He’s done well at Oregon
I’m glad he left. Someone whom is hired one day and walk away the next isn’t worth any salt!
Frank knew what he was doing and hired Altman. John White, who was smarter than anybody he’d ever met, ran Altman off. John thought a search firm with a bunch of guys wearing very nice suits (smart people like himself) should do the AD’s job. That’s how we landed… drumroll… John Pelphrey!!!
Some of John White’s other acts of genius:
Giving Nolan a large contract extension (against Frank’s better judgment) the year before firing Nolan.
Demanding that a “hiring committee” select Danny Ford’s replacement-which basically gave Quinn Grovey (who had zero hiring experience) the ultimate decision to hire HDN instead of Tommy Tuberville.
Insisting on another “hiring committee” (which deterred any coach with anything to lose) and that the primary qualification for Nolan’s replacement be race, which got us Stan Heath instead of Bill Self.
Running off Gary Blair (who was doing well and went on to win a NC at A&M) so that we could hire a women’s BB coach who could meet his primary criteria - being a woman - and then “stealing” Susie Gardner from Austin Peay - where she was a little over .500
And for his grand finale… replacing Frank with Jeff Long - who was actually John’s 2nd choice (the first was soooo bad that the board finally spoke up). … love John White, hate John White, love Jeff Long, hate Jeff Long, we are where we are today due to their leadership (except for baseball which fortunately, somehow, survived this scourge).
Good news is that with Jeff Long’s departure, John White’s influence is mostly over… just picking up the pieces.
What Hoggle said…John White with Bev Lewis single handed destroyed our basketball programs and we are still trying to recover from them. The mess with Blair and the hiring of Gardner should go down as one the worse decision ever made with Razorback sports.
I’ll second that motion! Blair would still be on the hill. Oh course now I’m glad we have Coach Neighbors. He just needs a couple more recruiting classes but for what he accomplished last year was amazing. He has ladies playing hard and looking much better.
I agree with everything said above except for the HDN hire over Tubbervile. I know HDN had his issues, but Tubs has as well. I think Tubs would have done well here, but HDN did well until, well, we all know the story. I don’t know if Tubs would have taken us to Atlanta, but then again, not sure he wouldn’t have won it all if he had gotten us there. I believe it’s speculation at best to think Tubs would have done better. Both are Arkansas men, so I’m not against either one.
Thought there were some other issues with Altman also, made him balk.
Frank didn’t show up for an interview (was golfing at Augusta).
The BB program was in dire straights, player grades & about to lose scholarships.
Player off court & discipline issues.
Some other things I can’t recall.
Or was that Self ?
No, that was Altman. He found out once he got here just how bad things were. There were disciplinary issues as well as grades and APR. And he immediately hightailed it back to Omaha.
As for Tubs, remember that the year after we hired HDN he left OM for Auburn. I don’t think he would have stayed here; he’s an Arkansan but he’s not a Hog. Particularly if he had had the kind of success HDN had that first year, he would have taken the next job that came his way. Possibly still would have landed at Auburn.
John White hired Heath and Pelphrey. He hired Nutt for football. He hired Jeff Long.
None of that worked.
I hope the Mike Anderson gets hot and wins.
I hope that Chad Morris wins before all the Razorback passion turns to apathy.
Their still is time to fix basketball and if Morris can continue to get strong recruting classes, football could be competitive by 2021.
Fans, don’t give up. We are going to have problems for the next few years. We just have to play hard and get better. Coach positions are solid for now, but victories bring job security and we need that now. WPS
I talked to Tommy and he said Frank offered him the job. Problem was that the Little Rock money supported HDN. He didn’t think that left him much security, and I’d venture to guess he was right. I know Coach Tubberville wanted to come, it just didn’t work out.
I’m sure he wanted to come, but I question whether he would have stayed
Disagree with above regarding tuberville being from arkansas but not a hog. He does a radio show about 5 miles from me and is seen all over town. He talks about being a hog fan growing up and refers to the hogs as “we” in context.
I’m biased because I see a lot of great giving work he does. He has nothing for Jeff long though.
John White was the single worst thing to happen to Razorback Athletics in modern history. The impacts of his arrogance, ineptitude and botched personnel decisions are still being felt today. And as you said, we’ll still be picking up the pieces for some time.
What IMAHog said…
[quote=“Ricemab54”]
John White hired Heath and Pelphrey. He hired Nutt for football. He hired Jeff Long.
None of that worked.
I hope the Mike Anderson gets hot and wins.
I hope that Chad Morris wins before all the Razorback passion turns to apathy.
Their still is time to fix basketball and if Morris can continue to get strong recruting classes, football could be competitive by 2021.
Fans, don’t give up. We are going to have problems for the next few years. We just have to play hard and get better. Coach positions are solid for now, but victories bring job security and we need that now. WPS
[/quote]Hmmm, I’d bet that every one on the board would have taken the first eight years’ success of HDN to the last eight years of football. White made some horrible decisions, but HDN was not one of them.
Altman left on his own.
I was right there in the middle of it, sitting just outside his office - he asked me to come down and give him some details on prspects - when he made the call to say he was not staying.
While I blame John White for a lot of stuff, Altman turned tell and ran when he saw things weren’t perfect here and his family begged him to change his mind.
Now I will say that John White is the single reason that my buddy Bill Self was never the coach here - as it wanted to be.
Altman’s Family begged him to change his mind and stay in Fayetteville ?
Oh,no.
They begged him to go back to Creighton.