FAYETTEVILLE -- University of Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek's national search for a head football coach to replace the fired Chad Morris started Monday.
Yurachek, as he did with his search for a men's basketball coach this spring that wound up with Eric Musselman, said he would not be discussing details of his work.
"As will be the case throughout this entire process, I'm not going to comment on anyone who could or will not be a potential candidate for this job other than to say we will have a very strong candidate pool," Yurachek said at a joint news conference Monday with interim coach Barry Lunney Jr.
Sources have indicated the Razorbacks are very interested in Memphis Coach Mike Norvell, who was on Arkansas' list of candidates when it secured Morris in December 2017.
Norvell, a record-setting receiver at the University of Central Arkansas, has a 34-15 record in his fourth season with the Tigers. Memphis is 8-1 overall and 4-1 in the American Athletic Conference West Division, a half-game behind SMU and Navy but with a head-to-head victory over the Mustangs. The Tigers were No. 21 in the first College Football Playoff ranking, and they are in the running for the spot in the New Year's Six bowls guaranteed to the highest-rated team from the Group of 5 teams.
According to the betting site SportsBetting.Ag, Norvell has the best odds at 2-1 to land the Arkansas job.
Behind Norvell are: Appalachian State Coach Eliah Drinkwitz (3-1), Florida Atlantic Coach Lane Kiffin (4-1), Alabama-Birmingham Coach Bill Clark (5-1), SMU Coach Sonny Dykes (6-1), Washington State Coach Mike Leach (6-1), Liberty Coach Hugh Freeze (8-1), Auburn Coach Gus Malzahn (12-1), former Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino (18-1) and former Arkansas coach Houston Nutt (25-1).
'Gomer Pyle' 'em
Barry Lunney Jr. said there was no use letting LSU know who the Razorbacks planned to start at quarterback Nov. 23. The No. 2 Tigers face Ole Miss on the road Saturday before hosting Arkansas the next week.
Transfers Ben Hicks and Nick Starkel split the starting assignments at quarterback the first nine games, then redshirt freshman John Stephen Jones started last week's 45-19 loss to Western Kentucky. The Razorbacks have had one game -- a 55-34 victory over Colorado State in which Starkel went the distance -- with strong quarterback play throughout.
Jones and true freshman KJ Jefferson split the snaps last week.
"We've played so many of them, they're going to have to rotate who they're getting prepared for," Lunney said. "I think we can use that to our advantage. We'll Gomer Pyle them when we get down there: Surprise, surprise, surprise."
Turning to Turner
Interim Coach Barry Lunney Jr. pointed out his father as a mentor to whom he's reached out in the 24 hours since his promotion after the firing of Chad Morris.
Lunney also said he realized there were others on the Arkansas staff who were qualified to take the reins as well, and that there were others in the offices who he could lean on.
"We've got Turner Gill that is sitting in our offices that Chad hired in the offseason, and Hunter [Yurachek] brought in the offseason who is a tremendous resource," Lunney said. "Bobby Allen, who's seen this program -- the good, the bad and the ugly -- over the last several years. Ron Cooper is a former head coach that I've already gleaned some things from him.
"So I think it's going to be a mixture of everybody. Then obviously using my best judgment. I'm going to have to make some decisions. Not hard-core decisions, but I'm going to have to make some day-to-day decisions on my own. I'm ready and prepared to do that, and that's why I'm sitting here at this table."
Gill, the director of student-athlete and staff development, put together a 72-84 record in 13 years as head coach at Buffalo, Kansas and Liberty. Cooper, the defensive backs coach, had a 49-59 record in nine seasons at Eastern Michigan, Louisville and Alabama A&M between 1993 and 2001.
Allen, the director of high school and NFL relations, is in his 22nd year on the football staff, the first 15 as an on-field assistant coach, including two as defensive coordinator.
Da Prato up
First-year assistant Daniel Da Prato, who had been serving as the quality control assistant for special teams, will be elevated into an on-field position, Barry Lunney Jr. said Monday.
"He's ... worked hand in hand with me on the special-teams units," Lunney said. "I'm going to put Daniel on the field so he can run the meetings and coach on the field. I think that was easy, a very clear, easy decision to make for our football team."
Lunney will continue to handle the tight ends as well as the head coaching responsibilities.
"Daniel and I will continue to collaborate on the special-teams stuff, and I'm obviously going to need him to step up and handle more of that on his own because I've been running those for the season," he said. "I've been running the four core units."
Talent on team
Hunter Yurachek, asked whether the Razorbacks need to make a major shift in schemes, pointed out there is a strong foundation of talent on the Arkansas roster for the next coach to inherit.
"There's plenty of talent in our locker room," Yurachek said. "It may not be Alabama-level talents, but we have plenty of talent, I believe firmly, within our locker room.
"That will be up to whoever we choose as the next head coach what kind of system they choose ... to be successful and help us win football games."
Sorry guys
Hunter Yurachek said the first thing he did in his first meeting with the football players Sunday night after the firing of Coach Chad Morris was to say he was sorry for how they heard the news.
Yurachek said a group text was scheduled to be sent out to the players' phones at 10:50 a.m., but news of Morris' firing came out a short time before that.
"The first thing I did was apologize to most of them for how they found out about the change," Yurachek said. "I had to travel [Sunday] to our women's soccer game. As is often the case, the story leaks out and somebody gets the story, and then our student-athletes have to find out in a less desirable way than I would have preferred."
Kentucky blues
Hunter Yurachek pinpointed the game he felt the Razorbacks started to deflate.
"I look back to the second half of the Kentucky game," Yurachek said. "We fought really hard against Texas A&M. We played really well in the first half against Kentucky, and probably did not have the lead we thought we should have had at halftime of that game.
"And I thought our season really turned when we couldn't close out that game and get that win against Kentucky, and I thought at that point in time our student-athletes were starting to lose belief on if we could actually ever get over the hump with the current leadership."
Arkansas lost 31-27 to Texas A&M in Arlington, Texas, and 24-20 at Kentucky before the team's current run of routs against Auburn (51-10), at Alabama (48-7), Mississippi State (54-24) and Western Kentucky (45-19) by a combined 138 points, a school record for a four-game stretch.
Extra points
• The Razorbacks will face LSU in a 6 p.m. game on Nov. 23, the SEC office announced this week. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
• Interim Coach Barry Lunney Jr. said there was not a route for tight end Cheyenne O'Grady to return to the roster after Coach Chad Morris announced last week that O'Grady was stepping away from the team.
Sports on 11/12/2019