UPDATE: Who’s REALLY searching for next coach?

UPDATE: The UA released a statement around noon Tuesday that they have retained a national search firm “to help vet those under consideration to become the next Razorbacks’ athletics director.”

Also in the statement it was revealed that they are working with the executive search firm DHR International to assist with the ongoing search for a new head football coach.

This comes just four days after interim athletics director Julie Cromer Peoples stood in front of cameras and announced that no search firm was being retained and she was the one doing the searching.

All of this comes on the day when news broke on several fronts of separate inquiries regarding the football coach opening being made around the country, revealing the two sources not communicating with each other.

Stay tuned. This is going to get interesting.

• • •

After Julie Cromer Peoples’ modern-day Arkansas version of Al Haig last Saturday, the phone started ringing before getting home.

When Julie announced she was in charge, there were some interesting looks exchanged among some media folks. Many more watched the press conference on live TV.

“She may be the only one that thinks she’s actually in charge of anything,” was how one well-placed source put it. “She has zero chance of being the next AD and less than a one percent chance of having a job when all this is done.”

With a meeting of the search committee for the new athletic director on Tuesday, we wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a new AD in place soon. We wouldn’t be at all surprised if the new athletic director is Sean Rochelle, who was around the Hogs for a couple of decades.

Now we have reports that there may be multiple searches going on for the next coach of the Razorbacks.

From FootballScoop on Tuesday morning:

Chatter in the profession has been of multiple contacts with the same candidate by different groups “representing” Arkansas. In one case, a source close to a candidate told FootballScoop, “Coach got a call from the biggest of Arkansas’ donors but hasn’t heard a word from their administration.” The same day a different source, referring to a different coach told FootballScoop, “Our guy just had a great call with Arkansas’ search folks and he’s going to interview with them.”

This may be the most entertaining coaching search in the history of Arkansas football.

You’ve reportedly got big-money boosters performing their own search for the last several weeks.

Now you’ve got Julie, representing Chancellor Joe Steinmetz, doing her little search.

Apparently, the two sides aren’t talking to each other.

The only disturbing part of that is a candidate’s representative said he’s “going to interview with them.”

Why is it disturbing?

If you’re having to interview someone, you obviously have only been involved in a coaching search at some place like Indiana where football is basically a half-step above intramural flag football in terms of interest.

Look at the first SEC hire (we’re not counting Matt Luke at Ole Miss, which basically was an in-house promotion).

Florida went to Dan Mullen, basically sneaking into the Egg Bowl last week after flying into Jackson, Miss., where they laid the groundwork as their first choice, Chip Kelly, was suddenly more interested in UCLA.

These days the only guy who shows up on campus is the the coach who’s there to settle into his office and have his initial press conference, maybe jump on the Paul Finebaum Show.

That is, unless you’re Indiana.

There were reports at SECCountry.com that a plane flew from Drake Field to Purdue and back, presumably to talk with Boilermakers coach Jeff Brohm.

Julie, pay close attention here, Brohm is a bad fit for Arkansas and it won’t work.

As it turns out, the folks both sides are talking to aren’t bad selections and would be on my Top Four list of candidates:

• Gus Malzahn at Auburn. The guess here is he will be the coach by next week if the Tigers lose to Georgia in the SEC Championship game Saturday.

• Mike Norvell at Memphis, who is also on the radar at Mississippi State and Tennessee.

That’s for one group, the boosters with deep pockets and a working knowledge of Arkansas football, it’s history and it’s culture.

• Brent Venables, defensive coordinator at Clemson. Never a head coach and a native of Kansas, so put that one in the “questionable” category for fit.

• Chad Morris, SMU. This is one that I think would end up being a home run hire, but likely won’t excite the fan base as much. He knows Texas, but I’m not sure he knows Arkansas, although he did well at Clemson (they still run his offense).

Those last two are the ones reportedly leading the search from Julie and Joe.

Somehow, you just knew when Julie did her Al Haig impression Friday night this was coming. For those not old enough to know what that means, when Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981, vice president George Bush was out of town and Haig, the secretary of state, stepped to the podium and announced he was in charge.

Everybody knew that was BS then.

Some thought Julie’s claim to be in charge Friday after firing Bielema fell into that same category.