Some happenings in Fayetteville and Tulsa the past 24 hours lead us to believe Arkansas has turned its sights to Derrick Gragg for the open AD position. Gragg is the Tulsa AD who spent several years working under Frank Broyles.
UPDATED:
I know there are reports out there about the AD, but we have spoken to some people who should know if an AD has been hired, and they don’t know.
That’s not to say the other reports are incorrect, but we’re holding off saying this has happened until we have confirmation that we trust.
Tulsa World reached Derrick Gragg about the Arkansas interest and he gave no comment.
The UA confirms the AD search is ongoing. No hire has been made.
Dudley spoke to a source close to the BOT and he says:
“The Chancellor has not made a decision. The search is ongoing. This was leaked by someone who did so for their own self-interest.”
One thing that is important to note: I think Gragg still is a strong candidate for this job.
IMO Frank Haith is a god awful, as-far-from-perfect-as-you-can-get hire to lead a basketball program as storied as Tulsa. Hiring the basketball coach is one of only two functions that I give a crap about concerning the AD, which is probably why I’m not being consulted.
I don’t know him from Adam, but it sounds good on the surface. My only question is , why did we pay a search firm to find a guy with Arkansas Athletic ties and is just 100 miles down the road?
…because an organization worth almost a quarter of a billion dollars does not care about 75K to hire the face of the department. The search firm will give an unbiased assessment and perform the vetting process. The days of unilateral hiring are gone.
We have done well with folks who have been at schools nearby to Fayetteville. Think about Frank Broyles coaching at Missouri before coming to Arkansas, Nolan Richardson coached at Tulsa, Mike Anderson played at Tulsa, assistant at Arkansas and coached at Missouri, Kenny Hatfield played at Arkansas, Houston Nutt played at Arkansas and Oklahoma State, Eddie Sutton played at Oklahoma State. I like getting someone who at least knows the geographical area and will have known the storied history of the Arkansas Razorbacks.
This from Gragg’s bio:
“Gragg spent six years at the University of Arkansas before his appointment at Eastern Michigan. He joined Arkansas in 2000 as an associate athletic director and was promoted to senior associate athletic director in 2003 and then to deputy athletic director. In his tenure at Arkansas, Gragg was involved in various areas including: athletic administration, sport program oversight, marketing, sports information, recruitment, budgeting, student-athlete support, compliance, facilities and game management, fund-raising and research.” He also has a degree from Vanderbilt and a doctorate from Arkansas. He’s from Huntsville, AL where I lived for eleven years–great tech town.
