No Coming Back if Musselman Shows up in Los Angeles Today
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Welcome to what many suspect is the last day Eric Musselman will be head coach at Arkansas.
If rumors are true, he is expected to be at USC today. As the story goes, he is there for an interview. However, that's just not how things are done anymore.
In all honesty, it's not how things were ever really done. No self-respecting coach would show up on another school's campus without already having things settled to take over a new job.
Also, there's no need to even do the shady hotel room rental in a random town to meet up with a potential coach to talk about a job. Even if a phone call wouldn't suffice, cell phones have video call capability and Zoom exists. There's just no need to meet in person.
Even if there were freedom of information concerns, USC is a private school and a call could easily be made to his agent's phone or computer or to Musselman's wife and there's no FOI request that could turn up the records because none of it would be searchable.
If Musselman turns up at USC today, it's to sign a contract and work out final details to introduce him as coach. However, it's very possible all of these people with sources at USC are only getting it partially right.
Musselman may indeed be interviewing today, he's just not going to be in Los Angeles to do it. Considering the current Arkansas coach has made no effort to shoot down these rumors, odds are pretty high that he has legitimately made his way onto the Trojans' radar and is looking to talk his way into the much dimmer lights of college basketball in L.A.
If he doesn't get the job at this point, he will have not only publicly embarrassed himself with all these shenanigans, he will have sabotaged himself as the Razorbacks' coach. Recruits will know he has one foot out the door and isn't really dedicated to Arkansas.
Fans and NIL contributors will know the same. Many will be bitter at his lack of loyalty. A coach staying because he believes in the program is one thing, but sticking around because no one else was willing to hire him is a different set of circumstances.
At this point, even if he did legitimately decline the other jobs because he thinks staying at Arkansas is what's best for him, or at least best for his daughter, it wouldn't stick. He's let things get too out of control for fans to buy into the idea he chose them as opposed to having no choice at all.
It's going to be an interesting day with lots of uncertainty. The only thing that is for sure is if photos or video come out of Musselman at USC, it will be time to put officially put together a coaching search list at Arkansas.
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KENT SMITH
Kent Smith has been in the world of media and film for nearly 30 years. From Nolan Richardson's final seasons, former Razorback quarterback Clint Stoerner trying to throw to anyone and anything in the blazing heat of Cowboys training camp in Wichita Falls, the first high school and college games after 9/11, to Troy Aikman's retirement and Alex Rodriguez's signing of his quarter billion dollar contract, Smith has been there to report on some of the region's biggest moments.