FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas probably is a year too late to get Butch Davis as its next football coach.

“When Butch was available, Arkansas didn’t have a vacancy,” said Paul Davis, Butch’s father. “And now that there’s a vacancy, he’s got another job.”

There’s a vacancy at Arkansas with Houston Nutt’s announcement on Monday night that he has resigned after 10 seasons as the Razorbacks ’ coach.

“Selfishly, I’d love for Butch to be the Arkansas coach and for his family to live here,” Paul Davis said on Monday, from his home in Springdale. “But the timing just doesn’t seem right now.”

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Butch Davis, a former Razorbacks defensive lineman from 1971-1974, just completed his first season as North Carolina’s coach and led the Tar Heels to a 4-8 record after they finished 3-9 in 2006.

North Carolina officials are happy enough about the job Davis did that last week he got a raise and contract extension.

Davis was out of coaching in 2004 and 2005 after being a head coach at the University of Miami and in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns,

Davis couldn’t be reached for comment on Monday night, but a close friend in Arkansas said he would be surprised if Davis becomes the Razorbacks’ coach.

“I haven’t talked to Butch about it, but my gut feeling is that he wouldn’t leave North Carolina,” said the friend, who requested anonymity. “I can’t see him bailing out on North Carolina after just one year there.”

Paul Davis said he hadn’t talked to his son since hearing about Nutt’s resignation, but agreed it’s unlikely he would leave North Carolina.

“He’d lose his credibility,” Paul Davis said.

So if Butch Davis doesn’t appear to be the Razorbacks’ next coach, then who ?

“I haven’t yet gotten used to the fact that we don’t have (Nutt ) as our coach,” Arkansas Chancellor John White said Monday night. “I’m looking for someone who’s going to be able to come in and build on the solid foundation that Coach Nutt has provided and will be able to not only sustain us, but take us to an even higher level.”

White said that Jeff Long, who officially becomes Arkansas’ athletic director on Jan. 1 for the retiring Frank Broyles, will lead the search to find Nutt’s replacement.

“I’m also relying on Jeff Long to be making many of those judgments,” White said of his ideal hire. “I’ll be relying on him not only to handle the search, but also to determine the criteria that are important in terms of the selection.”

White said he’s not sure if assistant coaches as well as head coaches will be considered in the search.

“That’s not my question to answer,” White said. “That’s a question best directed to Jeff at the appropriate time.”

Long, who for the past few weeks has been serving as an advisor to White, attended Monday night’s news conference but didn’t take questions.

His only major coaching hire in five years as Pittsburgh athletic director was football coach Dave Wannstedt, a former NFL head coach with the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins who has a 15-19 record in his third season with the Panthers.

“I told Jeff earlier today I’d like to have a new coach by Sunday,” White said with a smile. “After he got up off the floor, he said, ‘I’m glad you didn’t specify which Sunday.’

“ He’s going to take the time necessary to secure the very best coach that we can bring to the university of Arkansas to follow in Houston Nutt’s huge footsteps.”

Arkansas employed the services of Atlanta-based Parker Executive Search Firm when it hired John Pelphrey as basketball coach last April and hired Long in October, but White said he’s not sure if that company will be used for the football coaching search.

“Jeff is going to be handling the search, and I’ll leave it to him to make a decision about what assistance he’d like to use,” White said. “That’s entirely up to Jeff.”

Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville, a Camden native who has led the Tigers to a 79-33 record the past nine years, figures to be a popular choice among many Arkansas fans to replace Nutt.

But Tuberville has indicated he’s happy at Auburn and doesn’t plan to leave.

Tuberville is in the third year of a seven-year contract that pays him $ 2. 6 million this season. He’s scheduled to make $ 2. 8 million next year.

The contract extension Tuberville signed with Auburn in 2005, after the team went 13-0, includes a $ 6 million buyout that Tigers Athletic Director Jay Jacobs has called “pretty much an ironclad” agreement.

Reggie Herring, Arkansas’ defensive coordinator the past three years, will take over as interim head coach for the Razorbacks ’ bowl game and can use the next few weeks as an audition to be Nutt’s replacement.

“Reggie is getting a chance right now, as we speak,” Nutt said.

Assuming neither Davis nor Tuberville is Arkansas’ next coach, other possibilities in addition to Herring might include Texas Tech Coach Mike Leach or Navy Coach Paul Johnson.

Leach was an assistant coach at Oklahoma when Long was an associate athletic director for the Sooners.

Tennessee offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe and LSU offensive coordinator Gary Crowton both have previous head coaching experience, Cutcliffe at Ole Miss and Crowton at Brigham Young and Louisiana Tech.

Among defensive coordinators, LSU’s Bo Pelini, Auburn’s Will Muschamp, Florida’s Charlie Strong and Oklahoma’s Brent Venables might be candidates. Strong is a Batesville native who played at Central Arkansas.

Pelini was an interim head coach at Nebraska for the Cornhuskers’ Alamo Bowl game four years ago. A source close to Pelini said he hopes to get the Nebraska job, replacing fired Bill Callahan, and won’t pursue another job until the Cornhuskers make a decision regarding their opening.

If Arkansas wants to go with a former head coach currently out of the business, Terry Bowden and Glen Mason are possibilities.

Bowden won his first 20 games at Auburn in the 1993 and 1994 season, but hasn’t coached since being fired midway through the 1998 season.

Mason was a head coach at Kansas and Minnesota. While at Kansas, he accepted the Georgia job, then changed his mind and stayed with the Jayhawks.

Tulsa offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, who was Arkansas’ offensive coordinator in 2006 and led Springdale and Shiloh Christian to state titles as a high school coach, could be a dark-horse candidate for the Razorbacks’ job.

Nutt was a Little Rock native who played two seasons for the Razorbacks, but White said his successor doesn’t need to have ties to the state.

White said he doesn’t believe a split in the fan base that led to Nutt’s resignation will prevent quality coaches from being interested in the Arkansas job.

“These turbulent times are not just uniquely Arkansan. It’s happening all around the nation,” White said.