Photo Credit: Jasen Vinlove
Smash That “Follow” Button
No matter who wins the Indiana vs Miami (Fla.) showdown in the College Football Playoff final, an Arkansas native will be crowned a national champion Monday night.
Suiting up for the No. 1 Hoosiers, Kaiden Turner is a lightly used linebacker who starred at Fayetteville High before heading to college. His name should be relatively familiar to fans who follow recruiting, as the Razorbacks didn’t really pursue him as a three-star prospect, despite playing just a couple blocks away.
There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of the Natural State native on the other sideline, but he’s arguably been even more crucial to the No. 10 Hurricanes’ success.
As one of four “executive directors” on Miami football coach Mario Cristobal’s staff, Trip Carrico is in charge of player personnel.
The Little Rock native is in his second season with the Hurricanes and has been a key cog behind the scenes in building the roster that has them on the brink of returning to glory.
It’s a welcome return to national prominence for Miami, which won five national titles between 1983-2001. A pair of Arkansans were central figures to the early years of that dynasty, with Jimmy Johnson leading the Hurricanes to the 1987 national championship as head coach, while Cortez Kennedy was an All-American defensive tackle on their 1989 championship team.
Another Arkansas product, Butch Davis, is widely credited for building the 2001 national championship team won by first-year head coach Larry Coker that some consider one of the greatest teams of all-time.
Miami fell off a cliff after finishing runner-up in 2002, but with Trip Carrico’s help, it – finally – appears to be back.
After missing the playoffs with a 10-2 mark last season, Miami posted an identical record this year and snuck in as the last team in the CFP. It is led by a slew of portal pickups.
Carson Beck is the headliner, but several transfers have played large roles in Miami’s success this year. That includes a couple of underperforming SEC stars who’ve broken out (Keionte Scott from Auburn and Jakobe Thomas from Tennessee), as well as studs from the Group of Five ranks (David Blay Jr. from Louisiana Tech and Zechariah Poyser from Jacksonville State), in addition to the high-profile transfers like Beck.
While Carrico is part of an army of behind-the-scenes staffers that helped bring those players in to Miami, his status as an up-and-comer in his field is clear. Not yet in his 30s, he’s already got an impressive resume — one that started with learning from the G.O.A.T.
Carrico’s Impressive Resume
Similar to both Arkansas head coach Ryan Silverfield and football GM Gaizka Crowley, Trip Carrico didn’t play college football.
Instead, upon graduating from Little Rock Catholic High in 2016, he packed his bags for Tuscaloosa to receive a PhD in roster construction.
Officially titled a recruiting specialist at Alabama, he worked for legendary coach Nick Saban for three years beginning in 2018.
Carrico did a little bit of everything for the Crimson Tide, including researching prospects, providing and preparing recruiting film for coaches to review and evaluate, and utilizing various database sites to compile information on recruits.
He was part of the Alabama recruiting machine that put together a pair of top-ranked signing classes. The other class he helped with finished No. 2 nationally.
From there, he’s steadily climbed the ladder:
2021: regional scout at Virginia
2022: director of scouting at East Carolina
2023: assistant AD for player personnel at Arkansas State
2024-present: executive director of player personnel at Miami (Fla.)
Possible Return to Arkansas?
While he spent a year in Jonesboro and has apparently stayed connected to the state in recent years, as evidenced by Anthony Kennedy Jr. briefly committing to Miami from his hometown of Little Rock, noticeably absent from Trip Carrico’s resume is a stint with the home state Razorbacks.
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However, such a homecoming shouldn’t be ruled out in the future.
During Friday’s edition of Morning Mayhem on 103.7 The Buzz, co-host and former Arkansas standout David Bazzel revealed that he had lunch with Carrico last summer and the Little Rock native brought up a potential return.
“He wants to get back to Arkansas,” Bazzel said. “He’s buddies with the new GM at Arkansas.”
That new GM is Gaizka Crowley, whose official title on Silverfield’s staff is Executive Director of Player Acquisition.
It’s unclear where exactly they crossed paths, but one of the database services Carrico used at Alabama was XOS — where Crowley worked before landing his first gig on a college football staff. It also wouldn’t be a stretch to think they met at the various conferences and conventions for their line of work.
Regardless, that connection could come in handy if Arkansas continues expanding its support staff.
Crowley was hired as the Razorbacks’ first-ever football GM last month, while Scott Gasper and Blake Moore followed Silverfield from Memphis in player personnel roles.
Athletics director Hunter Yurachek has pledged to increase Arkansas’ resources to at least middle of the pack in the SEC, so adding someone of Carrico’s stature would make sense.
The homecoming aspect would just be a bonus.
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“Mother looked at me and said ‘listen you can go wherever you want to go, but if you want us to watch you play, you’re going to Arkansas.’” 😅😅
Jimmy Johnson talking about his decision to come to Arkansas today at the Little Rock Touchdown Club, he said it was one of the… pic.twitter.com/Xb1TX0iKkT
— Courtney Mims (@MimsCourtney) August 26, 2025
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More coverage of Arkansas football from BoAS:
Hailing from Springdale, Andrew Hutchinson graduated from the University of Arkansas with a journalism degree in 2016. While he played baseball, basketball, football and ran track growing up, he quickly realized he lacked the size and athleticism to play anything beyond high school and shifted gears to stay involved with sports. Starting his career covering the Razorbacks with The Traveler while in college, Hutchinson has also worked for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Hawgs Illustrated, WholeHogSports, 247Sports, HawgBeat/Rivals and now BoAS, where he’s been the managing editor since the summer of 2022. In 2020, he was named the Arkansas Sportswriter of the Year by the NSMA. When he’s not writing, Hutchinson is spending time with his wife, Marley, and two daughters.
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