After 10 games and a 4-6 record that includes three more games that could have been won, there is absolutely no doubt about one thing: The Arkansas Razorbacks got lucky.

Only time will tell if Jeff Long is able to replace the legendary Frank Broyles as athletic director at the UA, but Long won the lottery when he landed Bobby Petrino as the head football Hog.

As premium jobs like Tennessee and Clemson open, along with good jobs such as Washington, Syracuse, Kansas State and New Mexico, it is obvious there is not a deep pool of proven head coaches wanting to make a move.

Part of that is because schools have locked down their head coaches with lucrative contracts and expensive buyouts.

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Another factor is guys like Bob Stoops, Urban Meyer and even Les Miles have established winning traditions and leaving a place where you are likely to start over is not appealing.

Who would have ever thought you would hear the name Mike Leach in the same sentence with Tennessee ?

In case you haven’t been paying attention, Leach is the head coach of undefeated Texas Tech and a guy whose philosophy is pretty much bombs away.

Leach is a protege — and it shows — of Hal Mumme, who had some success at Kentucky before getting axed.

Who would have ever thought Clemson, the once proud No. 9 team in the nation before the season began, would be interviewing assistant coaches such as Brent Venables (who is overdue to be a head coach ) or an unproven NFL coach such as Lane Kiffin ?

Just last December, Clemson Athletic Director Terry Don Phillips was overcoming deep roots to his alma mater to keep Tommy Bowden, who played the Hogs for a raise only to get fired (thanks to Arkansas, he got a $ 3. 3 million buyout ).

Long got lucky there, too, but it was an interview most athletic directors would have made. On paper, Bowden looked pretty good.

Jim Grobe was another candidate to come to Fayetteville, and for the second year in a row, the Wake Forest head coach decided to stay put. He’s a good man and a good coach, but probably a better fit for Wake.

Petrino, as the perspiring world of arts knows now, wanted out of Atlanta, where he had not been told he was going to lose his star quarterback to the penal system.

Escape comes to mind when you think of the situation Petrino was in.

What those talking heads on ESPN, the single most powerful muscle in all of sports, didn’t seem to comprehend about Petrino leaving the Atlanta Falcons with three games left was that he had no choice.

If he waited until the end of the NFL season, the Arkansas job — and all others — would have been filled because of recruiting demands.

So when Long flew to Atlanta with a contract in hand, Petrino signed it.

No negotiations. No let me sleep on it. No ifs, ands or maybes.

Petrino wanted to be the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks, and he has given the Razorbacks Nation — at least the ones who don’t hum hotty toddy to themselves — hope for the future.

Petrino inherited a team that was recruited for the run and recruited by a guy who was long on being a player’s coach and a little short on discipline.

Petrino is long on discipline but is still enough of a player’s coach that he protects his charges from the glare of the public.

Before this season began, it looked like the Razorbacks might win their first two games and then start to build for the future.

After getting run over by Texas, Alabama and Florida, that looked even more likely.

Only Petrino was building for the future by mixing in a bunch of freshmen (16 true freshmen so far ) with some veterans who were trying hard to learn a new system, and now the Hogs stand at 4-6.

No matter what happens in the final two games, progress has been made because Arkansas has the right head coach.