Familiarity with Arkansas might be biggest key to hiring new coach

Even before Hunter Yurachek finally sighed and pulled the plug on the life support of Chad Morris’ tenure at Arkansas, fans were speculating about who his replacement would be.

Of course, speculation may be putting it mildly. Just plain wild guessing might be a more apt description.

At this point, the people who know probably aren’t going to talk about who’s next and the only ones jabbering about it don’t really have a clue.

Remember, everybody knows somebody.

But Yurachek and his main deputy, Jon Fagg, have proven they don’t leak during coaching searches. There has been no announcement of a search committee and probably won’t be one.

Those usually lead to leaks.

One thing Yurachek needs to consider, though, is finding something that’s familiar with the state of Arkansas and looking close at how the Razorbacks have been successful in the past. We may have lost sight of that with the emphasis on Texas recruiting.

The Hogs have always had some home-grown players heavily involved in the success mixed in with some Texas players and a smattering of guys from across the country.

Yes, I’m well aware there aren’t a lot of highly-regarded recruits coming out of this state every year. What there is, though, is a pretty good number of mid-level players that will play just a tad bit harder in the fourth quarter because they know what it means to the team and, to a large extent, the state.

Right now, there is as good of a group of freshmen home-grown playmakers on the roster as there ever has been in the state.

Keeping in-state players like Treylon Burks, Hudson Henry, Malik Chavis along with some others like K.J. Jefferson on the roster is critical during this transition. Going after some out-of-state commitments like Jacolby Criswell from Morrilton might not be a bad idea, either.

It was the legendary Bear Bryant who said one time he always took some Alabama kids because in the fourth quarter of a big game “it just meant a little more to them.” He was a master at getting a bunch of unknowns to make that one play that made the difference.

Morris was trying to duplicate in a recruiting sense what Nick Saban has at Alabama and Dabo Sweeney wins with at Clemson. He didn’t openly neglect the state, but he failed to close the deal on some pretty good players.

That has never worked at Arkansas and probably never will … for whatever reasons (books could be written on that). The Hogs have never been a consistent Top 20 recruiting program and probably never will.

When they’ve won in the past, it’s been with coaches who could motivate players they developed. Shoot, Houston Nutt, Ken Hatfield and Frank Broyles won a lot of games they simply had their players more ready, willing and able to lay it on the line.

It’s the reason the Hogs mean so much to so many in this state.

Folks remember the days when a bunch of kids that were probably a little under-sized and under-respected won fans’ hearts by simply making games close in the fourth quarter that never should have been close.

Or competing for national championships with linemen that weighed about 175 pounds by the end of the season. Granted, that’s mostly for us old folks, but the younger ones have heard the stories.

For a few years now, Arkansas hasn’t had a coach that could motivate a frog to jump into the pond and either took in-state kids for granted or couldn’t evaluate. Forget development. That has been in a four-year slide.

All of that is why Yurachek’s next hire better know something about this state.

Or be willing to listen to a staff member who does.