SMU’s Rhett Lashlee’s dance with Arkansas will be revealing about college sports
Should SMU’s football coach leave Highland Park for Fayetteville, Arkansas, it should scare the breath out of every president, athletic director and coach in the Big 12 and ACC.
The only reason Rhett Lashlee will replace the recently fired Sam Pittman as Arkansas football coach isn’t the money, or to “go home.” Rather, Lashlee’s potential exit is about the future of college football, and upcoming realignment.
The continued speculation is that another round of realignment is coming, and that the SEC and Big Ten will add a few more schools to their respective rosters. Think within not the next five years but closer to three.
The only reason for Lashlee to leave is if he thinks SMU won’t make the cut, and be relegated to what will be a larger Group of Five.
At least in the current structure, SMU has a chance to contend for a national title. If the new alignment is a glorified super league, which already effectively exists without the name, SMU will essentially have the same chance as North Texas, Navy or Ball State.
Why Rhett Lashlee is Arkansas’ top candidate
Shortly after Pittman was fired by Arkansas on Sunday, the immediate speculation was that Dallas Cowboys owner and noted Arkansas alum Jerry Jones was set to pursue Lashlee to be the Hogs’ next head coach.
That’s easy math. Lashlee has done well since he replaced Sonny Dykes as SMU’s head coach starting in 2022. Lashlee works in Dallas, not too far from where Jerry Jones lives. Jerry’s love of his alma mater is documented, and he has the money to do anything.
However, despite his ties to the University of Arkansas, and his wealth, he’s never played the part of micromanaging wealthy booster. Jerry applies those skills on America’s Team, much to the furor of Cowboys fans.
Lashlee is from Arkansas, played quarterback for the Hogs and graduated from U of A in 2006. He started his coaching career at Springdale High School, which is 20 minutes from Fayetteville. He then moved up to his alma mater as a graduate assistant.
His first full-time assistant coaching position at the FBS level was at Arkansas State in 2012.
Combine his history with the school, and the state, with his record at SMU, and he’s a quality candidate.
Arkansas vs. SMU, Part I
SMU is in the ACC and has alums who are willing to spend the money necessary to keep the football team competitive. Its first season in the ACC, in 2024, exceeded even the highest expectations.
The Death Penalty days are long gone, and in one year SMU proved it can win the ACC, and reach the College Football Playoff. The school is tied for 88th nationally, according to the latest US News & World Report ranks of America’s Universities.
The concerns are its status as a private school with an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 7,300. But as long as the ACC is in the highest tier of college football, with “fair” access to the playoffs, this is a good job.
Arkansas vs. SMU, Part II
Arkansas left SMU and the Southwest Conference in 1992, and since then has now gone through eight head coaches. It’s an irrelevant program, and a coaching graveyard.
Other than Bobby Petrino’s four-year tenure at Arkansas, which ended in 2011, the team hasn’t done much. Petrino should be an Arkansas legend, but instead he’s another Arkansas punchline. The man humiliated the school with an improper relationship with a staffer that led to the university with no choice but to fire a successful coach.
Naturally, Petrino came back to Arkansas in November of ‘23 to serve as the offensive coordinator. If that wasn’t bad enough, he is the team’s interim head coach, and he immediately started firing assistant coaches.
Do not rule out Arkansas will name Petrino as the head coach for a second time. It is Arkansas, and this program is desperate. He is by far the most successful coach this program has had since the days of Lou Holtz and Frank Broyles.
With Wal-Mart and Tyson Chicken money behind the school, and town, the University of Arkansas should be a gem job. Instead, “Arkansas” in college football means Arkansas.
When Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek announced the Pittman firing on Sunday, he told the local media, “Coach Pittman did not have the resources he needed to appropriately compete in this conference.”
Meanwhile, border buddy Missouri has four 10-win seasons since it joined the league in 2012. Other SEC programs that aren’t Alabama, LSU and Georgia have enjoyed solid years, and since the start of the ‘12 season, Arkansas has had only one year with nine wins.
The draw of Arkansas is its secure spot in the highest tier of college football. That is where all coaches want to reside; it’s why Sonny Dykes left SMU for TCU.
If anyone would grasp the value of that reality, it’s SMU administrators and alums who agreed to take almost nothing just to be in the ACC.
Should Lashlee go back to his alma mater, it will say more about the future of the Big 12 and the ACC than it will about SMU.
