FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas has hired a head coach to be its offensive coordinator.
Dan Enos, head coach at Central Michigan since 2010, resigned his position Thursday to there to become the Razorbacks 'offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach under Bret Bielema.
Bielema announced Enos' hiring Thursday through a UA press release. Enos replaces Jim Chaney, the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach for Bielema in 2013 and 2014 who recently became offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Pittsburgh.
Enos signed at Arkansas for an annual salary of $550,000 with a buyout clause of $350,000 that another school must pay should one hire Enos away before February 2018.
Enos' base salary was $285,000 at Central Michigan with a package announced projected at $325,000.
""We are thrilled to have coach Enos joining us in Fayetteville," Bielema said in a press release. "Dan is a great fit for our program. He runs a pro-style offense and brings expertise at the quarterback position as both a player and coach. We played against each other in college and he was a very intelligent and talented quarterback who showed great toughness and leadership. He has an outstanding reputation and will be a tremendous asset for Razorback football."
Meeting the media on an afternoon conference call, Enos was asked immediately about leaving his head-coaching job in the Mid-American Conference to become an offensive coordinator in the Southeastern Conference.
"I had a great job, and obviously it would just take an unbelievable opportunity to leave something like that, and that's how my family and I viewed this, as just too good of an opportunity to not pursue and not look at," Enos said. "I've played against coach Bielema and I've coached against him and recruited against him, so I'm very, very familiar with him and just have an unbelievable amount of respect for him, not only as a coach, but as a man. When this opportunity became available it was just something that we felt was a no-brainer."
Enos quarterbacked Michigan State while Bielema played nose guard at Iowa and was on the offensive staff at Michigan State during some of the time that Bielema was head coach at Big Ten rival Wisconsin.
Asked Thursday about taking orders again as an assistant after giving them the last five years as a head coach, Enos laughed.
"Hey, I took a lot of orders there, too," Enos said. "Everybody has got a boss. I had a boss there and it will be a very easy transition. I have been a team player, a team guy my entire career. I understand the team comes first. One thing I was always big on when I was a head coach was stay in your lane and know your role, I will certainly understand my role and fulfill it and do the best job I can. It will be a very easy transition.
"When I was a head coach and coordinator and things in the past it has always been nobody is working for anybody, everybody is working with each other. And coach Bielema has expressed that to me a lot already that we are all working together and we all have to be moving in the same direction. I don't think that will be an issue at all."
Enos said he and Bielema believe their offensive philosophies mesh and that he realized it more so watching tape of Arkansas' victory over Northern Illinois before his Central Michigan team played Northern Illinois.
"I think we both felt it was a great fit, coach and myself," Enos said "I'm very familiar with the offenses coach Bielema has been a part of at Wisconsin and at Arkansas. Arkansas played Northern Illinois, as did we this year and as we watched it as an offensive staff, we were commenting as an offensive staff about how similar it was. Tight ends, fullbacks, gap schemes, zone schemes, man schemes in the run game. Good play-action team. Very, very similar. I think that was the starting point.
"We're going to be very multiple, we're going to be diverse. Our goal is always going to be to look complex and remain simple for our players. I felt it was a great fit, as coach did as well."
Enos inherits a senior starting quarterback, Brandon Allen, after success inheriting senior quarterbacks he coached at Cincinnati (Gino Guidugli, 11,453 career passing yards) and at Michigan State (Drew Stanton, 2,252 total yards and 17 touchdowns his year coached by Enos).
"Brandon Allen excites me," Enos said. "As I watched him in the one game, I saw a guy with a lot of tools. He has very good size and I loved his mechanics. And as I started to study I saw a guy with 18 touchdown passes and only five interceptions. A ratio that obviously the turnovers are low. That is huge. He is a senior. I have stepped into a few of those other situations my first year on a staff with a senior quarterback and I really enjoyed those experiences.
"You have two running backs (Jonathan Williams and Alex Collins) who have rushed over 1,000 yards and they have very good size and are both explosive and that's exciting. The offensive line looks mammoth and physical. The tight ends are big and (Hunter) Henry is an outstanding player with very good size and can run. I was impressed with him. I am looking forward to getting to know these guys and working with the offensive staff and putting this thing together and being very productive."
Enos said he will report Monday for his first day on the Arkansas job and begin recruiting.
After quarterbacking Michigan State, Enos started coaching as a grad assistant from 1991-93 at Michigan State.
In 1994 Enos became offensive coordinator at Lakeland College, starting a variety of full-time roles variously as offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and running-backs coach at Northern Michigan, Southern Illinois, Missouri State, North Dakota State, Cincinnati and Michigan State before becoming Central Michigan's coach in 2010.
At CMU Enos compiled records of 3-9, 3-9,, 7-6,, 6-6, 7-6 with two bowl games and showed sufficient progress to warrant two contract extensions.
Enos has never coached in the SEC, a new challenge that in part enticed him to Arkansas.
"The SEC is really the mecca of conferences in the country," Enos said.
Other than receivers coach Michael Smith, whom UA reported has been extended an amended contract not yet announced as signed and completed, Bielema has completed his staff this week, Enos replacing Chaney and Vernon Hargreaves replacing linebackers coach Randy Shannon (now co-defensive coordinator at Florida). Returning with raises are defensive coordinator Robb Smith, defensive-backfield coach Clay Jennings, defensive-line coach Rory Segrest, offensive-line coach Sam Pittman, running-backs coach Joel Thomas and tight-ends coach Barry Lunney Jr.
Sports on 01/23/2015