Much to the chagrin of some Arkansas football fans, it is expected to be a quieter-than-usual coaching carousel this offseason.
While there are 12 head coaching vacancies in the FBS, all of them are at the Group of Five level. It’s entirely possible there won’t be any changes in the SEC, which last happened following the 2005 and 2018 seasons.
Florida has already announced that Billy Napier will return in 2025 and the belief around the program is that Sam Pittman will do the same at Arkansas, barring something extreme like a loss to Louisiana Tech this weekend.
Two of the conference’s Tigers aren’t particularly happy with their coaches, but LSU’s Brian Kelly and Auburn’s Hugh Freeze have massive buyouts — $61.7 and $20.3 million, respectively — that could keep them around at least one more year.
Huge numbers like that have never scared SEC schools before (Jimbo Fisher and Gus Malzahn say “hello”), but that was before the historic House-NCAA settlement. Beginning next year, Power Four programs — and any others who opt in to the agreement — will have to come up with an extra $20-plus million to pay student-athletes.
The smaller programs won’t be as impacted because many won’t participate in the revenue sharing and aren’t on the hook for eight-figure buyouts with their head coaches.
Sticking with Pittman, though, wouldn’t mean Arkansas is entirely safe from the coaching carousel. There are almost always changes on the coaching staff and Pittman will once again be tasked with trying to keep his assistants — particularly his coordinators — in place.
Arkansas OC Bobby Petrino as Head Coach?
Earlier in the season, many Arkansas football fans were worried about the possibility of having defensive coordinator Travis Williams poached by another program.
Those talks have cooled over the past couple of months, despite an impressive showing against Texas last weekend, but now another name has popped up.
Florida Atlantic fired Tom Herman — the same coach some Hog fans hoped would come to Fayetteville — amid a 2-8 start to his second season leading the program. The former Houston and Texas head coach was 6-16 at FAU.
In a story about the Owls’ job and who they might hire, The Athletic’s Matt Baker and Chris Vannini listed a somewhat surprising candidate that is of interest to Arkansas fans: Bobby Petrino.
Their reasoning is sound. FAU’s last three coaches have been former Power Four head coaches — Herman, Willie Taggart and Lane Kiffin — and Petrino is familiar with the area from his recruitment of Lamar Jackson. The Heisman Trophy winner hails from Pompano Beach, Fla., which is just south of FAU’s campus in Boca Raton.
Reality Check from Arkansas Sportscaster
What Baker and Vannini apparently failed to consider, though, is something longtime Arkansas sportscaster Mike Irwin pointed out this summer in response to fans who speculated he was the head coach-in-waiting for when Sam Pittman got fired or retired after this season.
“Go talk to anybody that knows him,” Irwin said. “He doesn’t want to be a head coach anymore. He’s toward the end of his career, his head coaching stuff is behind him. He never liked any of that stuff. It brought out the worst in him.”
The “stuff” Irwin refers to is an even wider term now than it was when he was leading the Razorbacks from 2008-11. It involves things like the transfer portal, NIL and revenue sharing — all things that are minimized in his role as coordinator opposed to head coach.
“I think he would be perfectly happy to stay here for the next four or five years and help this school,” Irwin continued. “I think he wants to give something back for the way he left the first time he was here. And I just think it’s a combination that’s going to work.”
The offense has sputtered in a couple of games and struggled with turnovers at times, but it is vastly improved under Petrino’s leadership. The Razorbacks rank 11th nationally in total offense at 458.3 yards per game.
However, with Taylen Green likely coming back in 2025, it’s probably fair to think Petrino would want to come back and try to help Arkansas turn those yards into more points. It is scoring just 30.7 points per game, which ranks 44th — 33 spots behind its total offense ranking.
FAU Football Coach Candidates
Here’s a list of several other names being thrown around as possibilities for the FAU job…
- James Coley – Georgia WRs coach
- Shannon Dawson – Miami (Fla.) OC
- Buster Faulkner – Georgia Tech OC
- Tim Harris Jr. – UCF OC
- Ray Lewis – Hall of Fame linebacker
- Brennan Marion – UNLV OC
- Ja’Juan Seider – Penn State co-OC
- Patrick Surtain – Florida State DBs coach
- Jason Taylor – Miami (Fla.) DEs coach
- Charlie Weiss Jr. – Ole Miss OC
FBS Head Coaching Vacancies
- Ball State
- Central Michigan
- Charlotte
- East Carolina
- Florida Atlantic
- Fresno State
- Kennesaw State
- Rice
- Southern Miss
- Temple
- UMass
- Utah State
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See Irwin’s full take on Bobby Petrino from the summer starting at 30:00 here:
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