…it just seems that the football struggles was the final straw that allowed a lot of Long Haters lurking in the big donor base to get rid of him. Imagine if last year’s team had finished just strong enough to win the last two games. Coming off of a 9-4 season, even if injuries decimated this team and it ended up 4-8 or 5-7, firing CBB or Long would not have been “justifiable.”
The decision to fire Long had it origins over the past three years if Wally Hall’s story today is accurate. As to Coach B, if he was winning and competing at higher level on the field, then all would be golden. Losing focuses attention in a laser like fashion usually with a short time line to address the causes and losing badly only multiplies the frustrations and calls for immediate action.
Razorbacks are the source of state pride and the football team is the primary driver of that and athletic department revenues as it is at the other SEC schools (excluding basketball at KY). I am optimistic that the actions of this week can lead to improvements between the AD and the fanbase starting with new direction in the football programs success going forward. This seems to be the focus on the BOT after reading the stories today about how this came to pass. As one of the members stated, change cannot occur with out with there being change.