Wake Forest may have just expedited Arkansas hiring SMU football coach Rhett Lashlee away from Mustangs originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Wake Forest Demon Deacons may have just given the Arkansas Razorbacks the assist of the century with their 13-12 win over the SMU Mustangs on a game-winning field goal from Connor Calvert.
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As USA Today’s Paul Myerberg explained, the Hogs have zeroed in on Mustangs head coach Rhett Lashlee and may not have to wait as long to hire him, with SMU likely out of the College Football Playoff mix.
The CFP runs deep into January, which interferes with the lone transfer portal window. Arkansas, as Myerberg explained, can now bring Lashlee on before the portal window opens.
“Wake Forest drilled a 50-yard field goal with no time left and topped SMU 13-12 to snap the Mustangs’ 20-game winning streak in regular-season conference games, the longest streak in the FBS. Now with a loss in conference and three overall, SMU can only make a return trip to the playoff by winning out – and getting a little bit of help along the way – to reach the ACC championship game. That’s good news for Arkansas, which has zeroed in on SMU coach Rhett Lashlee to replace Sam Pittman and could make that hire official in early December instead of waiting until later in the month,” Myerberg wrote.
Bobby Petrino fails to convince Arkansas he’s the best Sam Pittman replacement
Needless to say, interim Razorbacks head coach Bobby Petrino probably blew his chance to take over the job full-time with Arkansas’ recent results. The Hogs are 0-3 since he took over, but the first two of those losses were to the Tennessee Volunteers and Texas A&M Aggies, two top-20 programs.
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Losing 33-24 to the Auburn Tigers, who benched starting quarterback Jackson Arnold for Ashton Daniels, isn’t so forgivable. Hugh Freeze was one loss away from his head coaching tenure on the Plains potentially ending, but Petrino still couldn’t get more than 17 points on AU.
The Tigers locker room hasn’t quit on Freeze just yet. The Razorbacks look like they’re ready for the next coach to walk through that door as soon as possible.
Perhaps after getting an assist from Wake Forest, that coach will walk through sooner than expected.
