The season is over. The John L. Smith era is in the record books.
Arkansas’ season mercifully came to an end with LSU’s victory Friday in Fayetteville.
Now, it’s Jeft Long’s time to reveal the next leader of the Razorbacks’ football program. He’s been at work since he made the right decision to fi re Bobby Petrino last April, so the conventional wisdom was the athletic director would act quickly once the season was complete.
Writing this column before the weekend, I’m risking that by the time it appears, he might have named a new coach. Probably not, though. Long introduced Petrino as head coach on a Tuesday evening in 2007. Houston Nutt was named head coach on a Wednesday back in 1997. Danny Ford was introduced as a consulting assistant coach on a Tuesday back in 1992 by interim coach Joe Kines. His eventual hiring to lead the football team came on a Monday.
My bet is on an announcement early this week, but before you make anything of that, ask me how well I did last time I went to a casino.
Arkansas football, of course, came up as a conversation Thursday during the Thanksgiving stuffng (not a noun, but a verb).
I’m a graduate of Arkansas State University and my cousin, also an ASU alum, lives in Jonesboro.
I asked my cousin if Red Wolves fans were fretting about the prospects that Gus Malzahn might get the Howl out of town if the Razorbacks came calling.
Not really, she said. While there’s understanding that Malzahn is going to draw suitors who can write bigger paychecks, most fans feel he moved to ASU to build something he can call his own.
I’m a Razorback fan through and through. I’ve been cheering the Hogs on since, well, as far back as I can remember. Growing up, Razorbacks football was every bit as much as reason for large gatherings as weddings, funerals and deer season. Fueled by deli meats from Cordell’s Delicatessen, we’d all cheer or gasp at the top of our lungs when we were lucky enough that the Razorbacks games were televised.
I sold Cokes and Sprites — back when real sodas were served at Hogs games — at War Memorial Stadium with my Scout troop, but it was also a great way to see games for free.
No Arkansas State fan has ever been able to convince me, someone with a sympathetic ear, why it would be in the University of Arkansas’ best interests to play an intrastate game with the Red Wolves. It would, of course, be a no-lose situation for ASU. The school is wisely extending its reach into other parts of Arkansas to draw not just athletes, but students.
Just drive through Little Rock and see how many billboards tout the Red Wolves to that large metropolitan market.
At a recent A-State football game, some fan placed a large sign on one set of bleachers asking “How long will the Hogs run?”
Such a game, even if A-State lost, would raise the stature of a program that’s already building a solid statewide presence. And, of course, it’s no certainty the smaller school would lose.
I mistakenly thought ASU had taken the fi eld at Razorbacks Stadium a few weeks back when a team uniformed in black and red took the fi eld. Turned out it was the Hogs in a new uniform style. Is there something wrong with the tradition of cardinal and white?
In any case, an A-State-UA game will never happen, and I’m OK with that, even though I do occasionally like to raise a ruckus with UA grads by questioning their insecurity over playing an in-state rival. Even as a die-hard Razorback fan, I can’t help sticking the pig a little when I hear some clear holier-thanthou attitudes about other universities in Arkansas.
I’ve grown used to some UA alums making comments such as “Does ASU have a football team?” I didn’t hear so much of that this year, for some reason.
I’m hopeful the new Razorbacks coach can inspire the athletes and the fan base; can run a winning program with integrity; and can do it without oft -the-fi eld, self-infl icted drama.
I’m hopeful Gus Malzahn can continue doing that in Jonesboro.
That’s not too much for a lifelong Razorbacks fan and a Red Wolves fan to ask.
GREG HARTON IS OPINION PAGE
EDITOR FOR NWA MEDIA.