Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe will be hired as the University of Arkansas’ next head football coach, according to multiple sources.

Grobe is expected to fly to Arkansas today after he addresses his Wake Forest team and could officially be named Arkansas’ coach by late afternoon or tonight.

Arkansas has been searching for a head coach since Houston Nutt resigned Nov. 26 and became Ole Miss’ head coach on Nov. 27.

Jeff Long, officially replacing retiring Arkansas athletics director Frank Broyles on Jan. 1 but placed in charge of the coaching search by UA Chancellor John White, apparently talked with Grobe on Tuesday and Wednesday in Winston-Salem, N. C. after Long had interviewed Clemson coach Tommy Bowden Monday in Clemson, S. C.

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Bowden opted to stay at Clemson and agreed to a contract extension.

Grobe, Wake Forest’s coach since 2001, has turned down several opportunities since turning around the Demon Deacons and has been repeatedly mentioned as a possibility for the Michigan head coaching vacancy. He was also mentioned for the Nebraska vacancy recently filled by LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini, Nebraska’s former defensive coordinator and interim head coach.

Wake Forest mainly has been known as an Atlantic Coast Conference basketball power and football coaching graveyard, but Grobe brought the Demon Deacons unprecedented success, coaching them to an 11-3 ACC championship season and Orange Bowl berth in 2006.

In 2006, Grobe was named both the Associated Press Coach of the Year and Bobby Dodd Award Coach of the Year.

This season the Demon Deacons are 8-4 and headed to Charlotte, N. C., to play Connecticut, Dec. 29 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

Grobe, 55, is a native of Huntington, West Virginia. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and lettered in 1973 as a middle guard and in 1974 as a linebacker after transferring from Ferrum Junior College.

After being a graduate assistant at Virginia in 1975 and linebackers coach at Emory & Henry in 1978, Grobe was an assistant coach at Marshall and Air Force before becoming head coach at Ohio University in 1995.

Ohio University of the Mid-America Conference had gone 0-11 in 1994 and won 17 games the previous 10 years. Under Grobe the Bobcats were 33-33-1 in his six years.

For his seven seasons at Wake Forest, Grobe has compiled a 45-39 record, including 19-7 his last two seasons. His Wake Forest record is 6-5, 7-6, 5-7, 4-7, 4-7, 11-3 and 8-4.

Last February, Grobe signed a 10-year contract at Wake Forest.

While Grobe is expected to fly today to Fayetteville, defensive coordinator Reggie Herring for now continues as interim coach preparing the 8-4 Razorbacks for their Cotton Bowl game against Missouri on New Year’s Day in Dallas.

Herring had his first practice Wednesday with the Razorbacks since Nutt coached them to victory over then-No. 1 ranked LSU the day after Thanksgiving.

Grobe may have commitments remaining with Wake Forest for the Demon Deacons’ Dec. 29 Meineke Car Care Bowl game against Connecticut.