$6 million college football HC becomes commanding favorite for Arkansas Razorbacks job

Arkansas Razorbacks tight end Rohan Jones (88) celebrates with tight end Maddox Lassiter (47) after accomplishing an immense feat of athleticism | Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

The Arkansas Razorbacks head coaching job is now one of the oldest openings of the season. The Hogs fired Sam Pittman early in the year and haven't exactly seen the light under interim leader Bobby Petrino. Now, a totally new name has emerged as the heavy favorite to land the Razorback head coach gig.

According to the predictive trading market Kalshi, which accepts bets on the possibilities of the next Arkansas head football coach, current Memphis head coach Ryan Silverfield was the favorite to land the position for most of the last week. However, on Saturday, during Arkansas' 52-37 loss at Texas, Silverfield was demoted to second place as a new name rocketed past him on the odds list: Eric Morris.

That's right, the leader of the Mean Green, Eric Morris has North Texas at 10-1 and circling a spot in the next edition of the College Football Playoff rankings. He usurped the No. 1 spot on Kalshi's list around 8 p.m. ET on Saturday and has only further surged above the rest since.

As of this writing, Sunday afternoon around 2 p.m. ET, Morris sits with a 67% chance to become the next Arkansas coach, per Kalshi. He is trading at a 64-cent price of a "Yes" option to become the Arkansas coach, which means... if you pledge 64 cents to that bet, you only stand to win 46 cents. But the no option listed at 39 cents, meaning you'd win 61 cents if Morris is NOT hired. So, you'd stand to win more with the NO option vs YES, meaning that even Kalshi believes the odds are better than 50-50 that Morris becomes the Arkansas coach.

Silverfield remains at 41% — making the pair of AAC coaches the overwhelming favorites to nab the job over the remaining field of candidates. Sorry to those Hog fans still dreaming about Jon Gruden.

Salary info on Eric Morris

North Texas Mean Green head coach Eric Morris stands on the sidelines | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

Right now, Morris is enjoying the fruits of a contract worth slightly more than $6 million total. He earns about $1.2 million annually as a base salary but has various incentives and signing bonuses that take him a little bit higher than that figure, depending on the year. However, reports did surface Sunday suggesting that the boosters that UNT does have are colluding on a package to offer Morris with the hop of keeping him in the lovely town of Denton.

Our wonderful friend Brett Vito of the Denton Record-Chronicle, spilled the following tale:

"Rex Glendenning, a former UNT player and real estate developer who helped bring the Cowboys’ headquarters to Frisco, seven members of UNT’s athletic advisory board as well as longtime donors Don Lovelace and Dan Smith spent the night formulating a strategy to retain Morris over dinner at Lombardi Cucina Italiana at The Star in Frisco. The plan they hatched has largely come to fruition over the last few days. What remains to be seen is if it will be enough."

The folks with heavy pockets are formulating, says, Vito, and they'll fork over to Morris what they can, but as he notes, it may not be enough to fend off, say, an Arkansas.