Former Arkansas coach Houston Nutt is curious about decisions on Tuesday by the Pac 12 and Big Ten to cancel their football seasons now.
“My question is why the Pac 12 and Big Ten say no,” Nutt said Wednesday to Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft (The Morning Rush) on ESPN Arkansas. “I’d like to hear what they have to say on both sides.”
Nutt played a couple of years for the Razorbacks, then got into coaching. After a couple of stops in the SEC with the Hogs and at Ole Miss, he is now living in the Dallas area and a studio analyst with the CBS Sports Network.
“The biggest thing, you know the experts are going to be there and give you all the information you need and you’re going to go from there,” Nutt said. “If the doctors and experts say you’ve got things under control and it’s safe, then yes.
“I’m just very curious what the SEC, Big 12 and ACC are looking for. I’m just real curious how it’s going to work out.”
At this point, dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, things are changing almost hourly at times. The decisions by the Pac 12 and Big Ten are the first to stop for Power 5 conferences.
Nutt hasn’t been on the field coaching since the 2011 season, but he’s got a pretty good idea what he would say to his team with all of this going on.
“Let’s control what we can control,” he said Wednesday. “This is different, so we don’t know. We’re going to listen to the experts, they’re going to have a blueprint for us and we’re going to follow that.”
You can’t take these times for granted. There’s been times players didn’t really want to work out. It’s the greatest game in the world and you can’t take it for granted … ever.”
Nutt also never had to deal with the players fighting to have a bigger voice in how things are going, but he does urge some caution.
“The voice from the players is definitely getting louder,” Nutt said. “I would just remind the players these are the greatest days of your life. I’d be careful.”
He saw the list of demands from the Pac 12 players, too.
“They may have gone a little bit far,” he said. “I remember when I got a $6.25 laundry money … I was excited. When you look at what they have now it’s a good time be a student athlete. I wouldn’t keep pushing too hard for too many things. I think you can go a little too far and ask for too much.”
It may sound a little old-school to some of the players, but Nutt feels there are better ways to discuss things.
“There’s nothing wrong with players coming to their coach or having a meeting,” he said. “For the majority across the country they want players to graduate, be safe and be the best they can be.”
