FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas' search for a head football coach hit the one-week mark today.
Second-year Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek said Monday he would begin putting feelers out to see who is truly interested in the position and that he'll keep all the candidates under his hat.
Certainly he has top targets in mind to replace the fired Chad Morris, but interviewing those coaches might take until after Thanksgiving or possibly later.
Yurachek indicated Monday he would not be in a big rush to make the hire, but he said the looming signing period of Dec. 18-20 would add a degree of urgency to the search.
Most college teams wrap up their regular seasons on Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 28-30), including the Razorbacks against Missouri in Little Rock on Nov. 29. Conference championship games finish Dec. 7.
"The timing of this change gives me a little bit longer runway to really do my due diligence on this search and make sure we get the right candidate in here and that we allow that right candidate the time they need to build a program," Yurachek said. "Obviously it's going to take steps. That first step is we've just got to be competitive.
"We've got to put a competitive product out on that field that we all feel proud to support Saturday after Saturday. And then from that competitiveness will come wins and those wins will start to multiply year after year. But first thing we've just got to put a competitive product out there on the field."
Yurachek noted the incentive of giving the next coach time to prepare for the December signing period, an event that negatively afffected Morris' first staff in 2017, the first year of the early signing period. Morris officially agreed to terms on Dec. 6, giving him and his staff roughly two weeks to work with to ink early signees.
"Obviously the early signing period is key, because we've got some recruits that have committed to the University of Arkansas that we want to retain, and we want to give our new coaching staff an opportunity to recruit additionally prior to that signing day," Yurachek said.
"And so giving them a runway to do that is important. But ... we're not going to be in a rush. We've still got three weeks left in the regular season, and another week for conference championship games, so we've got a little bit of time to get this search done the right way and get the right person in here, and still allow them time to recruit."
Factions abound among Arkansas fans who are debating the merits of the so-called favorites for the job, coaches like Mike Norvell at Memphis, Mike Leach at Washington State, Lane Kiffin at Florida Atlantic, Gus Malzahn at Auburn and others.
A group of former Arkansas offensive linemen have made it known they'd like to see Sam Pittman, the Hogs' O-line coach from 2013-15, get an interview for the position. Pittman is currently the associate head coach at Georgia, a similar position to what he held at Arkansas under Bret Bielema.
Pittman's head coaching experience is limited to a stint in 1992-93 at Hutchinson (Kan.) College. Since then, Pittman -- who will turn 58 on Nov. 28 -- has risen up the ranks during stops at Northern Illinois, Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Western Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas.
Former Arkansas quarterback Clint Stoerner has put in a strong recommendation for Leach, who is a favorite of national media for his quirky personality, love of pirates and ability to find humor in the sometimes un-funny arena of big-time college athletics. Leach, 58, has shown strong interest in making a return to the SEC as a head coach after working with Hal Mumme at Kentucky in 1997-98.
Norvell, a record-setting wideout at the University of Central Arkansas, is seen as an up-and-comer at age 38 who could also be in play for the Florida State opening. His Memphis team entered the weekend ranked 20th nationally in total offense with 475.4 yards per game.
The Tigers entered Saturday's game at Houston with an 8-1 record and ranked No. 18 in the College Football Playoff rankings. They are one spot behind Cincinnati in the rankings that will determine the Group of 5 representative in the New Year's Six bowl lineup.
Malzahn parlayed strong interest from the Razorbacks in 2017 into a seven-year, $49 million deal that has a buyout of roughly $27 million from Auburn's standpoint on Dec. 1. Two years ago, Malzahn was coming off home victories over Georgia and Alabama, and was headed toward the SEC Championship Game when Arkansas inquired.
This season, the Tigers entered Saturday's home game against Georgia with a 7-2 record and still have the Crimson Tide remaining on their schedule.
Lane Kiffin, 44, is an intriguing candidate because of his previous interest in the Arkansas job. The third-year coach at Florida Atlantic was a candidate for the position in 2007 when he was head coach of the Oakland Raiders and was also in consideration two years ago when interim Arkansas AD Julie Cromer Peoples and the campus brass chose Morris.
Additionally, he was a finalist for the University of Houston head coaching job in 2016 when Yurachek was the Cougars' athletic director.
Kiffin's father Monte, currently a defensive analyst for his son at Florida Atlantic, was defensive coordinator at Arkansas under Lou Holtz on strong defensive units from 1977-79.
A couple of former Arkansas head coaches, Houston Nutt and Bobby Petrino, have drawn support.
Nutt had a 75-48 record in 10 seasons with the Razorbacks from 1998-2007. He led the Razorbacks to a pair of SEC Championship Games and three SEC West titles.
There was fracturing in the fan base the last two years of his tenure, some of it due to the hiring of Malzahn as offensive coordinator in 2006 at the urging of then-athletic director Frank Broyles. Nutt said on Little Rock radio station KABZ-FM, 103.7, that he had interest in the position, but only if he felt the fan base was largely unified.
Petrino will always be a polarizing figure for Arkansas fans. His on-field success from 2008-11 is unquestioned. The Razorbacks went 34-17 during that span, including 21 victories in his final two seasons, and the school's lone BCS bowl berth in the Sugar Bowl.
Petrino was fired for cause in April 2012, leaving a loaded offensive roster in the lurch, after the motorcycle wreck that led to the discovery of his mistress being hired into an auxiliary position over more-qualified candidates.
An online petition has been created in support of Petrino, and it has received more than 12,600 signatures as of Saturday afternoon. The UA Board of Trustees passed legislation in 2013 that prevented employees who had been fired for cause to be rehired. However, that ruling does not apply to Petrino because it was passed after his firing.
Other logical candidates include Iowa State's Matt Campbell, Boise State's Bryan Harsin, Liberty's Hugh Freeze, Louisiana Tech's Skip Holtz, Florida International's Butch Davis, SMU's Sonny Dykes, Alabama-Birmingham's Bill Clark, Appalachian State's Eliah Drinkwitz, Tulane's Willie Fritz, Louisiana-Lafayette's Billy Napier, Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, and other Power 5 head coaches and coordinators.
A writer for the Banner Society said this week that former Tennessee coach Butch Jones, now an analyst at Alabama, is a candidate.
Yurachek showed an outside-the-box style in his men's basketball coaching search earlier this year that led to the hiring of Eric Musselman, so there is a strong chance he is considering candidates who are not necessarily on the radar.
Those candidates may or may not be identified during the search or later.
"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 Monday.
"I want to get the best person in here to lead our football program, so on that list you mentioned current sitting head coaches, coordinators, former head coaches. All of those will be considered."
Sports on 11/17/2019