razrback91
Leach would still have to outrecruit UT and A&M in the state of Texas, something he has not had a lot of success with. Hogs still need to hit Tx hard for recruits to go along with keeping all the instate talent at home.
If it is Leach, you need to consider Quality Depth on defense.
I’m in agreement with txctryhog. I will refer to earlier “pre-Nutt lynching” comments I posted regarding the similarities in Malzahn’s offense and Leach’s. Now, I do preface these comments by understanding that Leach has proven that he can run a very high-powered, collegiate offense, i.e., Tx Tech and OU as OC. I just question the effectiveness of the overall team/winning in the SEC with that style of offense due to the inability of our defense in stopping anyone with similar or better talent.
If you are going to run Leach’s offense in the SEC, you had better have some serious talent and depth on defense (i.e., his days at OU),or you will have to score 100 pts every game to even give yourself a chance. You are putting your defense out there for more possessions due to the quick nature of the offensive possessions. In the SEC, that is just more possessions that your defense is going to get pounded by teams that run the football.
I haven’t seen Leach recruit that kind of defensive depth. This year has been the first year that would even qualify as ok defensively speaking. Most of his defenses have been very porous and an after-thought as far as gameplan goes.
razrback91 referred to doing some other than running 95% of the time. See, I don’t think going the complete opposite direction of where we are is the right approach, not to mention wise taking into consideration the players that we have. Be prepared for a long transition going the completely opposite direction.
I really don’t know how similar Missouri’s offense is to Leach’s offense other than passing numbers and Missouri being #1 in the country, but there seems to be a more effective balance in using rushing and passing, thus resulting in a great deal of yardage and big play potential. Their defense proved to be effective against a very good offense in Kansas. But, it also has taken Gary Pinkel a very long time to build what he has built. Is the Razorback Nation that patient? We would have to be to dramatically change style of offense. Ask Bill Calahan if that’s a hard transition.
As a side note, it’s not a complete deal-breaker with me, but just something I ask you may ask yourself 3-4 years into Leach’s possible tenure. Is he really the person, personality-wise, representation-wise, PR-wise, that I want representing the U of A?
For a state that loves to have daily, high-profile information fed to it through media and through interaction with high school coaches, booster meetings statewide, a place that wants to know every jot and tittle of what’s going on with the day-to-day, I really don’t think Leach is that representation. I don’t see him truly uniting people. He is not a guy that can rally people together.
If anything he kinda feeds into the stereotype that people typically make jokes about in reference to the state of Arkansas. His propensity to not be very media-friendly might be an issue that rubs people wrong after a few losses into his tenure.
The other positive on Herring, in my opinion, is that he seems to truly love the UA. Players [and fans] pick up on that.
With his 20 plus years experience, I would think that he has some considerable connections for a potentially very potent coaching staff, both in the college and professional ranks.
Finally, from what you read, the guy thinks football 24/7, 365 days a year.
I still have issues with the possibility of Mike Leach. I don’t know much about him, however, I was checking on Rivals.com about his recruiting. Even with the issues of NCAA investigations a few years back, it seems TTech still couldn’t recruit the quality of athletes that UA was getting. Note the following, rivals.com only goes back 5 years.
UA rank TT rank
21 2008 32
31 2007 52
26 2006 25
24 2005 37
22 2004 33
29 2003 44
26 2002 48
I realize that many factors determine the players production and that many 1,2,3 star players are under-rated and 4 and 5 over-rated. Jamaal Anderson, Butu and MR TONY BUA, but generally the ratings are faily accurate, ie Mcfadden.
All in all, I am concerned with Leach’s recruiting.
I share those concerns, but as a fellow hog in Texas, as you know, Lubbock is somewhat of an extreme outpost. I would guess it to be problematic to bring high school kids to play and live there. I think the dude would get the recruiting job done at UA, given the geographics, facilities as well as the lofty affiliation which comes with SEC football.
I still believe Herring should at least get a look, however. [eg. an opportunity to visit with Jeff Long and specifically detail his plan] Fulmer once was an assistant on Johnny Majors’ staff at Tennessee.
Reggie should not be given any more priority than any A-List coach and I think he has stated that himself. I agree that the plan needs to be specific and verifiable. We can’t wait until after the recruiting season for a plan to develop. Reggie saw this coming and if he is ready to be a head coach he would have had a plan in mind to improve the razorbacks. Does Reggie have a plan? Has Reggie understood the problems of Nutt’s tenure and how would he fix them? He doesn’t have to bash Nutt to explain what has to be done to balance the offense and why his candidates (staff) can make that happen. If he can’t explain his plan quickly and with a fiery promise that we will win a national championship in X years, then he is off my list. Tell us Reggie are you ready to be a head coach and do you have the contacts to AMAZE us with what you can do with our beloved razorbacks? Your good friends with Nutt but on Saturdays it will be time to kick the south end of a north bound donkey no matter the opposing coach. You’re supposed to be a defensive guru. So who would you get to replace yourself that can do an even better job? Who is your offensive coordinator? You know who is leaving and who is staying on the current staff. The players and the bowl game are important but so is our future.
More random thoughts….
I do like Mike Leach, for many of reasons above given, and believe he could be successful in hogland.
Lane Kiffin would be the second coming of the Nebraska coach, who was just given the boot, in my opinion. The similarities are uncanny. And hell, I could have been the OC with USC’s talent when Kiffin was there.
I keep coming back to the dude, yet one of the other things that stands out about Reggie Herring is that he holds people accountable - starting with himself and including his coaches and players. He also seems to genuinely love the state of Arkansas and his offensive philosophy and theory on delegating authority, if true, is very impressive. http://www.hogwired.com So what’s your plan, Reggie? Who are your staff related connects or contacts? How can you take our hogs the distance?
For all you Herring fans please remember that our defense has sucked the last 2 years. The only reason we didn’t win the Natl. Championship last year was the fact that we had to score over 40 pts. a game to win and this years defense wasn’t good either. I agree that he holds everybody accountable including himself, but the Hogs running style kept a bad defense off the field the past 2 yrs. and they still couldn’t hold anybody under 40. I know he has the passion and fire but I still haven’t seen his coaching ability.
The basic problem with many of the comments that well-meaning Razorback fans is that so much of what is written here is not particularly well thought out, doesn’t see the big picture and is way too opinionated.
If you didn’t like Houston Nutt, you won’t like the next guy either. No coach is perfect, far from it. Coach Nutt was the best man for the Arkansas job and he still is.
We will NEVER find a coach with more character and passion for the Hogs. Did anyone listen to his comments while being introduced at Ole Miss? He said he’ll always be a Razorback. I believe him when he said he felt like it was the right thing for him to leave since there’s been so much hatred and almost a civil war developing among Razorback fans and I’m glad Chancellor White made it financially possible for him to leave and not lose a fortune.
Hear me, Houston Nutt made tons of mistakes, no doubt. Too many to list here regarding the stuff of the last 12-18 months and I’m not blind to that, but seriously who doesn’t make mistakes?
Whoever the next guy is, I hope that people will understand that a National Championship, or even a SEC West championship is going to be possible every year. We needed to trust the long term effect Coach Nutt had on our program. Doesn’t anybody remember the terrible time between Hatfield’s departure and Nutt’s arrival. We stunk almost every year. Of course, Hatfield was the one who ran the ball 99% of the time.
Who cares about style points and big plays? I’d rather have the best running game in the SEC year in and year out, because that is the reason our average defense was able to keep us in some games. That’s what Houston Nutt gave us, and 8 bowls in ten years, and three SEC West titles. If the players had performed on the field, we might be referring to the 2006 Razorbacks as National Champs, rather than just another decent year.
I’ve ranted long enough. Seriously though, some of us need to think it instead of saying it sometimes. Myself included. Go Hogs!
Herring is a gambler……Just look at his defense.If he will do that on offense I’m for him as head coach.One man I dont want is Tuberville.Hes just another nutt clone same ol plays.Leach is another gambler that I would love here but my first choice is still Gus Malzaun.Brilliant mind and great coach for UofA.
As someone who lived in Arkansas for 8 years and loves the Razorbacks, but now lives in Oregon, I have a few observations.
Many Arkansas fans think that they should be competing for the SEC Championship and National Championship every year, and when they lose a few games, it is suddenly a bad year and the coach needs to be fired. Unfortunately, that is just NOT realistic. Arkansas is NOT Florida.
I agree that Houston has made some mistakes, but even before the whole Mustain debacle, there were fans that were all over him for no reason. Did they forget the 4 losing seasons IN A ROW before Nutt got there. Yes he had some down years, but he also won the SEC West 3 times, and Arkansas went to bowl games 8 of the 10 years he was there.
Oregon has had a steadily improving football program. Even last season when the Ducks finished the season so poorly, there weren’t people calling for Mike Belotti to get fired. This year, Oregon did great, then lost its QB, RB and few other people and will finish the season with 3 or 4 straight losses. Again, no one is calling for Belotti to be fired. If this were Arkansas, I can already hear the insanely stupid calls on drive time sports about why Arkansas needs a new coach.
Houston Nutt did a great jobe coaching Arkansas. I think however replaces him will be hard pressed to win 3 SEC West Titles and go to 8 bowl games in 10 years.
And for those of you that think Arkansas is one of the best jobs in the country, please remember what happened when they fired Stan Heath. They ended settling for their 4th or 5th choice, because their top 3 or 4 choices said no. I don’t think it is going to any different for the football team. Arkansas will get a good coach, but it won’t be one of the 5 or 10 best coaches in the country.
I love the Razorbacks and follow them as much as can even though I live in Oregon. I would love for them to win a National Championship. Unfortunately, one coach that was capable of taking them there just got run out of town. Hopefully the next coach can do that, but as we all know that is far easier said than done.
thesteve123.LMAO what a dunce.Your Quote…(If the players had performed on the field,we might be referring to the 2006 Razorbacks as National Champs.)…..WOW Some hog fan.Let my revise that.((((((If Nutt hadn’t ran off the best players in the state and had recruited the best players in the state the last 3 yrs we would have had a National Champ.))))))Dont blame the players for Nutts stupid ego and playcalling.I will be glad to see us whup MIss.’s butt the next 10 yrs.
Hey robbyrobert how many yrs did you want to give Nutt to take us to a NC.20 yrs 30 yrs.He had 10 and was never close.
His first year, if Clint Stoerner doesn’t fumble the ball against Tennessee they could very easily have played for the national championship that year. (I can remember exactly where I was when that happened as I listened to the game on the radio.)
Winning a NC is very difficult. Just ask Oregon as they went from #2 to #20 in a few weeks because of a couple of key injuries.
I think that Nutt will win a NC at Ole Miss sometime in the next 10 years.
My point is, I don’t think Arkansas will be able to hire anyone that is more likely to win a NC than Nutt was, and are likely to end up with someone that is less likely to do so than Nutt.
And just to remind you, when was the LAST time Arkansas won a NC? It was 1964! (Which happens to be the same year I was born.) For that matter, before last Saturday, when was the last time Arkansas even beat the #1 team in the country. It was sometime in the 1970s. So if Arkansas is team that should be competing for a NC every year (as many AR fans think), how come it has been 43 years since they won a NC?
For those who have thrown their support behind Reggie Herring… I’ve got a question, did you actually watch the razorback games this year or just read about them the next day in the newspaper? Lets be honest the defensive play calling was a major part of the problem in the close SEC games we lost. Remember Alabama, Kentucky, Auburn? We had the lead late only to surrender game winning drives game after game. Now I know what your going to say, its not the entirely the coach’s fault. That’s true but how many games do you need to lose in the last 2 minutes to realize you can’t blitz every play and have the secondary play man to man. Coach Herring never adjusted his play calling, he brought the blitz each week when the game was on the line and every week Arkansas payed for it. He may talk a good game and he may be a excellent motivator, but I know one thing about great coaches is that they learn to adjust when things don’t work.
For what its worth in the blog world - I have always been impressed with Coach Herring. My son and I would often watch his interviews on hogwired and comment “This guy should be head coach”. That interview he gave the other day was fantastic - I hope he gets a shot at it.
“That’s why David will run the offense and he’ll do the play calling. He’s been told there’s no straps, there’s no chains on him.
My idea of a good offense is to be balanced, to be able to run and throw and not be predictable. Those are the teams that have given me the most fits as a defensive coordinator for 27 years….. At the same time, it goes back to being balanced and being entertained.
“I’m a Florida State grad and the greatest show in town on Saturday night in Tallahassee, Fla., was seeing that ball in the air about 50 times and playing good, fast, hard-nosed defense. What I would want to be is entertained. I want to be exciting, to be explosive, but hire people and get people in here that do what they’ve been asked to do.”
- Reggie Herring 11/27/07
Let’s talk about gamblersob’s expert opinions on teams and coaches, since he wants a recent HIGH SCHOOL coach (from coincidentally a high school program that is in a state with a small population and which arguably couldn’t compete favorably against the top high school programs in Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, or Texas, to name just a few close by) GUS MALZAHN, who has NO head coaching experience, and a mere two years as an assistant coach under his belt. Or not, since it doesn’t deserve real discussion. The only question I have is, “When will you Springdale High School fans shut up and realize you’ve done enough damage and put Gus Malzahn out of your minds once and for all?” He isn’t coming to coach at Arkansas while the majority of fans and those who support the Razorback Foundation live and breathe after the divisive crap he pulled while there. He’s lucky he has a job at all. So, bottom line: while we don’t have a top tier football program at Arkansas at this point that is in the BCS almost every year (most schools don’t by the way), the way to assure we never do is to flog this person as the savior of the team instead of getting behind the program and the new head coach who will most assuredly NOT be Gus Malzahn.
amen… hogdurnit.
I am going to keep posting my pipe dream until a new coach is hired or Long says he has talked to Jimmy Johnson and he has said NO. Why? If there is one person that could pull this state together quickly and have all the fans united it’s JJ. He also has the ability to bring in a top notch staff. He could even agree to a short 2-4 contract just to get us on our feet with an awesome staff. Heck just hire him for 2 years to assemble the staff. He might even like it enough to stay longer. With all the staff leaving let’s get JJ and start recruiting the staff and players.
“To get Tuberville, who is earning a reported $2.6 million at Auburn this season, Arkansas will have to pay him double the salary it was paying Nutt. That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million a year. His assistants won’t come cheap either.
And it doesn’t stop there. Tuberville and his agent, Jimmy Sexton, are shrewd businessmen. Nearly every year, they put Auburn through the same renegotiation song and dance the institution is facing at the moment.
You see, whether Tuberville is serious about coming to Arkansas or not, Sexton can use his name being bandied about in the media as leverage against Auburn, or even LSU if Les Miles does make the move to Michigan after today’s SEC Championship game.”
- Terry Wood, Gazette
Are you kidding me?? Jeff Long, please talk to Reggie Herring and Mike Leach - or JJ. Do not be an idiot.