When he was hired as Arkansas’ athletics director, Hunter Yurachek vowed to take a stand against the ballooning buyouts across college football.
That was eight years ago, in December 2017. The Razorbacks had just opted to pay nearly $12 million to fire Bret Bielema — a decision that eventually led to a sticky legal battle.
“We’ve got to get a handle on coaches contracts and the buyouts,” Yurachek said at his introductory press conference. “To me, losing football games is being terminated with cause. The protection sometimes that coaches are provided within their contracts to me is ludicrous.”
The man many point to as the cause of that is super agent Jimmy Sexton. As his rolodex of clients grew, he was able to wield more leverage in negotiations – the fruits of which were on display this year with the massive buyouts seen across the sport during this year’s wild coaching carousel.
“Sexton is the most dominant, dynastic figure to ever sit at a college football bargaining table,” the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi wrote in January 2024. “When he walks through the door, ADs just instinctively curl up in the fetal position and start whimpering, ‘Please, Mommy, don’t let the mean man in the nice suit take all my money.’”
Certainly that wasn’t an issue for Sam Pittman in 2019 because he was not yet represented by Sexton. A career offensive line coach, his agent at the time was Judy Henry, a Little Rock-based attorney who didn’t have many high-profile clients in the SEC.
Yurachek used the opportunity to try to flip the script with his first football coaching hire at Arkansas, as he had inherited Chad Morris.
They agreed to a winning percentage clause in the coach’s deal that dictated his buyout would drop from 75% of his remaining contract to 50% if he won less than half of his games. That remained in Pittman’s contract even after he switched to Sexton during his six-year tenure with the Razorbacks.
It was a unique structure that caused all sorts of confusion amongst the fan base, and even media, over the last couple of years – largely thanks to his record in the pandemic-altered 2020 season being thrown out of the equation.
The Razorbacks were initially on the hook for about $9.3 million, but that number was ultimately negotiated down to about $7.7 million in exchange for the UA waiving Pittman’s requirement to seek future employment. Had he dipped below .500, he would have been owed about $6.2 million.
There will be no such confusion when it comes to Ryan Silverfield’s contract at Arkansas.
Silverfield’s Buyout at Arkansas
The former Memphis coach is represented by CAA, the same agency for which Sexton is the head of football, a UA spokesperson told Best of Arkansas Sports.
