It seems today that if a head college football coach isn't at Alabama or Clemson, he was hired to be fired.
Since those glory days of Southwest Conference championships under Ken Hatfield, the University of Arkansas has had seven head football coaches and two interims.
They have had four head coaches and one interim since Houston Nutt left for Ole Miss in 2007.
The Razorbacks need Chad Morris to be successful to provide stability, and that means the fans have to be patient because Morris took over a team with a few SEC players and a lot of guys who weren't of that caliber.
Everyone seems to understand the monumental task facing Morris, so his coaching seat isn't even warm. Meanwhile, Gus Malzahn openly admitted at SEC media days recently that he is used to the hot seat.
Malzahn, the second Arkansan to lead Auburn as its head coach, guided the Tigers to the 2013 national championship game but lost to Florida State 34-31.
A victory may not have mattered.
Gene Chizik led the Tigers to the 2010 national championship (Malzahn was his offensive coordinator), but he was fired two seasons later.
Before that, the first Arkansan to coach the Tigers was Tommy Tuberville, who led them to a 13-0 record in 2004 but was not chosen to play in the BCS Championship Game, which was won by Southern Cal and later vacated. Four seasons later, he became one of the first coaches to receive a multimillion-dollar buyout.
During the 2003 season -- a year before the undefeated campaign -- Auburn officials, under the heavy urging of a booster, secretly met with then-Louisville coach Bobby Petrino.
The meeting got exposed, and Tuberville's agent, Jimmy Sexton, negotiated a clause in Tuberville's contract that if any other coach was contacted during a season, Tuberville could opt out of his contract for $5 million.
Four seasons later, in the midst of a 5-7 season, a booster contacted another coach -- believed to be Arkansas' Houston Nutt -- who also had Sexton as an agent.
Tuberville took the $5 million and the Texas Tech job. He has retired from football and is running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican in Alabama.
Before Tuberville, Auburn coach Terry Bowden got sideways with a booster and was ousted. Some of it was his fault.
Nonetheless, Auburn football has a history of booster involvement, or perhaps better described as booster meddling.
Malzahn knew that when he took the job.
"Some places, eight wins, they celebrate," Malzahn said at SEC media days. "That's just not part of Auburn. We expect to win championships, and we've done that. We're going to have more championships in the future here, too."
Those are the things Tiger fans expect to hear, and it may keep the wolves off his front porch for a while.
Granted, he's the only current SEC coach to have beaten Alabama's Nick Saban (twice), but Auburn fans dwell on the four losses.
Saban is the reason every school in the SEC has had turnover at head coach. He dominates the most powerful football league in the country, and he shows no signs of letting up.
Bret Bielema said he came to Arkansas to beat Alabama, which ticked off Crimson Tide fans, but shouldn't that be the goal of every SEC football coach? If it isn't, you have the wrong coach.
One huge thing going for the Fort Smith native Malzahn, when Arkansas flirted with him a couple of years ago, he landed a $49 million contract with Auburn. If he's fired after this season, it would cost Auburn $29 million.
Auburn has some rich, powerful boosters, but that's a ton of money for anyone.
Sports on 07/28/2019