If beating No. 1 ranked LSU last Friday in Baton Rouge couldn’t heal a divided Razorback fan base, then Houston Nutt presumes maybe his resignation would.

So with the help of “ golden handcuffs” becoming a “ golden parachute, ” the Little Rock native and 10-year University of Arkansas head football coach leaves the Razorbacks effective immediately, Nutt, University of Arkansas chancellor Dr. John White and retiring Razorback athletics director Frank Broyles announced Monday night.

The resignation was not sought by White, Broyles or incoming athletics director Jeff Long. White and Broyles said, Nutt was encouraged to remain with an increase in salary and an extension on his contract. ESPN reports the UA offered him $ 2. 4 million a year.

“ This was Houston’s call, ” Broyles said. “ We did all we could to keep him. ” Defensive coordinator Reggie Herring will serve as interim head coach for the 8-4 Razorbacks in the bowl game that will be designated Sunday.

“ Deep, deep down in my heart as an Arkansan and as a person who loves the Razorback so much, I felt it so important the whole state come forward with one heartbeat, ” Nutt said. “ I didn’t think we could go forward with one heartbeat. ”

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On a variety of fronts, Nutt has been under vocal criticism from a segment of fans since his only two losing seasons of 5-6 and 4-7 in 2004 and 2005 and even during last year’s 10-4 SEC West championship season which ended in three close defeats to national top five teams LSU, Florida, the 2006 national champion and Wisconsin. Criticism, including airplanes trailing disparaging banners before games, increased during Arkansas ’ 0-3 SEC start this season. However, Nutt’s Razorbacks won 4 of their last 5 SEC games including last Friday’s 50-48 triple overtime thriller at LSU. Beating LSU did cause Nutt briefly he said, to think differently on a decision he had been leaning towards for awhile. “ When you win and you are in that lockerroom, ” Nutt said, “ and you are with those players and that coaching staff, that’s the happiest time. But when you get back home and reality sets back in that there is still not the one heartbeat, that there is still some division. That is what I hate the most. I feel Arkansas deserves the unity, togetherness, that complete one heartbeat. That’s what I want. ” Noting the special circumstances of Nutt’s resignation, White said the “ golden handcuffs” that would have made it financially unfeasible for Nutt to resign now because of annuities due him later, were removed. “ I felt like it was not fair to Houston to keep those handcuffs on him, ” White said. “ They were very onerous handcuffs. When I detected that he was feeling constrained because of them, I felt it was not in his best interests, but more importantly I felt like it was not in the university’s best interest. We needed him to be able to bring the same desire and passion and he had a very difficult year. Unless you have walked in his moccasins, you cannot imagine what it has been like. So I felt like it was the only thing to do, it was the right thing to do for him and for our program. ” Nutt expressed gratitude over his parting financial terms. He said he could not have resigned without them.

“ That’s why I am so appreciative of Coach Broyles for setting these annuities aside, ” Nutt said. “ I am very thankful for that. I am very thankful for Chancellor White. He gave me an unbelievable option. I couldn’t have done it without Chancellor White and Coach Broyles. ” Nutt said he does want to continue to coach. Reports Monday already made him the leading candidate for the Ole Miss head coaching job that became vacant last Saturday. Nutt said his immediate coaching future will be negotiated by his agent, Jimmy Sexton.

Even if his name wasn’t already being bandied about as a coaching candidate, Nutt deemed it best he not coach the bowl game. “ In talking to Coach Broyles, Chancellor White and Jeff Long, I just felt like it was the best thing, ” Nutt said. “ The timing was right. One thing I hate so much, I don’t think our players got the attention they deserved when they won the [SEC West ] championship last year. Win 10 and going to Atlanta is hard to do. It’s been the same thing this year. We’re in a bowl game so let’s get focused on our players. ” Two of those players, Doak Walker Award winning junior running back Darren McFadden and junior All-SEC center Jonathan Luigs, both expressed sorrow to see their coach depart. “ It’s sad for it to end like this for Coach Nutt, ” McFadden said. “ I loved playing for him. He’s a great coach. I hate for it to end like this, but I am very happy for him and just wish him the best in whatever he has to do. ” Luigs said Nutt told them to focus on the bowl. “ I think Coach Nutt did a good job of letting us move on, but we want to win this for him, ” Luigs said. Broyles, who as coach recruited Nutt from Little Rock Central to the Razorbacks as a quarterback in 1976, and White both lauded Nutt’s accomplishments, including taking over a program that had one winning season from 1990-97 and then went 9-3 his first year in 1998 with a SEC West cochampionship. Nutt went 75-48 from 1998 through 2007 and won or shared three SEC West titles and qualified his team for eight bowl games including the one to be named Sunday.