Arkansas football coaching candidates enjoying late-season success
FAYETTEVILLE - The Arkansas Razorbacks’ search for a new head football coach appears to be going too successfully.
Not necessarily, unless something under wraps is occurring, because the Razorbacks are close to replacing Bret Bielema, fired last Friday after five years, but because several coaches the UA is believed considering are involved coaching conference championship games Saturday.
Auburn’s Gus Malzahn, Memphis’ Mike Norvell, and Washington State’s Mike Leach all coached winning games over the Thanksgiving weekend vaulting SEC West champion Auburn to Saturday’s SEC Championship game in Atlanta against SEC East champion Georgia while Leach’s Cougars prep for Friday’s Pac 12 championship game, and Norvell’s Tigers will play the University of Central Florida for the American East Conference Championship.
One plus to having so many candidates so involved with their current jobs, it may give the Razorbacks time officially to hire an athletic director before they hire the next football coach.
Senior Associate Athletic Director Julie Cromer Peoples has been serving as interim athletic director since Jeff Long, Arkansas’ AD since 2008, was fired on Nov. 15.
University of Arkansas Chancellor Joe Steinmetz and the 7-member search committee he appointed are in charge of hiring a new athletic director while Cromer Peoples said she has authority, under Steinmetz of course, to interview and hire a football coach.
Considering that most coaches presumably would want to know for whom they are working, it seems to behoove the UA to name an official AD whether from outside or promoting Cromer Peoples or someone from within, before offering the head coaching job.
Malzhan, a Fort Smith native and former Arkansas state champion high school coach at Hughes, Shiloh Christian and Springdale, and Arkansas’ offensive coordinator in 2006, seems the early fan favorite, but Arkansas’ prospects for hiring seem diminishing.
Auburn beating Alabama last Saturday should rekindle the Auburn-Malzhan love affair once gone so cold that Malzhan was speculated on his way out both during last season and early this season.
And with his Tigers routing the Razorbacks in 2016 at Auburn, Ala. and 2017 in Fayetteville, Malzhan firsthand knows the talent advantages of the program he would be leaving over the program he would be assuming if he left Auburn for Arkansas.
Another example looms for Malzhan to appraise.
Bret Bielema, arrived in December, 2012 at Arkansas as the very, very successful Big 10 champion coach from Wisconsin.
Five years later he leaves fired from Arkansas while undefeated Wisconsin plays Ohio State for the Big Ten championship.
Bielema, who did much good off the field for the Razorbacks righting the undisciplined ship he inherited, may get another chance.
Some media have deemed him a candidate for the Nebraska job made available when the Cornhuskers on Saturday fired Coach Mike Riley.
A GOOD KNIGHT IN THE AFTERNOON
His basketball Razorbacks leave Portland, Ore. Sunday night a better team than when they arrived there before Thanksgiving, Coach Mike Anderson said Sunday afternoon.
After winning a track meet of game 92-83 over talented Oklahoma last Thursday and on Friday afternoon playing No. 9 ranked reigning national champion North Carolina close before running out of gas in the Tar Heels 13-0 run for UNC’s 87-68 victory, the Razorbacks refreshed from Saturday’s off day to vanquish the Connecticut Huskies, 10267 Sunday afternoon to finish third in the Phil Knight Invitational’s Victory Bracket.
UConn had traveled a similar tournament path defeating Thursday, 71-63 the home state, home crowd cheered Oregon Ducks and on Friday only trailed nationally fourthranked Michigan State by one at half before the Spartans pulled away 77-57.
The Huskies also had Saturday off but didn’t look it. The Razorbacks, led by 24 and 16 points from senior guards Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon, routed the Huskies from the outset and accelerated because Arkansas’ bench outscored UConn’s bench 44-12 including a career high 19 points by sophomore reserve guard C.J. Jones.
“Our bench came in and played very, very well,” Anderson said during Sunday’s postgame. “C.J. Jones had his career high. (freshman reserve forward) Darius Hall (7 points and 6 rebounds in 14 minutes) came into his own and (senior forward Dustin Hall) was
in a much better flow. I thought we had a nice comeback after a tough loss to an outstanding North Carolina team. Playing the teams we played, we got better.”