{"id":308864,"date":"2025-11-26T01:10:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T01:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308864\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T01:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T01:10:08","slug":"6-2m-defensive-coordinator-emerges-as-arkansas-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308864\/","title":{"rendered":"$6.2M Defensive Coordinator Emerges as Arkansas Candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arkansas dismissed Sam Pittman after a 2-3 start to the college football season, capped by a 56-13 home loss to Notre Dame.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel a change is necessary to put our student-athletes and program in the best position to be successful,” said athletic director Hunter Yurachek in a statement<\/a>. “The goal for our football program is to be highly competitive within the Southeastern Conference and compete for a national championship.”<\/p>\n

Offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino was installed\u00a0as interim while beginning a national search.<\/p>\n

Kane Wommack, currently Alabama\u2019s defensive coordinator and a former South Alabama head coach, has been publicly linked to the candidates for Arkansas\u2019 vacancy.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, On3 insider Pete Nakos took it further, listing Wommack as \u201cin the mix\u201d for Arkansas among nine Power Conference openings, suggesting there\u2019s a strong chance he could be hired.<\/p>\n

\"Alabama<\/p>\n

Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack yells to his defense after they force a punt by Eastern Illinois at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. \/ Gary Cosby Jr.-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Wommack, 38, rose through the college ranks after playing at Arkansas and Southern Miss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He held stops as a graduate assistant at Jacksonville State (2011) and Ole Miss (2012-13), coordinator roles at Eastern Illinois (2014-15) and South Alabama (2016-17), and a defensive coordinator stint at Indiana (2019-20), before his head-coaching tenure at South Alabama (2021-2023).<\/p>\n

His head-coaching record<\/a> at South Alabama was 22-16 with a bowl record of 1\u20131; the 2022 Jags went 10\u20133, a program high, and won the Sun Belt West Division championship.<\/p>\n

He was hired as Alabama\u2019s defensive coordinator beginning in 2024, and has since been the architect being the Tide’s top-10 scoring defense (16.2 points allowed per game).<\/p>\n

Wommack\u2019s resume checks several boxes Arkansas would value: SEC experience, recent success turning around South Alabama (10-win season), a defensive pedigree that could shore up Arkansas\u2019 struggles, and recruiting ties in the Southeast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Any Arkansas offer would likely be a significant raise and include a buyout for Alabama.<\/p>\n

Insiders covering the Arkansas search have signaled that a resolution could come within days as the school moves to finalize a hire before the early signing period and bowl-season recruiting windows.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read More at College Football HQ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arkansas dismissed Sam Pittman after a 2-3 start to the college football season, capped by a 56-13 home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-308864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}