COMMENTARY

Arkansas Rides Coaching Merry-Go-Round

The coaching decision left me disappointed.

I know, I know.

He made the jump because there was more money in it and he’d now get to compete in the vaunted Southeastern Conference. I get that. But I just didn’t feel the decision lived up to the promised expectations.

Oh, wait. Are you thinking I’m bummed about Jeff Long’s decision to hire Bret Bielema as the coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks? Not at all. Except for the trouble I’ve had training my brain to correctly pronounce “Bee-luh-muh,” the new Hogs coach seems to have a strong competitive spirit balanced by a level-headed nature.

The coaching change I’m disappointed with happened over in a corner of the state some University of Arkansas alums pretend doesn’t exist unless there’s a great potential recruit there for the Hogs.

Gus Malzahn bolted for Auburn University after completing just one football season at Arkansas State University. He produced a 9-3 season, a Sun Belt Conference championship and a return engagement to the GoDaddy.Com Bowl.

Malzahn’s departure came 364 days after Arkansas State Coach Hugh Freeze exited after one year as headcoach in which his team won 10 games, earned the Sun Belt title and earned a spot in the same GoDaddy.

Com Bowl.

It’s downright off ensive, I must say. Who names any respectable bowl game anything with “.com” as part of the title? Or GoDaddy?

Give me Cotton, Sugar, Orange, Rose and such, not corporate mangling of an event. But back to the coaching situation.

People remind me that Malzahn’s abandonment of A-State, my alma mater, is just the way the coaching merry-go-round works these days. One shouldn’t expect anything more, they say.

My discontent with Malzahn’s decision isn’t born of anything he did in the last week or so. Who, after all, can blame him for wanting to coach in the SEC and to make $2.3 million a year?

I’m frustrated that Malzahn didn’t live up to his promise.

In 2011, Malzahn wantedto escape his role as off ensive coordinator for Auburn Coach Gene Chizik. He was courted by programs such as Vanderbilt, Kansas and others and shocked everyone with his decision to lead the Red Wolves.

Explaining his decision, Malzahn said he was “not a normal football coach.” He said he was “into building things” and was eager to take ASU to the next level.

Friends and colleagues said Malzahn’s not driven by money, wanted to be in Arkansas and cared deeply about developing studentathletes.

The school built its program around this new coach. Billboards in central Arkansas and a few in Northwest Arkansas featured a cross-armed, intense-looking Malzahn beside the words “Game On.” Within hours of Malzahn’s announced departure, someone had created a photo of that billboard on Facebook, rearranging the letters to say “Am Gone.”

After Bobby Petrino’s implosion at Arkansas, thoughts naturally turned to the possibility that Malzahn would transition across the state to coach the Hogs, even though he hadn’t coached a single game for the Red Wolves.

“I’m sticking to I’m thehead coach here and I’m not worried about anything else,” Malzahn said at the time. “And I’m committed to being here.”

Commitments aren’t want they used to be. But as I said, I don’t blame him for leaving Arkansas State. I blame him for coming in the first place if his commitment was softer than Play-Doh.

ASU pulled out all the stops for Malzahn. The university paid him more than it had ever paid a coach and more than any Sun Belt Conference coach was making. ASU stretched to make it possible for Malzahn to come home to Arkansas. It deserved more than one season.

Well, that’s just the way college coaching is these days, folks tell me. People tell me I should just be resigned to that fact and expect nothing more.

They, of course, are right.

But that doesn’t stop me from hoping that a coach might surpass such low expectations for the level of commitment they bring to a job. If they expect full commitment from their players, who cannot bolt after one year without experiencing severe, careerimpacting penalties, coaches should give nothing less of themselves.

GREG HARTON IS OPINION PAGE EDITOR FOR NWA MEDIA.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 12/10/2012

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