After getting zip out of a trip to Clemson, S. C., in an attempt to hire Clemson coach Tommy Bowden, incoming Arkansas athletics director Jeff Long may Tuesday have cause to take the Razorbacks’ head football coaching search into North Carolina.

It’s all conjecture at this point as the Razorbacks continue the hunt to replace Houston Nutt who resigned Nov. 26 and became Ole Miss head coach on Nov. 27.

Long, in charge of the coaching search though not officially replacing retiring athletics director Frank Broyles until Jan. 1, has vowed to keep the search confidential.

However, within North Carolina reside North Carolina Tar Heels coach and Springdale native Butch Davis in Chapel Hill, East Carolina coach and Fayetteville High grad Skip Holtz in Greenville and Wake Forest Demon Deacons coach Jim Grobe in Winston-Salem.

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All three variously have been mentioned as Arkansas possibilities since Nutt resigned a bowl game short of completing his 10 th Razorback season.

Last Sunday the Razorbacks accepted a Cotton Bowl bid to play Missouri, New Year’s Day in Dallas and will do so under Reggie Herring, the defensive coordinator promoted to interim coach.

Herring’s chances of going from interim to head coach can only increase with Tuesday’s reports that Tommy Bowden will remain at Clemson after first talking with Long.

Herring is the only coach Long has publicly mentioned as under consideration.

Davis, formerly the head coach at the University of Miami and in the NFL a former Cleveland Browns head coach and Dallas Cowboys assistant, has for years been considered a possibility to be Arkansas’ next coach should Nutt move on.

He has consistently maintained he will stay at North Carolina having coached the Tar Heels for just one year.

However with Bowden agreeing Tuesday to a contract extension at Clemson and now out of the Razorback picture, it’s conceivable Long would try and persuade Davis.

Holtz and Grobe both are deemed hot prospects for reviving struggling programs.

The son of former Razorback head football coach Lou Holtz, Skip Holtz took over an East Carolina program that was 3-20 the immediate two years preceding his tenure and under him gone 5-6, 7-6 and 7-5.

He also was head coach at Connecticut from 1994-98, going 38-23 before rejoining his father as offensive coordinator when Lou Holtz was South Carolina’s head coach from 1999-2004. Skip also served under his father as offensive coordinator at Notre Dame.

Skip Holtz’s South Carolina tenure gives him experience both coaching and recruiting in the SEC, aspects that Long has deemed desirable though not absolutely essential for his head coaching choice.

Grobe, 55, is considered a hot prospect for creating football interest at Wake Forest, traditionally a basketball power but a football doormat. He struggled early joining Wake Forest in 2001 but his 2006 Demon Deacons won a school-record 11 games. This year’s team is 8-4 and headed to the Meineke Car Care Bowl to play Connecticut.

Though he signed a 10-year contract last February with Wake Forest, Grobe’s name was mentioned for the Nebraska opening which went to Bo Pelini, the former Nebraska defensive coordinator who coordinated the defense for currently nationally No. 2-ranked SEC champion LSU.

It has also been reported that Long interviewed Tulsa offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and Michigan defensive coordinator Ron English.

Malzahn was Arkansas ’ offensive coordinator in 2006. A Fort Smith native, Malzahn is a former high school head coach in Arkansas at Hughes, Shiloh Christian and Springdale.

Tulsa is 9-4 and scheduled to play Bowling Green in the GMAC Bowl.

Last week it was reported by several sources the Razorbacks had heavy interest in Auburn coach and Camden native Tommy Tuberville and Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin.

Tuberville’s $ 6 million buyout clause is an obstacle the UA apparently is unwilling to overcome.

Talk of Kiffin and Arkansas has waned to near nil, and he has repeatedly expressed intentions of staying with the Raiders.