After reading some of the sky is falling critiques on HV yesterday, I gave these comments to some others: Let's face it. Our fan base would be rioting and suicidal no matter who Long hired. Hire an interim, we complain about the person and not looking to the "future." Hire a permanent guy who comes in and sacks everybody and we throw away 2012, we complain that we took one of the most talented teams in Arkansas history and didn't give them a chance to win.
This guy is fucking crazy. I mean I already knew that... But "NO CLAPPING OK?"... And lots of jabs at the reporters. /
We apologize about the posts referencing the potential sacking of assistant coaches. Those responsible have been sacked.
Did his opening statement, excited about the opportunity, thankful, etc. after that he said thats about all I have to say. Reporter starts clapping... "NO CLAPPING"- jls Called Aaron Peters fat and something else Said it was his job to mentor/advise, let the coordinators do their job, make final decisions if needed, affirm good ideas from coordinators Called Knile Davis K-Nile and asked him if he had practiced at all this spring Said it was his wife's decision to come back Still gonna win the ship
I heard it was one of the craziest press conferences ever. Please tell me this is true. We are Arkansas, we have a reputation to uphold.
feast your eyes. If you are okay with this 10 month thing, then you can let it ride. If you think this is the end of hogfootball as you know it, then get the lube, he's going in dry: http://www.arkansasrazorbacks.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=6100&id=873205
Just so Im not crazy, The K is silent and is pronounced Nile? Correct? If I am correct, that is a horrible joke, or the dips hit doesn't know how to pronouced his best RBs name. Niether is acceptable IMO. Would love to see Davis' face during that exchange
Holy shit. Ok, today i have been trolling the fuck out of Nobville. Seriously thats all i can do to keep myself from getting pissed off. I wake up today with every intention of making those idiots realize how stupid their perspective is of support the program no matter what, and then this guy completely throws me off my game with this shit. Arkansas Football. Seriously for anyone who watch our recruiting video where the team says "This is Razorback Football!" We need to add a line that says "If you think this is fucked up, give us a month or two...."
I think it is an inside joke. Another Coordinator called him that a few months ago before as a joke. A PC is not a place to rattle off inside jokes. One thing is for certain, we will have some air time on ESPN again. Where is that clip of the idiot outside of the pancake house talking trash that ESPN ran a few weeks ago?
There is definitely some inside jokes and a jovial atmosphere with the media which you can tell he knows and they know him. I think his comments would have been weird if he hadn't been here for the last 3 years.
I would also add that from everything he's said, the Paul's are gonna run the O/D. That is really all I need to hear.
On the contrary, i am hearing he talked about having influence in the O and D. That scares the shit out of me. Oh and from what i am being told, he acted like he had a shot at a long term deal during the PC.
No. You need to watch the presser. It was nothing like that. HE gave politically correct answers, hiding behind his own brand of raving hilarious insanity. He was asked if he would let the coordinators run the show -- and what coach is going to say "oh yeah I'll just dick around" -- and he says "I'll have veto power, and tell them when they do good or when they screw up, but you gotta let your coaches coach." He was asked about only coaching for 10 months, and again he gave the PC answer. Of course he's not going to say "I'm outta here in 10 months!" He's gotta recruit while he's here. But if you listen to Long introduce him, he was very emphatic when he said "this is the right move for THIS YEAR and THIS team and for the 2012 season." Shoot, Long went on Arkansas sports radio today and basically said "I tried to hire someone long-term but no one would bite. A lot of NFL and NCAA guys said 'check back in December'." so there
I listened to the entire PC, I didn't get that indication at all. I didn't say he would have no influence whatsoever. He said though that he has always believed that the coordinators should coordinate and call plays. Also hearing comments from both Long and Smith that there was some contention in the staff (the Horton's probably didn't make things better with what they did), I feel more confident in hiring him for a year.
If there is a transcript of Bo's interview with Long that would be nice to read. I've seen quotes on FB from him but not the entire conversation. From what I've read that there were some big names that were interested but he needed to call in December. Gruden wasn't ever a candidate. Since Long is technically still looking, I doubt we will get a full list of names since some might actually get an interview in December.
Ok, this statement i know is bullshit by Long. Can't prove it but he did not contact coaches he in the manner he wants people to believe.
We won't ever get names. I am just being told we didn't really reach out to coaches the way people are saying we did. Gruden was never an option is correct, I really want to watch the PC, but i am on a shitty plane's wifi.
Not to get off topic, but you just bitched about have crappy internet 40,000 miles in the air. Kind of crazy to think how far technology has come /nerdpost
Okay fine. You want to believe he sat on his thumb for a week and a half and then made the call to JLS. I'm not saying I believe coaches were beating down his door, nor were they saying "*wink wink* this XMAS bro." But I think he weighed his options of an interim who would work within the system and his inability to bring in a brand new type of coach that would be a big enough splash to endure the hardships this season.
I know, crazy right? Seriously, i was bitching up a storm last year when I was on the flight to DC, watching the Arkansas vs Ole Miss game on some bootleg feed at speeds which would have been jealous of a 56k connection. #firstworldproblems.
I'm not sure what people really want from this. I'm sure it went something like this: JL: Hi this is Jeff Long, AD at the University of Arkansas. I would like to talk to you/your client about our opening at HC. Person/Agent: Hi Jeff. Sure tell me the basics. JL: Well it's April and Spring ball has already taken place, would you be willing to come in but keep the current staff/system in place? Money isn't an issue. We're committed to winning and have some of the best facilities in the country. Also we have what is likely to be a pre-season top 10 team that has a chance at both the SEC and National title. Person/Agent: I would really consider the job but (a) I'm currently in a job and (b) those conditions are really tough for me to take the job now. I would be interested in December after the season though. JL: Well appreciate your consideration, I will keep you in mind down the road. Thanks. Person/Agent: thanks. I've been saying for 2 weeks, with the conditions of keeping the staff/system in place, I didn't think we would get a permanent hire that was actually worth a shit. I mean if I was a HC, I wouldn't take this job right now. I mean you get all of the liability but don't get to run it the way you would typically run the show. That is a disaster waiting to happen for a new guy.
Here is my biggest concern. I am concerned Long thinks less of the program than most do. First he was ready to hire Grobe and Bowden, and Petrino fell in his lap. With Anderson, he had to be dragged into that hire. He kept telling people Anderson would never be interested. He didn't even call JLS! JLS called him! Sorry, just frustrated. My point is the reason we had no idea who was being hired was no one was contacted by Long. You know when you hear names mentioned with jobs, normally its their agent getting their name out there, and sometimes it because coaches have an interest and don't want to reach out unless there is mutual interest back. I think that happened with a few coaches (excluding Gruden). And i don't think Long really did his homework on who would really be interested. That scares the shit out of me as he is the guy making THE HIRE next December.
If Long himself wasn't brand new to the job, I would be more concerned with him turning to Grobe / Bowden. He was a brand new AD here and got thrust into finding a new HC. Plus, Grobe was a much attractive candidate in 2007 than he is today. Also, the Arkansas job really wasn't as attractive as it was today. Let's face it, nobody was beating his door down to come coach the hogs in Dec 2007 so yeah he got lucky with Petrino but I think we all did. As far as Anderson, I'm still not sold that he is the solution to our problem here. I'm willing to give him time but Anderson isn't the all world coach that we like to think of him as. With JLS calling him, I'm sure he didn't think that JLS would actually come back since he just took that job. Plus, JLS is an attractive short term solution but certainly not an attractive long term solution. I just don't think a lot of the criticism on Long is valid right now because at the end of the day nobody actually knows what he did or didn't do. I'm to the point now that if someone on a message board or from the Arkansas media says they have a source that says xyz about a Jeff Long decision, I'm assigning it the same value that I assigned our daily "where's UBL report?" we got from most of those shitty sources. If anything has been proven over the last 4 years, nobody has good sources in the Jeff Long run AD.
@NWARobbie: Knile Davis on why John L. calls him Kuh-Nile ... "He used to call me that when he was here. He's fascinated with the silent K."
long should have been fired 5 minutes after bobby was fired. he let this shit go down on his watch, and he wasnt paying enough atention to what was going on, fuck him
You expect the AD to know what his HC is secretly hiding an affair? This mess rightfully belongs at the feet of Bobby Petrino. I'm gonna miss him at Arkansas and he is probably the greatest coach we've had up until this point but screwed his own goose here. The fact that he didn't even legally challenge his firing says volumes. Add in his lack of professional judgement or ethics is highly disappointing. I've never seen or had a job at any level in this country where you could lie to your boss that much and not suffer severe penalties and likely being fired. The fact that this played out publicly is another knock on Bobby. If his dumbass doesn't hire her, he likely gets punished but doesn't lose his job. He screwed up big time by doing that. I'm disappointed to see him go but I would have fired his ass too. Afterwards I would have drank a 1/5 of anything I could get my hands on but I would have still fired him.
Holy shit i just caught that. I was 40,000 FEET in the air. My bad. The internet on the Space Station sucks as well i hear. Just FYI.
i think long should have paid more attention... why would bobby want waivers for, and why would he be pushing so hard for this woman to get a job over 158 others? did he do a background check with the foundation? if so he may have found out that bobby was sending candy to her office, etc...i mean really, why would she be sitting next to him at an autograph signing? no one wants a former girl volleyball players fucking autograph
I don't think he pushed for her in the sense you are saying. With any University Position, even if you know te person you are going to hire, you have to post the job for a certain period of time. With this market I could post an ad for a nuclear scientist and I would get 200 responses from people working from McDonalds and steel workers. Thats just how it goes in this economy. Funny thing is the female who apparently interviewed her made the statement she was the most qualified and acceptable applicant. Helps that they wrote the position specifically to match her skills. And yes long was well aware of the fact the position was written to match her qualifications.
Far be it from me to ruin a nice conspiracy theory, but I have to poke a hole in that logic. If Long was in on it and simply cut ties with Petrino to save his own skin, wouldn't it behoove Petrino NOT to forgoe suing the school to get his 18 million. He said he wouldn't fight the firing, and hasn't. If he had been back-stabbed, and then -- as he was-- publicly berated for his conduct, wouldn't a man like Petrino want to speak out and say "Hey asswipe you KNEW about it!"? Yet he hasn't. So the only way your story works is if Long knew, but Petrino didn't know Long knew.
Yeah that is where I am with this. I've said it before and I will say it again. If BP only has the affair and doesn't hire her, he still has a job. Lots of folks are screaming about morality (read the dribble at HV) but it really has nothing to do with morality. It's professional ethics and judgement. I mean let's face it, Jeff wanted to fire Bobby about has much as I want to get my fat ass out there and run a marathon. Bobby made Jeff look good. As an employer, you always want to keep those people around, at least until they do something really bad like hire your mistress on the State payroll.
Arkansas picks up commit #1. Kaleb Blanchard, a RB out of LA that had other offers from Ole Miss and Miss St 6'0 215lbs and runs a 4.5