UA Athletic Director Jeff Long Comments On Coaching Search

Robbie Neiswanger with the Arkansas News Bureau caught up with University of Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long after Monday’s Little Rock Touchdown Club.

In a lengthy Q&A, Long discussed a number of topics, including his thoughts on the current state of the high-profile Arkansas football program.

From Robbie’s Blog:

Was there any thought to going a different direction after the Texas A&M game?

“Absolutely not. I made a commitment in April to our student-athletes, to our coaches, to John L. Smith. That would not be sending the right messages to our student-athletes. Certainly it would not have been sending the right message to our student body, our young people at the University of Arkansas and I think it certainly would be sending the right messages to coaches and people across the country as we set out to hire a new coach in December. So, absolutely none. I know there was lots of speculation, which is unfounded, but no, there was no consideration.”

What phase are you in, in the coaching search?

“Just research at this point. We’ve still got 6-7 weeks of the season left. In our world, unlike the business world you don’t just pick out a candidate and go get him. We have some unwritten protocols that you try to follow. They’re getting, to be honest with you, blurrier in our profession – what is appropriate and what isn’t. But I’m going to try to walk that line and not try to invade or intrude upon a coach coaching a season. That is important to me to do it the right way. Certainly there are a number of third parties out there trying to get information to us about those who might be interested and might not be. But we’ve got to walk a fine line there. It’s really just research at this point.”

Does this job require somebody with proven experience?

“Well, I will tell you that certainly top assistants are not out of the question. I think if you just look around our own conference, look at some of the schools with great tradition, great resources, maybe reside in a state with great recruiting, they could have gone out and chose a proven head coach and they ended up with a top-notch coordinator. So I’m certainly not going to limit my head coaching search to sitting head coaches. There are a lot of offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators that may be ready to make that stoop, uh, that step like a Bob Stoops did 10-12 years ago when he went from a coordinator Florida to a national championship in two years. There’s other examples, but that’s one I am somewhat familiar with. There are a lot of examples. The longer answer to your question is: there’s a lot of different ways to select a leader. There’s a lot of different types of people that can fill this job and be very successful.”

You can access the full Q&A at this link.