AS360 copy editor Leigh Ann Golden provided a solution to Arkansas' coaching problem so perfect, we're a little scared to reveal it to the world at large. Oh, well. Here goes nothing:

The University of Arkansas can't seem to catch a coach. KATV, Channel 7, interrupted "Private Practice" last night (!!) to tell me a candidate was this close to signing. A scrolling message at the bottom of the screen wasn't enough; viewers needed Live Details From An Actual Newscaster!

Wait, he's not coming? Houston Nutt's resignation has sent the University of Arkansas football program tripping down a path of false starts. It's a courtship dance gone wrong, every time. Watch, rinse, repeat.

And this search for a new head football coach has even me concerned - and I'm someone who experiences the sports world mostly secondhand through overheard water-cooler debates and the occasional sports roundup on the nightly news.

Is this process normal? Sports has always been a secret language of last names and acronyms and game rule interpretation so thick as to be impenetrable - indoctrination is beyond me at this point, I fear, though I was oddly swept up in the triple-overtime Arkansas-LSU game the day after Thanksgiving. So forgive me here, but do other schools face the swirl of media speculation and false hope and rumor about candidate after candidate?

What's needed here is innovation, a new approach to hiring. The perfect match is out there. Thank me later: reality television.

Millions of TV viewers would turn in weekly to "Arkansas' Next Top Football Coach" and watch hopefuls culled from an open casting call (who live in a house together, natch) vie for the Razorback Football Crown. All of America would be privy to the mystical connection needed to cement the UA with its One True Football Love.

It could work. Leadership-infested coaching talent could emerge from the least expected corner. An esteemed panel of judges - one loose cannon, one yes-man and one voice of reason, of course - could give expert analysis on contestants' performances in a variety of situational challenges. Viewers could vote for their favorite candidate.

Now is the time. Another candidate has yet to appear (as of 1:25 p.m. Dec. 6). We could make all sorts of history here. If we act fast on this, the networks would probably snatch this idea right up. Television writers are on strike, you know, and a non-scripted reality series featuring a never-done-before concept could be red-hot.