Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

As you’ve likely figured out by now there is no longer a specific period of time on the calendar solely devoted to college football. Sure, games are limited to the fall/winter months, but the sport has outgrown its time slot.

Games wrap, then recruiting gets going in earnest. Ink has barely dried on signing day and it’s time for spring football. And the next thing you know, it’s time for actual games again.

There’s also a part of college football that’s becoming of increasing interest to fans, particularly those who are currently without or soon to be without a head coach. You might refer to it as the coaching carousel or the hiring and firing season.

Pete Roussel likes to describe it as “peak season.”

Those days between the bowl games and signing day where coaches are hired and fired are busy ones for Roussel, who operates a consulting business for coaches and runs coachingsearch.com, a web site devoted to news from the world of coaching. Roussel, himself a former football assistant, created the web site as a way to promote coaches, but it’s turned into something of a transactions wire during “peak season.”

Typically, the carousel starts and stops for teams in the weeks following the regular season and wraps up between bowl games and that final push for signing day. Arkansas, however, finds itself in a search that began in April and will likely extend through November.

Every day is a peak season day in Fayetteville right now.

When Razorbacks Athletic Director Jeff Long dismissed Bobby Petrino in April, the program appeared to be headed in the right direction. Arkansas had gone 21-5 in two seasons, was building a $40 million operations center, had money to spend on a coach and was a preseason Top 10 team.

How is the job viewed now that Arkansas is 1-3 overall, in danger of missing a bowl game and way outside the Top 25? Roussel said he believes the job is still attractive.

In fact, Roussel said the program could still be considered a “Top 15 job right now.” That’s one man’s opinion — one man who is no longer a coach himself —but maybe it calms some of the panic folks are feeling as Arkansas struggles.

A willingness to invest in the football program — facilities, salaries, etc. — and the perception among coaches that Long will stay out of the way and not try to micromanage are among the factors that make the Razorback job appealing.

“Coaches are concerned with two things when evaluating a job: What is [AD like]? Is he a pain in the ass to deal with or is he a guy coaches can work well with and will provide resources?,” Roussel said. “And Coaches want to know if a school is committed to winning the SEC and competing nationally.

“Arkansas is in good shape there.”