Geopfert returning to Arkansas where 'roots run deep'

Arkansas assistant track coach Travis Geopfert is shown in this 2018 file photo. Geopfert, who coached the Razorbacks from 2009-18, is returning to Arkansas after three years as an assistant coach at Tennessee.

FAYETTEVILLE — Travis Geopfert is coming back to Arkansas’ track and field program.

Geopfert, who has spent the past three years as an assistant coach at Tennessee, was announced Thursday as the replacement for Mario Sategna as the Razorbacks’ assistant who oversees jumps and field events. Sategna, the former Texas head coach, resigned May 19.

Geopfert, 42, previously coached under Chris Bucknam at Arkansas from 2009-18. He also worked for Bucknam at Northern Iowa from 2003-08, and competed for Bucknam at Northern Iowa from 1997-02.

“We recruited him out of Panora, Iowa,” Bucknam said. “He was a dual football-track athlete.

“Thankfully he focused just on track and field, but he’s got that football mentality that I love — that toughness factor and a team-oriented coach.”

Geopfert replaced Bucknam as the head coach at Northern Iowa when Bucknam left for Arkansas in 2008. They were reunited a year later.

“The roots run deep,” Geopfert said of his relationship with Bucknam. “He’s been a great mentor to me along the way.”

During his first stint at Arkansas, Geopfert coached four individuals to a combined seven NCAA championships. He was named national assistant coach of the year in 2013 and 2014 by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

Geopfert coached Jarrion Lawson to long jump titles indoors and outdoors in 2016 when Lawson won The Bowerman as the nation’s best track athlete. Lawson also won a long jump title indoors in 2014.

Geopfert coached Clive Pullen to NCAA triple jump titles indoors in 2016 and 2017, Kevin Lazas to an indoor heptathlon title in 2013, and Alain Bailey to an indoor long jump title in 2010.

“He brings not only a lot of knowledge and skill, but he brings a lot of energy and positivity,” Bucknam said. “I think that’s something you can’t get enough of. He’ll be bringing that back to Fayetteville.”

Geopfert was part of the Razorbacks’ 2013 indoor national championship team and four national runner-up teams. Arkansas won 18 SEC team titles with him on staff.

“I sensed the fact that he missed it here,” Bucknam said. “When our position came open, we just go after the best guys and work down the list. He was at the top of the list and we lucked out and he wanted to come back. We’re really super excited about it."

Of his move to Tennessee in 2018, Geopfert said it was “a great professional opportunity.” Bucknam said it was tough competing against him the past few years.

“It’s like coaching against your son,” Bucknam said. “You want him to have success, but not at your expense. I think the time away has made him a better coach and played in our favor that we’re able to get him back. He’ll be better here than when he left.”

Geopfert said his time away gave him a different perspective.

“I’ve had a lot of opportunities the past two years in particular to go to some other places, some head-coaching opportunities, but I was being extremely selective about where we want to live, where we want to coach, where we want to raise our family,” Geopfert said. “This opportunity was something I wasn’t going to pass up.

“We know what we’re getting into…and Arkansas is a special place. I will never take for granted what we have there.”

At Tennessee, Geopfert was an assistant for the men’s and women’s teams. The Volunteers’ men finished ninth at this year’s NCAA indoor meet in Fayetteville.

Two of his Tennessee male athletes — American Darryl Sullivan (high jump) and Jamaican Carey McLeod (long and triple jump) — recently qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.

He coached three Olympians — Lawson, Pullen and Raymond Higgs — during his first stint at Arkansas.

"He had great success while he was here, goes to a different Power 5 school in the SEC and has great success there," Bucknam said. “When you can do it at two different places, it puts you in rarified air."