Orville Henry: Loose ends about search for UA coach
BACKGROUND: Houston Nutt, the new Arkansas coach, explains that he transferred to OSU after the 1977 season, his second at Arkansas, so he could play more. So what does he say to the No. 2 or No. 3 Arkansas quarterback who decides he might disregard loyalty and take the same route for the same reason? What does he say if the athlete does transfer without telling his Arkansas coach, which is how he, Houston, did it?
Actually, there is more OSU Cowboy in Houston's background, playing and coaching, than there is Arkansas Razorback.
BUSINESS: There is nothing in this situation about Arkansas needing to do something for someone else. This is a business matter, simple and brutal. Arkansas needs a job done for its football program, immediately, professionally. To heck with friendships. Make enemies, if necessary, but acquire the man who has proved himself at this level, and win, and now. That has always been Arkansas' mode of operation. Hiring to try to sell tickets has proved to be a failure every time. Win, and Arkansas fans will respond.
Arkansas now has an array of quarterbacks, without which there is nothing, and running backs on campus with others available, and excellent prospects as linebackers. Those are the people you win with (although who can overlook linemen and defensive backs?)
We need a hired gun -- not people with youthful enthusiasm asked to see if they can make it at the highest level of their profession, from almost the lowest. As Joe Kines told us, the SEC is where, "They'll slit your throats and drink your blood." And that is true, we now know.
And that is why, when it became obvious a change would be made, I submitted in a column the name of Tommy Tuberville, the Ole Miss coach. This was done for one reason only. Of all the obvious candidates, only Tuberville had, was doing all the things, against the same SEC competition, that Arkansas desperately needed to top off a program thought to be on the rise. His Ole Miss teams looked like they'd been coached by Frank Broyles, Jimmy Johnson, et. al., in the good ole days.
Understand this: I don't really know Tuberville. I've talked to him, communicated with him only three times, which has been after the three Arkansas-Ole Miss games he's been involved in. Nothing but the game has ever been mentioned at those times. No friendship. No hero worship. Just knowledge that he was the man Arkansas needed to finish off what Danny Ford had started.
THE SITUATION: The people inside the Broyles building kept reminding writers, much-quoted players, etc., that Nutt had appeared early (with an entourage supplied from Little Rock) and proved how much he wanted the job, and how about that wonderful reception? (Well-orchestrated, of course).
The coaches who should have been 1-2-3 (Tuberville, Davis, the Tulane Bowden) not only could not travel to Fayetteville, they had to tell the people back home how little interest they had in the job. Boise State is not a job you worry about. Millions are at stake in the bigger positions. Nutt took no chances in visiting. The others would have.
FURIOUS: Also, my best wishes and congratulations to Houston Dale Nutt, whom I've watched from his days as a toddler. He is not to blame because he has this very exciting, demanding job. It is to his credit, and now he needs everyone's help. He knows that I have always been fair to the head coach and that I will be still.
I've covered the Arkansas football program since 1943, a long time. My readers know that, if no one else has, I have represented Arkansas fans from then until now. The program belongs to them. They need to be told when the program is being run properly, and when it is not. When people at the top mess up, I am furious.
I am furious.
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