Rhoades, UA linebackers coach, ready for new challenge

Arkansas linebackers coach Rion Rhoades speaks to reporters on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, in Fayetteville.

— For the first time in 14 years, Rion Rhoades will participate in spring practice somewhere other than Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College.

The former 13-year Blue Dragons head coach decided to make the jump from junior college head coach to Power 5 assistant coach at the invitation of Sam Pittman and will be part of Arkansas’ spring drills once they start on Monday, March 16.

“I am thankful to be here,” said Rhoades, who is the Razorbacks’ linebackers coach. “I did it for a long time, 14 years as a head coach, 13 years at Hutch and one at Fort Scott (CC) so the timing of it all was phenomenal, too. My youngest is a senior in high school so it was just great in so many ways.”

Pittman praised Rhoades at his national signing date press conference. Rhoades’ last Hutchinson team finished 10-2 and No. 3 in the country after a Salt City Bowl win.

Pittman has been a fan since Rhoades played linebacker for him at Hutchinson in 1993, when Pittman spent his lone season as the head coach of the Blue Dragons.

Rhoades had 138 tackles as a freshman and 130 as a sophomore captain before going on to Western Illinois and then becoming an NAIA All-American while playing his final college season at Northwestern Oklahoma State.

“Rion Rhoades proved that you don’t have to have experience at the D-I level to be an elite recruiter,” Pittman said.

Rhoades, who was instrumental in Arkansas signing five linebackers, believes he is poised to be a solid recruiter in the SEC.

“I am thankful for the opportunity to be here in the best division of college football in the country and I don’t want to discount it, but I have been in some really competitive recruiting situations in my career,” Rhoades said. “I feel like I have always had a pretty good ability to close strong on guys.

“I think the secret to that is to find the right kind of guys from a character standpoint, you obviously have evaluated the film, but when you find the right kind of guy, it is easy to build that bond. I think relationships can escalate quickly when you find your kind of guy.”

Rhoades was 106-55 as a head coach. He referred to Hutchinson as different among junior college programs.

“I feel like I was in a unique situation at Hutch in that I had great academic resources, really good financial support from our community of supporters and the school so Hutch was a little bit of a unicorn in that respect,” Rhoades said. I had it better than most.”

Rhoades is not a fan of the way junior colleges have been portrayed in the Netflix series Last Chance U, especially last season’s edition featuring Butler County Community College and its controversial head coach Jason Brown, who has since been fired.

“There are a lot of junior college programs out there that do things the right way and definitely are not what you see on TV,” Rhoades said. “Most are highly organized, highly disciplined programs.

“Junior colleges give guys who don’t qualify a second chance and it gives guys who might have been late bloomers and got missed in the process a second chance.”

Rhoades has great admiration for those who take the junior college route and should be a positive in Arkansas recruiting players from the Jayhawk Conference.

“I will tell you there is an unbelievable number of incredible players that play at that level, but I will tell you that it is hard,” Rhoades said. “A lot of times it is tough because they are not always on full scholarship so sometimes money is a struggle.

“Also the accommodations and resources aren’t always the best. A lot of times they are in really small towns and that makes it tough.”

Arkansas will recruit junior college players that will have proven their worth according to Rhoades.

“Really the way that I view it is that if a young man makes it through junior college,” Rhoades said, “you know they are tough, you know they have got some perseverance and you know they are adaptable because they have been down a tougher road than someone who comes directly out of high school.”