FAYETTEVILLE — Given the general exodus of Razorbacks staff with University of Arkansas diplomas since the end of the Frank Broyles era in 2007, Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long hired the best fit among the pool of coaches he likely considered serious candidates to be the school’s head football coach these next 10 months.
John L. Smith, 63, was introduced Tuesday as Arkansas’ head coach for 2012 while Long searches nationally for a long-term and likely younger head coach following the firing of Bobby Petrino.
Smith, a native of Idaho Falls, Idaho, is a cheerfully familiar face to these Razorbacks. Under Petrino, Smith was Arkansas’ energetic special teams coordinator/outside linebackers coach from 2009 until last December, when he returned to his alma mater, Weber State, ever so briefly as head coach.
Though wildly successful these past 10-3 and 11-2 seasons, Petrino was fired April 10. Minutes before the April 5 public release of an Arkansas State Police accident report, Petrino confessed to Long that he was not alone as he had repeatedly said after being injured in an April 1 motorcycle accident. Instead, Petrino was accompanied by a 25-year-old woman, Jessica Dorrell, with whom the married coach admitted to having an “inappropriate relationship.”
It became grounds for dismissal because Petrino had concealed the relationship when Dorrell was hired as the student-athlete development coordinator on his staff.
Smith, a former head coach at Idaho, Utah State, Louisville and Michigan State, doesn’t arrive with a head coaching record as impressive as Petrino’s.
Smith is genuinely respected and liked by players and staff, and his warm smile and upbeat personality seem guaranteed to change the public relations of a program that under Petrino was perceived by some as operating more aloof from than a part of the university.
“I don’t know where that perception came from, but we’re different,” Smith replied Tuesday to a question at his introductory news conference. “We’re approachable. We’re going to be friendly. We’re going to be accessible. We can’t sit there in our little ivory tower, right?
“I’ve always been a believer that regardless of where you are, you better be willing to get out and take yourself to the people. We’re going to do that.”
Razorbacks football public relations finally seems in good coaching hands again.
The football played on the field likely won’t suffer, either.
The Petrino brothers, Bobby and current offensive coordinator Paul, assisted Smith at Idaho, Utah State and Louisville. Defensive coordinator Paul Haynes assisted Smith at Michigan State.
Other than assistant head coach/ linebackers coach Taver Johnson — who was hired in January, is close to Haynes, and displayed excellent skills at fitting into a new situation as acting head coach from April 5 through April 22 — Smith has worked with all the UA staff.
All should work well with him, and in turn he will encourage them more as a fatherly overseer than an in-their-face, every play taskmaster.
As for those situations that boil down to father knows best, Smith has the firsthand respect of the staff and players and the firsthand knowledge of the system to reaffirm what is right and detect and correct what is amiss.
Sports, Pages 16 on 04/25/2012