I don't know if Gus Malzahn will ever coach again at Arkansas, but it does not appear like it will happen any time soon.
The patchwork search committee for the leaderless athletic department at the University of Arkansas made the Auburn coach their No. 1 priority. Malzahn appeared to leave the door open on Saturday after the Tigers' 28-7 loss over Georgia, who they defeated 40-17 just three weeks prior.
Georgia is now headed to the College Football Playoff, along with Alabama, who Auburn also defeated the week before the conference decider. I spoke with Hot Springs native Dan Wolken, now a reporter for USA Today, about the situation.
"I think Malzahn made it clear last night at the SEC Championship Game that Arkansas is going to come with an offer," Wolken said. "The ball is going to be in Auburn's court to figure out if they want to do for Malzahn what he needs in order to stay.
"He has been on this rollercoaster up and down and back up again. It wears on you as a coach when opinion of what you are doing kind of blows in the wind. It really has at Auburn."
Wolken wrote on Saturday Malzahn could leave the up-and-down nature of his support at Auburn for what would likely have been a lengthy grace period at Arkansas.
"If Auburn does not show him the security, loyalty and, obviously, the money in this contract, then I think there is a realistic chance," Wolken said.
Auburn felt Malzahn was worth a new seven-year deal, and Arkansas is left to settle for no better than their second choice. The Razorbacks will likely hire a head coach from outside of the Power 5 conferences or a coordinator.
"It is hard to hire coaches who are sitting Power 5 head coaches with job security," Wolken said. "Bielema was the exception, not the rule."
Arkansas' search process is already a far cry from the home run hit by Nebraska in recent weeks. The Cornhuskers fired their athletic director earlier in the year with plenty of time to have someone in place to hire the next head football coach. News broke on Saturday that Nebraska reached an agreement with Scott Frost, who was finishing off a 13-0 season with Central Florida.
Frost's Knights topped Memphis 62-55 in overtime in the highest-scoring conference championship game ever in college football. The Tigers are coached by Mike Norvell, 36, who is 18-7 in his two seasons at Memphis.
Norvell played receiver at Central Arkansas, where he began coaching as a graduate assistant. He made stops as an assistant coach at Tulsa, Pittsburgh and Arizona State before he got the head gig at Memphis.
The coaching search reportedly includes Chad Morris, and I really cannot understand why he is one of the supposed top candidates. Morris had a Malzahn-esque career in high school, compiling a 169-38 record.
Morris began his college coaching career at Tulsa in 2010 and moved to Clemson a year later. He was 2-10 in 2015 in his first as head coach of SMU. The Mustangs improved to 5-7 a year ago and 7-5 this season to improve his college head coaching record to 14-22.
Current Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables may or may not be in the search, depending on who you trust. Former Texas coach Charlie Strong has been notably absent from any discussion of Arkansas candidates despite a 9-2 record in his first season this year at USF.
"I think it will happen this week," Wolken said. "Whatever is going to happen, it will play out in the next few days. Clearly, they want Malzahn and, clearly, Malzahn is going to stay at Auburn if they give him what he wants. I'm sure Arkansas is doing their due diligence on their backup plans."
Wolken is a graduate of Lakeside and Vanderbilt University. He is the son of Brad and Elaine Wolken, who he still visits in Hot Springs. He began at The Gazette in Colorado Springs before he moved to Memphis to write for The Commercial Appeal. He moved to The Daily in 2010 and has been with USA Today since 2012.
"I am very fortunate to have gotten in with a company and a group that has made a nice commitment to covering sports," Wolken said. "It has always been one of the calling cards of the USA Today brands."
Wolken is active on Twitter, @DanWolken, and engages daily with fans. He jokes how fans from every school accuse him of bias.
"You kind of laugh it off most of the time," Wolken said. "In any national beat, whether you are covering college football, college basketball, the NFL, the NBA or whatever it is, the key thing is to keep the focus most of the time on the stars, the breaking news and the really good stories."
Wolken never covered the Razorbacks for an Arkansas publication and is able to take a standard approach to his home state's flagship. His role requires him to develop relationships throughout the country.
"People move around, they change jobs, they get hired and they get fired," Wolken said. "There are people who work at Arkansas I knew before they were at Arkansas and people who are leaving Arkansas I am sure I will know at their next stop.
"Other than just Arkansas being an SEC program that, at times, has been really good and, at times, has been really bad, they have had controversy and various things that are stories. That draws interest at times, but I don't treat it or think about it any differently."
Bielema would have continued an upward trajectory without two monumental collapses to end the 2016 season. The subsequent 4-8 season made many question if Arkansas could ever fare better than 7- or 8-win seasons under him.
"If you look at what the rationale would be to bring back Bret Bielema, it just wasn't there," Wolken said. "At the end of the season, what would you point to to say this is going to get better? I just didn't see it."
"I think if there is any criticism to Arkansas, it would lie in the fact you fired Jeff Long, and I am not sure there was really a great plan," Wolken added. "I think a lot of people around Arkansas maybe resented the way Long ran the program in a much more professional, modern way instead of the so-called 'good ole boy' network that ran things. I think that maybe rubbed a lot of people the wrong way."
Wolken and the rest of us are left to parse through rumors to try to determine who might really be the Hogs' next AD and head football coach. The unpredictable coaching carousel keeps all journalists on their toes.
"Generally, a lot of it is either partially true or not totally false, but maybe with a sliver of truth," Wolken said. "You just have to sort that out. Then, as a reporter, you better be sure how somebody knows something or where it is coming from before you publish it."
Sports on 12/04/2017