We told you over the weekend that we didn’t really think that interim Athletic Director Julie Cromer Peoples was actually in charge of this coaching search, and I think we were pretty much right.
Again, let me state for the record. This has nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman. After our column surfaced, and others went to talking, we spent Sunday and Monday barraged with e-mails, Facebook messages, and complaints that we were being misogynistic in our assertion that she is disconnected from reality.
I will emphatically tell you that I would say that about anyone who got up on stage and channeled the spirit of Alexander Haig in proclaiming that they were in charge.
If you go back and re-read last week’s column, my assertion was that those who had the money wouldn’t take a back seat to someone who had been on the job ten days.
What is that old saying? He who has the gold, makes the rules?
It is obvious with the reports coming out this week that Julie doesn’t have the gold. She is trying to make the rules, but the people who have the money are bound and determined to usurp her perceived authority in every step of the process.
Believe me, the ones footing the bill for the new coach’s arrangement will get their way.
FootballScoop.Com’s Scott Roussel was quoted by SEC Country as having the following knowledge of the search.
“The first search group is being led by people who fund the university, according to Roussel. This group believes that Auburn coach Gus Malzahn is still in play, should the Tigers lose to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game this weekend. Memphis coach Mike Norvell is this group’s backup plan.
The second search group is led by university employees, per Roussel. This group is targeting Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables and SMU coach Chad Morris.
According to Football Scoop, there are top powers at Arkansas that ‘are aware of the potential for disaster’ with two ongoing search groups and have ‘vastly accelerated’ their plans to select a new athletic director.”
Don’t count Gus out. Like many of his fellow Fort Smith natives, he has proved time and time again that he marches to the beat of his own drum.
In the end, Jeff Long learned the hard way last week what happens when you go to war with people who actually matter in this state like David Pryor and the Board of Trustees.
Surely Julie Cromer Peoples is smart enough not to make the same mistake.