Fayetteville to hire former D-I coach

Fayetteville is turning to an Oklahoma high school coaching hall of famer and former Division I head coach to lead its football program.

Sources told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Tuesday afternoon that former University of Tulsa and Tulsa Union High School coach Bill Blankenship is expected to be named the new head football coach at Fayetteville, pending School Board approval.

The Fayetteville School Board will hold a 5 p.m. special meeting today. Attempts to reach Blankenship and Fayetteville Athletic Director Steve Janski were unsuccessful Tuesday.

The Bulldogs coaching position became open May 12 when Daryl Patton resigned after 13 seasons. Patton, who won four Class 7A state championships with the Bulldogs (2007, 2011, 2012, 2015), was hired at Bauxite on May 26.

Before coaching at Tulsa in 2011-2014, Blankenship, 59, was one of the top high school coaches in Oklahoma, going 205-68 in 22 seasons. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009. He was 154-26 at Union in 14 seasons (1992-2005), leading the school to three Oklahoma Class 6A state championships and seven state title games.

Last year, Blankenship was a special consultant for Justin Fuente at Memphis. Fuente, now the coach at Virginia Tech, was the starting quarterback at Union under Blankenship from 1992 to 1994. Blankenship served as a volunteer assistant at Tulsa Booker T. Washington this spring.

Blankenship resigned at Union after guiding the Redskins to their third state championship in four seasons in 2005. He was out of coaching for a year before taking an assistant job coaching wide receivers at his alma mater Tulsa in 2007 under Todd Graham. Auburn Coach Gus Malzahn, a Fort Smith native, was Tulsa's co-offensive coordinator in 2007-2008 when Blankenship was on the staff. When Graham left Tulsa for Pittsburgh after the 2010 season, Blankenship was promoted by the Golden Hurricane to head coach.

In four seasons as Tulsa's head coach, Blankenship was 24-27. He led the Golden Hurricane to a Conference USA championship and a victory over Iowa State in the Liberty Bowl in 2012, capping an 11-3 season. Iowa State was led by Paul Rhoads, who is now the defensive backs coach at Arkansas.

Blankenship started his coaching career at Tulsa Eastwood Baptist in 1983, going 5-15 in two seasons. After a year away from coaching, Blankenship was hired at Spiro in 1986. At Spiro, Blankenship went 34-17, leading the school to a Class 3A runner-up finish in 1987. Prior to his 14-year stint at Union, Blankenship finished 12-10 at Edmond (Okla.) Memorial (1990-1991). Blankenship replaced Rick Jones at Union in 1992. Jones has been the head coach since 2004 at Greenwood, where he has won six state championships.

Several in-state and out-of-state coaches applied for the position, including Pine Bluff Coach Bobby Bolding, North Little Rock Coach Jamie Mitchell, and former Arkansas player and Arkansas-Pine Bluff assistant coach Dennis Winston. The school had a search committee consisting of Janski, Principal Chad Scott, assistant superintendent John Colbert, booster club president Neil Shipley, Fayetteville alumnus and former player Michael Brisiel, and faculty representative Liz Caudle.

Offensive coordinator Benji Mahan has served as the Bulldogs' interim coach since Patton's resignation. Mahan also applied for the vacant position.

Led by junior quarterback Taylor Powell, Fayetteville went 12-2 last season and entered the Class 7A playoffs as the No. 3 seed from the 7A-West Conference. The Bulldogs defeated West Memphis at home and Bryant and Bentonville on the road to reach their second consecutive state championship game. Fayetteville earned a 28-7 victory over 7A-West rival Springdale Har-Ber to win its first state championship since 2012 and fourth overall.

Sports on 06/08/2016