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After talking with Majors on Sunday night, his death shocked Sherrill

Jackie Sherrill’s relationship with Johnny Majors really expanded in Fayetteville when he started coaching for the legend that passed away Wednesday at the age of 85.

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When the news broke Wednesday morning about the death of Hall of Fame coach Johnny Majors maybe no one was more surprised than one of his many protogés, Jackie Sherrill.

“I was kinda shocked,” Sherrill said from his home in central Texas on Wednesday afternoon. “I talked with him Sunday night and we had talked about how good he was feeling.”

Their relationship was a deep one that started in Fayetteville when Majors was an assistant for Frank Broyles from 1964-67, a four-year run were Arkansas was 34-8-1 with a national title in 1964 and a 30-3 stretch before that last season.

Sherrill had come in from Alabama as a graduate assistant after spending a year working for Paul “Bear” Bryant and playing for the Crimson Tide.

Both liked winning. That was a big part of a relationship that launched Sherrill’s career. When Majors departed for Iowa State after that 1967 season he took Sherrill along as a defensive assistant.

“My wife said to me after we got the phone call this morning that, ‘Coach Majors was probably the biggest father figure in your life,'” Sherrill said. “She’s probably right.”

It started when Sherrill was a star high school player in Biloxi, Mississippi, and Majors was an assistant coach at Mississippi State.

“Rabbit Brown was the main guy recruiting me,” Sherrill said (and you just don’t have enough good names like that in coaching anymore). “Coach Majors came down and watched me play a few times but I decided to go to Alabama.”

Majors specialized in turning teams around. He did it everywhere he went and was a key figure on the staff of turning things around with the Razorbacks from 1963 to winning it all the next season.

“He was able to make players do things they really didn’t want to do,” Sherrill said. “Everybody just liked him, he was a true role model and he got players to accomplish things they didn’t know they could do.”

Majors’ first head coaching job was at Iowa State in the old Big 8 and they were terrible. He didn’t do immediate improvements but he got the Hawkeyes to their first (ever) two bowl games in 1971 and 1972.

“The only games that 1971 Iowa State team lost were to Nebraska, Oklahoma and Colorado,” Sherrill said. “Those were the teams that finished 1-2-3 in the country.”

Then he went to Pittsburgh, taking Sherrill with him as defensive coordinator.

In four years they took the Panthers from 1-10 to an undefeated national championship season before Majors answered the call at his alma mater, Tennessee, and rebuilt a program that had dropped a little back to a national contender.

“That first year at Pitt we took five busloads of players to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, for preseason camp,” Sherrill said. “We came back in three buses.”

His best team with the Vols was 1989 … that he capped by hanging on in an epic Cotton Bowl win over Arkansas in a shootout.

For Sherrill, he sounded glad he had that phone conversation with Majors on Sunday night.

“We were laughing and talking about old times,” he said. “He lived in this house overlooking the Tennessee River, he fell asleep there last ight and didn’t wake up.

“He left his mark on a lot of people in a lot of places.”

Majors, 85, was in Fayetteville during spring practice in 2019 and spent most of his time visiting with people but when the coaches lined up the players for their version of the Oklahoma Drill, Majors quit visiting.

He got as close as he could and was watching closely.

Just like old coaches tend to do.

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2024 High School Rankings

Following is the Arkansas Sports Media High School Football Poll including the Overall Top 10, the top five in Classes 7A, 6A, 5A, 4A, 3A and 2A, plus the top three in the 8-man division, as voted by a panel of sports media from around the state for the week ending August 24. Ranking is given with first-place votes received, records, total points and ranking from last week's poll:
OVERALLRecordPtsPrv
1.Bryant (18)8-02521
2.Conway (6)8-02302
3.Greenwood (2)8-02103
4.Little Rock Parkview7-11714
5.Bentonville5-31416
6.Benton7-11265
7.Fayetteville6-21008
8.Pulaski Academy6-2757
9.Rogers5-3459
10.Shiloh Christian6-24010
Others receiving votes: Marion 13, Valley View 9, Joe T Robinson 8, Mountain Home 4, Cabot 3, Elkins 3.
CLASS 7A
1.Bryant (20)8-01241
2.Conway (6)8-01052
3.Bentonville5-3753
4.Fayetteville6-2455
5.Pulaski Academy6-2354
Others receiving votes: Rogers 5.
CLASS 6A
1.Greenwood (26)8-01301
2.Benton7-11022
3.Shiloh Christian6-2713
4.Marion7-1524
5.Mountain Home7-131
Others receiving votes: Little Rock Catholic 4.
CLASS 5A
1.Little Rock Parkview (23)7-11271
2.Joe T Robinson7-1902
3.Valley View (3)8-0803
4.Hot Springs Lakeside7-1484
5.Farmington7-130
Others receiving votes: Camden Fairview 4, Maumelle 4, Morrilton 3, Greenbrier 2, Harding Academy 1.
CLASS 4A
1.Elkins (19)8-01161
2.Arkadelphia (5)6-2792
3.Little Rock Mills (1)8-0703
4.Warren6-2404
5.Malvern (1)8-0315
Others receiving votes: Dardanelle 22, Southside Batesville 11, Mena 8, Bauxite 7, DeWitt 4, Highland 2.
CLASS 3A
4.Bismarck (15)8-01054
5.Fordyce (4)8-0765
Prescott (3)7-1531t
1.Osceola (2)6-149
3.Mayflower (1)8-036
Others receiving votes: Booneville (1) 31, Rivercrest 19, Mansfield 14, Charleston 4, Rison 3.
CLASS 2A
1.Carlisle (21)8-01211
2.Conway Christian (4)8-01042
3.Des Arc7-1663
4.Bigelow (1)6-2455
5.Murfreesboro6-230
Others receiving votes: Marked Tree 10, Mineral Springs 6, Junction City 5, Cross County 1, Mount Ida 1, Poyen 1
8-MAN SANCTIONED
1.Strong-Huttig (25)5-0761
2.Midland (1)7-0502
3.Cedar Ridge7-1253
Others receiving votes: Rector 5.

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ESPN ARKANSAS 99.5 IN FAYETTEVILLE, 95.3 IN THE RIVER VALLEY, 96.3 IN HOT SPRINGS, 104.3 IN HARRISON-MOUNTAIN HOME.