About the only conclusive thing anybody has told me regarding Coach Search 2019 is that nobody really knows anything about what’s going on with Hunter Yurachek in these things.
At Saturday’s basketball game, which was a dandy as Eric Musselman gave more evidence he was a solid hire, there were four people who have been fairly reliable in these things previously and five phone calls from folks claiming to know giving me “the scoop.”
Out of those nine contacts, I was told five different names that were “locks” for Arkansas’ coaching vacancy.
As usual the only people talking don’t really know anything and the folks doing the talking aren’t saying a word to anybody.
There is one person I get really solid information from, though. He doesn’t know anything yet, but he will know very early in the process.
Not that it really matters, but here are the names I keep hearing about:
• Gus Malzahn: People have insisted over the past week he wants out of the continuing circus at Auburn. It resembles Arkansas except with winning instead of losing. But the Florida State job may be his primary focus.
• Lane Kiffin: A former assistant who worked for Kiffin told me Friday that the biggest negative about him is he makes Bobby Petrino look like a good guy. When he was fired at USC the entire football office nearly threw a party. Conference title game Saturday.
• Matt Campbell: Several people were insistent Saturday that “they knew” Campbell was the choice and Yurachek was wrapping things up. Whether that’s true or not is anybody’s guess, but it will be interesting to see what he can do, although he has won games at Toledo and Iowa State.
• Justin Fuente: After losing to Virginia for the first time in awhile, there are now questions about whether he is tired of putting up with the drama after following legendary Frank Beamer with the Hokies. That is always a difficult spot to be in because a lot of people don’t want anything to change.
• Mike Norvell: He’s shown he can continue what’s built, but does he have a clue HOW to build something? The former UCA player is also being mentioned as one of the hot names for the Missouri job after Barry Odom was fired Sunday. Conference title game Saturday.
• Bryan Harsin: He did win at Arkansas State, but that’s a big, big pill for a lot of the Razorback fans to swallow. Yeah, some will say they don’t care, but there are others that will have a problem with it. That’s assuming, of course, he wants to leave Boise State. Conference title game Saturday.
• Hugh Freeze: This one caught me by surprise, but I covered Ole Miss his final season in Oxford and outside of being dumb about not getting a burner phone, he knows how to take over a drama-ridden situation and smooth it out. A lot of NCAA questions, though, but that was more Freeze not wanting to know what was happening. It really wasn’t different from a lot of schools except Ole Miss folks tend to brag about what they do.
• Mike Leach: Barry Switzer chimed in that he felt Leach was the Hogs’ target because he talked to someone from Arkansas while he was in Stuttgart duck hunting in the last couple of weeks. Whether Leach could succeed in Fayetteville or not is still a question to me. He’s a nut.
If there’s no announcement in the next day or so it’s a good bet one of the coaches still dealing with a conference title game is in the mix.
