They hire an AD this week and then..............

Football Insider Board
#1

…he/she gets to provide input on selecting the best coach available next week. That means if Auburn wins Saturday, the Gus bus will have Arkansas in its rear view mirror, he is gone, getting a big new contract at Auburn. If Venable’s team loses Saturday, then he would be available. If they win, he will be tied up with the BCS playoffs and we cannot wait for him to finish that. Win, lose, or draw, Norvell will be available next week to take the Arkansas job. Unless there is a surprise, secret, candidate like last time, a successful Power 5 head coach (what if Mark Richt loses the Clemson game? I wonder what his buyout would be to get back in the SEC?) who wants to come to Arkansas, I say we hire Norvell (assuming Gus and Venables are not available) and he starts recruiting immediately! First, he recruits a staff that can recruit Arkansas (retaining Lunney would be a good start there), Louisiana (retaining Mike Smith would be a very good start there), and Texas! He has to evaluate which of Arkansas’s present recruits he wants to keep and lock them up for the early signing date. If he has some top recruits that he has an in with and offering them an SEC scholarship would seal the deal, get them committed ASAP. Then this staff starts scrambling immediately to get the best athletes available for signing in February.

Is there an up and coming Texas based defensive coordinator who has successfully recruited that state and would consider Arkansas to be a big step up? (Wonder if John Chavis would be a possibility?) Would be a good idea to hire him as assistant head coach or something equivalent if there is one. JMVVVVVHO

PS: What about Steve Caldwell for DC & Assistant Head Coach? He was a great recruiter when he was at Arkansas! He is now assistant head coach at Boise State: <LINK_TEXT text=“http://www.broncosports.com/sports/m-fo … 81046.html”>http://www.broncosports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/steve_caldwell_881046.html</LINK_TEXT> Maybe he would like to come back closer to home for a few years before he retires. He is used to Norvell’s style of offense and he recruited the best set of defensive ends ever seen at Arkansas while with the Razorbacks.

#2

Shameless bump. :sunglasses:

#3

It’s not unusual for coordinators who get head jobs to leave before bowl/playoff games.

Don’t think Venables would be out of it if he wants to be a head coach, win or lose in the ACCC game.

#4

Agree with doc for the 2nd time today. Win or lose, if we want Venables & he wants to come, the playoff games won’t matter. Don’t know if that means he’d still coach them through the playoffs, but I doubt it.

#5

The head coach (if he is a spread guy like Norvell or Malzahn) would have to have a defensive coordinator that accepts that style of offense and vice versa. In other words, you can’t have a defensive coordinator who isn’t OK knowing his defense may be on the field for 85 plays because the offense takes 20 seconds to score or punt. That may not be as big a deal these days since most teams run some sort of spread. One reason, in my opinion, that Arkansas’ defense the last few years hasn’t been as good is because the offensive line could not dominate and keep the opposing team’s offense on the sideline. When CBB was at his best, the O-line was dominant, they took time off the clock and the defense wasn’t called upon quite as often.

#6