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Arkansas is in the process of hiring a new head coach. The Razorbacks are a 2020 opponent for Tennessee. The Vols will travel to Arkansas on Oct. 31, 2020.
KNOXVILLE — Arkansas fired head coach Chad Morris one day following the Razorbacks’ 45-19 loss to Western Kentucky in Week 11 of the 2019 season.
Morris finished his Arkansas tenure with a 4-18 record in two seasons.
Now a coaching search is taking place and Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn is at the forefront of Arkansas’ vacancy. Malzahn served as the Razorbacks’ offensive coordinator in 2006 and has a long history in the high school ranks throughout the state.
Gus Malzahn’s coaching career in Arkansas
- Hughes High School (1991, DC)
- Hughes High School (1992–1995, HC)
- Shiloh Christian High School (1996–2000, HC)
- Springdale High School (2001–2005, HC)
- Arkansas (2006, OC/WR)
- Arkansas State (2012, HC)
Gus Malzahn’s playing career in Arkansas
- Arkansas (1984–1985)
- Henderson State (1987–1989)
Former quarterback Mitch Mustain and tight end Ben Cleveland played for Malzahn at Springdale High School and Arkansas. Both discussed their former coach on Fox Sports Knoxville’s radio show ‘Tennessee Two-A-Days’, providing their thoughts if Malzahn would leave Auburn and return to Arkansas as the Razorbacks’ next head coach.
“Obviously that is going to be the state’s number one choice is trying to get coach Malzahn back home,” Cleveland said. “At the end of the day, he gets to dictate what he wants to do. He has done a phenomenal job at Auburn, but I know everyone in the state, or even with the Arkansas program, would love to have coach Malzahn back.”
Cleveland also mentioned that the timing for Malzahn to return to Arkansas is more realistic now compared to two years ago when the Razorbacks courted the Auburn head coach.
“Circumstances need to be lined up for him to take it,” Cleveland said of Malzahn. “Do I think circumstances are more lined up now than they were two years ago, before we offered him that crazy amount, yes.”
Mustain also discussed Arkansas’ head coaching vacancy now compared to two years ago.
“It seems like we have that talk every couple of years when Arkansas decides to flip something over,” Mustain said. “One-hundred percent last time it was not a good move for him at the time. I’m not so sure this time, some things have changed.
“Having a close relationship with Gus, at least a close working relationship in the past, I would be hard-pressed to tell him to jump for it and go. Auburn, obviously he has his issues at Auburn, and there’s a lot of question as to how long he could hang onto that if he doesn’t make some serious changes. We have seen him make some changes in play-calling, taking back some of that role, and we saw a lot of improvement I think with it, and that was a criticism I even had where he was handing that off.”
‘Tennessee Two-A-Days’ co-host and former Hoover and Colquitt County High School head coach Rush Propst discussed on the show how someone “can stay at a place too long.”
“Because we’re competitors, we’re fighters, we are going to fight you tooth and nail on everything,” Propst said. “When you tell us we should go, or when you feel that maybe you are not as popular as you were two years ago, you dig into even more so to show people that you can still run this ship.
“Eventually it comes a point in time that you have to look at retirement and where do you want to end up as a human being – not as a coach but as a human being. You get to retire doing what you love, coaching football, in your home state.”
If Malzahn does leave for Arkansas, then a head coach opening would need to be filled at Auburn.
Cleveland calls UAB head coach Bill Clark “a hot name” throughout college football for any vacancy.
Propst has a longtime relationship with Clark. The former Hoover and Colquitt County head coach has been doing consultant work this season with various schools including UAB.
The seven-time high school state champion and 2015 national championship head coach has fielded college coaching discussions recently, while breaking down the game with the likes of Troy Calhoun, Trent Dilfer, Tony Franklin, Hugh Freeze, Todd Graham, Tyson Helton, Mike Leach, Hal Mumme, Jake Spavital and George Quarles.
With Clark being a candidate for head coaching vacancies at Florida State and Arkansas currently, he is also in-line for contract negotiations with UAB following three consecutive seasons of reaching a bowl game and winning the 2018 Conference-USA championship in as many years following the program’s reinstatement.
“They’re probably going to renegotiate his contract closer to $2 million,” Propst said of Clark.
Propst continued to discuss Clark’s historic achievements following UAB’s shutdown during the 2015 and 2016 seasons and him being considered for multiple Power 5 jobs.
“Nobody has done anything in the history of college football to what he did at UAB – even remotely close,” Propst said. “If Gus decided not to come (to Arkansas), he (Clark) would be a great choice because he has been able to take a program that was given the death penalty – the real death penalty – where football was taken completely away for two years. He goes back and not only brings it back to a good level, he wins the conference. He knows how to recruit. Like Gus, he is a high school coach at heart. He knows what high school coaches want to hear.”
The entire discussion of Malzahn and Clark being part of head coaching searches on ‘Tennessee Two-A-Days’ with Propst, Mustain and Cleveland can be listened to below that include the Blazers’ coach to also receive a hard look from Mississippi State if the Bulldogs’ job were to open.
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