FAYETTEVILLE — The king is dead. Long live the king.
There is one problem with that Wednesday: No one knows the next king of the Arkansas athletics department.
For now, all that's known is that Jeff Long's 10-year reign is over. I will say that he did an admirable job in the most difficult job of following a most outstanding king.
How would you like to follow Frank Broyles as athletics director? No one wants to follow a man who gets to see his own statue unveiled.
That was Broyles. He is not only the best football coach in the history of the Arkansas program, but the best AD. He retains that title for at least as far as I can see with Long now done.
There was good, bad and ugly of the Long era. I'll start with the ugly, probably what eventually got him.
During the first days of the Long era it was clear that the Broyles people were done. One by one, they all left town. Some were given a little time to clear out. Some were not.
Some probably had it coming. It was just the natural change of command happenings. New guy wants his guys. Everyone would do that.
But not all should have been let go. Not everyone deserved it. Some were the best Arkansas could produce. They were favorite sons all over the state.
Sooner or later that comes back to roost. It takes time. It takes more and more seeing what was happening.
One by one, they told their story. It got around.
Then there is the bad: Long was perceived as a guy from the North. You know the word. It still gets tossed around in the deep South. Like it or not, Arkansas is the deep South.
I couldn't tell you what that person is supposed to look like or sound like, but Broyles never had to deal with it at Arkansas. The Georgia accent and the way he embraced folks from Eudora to West Memphis to Texarkana to Bella Vista did it for Broyles. And, he had that national championship in his back pocket, the only one ever won in football at Arkansas.
Long did not, not from Arkansas, nor anywhere else. He ached to be called a football guy, but he didn't have any real credentials to back that up, aside from a couple of graduate assistant positions and a year coaching tight ends at Duke. He told me once I could call him “Coach.” I would have thought “Jeff” would have worked.
It was just that Jeff didn't have the personality. Mostly the guys he hung out with were his staff.
It wasn't like that with Broyles and the entire state knew it. Frank – and that's what the state called him in loving terms – had friends in 75 counties. Most felt like they could call him, anytime. His home phone was publicly listed. You called it, he answered. He didn't need caller ID to figure out who you were. You said your name, more than likely, he knew you.
That's the kind of stuff that Long could never overcome. How could he? It was impossible to follow Frank Broyles.
Now, let's get into the good and there is quite a lot. There was much that needed to be done after Broyles.
First, ticket prices needed to increase. Broyles told me that in his final year. He just thought it best to let the next guy do it. It was going to be ugly and he knew it, but it had to be done to compete in the SEC.
There needed to be increases in everything, including parking passes. Those not paying the right rate needed to be told they would be moved. Oh, that's pretty ugly, but someone had to do it. Long hired his people and told them to do it.
Second, there needed to be some insulation built into all of those that gave money who thought they could call shots. The problem with that is that in reality Broyles didn't let them call shots, or very rarely. They just were made to feel that they could.
That's a tough road to walk, but Broyles did it. Long just cut them all off. It hurt. It was painful.
Eventually, that comes back around as the numbers add up. Eventually, some of them have influence over you, like appointments to the UA Board of Trustees.
Money had to be raised and buildings had to be remodeled, some that were beautiful on the outside but sort of like shells: they lacked the internal working space needed for an expanding athletics department. There was not enough room for a modern football operation and an expanding athletics department.
So a new football building was built. I called it Fort Petrino. Long hated that when I tried it on him. It was like trying to get into a fort to see any coaches under Petrino in the old space. I knew what the new space would be like, although it hasn't been like that under Bret Bielema.
Baseball and track needed an upgrade and the nation's best indoor facility was built. A basketball practice facility was needed and it's the key to improved recruiting now being seen under Mike Anderson.
The academic and student development center, named after Jerry and Gene Jones, is incredible. It will serve into the next decade. Academics have improved and should make another jump as reports are issued in the coming years.
Many of the improvements are incredible. The expansion of the football stadium is up-up-and-away wonderful. It will knock your socks off when it's done.
Part of that will make it easy to hire the next AD. I'm thinking some will be pushing for Tommy Tuberville or Houston Nutt. Maybe a coach on campus is a good candidate. Take your pick. There are some good ones, like Dave Van Horn. He'd be outstanding, but I'm not sure he would want the job.
It's going to be a tough job. Football is spiraling down. That has to be pinned on Long, too. He hired Bielema. And, what do your do about games in War Memorial Stadium? That place is not fit for SEC football right now. Can that be fixed? Is it the responsibility of the UA program?
You might say no, but the lack of attention to that stadium is what eventually got Broyles and probably got Long, too. I don't think there is any doubt that the Great Stadium Debate is alive and well in 2017.
I recall the day my father was one day removed from cancer surgery. He was not conscious in ICU when Frank came to see him, fresh out of a Board of Trustees meeting just a few blocks away.
“We won,” Frank said as he entered the ICU wing, with nurses trying to stop him every step of the way.
My father never heard the message, but I did. Games would start to leave Little Rock. And, from that minute, Frank began to lose support. It didn't all hit at once, but it was part of what ended his time.
Long struggled in the same way as Broyles on pulling games to Fayetteville. Of course, Long wanted all of them to come to Fayetteville. He asked me once why the media didn't see it. I tried to explain that I grew up in Little Rock and understood that it was still a big part of what Razorback football should be now and forever, at least in the view of many.
Playing games in Little Rock and Arlington, Texas at the same time is nearly impossible. Maybe the trips to Texas have to end, but that's an entirely different debate.
It appears that Gov. Asa Hutchinson understands that, even with his roots in Northwest Arkansas. It's a political hot potato and he may be hitching his political future to that wagon.
Right now, there is no hint of what will happen with UA athletics. It's crazy unsettled. There will be a committee that gets to decide the next leader.
Is that good or bad, or just ugly?
I know the answer: It's ugly when there is no king.