Looking back, giving John L. Smith a ten-month contract may not have been the smartest thing Jeff Long ever did.
In separate interviews with Sporting News, Haynes, who was the Razorbacks’ defensive coordinator last season, and Petrino, who was their offensive coordinator, said Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long made a mistake when he hired Smith to a 10-month contract last April, a couple of weeks after Bobby Petrino was fired amidst a personal scandal.
It was a mistake that bore such awkwardness and dysfunction within the program that both ex-coordinators—and Smith himself—believe some players eventually quit on the team.
Whether or not Smith was the right man for Arkansas at that time, he, Haynes and Paul Petrino say the duration of Smith’s contract had players convinced the entire staff wouldn’t be around in 2013, and that realization led some to tune out their coaches.
“I don’t think an A.D. should ever hire somebody for 10 months,” Paul Petrino said. “Players know what that means; they understand that. It hurts the power of the head coach and the assistants.
“They should’ve hired (Smith) for two years or hired someone else for two years, or just (expletive)-canned all of us.”
Not that I feel too sorry for Long. It’s the risk you run when you hire a wandering soul like Bobby Petrino – and let’s not forget how the timing of that hire went down.
Karma is a beyotch.
Get The Picture 
Wonderful thing, hindsight.
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Any coach is going to argue for having longer contracts. But to say the players quit because of impending coaching change is a cop-out. If the coaches take the same attitude as the players they could can lazy players pretty easily
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Or… they were just terrible
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What goes around comes around. Who can say that the Razorbacks didn’t get exactly what they deserved given the way that they handled hiring Petrino in the first place. As the Senator said, “karma,” or as someone else said in another lifetime: “Lie down with dogs, come up with fleas.”
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All is well that ends well. Maybe. Until someone gets hurt in the process. That would be the players and the coaches. What those men ought to do is hunt down that freaking low life Bobby P and kick the hell out of him. Plus, they should have all held a press conference prior to the beginning of the season with or without the University Prez, AD, Athletic Board and just speculated on how the season could go…should have said it would be bad and worse than that…but let us now thank our current Prez, AD, and Athletice board for being a bunch of stupid asses for hiring that freaking low life Bobby P. Look Bobby P is not a man. He has never committed to anything in his whole damn life…his hire, his wife, his players …hell, not even to himself…and the “educator class at the Hawg parlor” were fooled.
All is well that ends well…think not, go ask their current hire…he is no longer coaching in a third rate Big 10 school, located in a freezer, regulated by the “educator union classes”. Not this coach, think you play with him and his direction, he will tell you to take a freaking hike.
If the recruits come, coach stays at UGA…somewhat the line in Hoosiers…such is UGA…very, very good core, but they need a player maker or two on D…someone who lines up across the opposing QB and says…run any freaking play you want boy, but this ain’t going to end well for you.
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“They should’ve hired (Smith) for two years or hired someone else for two years, or just (expletive)-canned all of us.”
When presented with Paul’s three options, Jeff said, “Hell(expletive)-yes, I should have picked Door #3”
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