Hogs’ AD comfortable in office

FAYETTEVILLE — Most of those who have been successful over a long period while working in University of Arkansas Razorbacks athletics have been comfortable with Arkansas and comfortable making Arkansans comfortable.

On that score, it seems new Razorbacks athletic director Hunter Yurachek has worked in Arkansas for years rather than just since December.

“My style is to be very approachable,” said Yurachek, comfortably clad in a sports shirt and slacks during a one-on-one interview in his Walton Arena office while the Broyles Center is being reconstructed. “My office door is always open.”

Or he’s knocking on doors of his coaches.

“That’s the way I build relationships and trust,” Yurachek said. “I want to be approachable to our staff and student-athletes and people in the university community and across the state.”

That’s not just lip-service. He’s addressed gatherings in Little Rock, Conway, El Dorado, Texarkana and West Memphis with Fort Smith scheduled soon before the summer circuit of Razorback Club meetings and the statewide bus tour he will take with UA Chancellor Joe Steinmetz.

“It doesn’t matter where I’ve gone, people are unbelievably passionate about the Razorbacks,” Yurachek said.

The passion, he says, has a unanimity he’s never experienced.

“It does mean more in this state than any other place I’ve been,” Yurachek said.

Refueling the passion makes Yurachek look beyond the bank book as to whether the Razorbacks discontinue or continue playing an annual football game at War Memorial Stadium beyond 2018 vs. playing all home games at bigger, updated Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

“For an athletic director it’s a very easy decision if it’s based strictly on dollars and cents and strictly on business,” Yurachek said. “But what I’ve come to find in my first 100-plus days here a decision to or not to play in Little Rock is not a financial decision. It means a lot to people across the state because of the central location of Little Rock and the rich history for

70 consecutive years of games being played there. I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve met who have said things like, ‘My wife and I had our first date at a game in Little Rock,’ or ‘My dad first took me to a game in Little Rock.’ Just story after story. It’s not a dollars and cents decision. That’s a factor in the decision, but it cannot be the only factor in the decision.”

With the north end zone construction at Reynolds Razorback Stadium that Yurachek inherited scheduled to be operational before the Sept.

1 season opener, is the athletic director comfortable with the financing of the $160 million project?

“Absolutely,” Yurachek said. “You look at the way that

$160 million project was funded. There is $120 million that was bonded. There was a goal to raise $20 million to get to

$140 million, and there was a

$10 million commitment from the athletic department and

$10 million from the Razorback Foundation reserves. The Razorback Foundation and athletic department fund-raising efforts have blown by that

$20 million goal. We no longer have to tap into to any Razorback Foundation reserves. That project is going to finish on time and on budget. The budget model was perfect.”

What about conjecture the final sum could well exceed

$160?

“That’s not going to change unless the University of Arkansas is going to make any changes,” Yurachek said. “And

I can tell you with that project four months from being done, it’s way too late in the game to make any significant changes. There’s no way that project is not going to be on that $160 million budget.”

Yurachek sees Chad Morris generating accelerating excitement.

“It’s been unbelievable,” Yurachek of Morris’ reception. “At our signing day in Little Rock, he addressed the crowd for an hour and 15 minutes, and when we got done he said, ‘I’ll stay here as long as anybody wants to talk to me. I’ll be here until the last person leaves.’ That speaks volumes. He is the right person to be leading the University of Arkansas football program.”

Noting for both men and women that “Arkansas has one of the most storied track programs in the country,” Yurachek said the UA has bid to host the 2020 NCAA Outdoor Championships at John McDonnell Field and already is set to host the 2021 NCAA Indoor Championships at the Randal Tyson Indoor Track.

“We have the opportunity to host the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in 2021, and we want to make sure that facility remains the best in the country,” Yurachek said.

Bidding on the 2020 NCAA Outdoor, available with the University of Oregon after this June’s NCAA Outdoor closing Hayward Field for 2021 World Championships hosting renovations, accelerates plans to build an operations center for men’s coach Chris Bucknam and women’s coach Lance Harter and their staffs and expanded locker rooms for their athletes and while their existing offices become suites.

“We believe we could have the track operations building done in time to host the NCAA Outdoor Championships if we win the bid and get to do it,” Yurachek said.