Former Razorback Player, Sitting SEC Coach in Feature Spot Now for Hogs' Coaching Job

With conversations taking place through miracle of online face-to-face now, Yurachek sorting things out

Little Rock Trojans coach Darrell Walker during a game with the Arkansas Razorbacks on Dec. 4, 2021, at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark. / Nelson Chenault-allHOGS Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Now we're starting the cycle of the daily name-dropping for the next coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. When Chris Beard hit the send button on a social media post, that made the easy and obvious choice most Razorback fans were "guaranteeing" me would be made.

As usual, most of the people who claim to "be in the know" are for whatever reason someone in south Arkansas or central Arkansas area that is important enough to be consulted on these matters. I know one person that does know and he's reluctant to talk about what color shirt he's wearing that day.

This whole thing may be a typical Hunter Yurachek misdirection. Now we may have everyone wondering about Mississippi State coach Chris Jans' status there as he is certainly the first one people are looking at. That may be exactly where Hunter wants everybody looking.

Meanwhile, former Razorback All-American Darrell Walker may be moving up the rankings to get into a good spot. He's a former NBA head coach and assistant who has done a good job with a small budget mid-major at Little Rock. He could be the one in the target cross-hairs right now.

Besides, i'm not quite as sure the Razorbacks' job is the marquee spot a lot of folks in Arkansas want to think it is. Yes, it was pretty good in the late 1970's and became elite for two years in the mid-90's before returning to the middle of the road. Don't go by what coaches say. They lie or they wouldn't be in the whole coaching profession.

When I asked a Hall of Fame coach decades ago exactly what was the role of a graduate assistant, his answer was immediate: "how to effectively lie." That fact of life became obvious to me over 50 years ago and it's not really that big of a deal. Every coach and recruits talks about every school being a great place and exceeding expectations.

Remember the football search when the late Mike Leach was considered a hot candidate? That was over a comment back in 1998 when the Wildcats played here and Leach, then the offensive coordinator, remarked the Little Rock crowd was so loud. I was at the game and it wasn't that loud. Coaches say whatever pops in their head.

The latest round of names in Jans and Walker are interesting. Jans would probably involve a hefty buyout while Walker would probably be interested in talking about it. Darrell and I have talked now and then over the years and he would likely listen, but he's not going to do any crawling to get here.

As for Jans, that's up to him whether Fayetteville is better for his career than Starkville. Let's not get hung up on the beauty of Northwest Arkansas against the farm land of eastern Mississippi. Some people like both for various reasons and I'm not really going to a parade in either town.

As in most cases it's going to come down to situation with whoever they are going to be working for and, ultimately, where they can win the most games. Money used to be a huge issue and about the only people who think it is these days are some media people who don't know much about finance. At some point unless it's a generational gap it's not enough to change everything.

Walker, of course, is a native of Chicago who went to WestArk for a year before Eddie Sutton got him to Fayetteville and he worked himself into an All-American guard. He's been a head coach and assistant coach int he NBA and was his conference's coach of the year at Little Rock last year.

Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Chris Jans reacts against the Michigan State Spartans in the NCAA Tournament in March. / Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Jans is simply the last coach to beat UConn in an NCAA Tournament game. What his contract is with the Bulldogs is likely to be pretty steep. There is a question of coming up with that money as there are some saying they have run out of holes to hide money.

Stay tuned. Monday may be an interesting day as a lot of these things usually get done around the National Championship game between UConn and Purdue tomorrow night, No, there won't be any stories about how the Hogs beat Purdue back in October in a game that didn't count anywhere except for bragging rights in a season of disappoitments.

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• Latest talk regarding coaching search

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