So…how would your list compare to this one?

Rank	Coach	School
1	Billy Donovan	Florida
2	Billy Gillispie	Kentucky
3	Kevin Stallings	Vanderbilt
4	Bruce Pearl	Tennessee
5	Trent Johnson	LSU
6	Mark Gottfried	Alabama
7	Rick Stansbury	Mississippi St.
8	Andy Kennedy	Ole Miss
9	Dennis Felton	Georgia
10	Darin Horn	South Carolina
11	Jeff Lebo	Auburn
12	John Pelphrey	Arkansas

At first glance, I think most people would say, “Stallings seems a little high.  Kennedy looks a little low.  And what the heck do you have against John Pelphrey?”

Now…if I take the same list and add another column….does it make more sense?  Does it surprise you?

Rank	Coach	School	Salary *
1	Billy Donovan	Florida	$ 3,500,000
2	Billy Gillispie	Kentucky	$ 2,300,000
3	Kevin Stallings	Vanderbilt	$ 1,339,643
4	Bruce Pearl	Tennessee	$ 1,300,000
5	Trent Johnson	LSU	$ 1,200,000
6	Mark Gottfried	Alabama	$ 1,063,500
7	Rick Stansbury	Mississippi St.	$ 900,000
8	Andy Kennedy	Ole Miss	$ 800,000
9	Dennis Felton	Georgia	$ 760,000
10	Darin Horn	South Carolina	$ 750,000
11	Jeff Lebo	Auburn	$ 750,000
12	John Pelphrey	Arkansas	$ 750,000

* Salaries compiled from various articles and school web sites.

As you can see, one of the absolute embarrassments left by former Athletic Director Frank Broyles and former Chancellor John White is the salary of John Pelphrey.

Over the years, Broyles tended to be very frugal (to put it nicely) with the salaries of his head coaches.  And that only reinforced the perception that Arkansas was a ‘stepping stone’ job for a head coach.  A nice job to ‘prove yourself’…but if you wanted to make some real money, you were going elsewhere.

Pelphrey’s current contract is heavily weighted with incentives — $1.2 million of incentives — based on higher achievement.

But Razorback Basketball with its tradition, facilities, and fan support should never pay a coach in such a manner.  Higher achievement should be expected at Arkansas, not be an incentive.

Plus…if a coach needs huge monetary incentives to work hard and win championships, chances are you don’t want him to be your coach anyway.  (About half of the SEC basketball coaches have incentives, but none run more than $400,000.)

With the hiring of Bobby Petrino, new Athletic Director Jeff Long has made a statement that under his leadership, Arkansas will take a back seat to no one.  The $2.85 million salary for Petrino ranks him among the top five coaches in the SEC.

So if you want to be the best, hire a hungry young coach like Pelphrey and pay him what an upper-tier SEC basketball program pays.  Then let the rest take care of itself.

I have no doubt Long will correct this mistake at the first available opportunity.  Razorback Basketball and John Pelphrey certainly deserve better.

Let’s just hope that happens before Pelphrey decides to step onto that ‘next stone.’

There are two major ‘coincidences’ that led to Monday’s ‘resignation.’

The E-Mail Situation.  December 7th — A day in history that lives “in infamy” — was also the day that Teresa Prewett managed (within a one hour time period, mind you) to talk to both Houston Dale and Danny Nutt, e-mail Mitch Mustain, and then forward the Mustain e-mail to Diana Nutt, Carla Nutt (Danny’s wife), and Lisa Herring (Reggie’s wife).  The e-mail contained the following:

“Too bad I’m not Coach Nutt today.  If so, I’d be having Tim Cheney sew lace around your jock straps, but that would be after I let you hang out face to face in a private meeting with the offensive and defensive lineman — I think I’d even throw Butu in for the meeting.  Did I mention that I want you to transfer?”

December 8th, 2006 — In a ‘players only’ meeting, Sam Olajubutu leads the seniors in addressing Mitch Mustain.

The menu of possible interpretations of this includes:  a) coincidence; b) plot; or c) Houston Dale and Danny trying to calm Teresa down.

January 5, 2007 — Houston Dale was asked by John White to investigate his wife’s involvement in any e-mails regarding Mitch Mustain.

January 18th, 2007 – A John White letter to Beck Campbell (Mitch Mustain’s mother) states that: “Nutt and Mr. Broyles said they had not seen and were unaware of Prewett’s email to your son.”

At this point, the menu features the additional selections (available following the main entrée) of:  d) a complete lack of pillow talk or other communication between Houston Dale and Diana; e) a similar lack between Danny and Reggie and their wives; f) a complete lack of issue recognition among possibly three coaches and each of their wives; g) a failure of the three coaches to communicate with each other; or h) any, all or most of the above.

“Bring the wood” is apparently a family thing.  May 27, 2007 — In an e-mail from Houston Nutt’s personal account, the writer (assumedly Diana Nutt) mentions a July, 2002 attack on Beck Campbell (where she was beaten with a 2 x 4 by some former tenants) and states, “but I wish I were one of them.”

John White said at Monday’s press conference that he had met with Houston Dale in the week following the South Carolina game.  At that time, White offered to remove the “golden handcuffs” on Nutt’s contract that paved the way for his eventual ‘resignation‘ to “unite the fan base.”

The contents of Diana Nutt’s e-mail were published later that same week.  Two days later at the Tennessee game, Houston Dale was noticeably melancholy before and during the game, and his team seemed ill-prepared to face the Volunteers.

—————

It’s easy to say that the real issue was that a small group of fans were simply out to get Houston Dale…but that is a total cop-out.  The things I’ve mentioned above are part of the public record today and have been so for quite a while.  These things alone are enough to justify why Houston Dale had to go.  No fan caused his, or his wife, or his coaches, or their wives, involvement in the e-mails.  Houston and Diana Nutt did this to themselves.

When a coach and his family signs up for the coaching life, an element of ‘trust’ is a part of the deal.  There can be little difference found between the actions of the coach themselves and the actions of the wives.  The wife of any head coach — much less a major college head coach — should by definition have known better.

It’s obvious that, when this all came to light, the appropriate taking of responsibility and public statements of apology were not made.  Some would argue that the real issue with this whole situation is that some dumb fans made FOI requests.  After all, many players get hateful e-mails.  And the coaches can’t control that.  And…you know…Mitch and Gus and that bunch…they were just out to get poor Houston Dale.

While it’s true that players occasionally get hateful or hurtful e-mails and letters from fans, the fact that the wives of the coaches participated in the e-mail circus makes it a much different situation.  Whether or not the actual coaches knew about their wives involvement is really a moot point.

Whatever the situation was with Mitch Mustain, it was wrong for the coaches’ wives to participate as they did.  It is hard for even the casual observer to believe they did it without the knowledge of their husbands.  It is equally hard to believe, considering the mountain of e-mail and text evidence, that Houston Dale and Danny were truly ignorant of what was going on.

The seven deadly sins (in order of decreasing magnitude) are said to be pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust.  When you bring several of those into play, things don’t tend to turn out well.

Yes, it does matter whether or not you win or lose.  But it also still matters how you play the game.

And it matters more how you represent the game.

Nutt: “We had some little preliminary discussions and we have some more coming this week. We’ll wait until that time to see what comes out of it. Again, right now, I’m excited. Chancellor (John A.) White and Coach (Frank) Broyles want me here. They want me to stay and that’s a good feeling and I’m excited about that.

“(The prelim discussions) were just with Chancellor White right now. Jeff Long was still at the LSU game and he had relatives there, so we’ll wait until this week, about mid-week when he gets back, and have some more formal discussions.”

Also:

• AP: Administration wants to keep Nutt at Arkansas
• Chris Bahn: Nutt Hopes To Know Status ‘Mid-Week’
• TodaysTHV.com (Video): Press Conference Video
• Alex Abrams: Nutt Says White And Broyles Want Him To Stay
• Tom Murphy: Nutt says he has his ‘dream job’
• Nate Allen: Nutt will likely determine his own fate

Updated 11/26/07 8:45 p.m.

Know who the guy is in the picture?  That guy is your new athletic director.

His name is Dan Parker.  And as of Wednesday, his search firm, Parker Executive Search, is pretty much running the show now on The Hill…at least for a little while.

But did you know he’s also the guy who helped Tubby Smith escape from Lexington to…brrr…Minneapolis?  (Now that’s a feat comparable to selling ice cream to Eskimos.)  And now, conveniently, he’s been retained by Kentucky to fill the job that…he just helped to vacate?  I guess it’s like they say…no one goes against ‘the firm.’

According to this article, here’s how Dan rolls.  For a big-time search like Kentucky (and now, Arkansas), he handles the search personally.  Apparently that helps “tighten the circle” of those who are actually in the know about what’s really going on.

And in the case of Tubby’s departure, the Parker “process” was brilliantly executed.  To keep the thousands of rabid Wildcat fans and college basketball junkies around the world in the dark until just hours before Smith put on a maroon cap with a big yellow “M” on it was impressive.

And so far, much to the chagrin of the ‘Cats fan base and the media, he and Kentucky AD Mitch Barhardt have managed to successfully cloak any details about their alleged courtship of Billy Donovan.

But I’ve got news for you, Dan.  This is Arkansas.  And since your “circle” is most likely going to include Frank Broyles, John White, and probably Alan Sugg and BOT chairman Stanley Reed…you’ve got a problem.  And it won’t take long to see that for yourself.

As has been repeatedly proven over the last month, there is nothing known by any of these four people that won’t be found out by an Internet message board poster in Jakarta by sunset.

Discounting the possibility that senility might be the cause of these leaks, the real reason it will happen is because all the cooks in our little kitchen insist on staying informed.  And keeping all the investment bankers and real estate magnates and chicken company executives abreast (sorry) of the latest “can’t miss, big name candidate” is top priority around these parts.

So the good news, Dan, is that you won’t have to hire any “plumbers.”  Since you and your firm have already shown the capacity for discretion, the blabbermouths of the “circle” will be obvious.

It’s the same guys who will be telling the Foundation to write your $90,000+ check after this is all over.

* From “The Firm“

Rebuffing ongoing speculation and commentary today, University of Arkansas Chancellor John A.White affirmed his support of Razorback head football coach Houston Nutt.

“I want to be abundantly clear - the University of Arkansas is committed to head football coach Houston Nutt’s leadership of the Razorback football program,” said White. “It’s unfortunate that the days and weeks following a remarkable football season, which featured 10 straight wins and an SEC West championship, has been burdened by rampant speculation and sensationalist remarks over the future of the program.”

Also:

• Arkansas Blog: Happy as Hogs in slop
• AP: Arkansas chancellor supports Nutt despite turmoil
• SI.com: Mandel: Nutt faces heat in truly bizarre Arkansas soap opera
• Alex Abrams: UA Chancellor Shows Support For Nutt
• Scott Cain: Nutt has support of White, Broyles
• Nate Allen: White gives Nutt a vote of confidence

Updated 2/23/07 8:00 a.m.