If Malzahn still main target, who’s the ace in the hole?

Frank Broyles learned how to hire coaches at Arkansas from one of the true masters of the business in John Barnhill.

Oh, Barnhill had his misses. Otis Douglas in 1950 was the worst fit for the Razorbacks before Bret Bielema. Both were good coaches, but not good fits here.

That “fit” is probably the most important thing in hiring the next Hogs coach.

For what it’s worth, I’ve been told Julie Cromer Peoples is simply the “point” person but the process has been going on for several weeks and representatives of coaches have been talking to someone representing Arkansas.

To believe she’s making the final decision on this is probably not correct, based on what we’ve been told.

But back to Barney and Broyles.

Barnhill always went through the biggest names. Shoot, before he hired Broyles in 1958 Minnesota’s Murray Warmath, one of the biggest names in the business at the time, was the showcase being floated.

When Warmath showed little interest, Barney turned to his “ace in the hole,” Broyles, who was just completing his first season at Missouri.

At the time Broyles wasn’t exactly the hottest name in coaching. He had spent years as Bobby Dodd’s top assistant at Georgia Tech and had only one year of experience in Missouri where his team had just gone 5-4-1 in a season.

Barnhill figured it would be a good fit.

When Broyles the AD basically fired Broyles the coach in 1976, Barry Switzer wasn’t leaving Oklahoma where he was battling his way through a “down” year of 9-2-1 and wasn’t interested.

So, Broyles turned to his “ace in the hole,” hiring Lou Holtz, who he had spoken to earlier after hearing that he was not happy coaching in the NFL.

When Holtz left after the 1983 season, he put in the obligatory calls to Switzer and Fred Akers, the coach at Texas by then. They declined, so he turned to his “ace in the hole,” Ken Hatfield at Air Force just ahead of Jimmy Johnson, then coaching at Oklahoma State.

Now we fast-forward to today where Arkansas is back in the search for a coach after the failed Bielema experiment that netted an average of less than six wins a year over his five-year period.

Auburn’s Gus Malzahn is the showcase name floating around out there.

Some thought when the Tigers beat Alabama in the Iron Bowl on Saturday that took him out of the running.

Nope. I still think he’s the first choice for whoever is handling things, although I don’t think anybody has actually talked with Malzahn directly.

There are some up in arms over hurting recruiting by dragging things out, but the truth is every time there’s a coaching change and it’s not simply a matter of moving someone up on the current staff, recruiting falls off.

Texas dropped all the way to No. 25 last year after having to wait until after conference championship weekend to hire Tom Herman. Now? They are sitting at No. 2 in the 247Sports.com’s composite class rankings.

You can’t worry about one year’s recruiting cycle in hiring a new coach. When Alabama hired Nick Saban back in January of 2007 after the NFL season ended, the Tide finished all the way down to No. 12.

Forget about this recruiting cycle. It wasn’t going to be anything special if Bielema had stayed, in my opinion.

But what happens if Auburn beats Georgia on Saturday and gets into the College Football Playoff? Do you wait until possibly the second week of January to hire a coach?

If I thought I could get a coach in the national championship game, I would, but nobody is asking me how to handle it.

One thing I do believe, though, is nobody’s going to wait unless they are given complete assurances from Malzahn that he’s coming regardless of the outcome of the game. If you get a positive there, then you wait.

And there are some who feel that is exactly what Arkansas is waiting to hear from Malzahn’s camp, but they aren’t expecting an answer until after Saturday.

But if he says no, is Memphis coach Mike Norvell the modern day version of the “ace in the hole?”

There are some that believe he should be the No. 1 choice, even ahead of Malzahn. His offense is entertaining to watch. The Tigers hung 70 on East Carolina last weekend and it could have been 100.

Now they play Central Florida this weekend in the AAC championship game in Orlando where, interestingly, nobody is expecting either coach to be at their respective school next season.

Scott Frost is reportedly the main target at Nebraska (is Bret Bielema the ace in the hole there?) and Norvell’s name has been mentioned for several jobs.

We won’t know until Saturday.

But you have to wonder if Arkansas’ ace is Norvell.