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Next boss Hog? Oddsmaker offers M&M (Malzahn, McGee)
Published: 4/12/2012 4:35 PM
Last Modified: 4/12/2012 4:35 PM

A sports book (Bovada.lv) distributed odds to the media on Thursday in regard to the possible identity of Arkansas’ next fooball coach. The top two candidates have Tulsa ties and many on the list have Oklahoma ties.

Arkansas State coach Gus Malzahn, a former University of Tulsa offensive coordinator is listed as the favorite at 5-2.

UAB coach Garrick McGee, a former Booker T. Washington and University of Oklahoma quarterback, is next at 3-1. McGee was in the mix for the TU job before Bill Blankenship was hired.

The rest? Skip Holtz (7/2), Mario Cristobal (5/1), Kirby Smart (6/1), Gary Patterson (10/1), Butch Davis (15/1), Charlie Strong (15/1) and Jimmy Johnson (20/1).

Holtz is the son of former Arkansas coach Lou Holtz.

Davis is a Bixby High School graduate who coached at Oklahoma State.

Strong was among finalists for the University of Tulsa job when Steve Kragthorpe got it.

Johnson, of course, was a head coach at OSU. Johnson looks pretty comfy in a TV studio, so those 20/1 odds of him coaching at Arkansas (his alma mater) might be overly generous.

Arkansas just fired a head coach because of a breach of ethics. How ethical would it be for the Razorbacks to steal a current head coach away from another program during the midst of spring drills? Probably about as ethical as when the Hogs lured Bobby Petrino away from the Atlanta Falcons during an NFL season.

Here’s a not-crazy suggestion: If I am a decision-maker at Arkansas and I don’t want to upset another team’s apple cart, I might place a call to a Super Bowl-winning ex-coach who is doing television work and who seems tough enough to stand up to the alpha males in the SEC.

I’m not talking about Johnson, though he tried like heck to get the Arkansas job when he was a pup.

I’m talking about Bill Cowher. So far, he has resisted the siren's call to return to coaching. Maybe that’s because the right job hasn’t come along yet.


Reader Comments 5 Total
217719 (10 months ago)
When did Bill Cowher's name pop into your head? Sheesh!!
DomoArrigato (10 months ago)
Butch Davis first, then Gus Malzahn...If neither of them take it, offer it to Skip Holtz.
the moon shall rise again (10 months ago)
Why not ditka?
Opus (10 months ago)
I predicted Malzahn earlier and will stick with that pick. As I said before, he's a great coach if his wife will stay out of the way. She's crazy. Davis is a local boy, but unfortunately, bad things happen around him; too much baggage. Jimmy J is too far removed from coaching and would not be a good pick.
                    
DomoArrigato (10 months ago)
Butch Davis took a coaching Job at Carolina and then the earlier misdeeds collapsed around him...He did none of them, and he was the scapegoat for a bad program....Can still coach circles around most.
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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