Boosters in Texas build plan to wall off Hogs' coaching search

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The search for a new Arkansas football coach has been equal parts amusing and also infuriating.

It's been comedy gold as each day people post giant googly eyes on social media followed by a crude cartoon image of a pig and perhaps a fire. It's much akin to the numerous proclamations by people over and over that today's going to be an interesting day, or it's going down tonight or the college football world is about to find out Arkansas is serious about football once again after what "social media guy" just heard from a well-connected source.

Then there are those typically respected reporters driven to farming for clicks by pretending they have huge breaking insider news only to reveal what anyone with basic sense has known since mid-September. They claim Arkansas is closing in on a coaching hire in the coming days.

Well, duh. So is every other school with a job opening. It's the last week of the season.

Everyone knows, and has always known, that most jobs will be officially filled between Thursday night and late Monday. Coaches can't openly take jobs until their regular seasons end, although the College Football Playoffs will delay a small handful of hirings this year.

Then, these people rattle off the same handful of names everyone with half an ounce of credibility has been naming since this started. In other words, they've got nothing of actual value to report.

That's because until Lane Kiffin officially decides what he's doing in regard to his Ole Miss job, none of the other jobs are going to shake out, including Arkansas. Usually, by this point in a coaching search, sources start repeating one or two names, which is a solid clue things are rounding into form.

However, as every legitimate journalist in Arkansas has repeated over and over, sources have been all over the place. That's because, at least heading into this past weekend, there was nothing anyone, including the most well connected sources, had to work with beyond a tentative list of people in any given order who are likely to get the job depending on how the rest of the job market shakes out.

That being said, for the first time all coaching search season, a piece of firm information has finally come down. Arkansas is serious enough in its consideration of University of North Texas coach Eric Morris that boosters in Texas are doing all they can to shore up financial defenses specifically with a fight against the Razorbacks in mind.

Brett Vito, who has spent more than two and a half decades covering the Mean Green, most of which has been as a staff member at the Denton Record-Chronicle and the Dallas Morning News, has gotten powerful boosters at UNT to go on the record discussing their efforts.

As a former colleague of Vito's and having witnessed his high commitment to journalistic integrity while being a reporter highly trusted by the revolving door of administrators at North Texas first-hand, he is vouched for here with utmost confidence.

Vito reported that UNT athletics director Jared Mosley met with several boosters back in late October, headed up by real estate mogul Rex Glendenning, who is well known in the region for building some of the largest and most expensive real estate developments in what is one of the wealthiest stretches of land in all of America.

They talked at Lombardi Cucina Italiana at The Star in Frisco, Texas, which also serves as the home of the Dallas Cowboys, a development Glendenning helped make come to pass when Jerry Jones wanted to build a world class new headquarters somewhere other than the aging Valley Ranch facility.

According to Vito, Glendenning wants to find a way out of the poor house and down a path similar to fellow North Texas college football social climber SMU. However, for that to happen, UNT has to find the money to hold onto its coach.

So far, the target amount is enough to fend off two major programs specifically interested in Morris — Oklahoma State and Arkansas. While it may seem far fetched, momentum appears to be building.

"There are a lot of people getting on board with this effort," said longtime donor Don Lovelace, one of the half-dozen people Vito got to go on the record about the efforts to retain Morris. "We're really expanding our donor base and are in a great place. All the things that need to happen are happening."

A deal signed by Morris this past January put his salary just shy of $1 million dollars, placing him in the the lower third of the American Athletics Conference. However, the plan hatched amid the cloth covered tables and beautiful trees spread throughout the restaurant has gained a great deal of traction.

Leading a football program to its first ranking since the 1950s while also staying firmly in the College Football Playoff discussion at a school known most as the filming site of the classic football movie 'Necessary Roughness" will do that.

The athletics department has been given permission to offer whatever it can legitimately pull together to keep Morris continuing to lead the climb into college football relevance. As of the past few days, that appears to at least be enough to make him the most well-paid public university coach in the AAC at more than triple his current salary.

There are also supposedly huge gains in money for assistant coaches, revenue sharing and NIL money, the latter of which reportedly sat around $2 million this past season.

"We don't have the money SMU does," Glendenning told Vito. "What we do have now is leadership at the university that is willing to up the ante and keep us in the ballgame."

What boosters want to see is a situation where unless an elite program comes calling, UNT has nothing to worry about. That begins with salary and NIL, but also expands out to facilities that go far beyond DATCU Stadium, which opened in 2011 to much fanfare, replacing the crumbling field across the interstate that made Mean Joe Green famous while in college and where Steve Austin cut his teeth as a player before he became wrestling's "Stone Cold."

"Morris has shown he deserves a compensation package — including revenue sharing, NIL money, assistant and support staff pay, and his salary — that rank at the top of the Group of Five nationally," Dillon Lovelace, Don Lovelace's son and fellow booster, told Vito. "He deserves a package that will. make it very difficult for him to leave Denton for places other than a perrennial Top 15-20 job."

So where does Arkansas fit in?

For those doing the math, the Top 15-20 job declaration means UNT boosters are intent on making sure he doesn't head off for a program in the position the Razorbacks are in right now.

Unlike at Arkansas, all of the high roller UNT boosters appear willing to chip in to help out the football team. It's one of the biggest strikes against Arkansas right now.

Also, while the money may on its face may be bigger at Arkansas if Morris is formally offered the job, it's kinda not. This is the reverse of the usual job market.

A lot of people from the Natural State get lured to Texas because the paychecks and benefits look big when coming from an Arkansas perspective. However, once they get there and see how much more housing costs, uncover endless toll fees for roads and also pay property taxes and homeowners' insurance on their homes that each dwarf what people in Arkansas pay in house payments over a full year, it's not much of a raise in pay if it turns out to be a raise at all.

In the case of Morris, it's Arkansas where the higher money may not add up. Yes, the salary and assistant coach pool is likely going to be larger, as will the revenue share and NIL money unless a few more boosters jump on board at UNT.

However, Morris can be the richest kid in his current neighborhood by a long shot, or he can be among the poorest in the SEC neighborhood. The odds of winning 10 games each season are dramatically higher at UNT than Arkansas, which means he can build the next Boise State, just with a better recruiting area, while maintaining high odds get to the playoffs often as the highest ranked Group of Five school.

Meanwhile, he can go to Arkansas knowing it will be much harder to have the success he's had recently in Denton as far as wins while also likely having to give up on the dream of coaching in the playoffs on a regular basis.

He would have peace of mind and security with the Mean Green while growing into a local legend. However, if he believes he is a good enough coach to overcome the difference financially between Arkansas and teams like Georgia, LSU, Alabama, Texas, Texas A&M and even Oklahoma and Missouri, then there's room to become a legend there too with a larger paycheck.

However, history says a coach overcoming financial odds is not likely to be the case. Arkansas fans aren't as willing to jump on and help out like run of the mill Ole Miss fans did in regard to NIL to help out Kiffin.

That's why the UNT boosters are doing all they can to hedge their bets. They genuinely think they can hold off teams like Oklahoma State and Arkansas.

They have an easier path to the playoffs and a sturdy wave of support that isn't likely to waiver. It's why their big money donors expect an Ohio State type of program will be required to ultimately pry Morris away.

"Who knows," the elder Lovelace said. "A few years down the road he may be coaching at LSU, Notre Dame or Southern Cal. Right now, he's what we need."

Gauntlet clearly thrown down. The question is just whether Arkansas is up for the challenge if the Hogs decide that's the direction they want to go with their future.

So where does Arkansas fit in?

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