This one might be pretty entertaining.  John L. Smith steps to the mic to discuss his appointment as Arkansas’ interim coach.  Smith is a colorful guy off the field.  Throw in the fact that he’ll likely be asked about Bobby Petrino’s downfall, his own recent money woes, his shaky job status and the way he left his alma mater, Weber State, after just a few months on the job and you could have the best presser of Media Days.

We shall see…

* Smith talks about the great opportunity before him and calls “Hog nation” among the best fanbases in the country.

* Smith says adversity will make Arkansas’ team stronger.

* Smith said the welcome he got from Razorback fans led him to “wipe away tears.”  “We all have to relish our position in this program.”

* The coach says UA’s goal is still to win the BCS title.

* Asked if he wants to be the Arkansas coach beyond this year, Smith exclaimed: “Certainly.  Do I look stupid?!”  Asked if he had to go 14-0 to keep that job, Smith said that’s up to the athletic director.

* Smith says pressure has to roll off his players’ backs like water off a duck’s back.

* Smith says Missouri is a natural, geographical rival for Arkansas.  “To me it’s an automatic.  Now we get to develop that rivalry.”  He also said, “I see that developing into a big rivalry for us.”

* The coach said that his decision to leave Weber State was simply a matter of weighing options.  When one door opens, etc.

* Regarding recruiting, Smith says he’s told kids that no coach can guarantee he’ll be back.  “You’re not committing to an individual” is his sell.

* After a rough start — not knowing really how Media Days works and that he wouldn’t be introducing his players today — Smith is really getting fired-up.  His voice will rise depending on the question.  Not in an angry way, but in a pumped up kind of way.

* Smith said his wife updated him on Petrino’s situation, but it wasn’t something that he followed closely “from the outside.”

* He said he was “surprised” and “shocked” by what went down with Petrino.  He said “you pray for them” and hope the issues inside Petrino’s family can be remedied.

* Brandon Mitchell — UA’s backup quarterback — may not be the only Razorback to play a couple of positions this season.  He said fullback Kiero Small may play some linebacker because the Hogs aren’t deep at that position.  Mitchell has been working some at receiver.

* Smith says is LSU/Texas A&M becomes a season-ending game, Missouri/Arkansas would be a good season-ender.

* Smith said he got onto the radar of AD Jeff Long by talking to UA’s assistant coaches after the Petrino scandal broke.

* Smith said he talked to Petrino last week and that it was a good conversation.

* Smith’s high-pitched, loud voice is certainly unique to the league.  It’s a bit like someone stepping on a gas pedal.  He’ll answer for a minute or two in a normal tone and then he’ll get excited and BOOM… the voice goes up.

* Smith bragged on quarterback Tyler Wilson and his leadership abilities.

Our overall grad for Smith’s “performance” based on comfort, friendliness, openness… we’ll give him a 4 on a scale of 1-5.  He was friendly.  He was entertaining.  But he also didn’t seem to know how in the world a Media Days session was to work.  He tried to dance around a question about whether or not he approached Arkansas or vice versa, but — as noted above — he eventually gave an answer.  Smith may well lead the Razorbacks to their first SEC title, but we’ve got a feeling that we just saw Smith’s first and last appearance in Hoover.

Over a pair of answers and about a 10-minute span, Missouri’s Gary Pinkel revealed what appeared to be a chip on his shoulder regarding the analysis — and he said there’s been “analysis of the analysis” — of how his program will fare in the big, bad SEC:

“The transition has been significant for me.  We’re doing things we never thought we’d be doing in this transition that’s taking place… I think the continuity of our staff has been real important.  You know we have a staff that’s been in place and we do what we do.  Are we changing how we recruit?  No.  Are we changing how we train our players?  No.  We do what we do.  We believe in what we do.  And that certainly will get tested and that’s fine…

You know our offense is a spread offense and people know about it.  We can do a lot of different things.  You know we were top 15 in the nation last year in rushing the football.  So we can go a lot of different ways with our offense depending on what we need to do in our personnel.  We’re gonna get tested.  We’re playing some great defenses.  We understand that.  But we’re going to do what we do and adjust accordingly as we always do as he season wears on so that we can play our best.

Taking note of the chip that seemed to be on Pinkel’s shoulder, one writer followed by asking if Missouri fans really have a chip on their shoulders because people seem to think they’ve been playing “JV” football and they are now headed to “the big league.”  Pinkel’s reply:

“You get a lot of ‘we’re playing SEC now and it’s this great league’ and — as I go around this summer, I’ve got a place down in Florida — and people come up to me and act like we’ve been playing a bunch of high schools teams.  We played in a pretty good league.  I don’t think it’s a chip necessarily.  To me it’s being a competitor.  I think as a competitor you get challenged a little bit… Bottom line you got to go out and prove yourself and I’m fine with it.  I have no problem with it… You gotta go out compete and earn respect.  You gotta go out and compete to win.  And the only way you’re gonna get respect is winning games.  That’s the only way it’s gonna happen.”

Uh, yeah, I’m gonna go ahead and just call that a chip on the shoulder.  Nothing wrong with that, of course.  And Pinkel will have to win — just as he says — to earn respect.  Even if he took a bit friendlier approach to matters, he’d still have to win games to earn respect.

A few years ago it was suggested that Bobby Petrino’s style of play wouldn’t work in the SEC (and we’re talking about his on-field style of play, mind you).  Turns out, he won a lot of games just doing his thing.

If Pinkel can mimic Petrino’s success, I don’t think anyone will be talking about Missouri having to earn anyone’s respect or Pinkel having to change his system.

The University of Arkansas will be breaking out their third new uniform set since the arrival (and now departure) of Bobby Petrino five seasons ago.  After a fuzzy photo of three Razorback-ish unis hit the web last month, AD Jeff Long hinted that the school might be getting some new duds.

Yesterday, clearer photos of the uniforms — taken inside the team’s football facility, apparently — burned through the Razorback messageboards.  And yes, there will be a new black jersey thrown into the mix (shown at left).

I say this everytime a school unveils a black uniform: If everyone has a black uni, what’s special about it?

Ah, well, if Arkansas’ players respond the way Ohio’s players did last fall when they saw their own black unis (they went out and thumped Marshall after flat losing their minds — see the video below), then I guess that’s all that matters.

Last month, Bobby Petrino’s wrecked motorcycle — yep, the same one he was riding when he wrecked his career — was put on the auction block.  Now, several other items belonging to the former Razorbacks football coach are being auctioned off to benefit Goodwill of Springdale, Arkansas.

There are golf clubs and bags featuring the coach’s name and Razorback colors and logos.  There’s luggage.  And for the masochistic Atlanta fan, there’s even a Falcons jacket once owned by the team’s short-term ex-coach.

Petrino reportedly brought the items to the Goodwill store himself and donated them personally.  As of mid-day yesterday, there had been no bid on any of the items.

I wouldn’t feel too bad for the coach over all this.  Once the radioactivity of his downfall is hosed away “Silkwood” style and once a program gets desperate enough for a winner, Petrino will be back on some other school’s sideline raking in millions more and getting all new logo-emblazoned clubs, bags and jackets.

John L. Smith was hired to be the caretaker of the Arkansas football team for 2012.  As interim coach, he’ll walk back into a program — one that he left just five months ago — that is expected to be a Top 15 team or better in 2012.

But it doesn’t sound like he intends to just sit in the shadows.  Instead, he believes the Razorback program needs to get the word out that all is well in the Ozarks, despite the recent Bobby Petrino scandal and dismissal:

“I’m sure there is (an image problem), from the outside in particular.  That’s why we have to become maybe a little bit more outgoing as a program and let people know there is no problem… I think us as a team and as coaches, we have to mend that.”

That means being “accessible” and “approachable” when it comes to fans, media and even the Razorback players.  ”I just have to be myself,” Smith told ArkansasNews.com.  ”It’s going to change that way.  Bobby… I don’t know if a little more rigid is the word.  These kids are going to know that, “Hey, Coach Smith is going to kick you in the butt.  But he might hug you walking in the door.”

(Insert joke about “Petrino” and “rigid” being used in the same sentence… here.)

Talk to those in Arkansas post-scandal and you’ll find that Petrino wasn’t exactly buddy-buddy with his players or his co-workers.  About the only person to get “close” to Petrino during his time in Fayetteville — if you believe the backspin now being put on things — is the one young aide whom he shouldn’t have gotten so close to at all.

But whether you believe a kindler, gentler coach was needed at UA or not, there is definitely expected to be a different leadership style on display at Arkansas this fall.  Whether that will help or hurt the Hogs’ fortunes on the football field remains to be seen.

Saying “we’re gonna play for a national title,” John L. Smith was formally introduced as the new football coach at Arkansas this afternoon.

Smith, who had recently left a job as an assistant at Arkansas to become head coach at Weber State, said he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to guide a team he helped mold.

The new coach got a 10-month, $850,000 contract and by one account, “hit the ground running” today in a style dramatically different than the “clammed-up Bobby Petrino.”

Former Razorbacks assistant John L. Smith is headed back to Arkansas to replace fired football coach Bobby Petrino.   Smith spent three years as the special teams coach in Fayetteville.  Smith, who’s leaving Weber State, gets a one-year deal.

Smith has a 132-86 record as a head coach at Michigan State, Louisville, Idaho and Utah State.

He’ll be introduced as the new coach at Arkansas on Tuesday.

Arkansas AD Jeff Long gave new assistant head coach Taver Johnson control of the Razorback football program through spring practice.  On Saturday, spring drills concluded in Fayetteville.  Today, Hog assistants are hitting the road for the spring evaluation period.

But Long has yet to announce who’ll be leading UA from here.

Johnson told ArkansasNews.com on Saturday that he would “have a 6 a.m. flight and I’ll be on it,” when it comes to luring in new players.  But what will he and others say when asked, “Are you coaching us?”

Long needs to make his call.  Soon.  He said last week that his decision would come in “days, not weeks.”  One report suggested that pick could be made official today.  Good.

From the start we’ve said that the best bet for Arkansas this season and beyond is for Long to simply promote a current member of a veteran coaching staff to the title of interim coach for the 2012 season.  No fuss, no muss, no players-getting-to-know-new-coaches, no issues with an outside interim coming in and running the show over a group of aides who already know how to work together.  Best of all, Long would be able to spend the next few months targeting the right man for the job long-term.  And the pool of candidates willing to move in December would be greater than the pool of candidates who would be willing to move now, as well.

The fact that Long has dragged out his interim selection so long suggests that he didn’t agree with our advice.  If he had, he’d have tabbed Johnson or Tim Horton or Paul Petrino as his guy two weeks ago.  Instead, it’s been rumored he’s talked to everyone from Phillip Fulmer (as an interim candidate) to Pete Carroll (as a full-time candidate).

If and when he promotes someone from within — be it today or tomorrow or later this week — there will be little doubt that he’s done his homework.  That’s a positive.

But sending his coaches out on the recruiting trail without a plan just yet?  That’s a negative.  That will only help to add to the perception in some kids’ and parents’ minds that UA is a rudderless ship at the moment.

Long needs to make a call.  Quickly.  And he needs to make the call we suggested when he first gave Bobby Petrino the hook.

An interim from within for now.  A solid, smart search for eight months.  And a darn good hire come November or December.

Since pulling the trigger on the Bobby Petrino dismissal two weeks ago, Arkansas AD Jeff Long has received support from the vast majority of the Razorback fanbase, from some cash-tossing big boosters, and now from members of the UA football team.

Because of Long’s willingness to talk with the team about the situation, quarterback Tyler Wilson has been singing the praises of his school’s AD:


“He acted like he was the man in charge, and he is.  I appreciate that from him.  He’s an athletic director, not a football coach, but he has been (a coach) in the past.  I think that’s great.  I’m proud of the leadership he’s displayed.  Absolutely.”


Wilson brings up an interesting point.  As athletic departments have evolved into multimillion dollar business entities, more and more of the men (and women) running those departments have come up through the sales, marketing or accounting ranks.  There are fewer and fewer ex-coaches at the tops of big-time athletic departments today because schools want proven business people overseeing what amounts to big business.  Hard to blame them.

But in situations like this with Petrino — scandals, coaching changes, etc — it’s probably good to have an ex-coach at the helm.  Long knows how to talk to a team.  He knows what the men (or women) in a locker room are looking for in terms of answers from him. 

Long has proven to be the best of both worlds for UA — an ex-coach (at Miami of Ohio, Rice, Duke, NC State and Michigan) and a seasoned administrator.  This seems to be especially true in terms of dealing with the current football team in the midst of this current upheaval.

Now if he can just find the right coach to finish what Petrino started.

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long announced Tuesday night that former coach Bobby Petrino had given a $20,000 gift to Jessica Dorrell.

Some “gift,” many thought. It turns out Dorrell used that $20,000 to purchase a black Acura.

That information was included in Long’s termination letter to Petrino, details of which were released on Friday. Long wrote to Petrino:

“Your conduct and actions in this matter have generated voluminous negative media stories and opinions, within Arkansas and nationally, that have harmed the reputation of the University of Arkansas and our athletic programs. We are now faced with the task of restoring the reputation of our institution and our athletics programs that many individuals and teams have worked hard to build over the years.”

Meanwhile, Arkansas must figure out how to handle Dorrell’s employment status while she remains on paid administrative leave. That’s all while Ms. Dorrell decides her next step and possible action toward the University of Arkansas.