Yurachek Weird Comments Continue With Football Team

Arkansas’ Athletic Director has weird feeling toward state of program

Dec 28, 2022; Memphis, TN, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Hunter / Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Call it what you may but the first week of April has not been kind to Arkansas Razorbacks athletics over the years. From the late Eddie Sutton ‘crawling’ to Lexington, Dana Altman accepting the basketball job before backing out hours later and Bobby Petrino’s infamous bike wreck April has been full of news.

Once again, Arkansas returns to the headlines In an upcoming episode of ‘1 Star Recruits’. Yurachek took the mic in order to squash rumors of Musselman job searching but revealing he has no idea what’s actually going to happen. He also shared his expectations for the 2024 football season which won’t inspire confidence into the fan base either. According to Best of Arkansas Sports Evin Demirel, Petrino will be a great asset for Sam Pittman. However, he doesn’t think this season will be detrimental to the head Hog's tenure.

“I don’t know that this is a make or break year, but this is a year, definitively,” Yurachek said. “We’ve got to show some improvement heading back in the direction away from 4-8 and towards 7-8 and 8-4.”

Yurachek doesn’t completely squash the win or else mantra which people around the country believe is the case. He does know the football team needs a momentum swing to return to an upward trajectory. Hiring Petrino was a slight step in the right direction.

"One of the things our program, I think, was really missing last year was strong leadership, both on the offense and defensive side of the ball,” Yurachek said. “We had some talent. I’m not sure we had great leadership, and then we had an offensive coordinator that may not have been the best fit at the best time for our program.”

“That’s where Coach Petrino has filled in that gap. One of the things I truly believe that Sam Pittman missed last year was having a head coach like he had in Barry Odom, former head coach that is a member of his staff. Coach Petrino has been a head coach in the NFL and at many stops along the college space. I think he offers a different perspective and point of view for coach that he did not have.”

Another point Yurachek wanted to get across was Pittman being hired in case a change needed to be made at the head coaching position. Sure, it was great to bury the hatchet from things going wrong over a decade ago. Having him fully onboard with the future of Arkansas’ program will be a breath of fresh air on the coaching staff. 

"I will tell you that is not definitively a path here at the University of Arkansas, for him to get back to being a head coach,” Yurachek responded. “I don’t know if he has aspirations to be a head coach somewhere else. What I will tell you is he’s done a great job, so far, being our offensive coordinator. He’s been incredibly supportive of Sam Pittman and buying into the program that Sam Pittman has.”

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