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OFFICIAL NOW: Musselman officially named new coach at USC on Thursday

Trojans make it official they’ve landed Arkansas’ coach to come home to SoCal and take over program that’s never won much.

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman is officially the coach of the USC Trojans now. After a wild line of speculation started early Thursday afternoon, it became official when USC put out a notification social media.

Now the search begins for a replacement for the first time since 2019 and athletics director Hunter Yurachek will get his second chance to hire a basketball coach. He did pretty well bringing Musselman in, regardless of what any feelings are about the breakup. Going to Elite Eights two straight years followed by a Sweet 16 appearance were a decent enough trade.

It is the first time since Eddie Sutton famously said in 1985 he’d “crawl” to Kentucky that’s exactly what he did and Nolan Richardson followed it with a national championship in 1994.

Now, though, the Hogs will be on their fourth head coach in basketball in the last 15 years. Exactly what that means, though, in today’s world of ever-changing things in college sports isn’t hard to know right now. It may be the way everything is about to become.

The day began with a ton of speculation and heated up in the middle of the day with first CBS, then On3.com getting on-board with reports.

Now we’ve got the watch already in place for the next coach and all eyes are turning to Mississippi and Ole Miss coach Chris Beard, who has long been rumored to be the next coach for the Hogs if Musselman decided to head out. That is if the deal is coming down, but CBS’ report made it clear the deal with the Trojans is not final yet.

There is absolutely nothing except a lot of speculation on Beard right now.

Another national outlet, on3.com is reporting on X the deal has been finalized.

Now the Razorbacks and fans have a good old-fashioned coaching search under way and it’s all official now. Let the speculation around Beard start because that’s obviously going to be the first direction everyone starts looking and there’s a lot of speculation around that. Everybody loves a coaching search.

Other candidates will emerge as folks start refining the lists they’ve been compiling for a few days now. Just about every name is on that list except John Wooden, Nolan Richardson and Eddie Sutton. Two of those three are dead and Nolan just simply may not be up to it physically although the spirit would be willing.

Stay tuned to HitThatLine.com for updates as things keep breaking.

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2024 Razorbacks Football

Thu, Aug 29vs UAPB (Little Rock)W, 70-0
Sat, Sep 7@ Oklahoma StateL, 31-39 2OT
Sat, Sep 14vs UABW, 37-27
Sat, Sep 21@ AuburnW, 24-14
Sat, Sep 28vs Texas A&M (Arl)L, 21-17
Sat, Oct 5vs TennesseeW, 19-14
Sat, Oct 19vs LSUL, 34-10
Sat, Oct 26@ Mississippi StateW, 58-25
Sat, Nov 2vs Ole MissL, 63-31
Sat, Nov 16vs TexasL, 20-10
Sat, Nov 23vs Louisiana Tech3:00 PM
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Sat, Nov 30@ Missouri2:30 PM
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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 (25)10-02681
2.Greenwood (2)10-02343
30Conway9-12022
4.Little Rock Parkview9-11714
5.Bentonville7-31625
6.Benton9-11486
7.Fayetteville8-21117
8.Pulaski Academy8-2898
9.Rogers7-3439
10.Joe T. Robinson9-122
Others receiving votes: Valley View 8, Mountain Home 7, Cabot 6, Little Rock Catholic 6, Shiloh Christian 6, Elkins 1, Farmington 1.
CLASS 7A
1.Bryant (27)10-01351
2.Conway9-11022
3.Bentonville7-3813
4.Fayetteville8-2454
5.Pulaski Academy8-2395
Others receiving votes: Rogers 3.
CLASS 6A
1.Greenwood (27)10-01351
2.Benton9-11082
3.Mountain Home8-2623
4.Shiloh Christian7-3494
5.Little Rock Catholic9-1345
Others receiving votes: Marion 6.
CLASS 5A
1.Little Rock Parkview (27)9-11351
2.Joe T. Robinson9-11062
3.Valley View10-0793
4.Farmington9-1484
5.Hot Springs Lakeside8-2205
Others receiving votes: Camden Fairview 7, Harding Academy 7, Morrilton 3.
CLASS 4A
1.Elkins (20)10-01261
3.Arkadelphia (5)8-2913
2.Little Rock Mills (1)10-0682
4.Warren8-2554
5.Dardanell (1)9-123
Southside Batesville10-023
Others receiving votes: Malvern 12, Gravette 5, Highland 2.
CLASS 3A
1.Bismarck (12)10-01051t
2.Fordyce (10)10-0961t
3.Prescott (1)9-1704
4.Osceola (2)8-1543
5.Booneville (1)9-1395
Others receiving votes: Mansfield (1) 23, Rivercrest 10, Rison 4, Salem 4.
CLASS 2A
1.Carlisle (20)10-01271
2.Conway Christian (7)10-01152
3.Des Arc8-2595
4.East Poinsett Co.7-352
5.Bigelow6-4183
Murfreesboro7-3184
Others receiving votes: Mount Ida 6, Junction City 4, Cross County 3, Poyen 3.
8-MAN SANCTIONED
1.Strong-Huttig (27)5-0811
2.Midland9-0532
3.Cedar Ridge8-1253
Others receiving votes: Woodlawn 3.

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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.