Without intermediate stops as a mid-major or junior college head coach, Robert Pulliza leaped the net Friday from University of Kentucky assistant coach to head coach of the University of Arkansas’ women’s volleyball team.

The UA women, formerly known as Lady Razorbacks but now also called Razorbacks like the men since the merger of the men’s and women’s athletic departments, athletics director Jeff Long said, have had only Chris Poole as head volleyball coach since volleyball began as a UA intercollegiate sport in 1994.

Poole resigned last month to become the head coach at Florida State. Surveying a field with most head coaches of major Division I programs locked in their jobs as practices loom (the volleyball Razorbacks report Aug. 8 ), Long said Pulliza, “ was heads above the rest. ”

Pulliza is an assistant with the associate head coach title since 2004 at Kentucky in the SEC plus prior assistant coaching stops at Wisconsin and Texas after midmajor level assistantships at James Madison and Northern Illinois.

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“ He not only has a reputation having worked at some the biggest volley ball conferences, the Big 12, the SEC and the Big 10, but also someone who comes with tremendous enthusiasm and energy for the game of volleyball and the student-athletes who play the game, ” Long said.

Kentucky made the NCAA Tournament 3 out of 4 years for the first time in school history during Pulliza’s Wildcat tenure. Wisconsin won the Big Ten title and played in the NCAA Championship in 2000 during Pulliza’s three years in Madison, Wisc. and during his Texas tenure he helped recruit a class ranked second nationally by Sports Magazine.

All that, Long replied when asked, contributed to the AD not having apprehensions of hiring a head coach minus head coaching experience.

Citing past experience as an athletic director at a midmajor, Eastern Kentucky, Long said. “ I think there is a big difference in collegiate volleyball between the midmajor level and the SEC / national level. I didn’t think I could attract [major level ] head coaches because of the time of year so I had my mind made up it would be a Division I assistant. Robert had the reputation as an associate head coach and had competed in three of the top volleyball conferences. I felt he had what it took to get it done at this level, and I’m not sure a coach from the midmajor level would have the same kind of experience. ”

Pulliza has banked on an AD thinking that way.

“ On purpose, I took the route I took, ” Pulliza. “ I did not want to go to a midmajor. That was my philosophy. I had been an assistant at mid-majors and enjoyed my time there, but I wanted to start out at the highest level. When the right job happened, I wanted it to be somewhere big. ”

Arkansas, Pulliza asserted, is something big.

“ It’s always been a dream of mine to be a head coach, ” Pulliza.

And to be the head coach at the University of Arkansas as my first head coaching job is a dream that has exceeded everything. ”

Pulliza said he respects Arkansas as “ a tough place for an opponent to play ” from his visits to Barnhill Arena with Kentucky and that he respects the tradition Poole built.

Pulliza arrives with a reputation as a recruiter but said he first must play the hand he’s been dealt for this season which starts with the Hilton Classic Aug. 29-30 in Fort Collins, Colo.

“ We are counting on the kids we have here and we are here to win now, ” Pulliza said. “ These are my players. I would like to thank Jeff Long and the University of Arkansas for giving me this opportunity. ”

Pulliza also thanked his wife, Jamie, attending Friday’s press conference as did new UA Chancellor David Gearheart.

Pulliza said he’s working on hiring an assistant since Arkansas assistant coach Holly Graham-Watts told him she will join Poole’s staff at Florida State.

A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Pulliza graduated from Ball State in 1996 after being a 2-year captain of the Ball State men’s volleyball team which reached the Final Four in 1994 and 1995.

He started coaching as an assistant in 1996 at James Madison University, coaching at JMU through 1997 and at Northern Illinois in 1998 before his stints at Wisconsin, Texas and Kentucky.

Vigorously donning the Razorback hat presented him Friday, every new Arkansas head coach at their hiring has worn their hat with relish since former Razorback men’s basketball coach for a day Dana Altman was reticent to wear what was offered during his hiring press conference, Pulliza proclaimed, “ It fits ! It fits !”