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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 Miss11:00 AM
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Sat, Nov 16vs Texas11:00 AM
Sat, Nov 23vs Louisiana TechTBD
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Sat, Nov 30@ MissouriTBD
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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.