As head football coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks you might feel as if you’re shouldering the weight of an entire state – and you are. However, you will likely enjoy living long enough to tell your stories to your grandchildren, and perhaps their children, too.
You have to go back to 1957 to find a Razorback head football coach that is not among us today. That was Jack Mitchell, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 85. He was 17-12-1 with no bowl appearances in three seasons at the helm. He had been chosen as the head Hog over a young Kentucky coach at the time named Paul “Bear” Bryant. When the UA chose Mitchell, Bryant went to Texas A&M.
The head coaching fraternity at Arkansas has enjoyed longevity, if not in coaching the Hogs, at least in life itself, since Mitchell was canned in favor of a young Missouri coach named Frank Broyles.
Broyles will be 88 on Dec. 26. He’s retired but still resides in Fayetteville.
Lou Holtz, who came to Fayetteville as Broyles stepped away from the sidelines, is 79. Today, Holtz spends his days praising all things Notre Dame while spraying (literally) his words on ESPN as a college football analyst.
Ken Hatfield left Air Force to return to his alma mater, where he enjoyed back-to-back 10-win seasons in his final two years, which still didn’t please many fans and some in the administration. Hatfield, one of the finest gentlemen to ever coach a team, period, is 69 and still going strong while living near Elm Springs (just west of Springdale).
Jack Crowe was the quick replacement for Hatfield, who had left behind the criticism at Arkansas for Clemson. Crowe, whose claim to fame at the time was being the runningbacks coach at Auburn while Bo Jackson was electrifying the nation, was cut loose one game into his third game at the helm when The Citadel stunned the Hogs, 10-3 in Fayetteville to open the 1992 season.
Crowe is 65 and has been the head coach at Jacksonville (Ala.) State since 2000. His greatest victory, ironically, came over Houston Nutt’s Ole Miss Rebels, 49-48 in double overtime, to open the 2010 season at Oxford.
Joe Kines went just 3-6-1 to close out the season, but that included rout wins over South Carolina and LSU, a stunning win at No. 4 Tennessee and a tie at Auburn.
Nevertheless, Broyles, still the athletic director at the time, decided Danny Ford would be the better head Hog and thus promoted him from consultant to head coach while demoting Kines from head coach to defensive coordinator.
Kines is 68, retired from coaching and living in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Ford coached five seasons but was sent back to his farm near Clemson, S.C., after back-to-back 4-7 seasons. His best year at Arkansas was an 8-5 season that resulted in Western Division title but a blowout loss to Florida in the SEC title game and a loss to North Carolina in the now-defunct Carquest Bowl. Ford is 64.
Houston Nutt seemed extremely young when he was brought in from Boise State (where he went 4-7 in his only season there). Nutt had some success at Arkansas, but some comments, personality conflicts, questionable play-calling and off-the-field suspicions eventually led to him being pushed out of Fayetteville. He lasted four seasons at Ole Miss, where he was fired after going winless in the SEC in his finalyear, Nutt is a studio analyst for CBS. He will be 55 in October.
Many people forget the next head coach, Reggie Herring, who was named just that for the 2008 Cotton Bowl. Herring’s one-game stint as head Hog resulted in a 38-7 blowout loss to Missouri – hence, the one-game stint. The 53-year-old Herring is a defensive assistant for the Houston Texans of the NFL.
Bobby Petrino saw it a strong personal and professional move to leave the NFL in midseason to take over at Arkansas. Although taking the Hogs to its only BCS bowl appearance and at least getting the program in the conversation among the nation’s elite, Petrino made some of the worst decisions ever by a UA head coach, which led to his dismissal earlier this year. At the age of 51, Petrino will not be coaching this year but could be waiting for that long distance call from Knoxville if Derek Dooley doesn’t turn things around fast for Tennessee.
John L. Smith will be 64 in November. He is the most fortunate first-year coach ever at the UA, inheriting some of the best collective talent ever assembled (thanks to Petrino) in Fayetteville.
By the time Smith turns 64 in November, we should have a pretty good idea if he will still
be the Razorbacks’ coach when he’s 65.