Eli Cranor could still be playing football, studying to become a lawyer, working in politics or teaching English.
Instead, Cranor, 26, is the new head coach at Clarksville.
"It doesn't shock me that he is a coach, but he could have went 10 different ways," Morrilton Coach Cody McNabb said.
McNabb was defensive coordinator at Russellville in 2004 and 2005 when Cranor was lighting up defenses as a star quarterback for the Cyclones.
Cupid eventually intercepted a trip to France, ending Cranor's playing career. But it paved the way for the man who can recite Shakespeare's sonnets to become one of the youngest head football coaches in the state.
"He's so engaging," McNabb said. "He can hold a room. It wouldn't have surprised me if he was an English teacher or he wrote novels or became the governor of the state of Arkansas. None of that stuff would have surprised me with Eli."
Cranor's circuitous career path has included stops in Florida, Arkansas, Sweden and, ultimately, Clarksville, a Class 5A school that straddles the north side of Interstate 40 about 30 miles west of Russellville.
Cranor, who coordinated Class 4A Arkadelphia's high-octane offense the past two seasons, is trying to breathe new life into a program that has had four consecutive losing seasons and was 2-8 last fall.
Clarksville tapped Cranor in February to replace Michael Banning, who is now the school's athletic director.
Cranor has quickly put his stamp on the program.
He regularly posts updates on the team via Twitter or his blog, chspanthers.weebly.com, and stresses community service.
When the Panthers run conditioning sprints at the end of practice, Cranor and his assistant coaches -- none older than 35 -- run, too.
Cranor's mantra is 1440>ME, a reference to the number of minutes in each day, and a team-first mentality.
"We're a big 'the score takes care of itself' kind of team," Cranor said. "We started with lockers when I first got here in March. We started using a clean locker and making that as a symbol for one clean locker will lead to another clean locker and then you have a whole clean locker room. We really believe that."
Cranor already has a pretty big name as a player in the Arkansas River Valley, throwing for almost 5,000 yards as a junior and senior at Russellville before graduating in 2006.
Cranor signed with Florida Atlantic, then coached by the legendary Howard Schnellenberger, before transferring after one season to Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia. Cranor said he decided to leave FAU because he was only one year younger than the Owls' entrenched starter at quarterback.
"I loved it down there," Cranor said. "We were a quarter-mile from the beach, and I grew my hair out down past my shoulders. But football, and that sort of stuff, is what I wanted to do. And, there was the education side of it, too."
Cranor said he chose Ouachita Baptist because it was the only other school to heavily recruit him while at Russellville.
Cranor started for OBU in 2009 and 2010, set several school records, including single-season marks for passing yards (2,570) and total offense (3,083) as a senior, and was named second-team All-Gulf South.
He graduated in December 2010 with degrees in English and political science, but Cranor was done with football. He played as a professional in Sweden, helping the Carlstad Crusaders win the European Football League championship.
Cranor said he was the league's MVP and Carlstad's offensive coordinator.
Cranor was preparing to play in France in 2012 when his playing career abruptly ended after reconnecting with his future wife, the former Mallory Lawrence, a state champion pole vaulter at Russellville.
Cranor and Lawrence lived near each other growing up; Lawrence is a 2007 Russellville graduate.
"Basically, she told me, 'Eli, it's time to go get a big-boy job,' " Cranor said.
Cranor said his original career plan after he stopped playing was to go to law school, but he missed one of the Law School Admission Test dates by about a week.
"I thought, 'Well, I'll go do coaching,' " Cranor said. "It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I found my passion. I found my career. I found everything."
Cranor's big coaching break came in early 2012 when he was hired as offensive coordinator at Arkadelphia. Arkadelphia Coach J.R. Eldridge was an assistant at Ouachita Baptist when Cranor played there.
Under Cranor's direction, Arkadelphia scored 1,041 points in 24 games the past two seasons. Clarksville -- in 20 games -- scored just 273 over the same span.
Cranor said he plans to run the same type of up-tempo Spread attack at Clarksville. Producing Arkadelphia-type numbers is another story.
"I've been asked that question so many times, and I have no idea," Cranor said. "I just know at 4 o'clock that we're going to get out on that practice field."
Sports on 08/24/2014