OT: Unofficially Official - Peterson To Be Named Arkansas Head Coach

How does this change people's opinions about scheduling Arkansas for the home and home?

Jerry Jones can be a pretty convincing man.  So can his PILES of money.

Seeing as no one else has reported this it seems like this might another case of someone jumping the gone.  

If true, this feels like a weird move.  There will be better jobs open than Arkansas going forward; heck, Saban may be leaving Alabama at some point in the near future for the NFL, at which point Peterson would be at the top of the list.  Or look out west, where schools like USC and Oregon may need new coaches if Kiffin is fired or Kelly leaves for the NFL.  Those feel like better fits than a geographically-limited mid-level SEC school. 

I'll wait until it becomes Officially Official before I speculate.

Jim Criner (BSU HC 1976-1982). Went 59-21-1. Won NCAA 1-AA national title in 1980 (10-3) . Replaces Donnie Duncan at Iowa State. Criner goes 17-25-2.

Houston Nutt (BSU coach 1997) went 5-6, and then replaced Danny Ford at you know where. Goes 75-48 but is fired for being a weirdo.

Dirk Koetter  (BSU HC 1998-2000). Goes 26-10 at BSU, then goes 40-34 at Arizona State over 6 years. 

Dan Hawkins (BSU HC 2001-2005). Goes 53-11 at BSU. Then goes 19-39 at Colorado over 5 years.

Chris Peterson (BSU HC 2006-2012). 83-8 record.

This is not to say that Petersen is not a great coach. I'm just saying BSU coaches that leave to coach for bigger time Division schools tend to have a not so happy ending.

 

We need to do what we did. In basketball. Isnt that the point of all this money with expansion?

Petersen could have any D1 job he wanted.  Arkansas is a tier 2 job.  Why not wait for Kiffen to get fired.

Petersen made $2 million this year.   Arkansas offered Les Miles over $5 million a year.  His market value will never be higher than it is now, because BSU can be a better team but have a worse record starting next year. 

I can see why he is taking the Arkansas job.

at a school like Western/Central/Eastern. See them become powerhouses would be hilariously awesome!

I agree with all those who think this isn't a great fit.  Peterson's entire life and career has been west coast, with the exception of one year at Pitt as an assistant.  Like someone said, why not wait out the Kelly rumors at Oregon, or if he's finally ready to take a big conference job, Cal is hiring and about as close as he'll get to his hometown any time soon.  Yes, Cal is a mess right now like Arkansas as well, but he's got recruiting contacts and while it's competitive with USC, UCLA, Stanford and Oregon there, it's still less competitive than the SEC.

He would have Cal in a bowl game within 2 years and in the top 25 a year after that, if not sooner.

Yeah, right. And Rutgers is gonna move the the big ten. Fools. 

Not sure why everyone is saying it's impossible for Arkansas to compete in that division. Pretty sure I just saw them in a BCS game not long ago.

No way. Peterson only goes to Cal, Oregon or maybe Colorado.

Dan Hawkins happened because of Chris Peterson. CP is the real deal. 

Should this prove to be official, I think it puts the SEC on notice. Apart from Saban, I'd say that Petersen is the best coach in the country. He's the best at knowing how to get the most out of his players. He should be able to recruit pretty well. Not Nick Saban well, but in a few years, who knows?

If he's still there by 2019, it'd make for a hell of a matchup with Michigan.