Bobby not answer for Razorbacks to dig out of current hole for program

With 25 percent of SEC getting a new coach, Arkansas isn't one of the top destinations, making this choice critical

Arkansas Razorbacks interim head coach Bobby Petrino during the third quarter against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Razorback Stadium. / Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Exactly why any Arkansas Razorback fan would even be thinking it's anywhere close to the time they are hiring a coach apparently isn't aware how these dominoes are going to play out.

Despite a social media choice, interim head coach Bobby Petrino isn't the guy for the job. We'll get to that in a minute.

First of all, no coach is going to destroy November by even flirting with a job. Jimmy Sexton and his agency are the only people talking to folks hiring a coach right now. It doesn't work the way most people think it does.

Even when Lane Kiffin was famously caught on TV cameras talking about the Florida Atlantic job, he was talking to Sexton. Those conversations simply aren't done the way folks think.

All this plane tracking stuff is mostly an exercise and expense that could be eliminated. John Barnhill hired Frank Broyles on a phone call back in 1957 and it wasn't that hard. It's a little different these days, but not as much as most people think.

Coaching hires don't come down to the dating game. The interview process isn't what fans think. If a an athletics director has to do a sales pitch on a Zoom call or fly someone in to check things over, there isn't going to be any form of an offer.

These coaches know which schools they will — or will not — entertain these days. I know because that's what nearly every one of them have told me for over 20 years. They have working lists in their heads an most don't dare commit anything to paper. They are a paranoid lot.

Rhett Lashlee, who never was entertaining the Arkansas opening, would probably only consider leaving SMU for places like Alabama, Georgia or Ohio State. Not Fayetteville.

That's why all these lists ranking the football openings this year don't even have the Razorbacks in the top four anymore. The best the Razorbacks are placing in the latest ones after Auburn fired Hugh Freeze on Sunday morning, is fifth.

Some have them lower on the list than that. None of them are done by people hiring or getting hired in any of them so it's mostly off speculation and assumed information that's not even correct.

Neary every one of them talks about the money from places like Walmart, Tyson and other cash-rich companies. The problem is none of them live and die with the Hogs outside of John Tyson's long relationship with John Calipari that got him to be the Hogs' basketball coach.

If anybody has a football coach they have that kind of relationship with, none have said anything. That would also be surprising they could keep it that quiet.

A lot of fans are still talking about Petrino because they remember 2010 and 2011. Yes, the Razorbacks won 10 games in each of those years but still managed to finish just third in the SEC West in the final rankings after bowl games.

Every head coaching job he's had has been with the glow of the place burning down he just left. Arkansas has been that route and re-tracing the path probably isn't the best option. He hasn't beaten a ranked team since 2017.

It's like taking an aspirin for a broken arm. That's going to be some mild temporary partial relief, but isn't going to do a thing to fix the problem.

Arkansas needs to fix the problem and Petrino isn't the guy that's going to do that. He could make it even worse.

Exactly who should be the hire isn't my problem to fix. But somebody better get it right this time. I don't know how much lower things could get with Razorback football.

But we may get to find out if this isn't the right hire.

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