Too many factors keep coaches from committing for life.(THE LAST WORD)

When Bobby Petrino told a national blogger earlier this year that he "needed to make Arkansas my last job," Razorback fans likely wanted something more definitive about their head football coach's loyalty to the state university and its football program. Something like, "Arkansas is my last stop."

What he said is all he's going to give them, though.

That Petrino even went that far was probably a statement geared toward recruits, rather than the fan base, who listen to rival coaches noting Petrino's 13 previous stops in 25 years and call him a job-hopper certain to head elsewhere.

Fans ask for and return loyalty only where it suits them. Coaches are trying to survive a world that becomes more dog-eat-dog by the season.

There was a day when a gentile Southerner like Shug Jordan, who won a 1957 national championship at Auburn, could survive not being able to regularly beat Alabama. Not so in the 21st century.

Tommy Tuberville managed six straight years wins over 'Bama before last year's 34-0 drubbing opened the door for the Auburn bigwigs who hated him to kick him out. At least the calculating Tuberville made them pay dearly for it.

As long as their coach is winning, fans not only want him to stay, they demand it. They scream and cry "betrayal" if the coach leaves. It's led to outrageous million-dollar buyout clauses between coach and university that work both ways.

When things start to sour, whether fans and big boosters understand the underlying reasons for a program's off year or two, loyalty goes out the door.

Ohio-native Lou Holtz arrived in December 1976 took maybe Arkansas' best collection of talent and went 11-1 and to a No. 3 national ranking in '77. Then, Razorback fans worried that their wunderkind coach might bolt. The very next year, Holtz seemed bound for Florida, but he turned it down. Hog fans were relieved.

Yet, Holtz didn't get an eighth year at Arkansas. His worst record was his last, at 6-5, but too many big-money boosters were concerned about the exodus of state talent and Holtz' political views, and his athletic director was tired of talking the mercurial Holtz out of every "I quit" desperation rant.

Frank Broyles accepted the last one. And even though everyone knew Holtz could coach, as he kept showing at Minnesota and Notre Day, the Hog fans welcomed new, homegrown direction.

Ken Hatfield brought that in a big way and never had a worse record than his first, 7-4-1. Yet, the state's most-read sports columnist hinted in late 1987 that important boosters and even Hatfield's boss were getting uncomfortable with aspects of Hatfield's program and blind loyalty to his staff. He went 20-4 his last two years, fans still grumbled, and his agent found him a new job at Clemson.

Houston Nutt, like Hatfield a native son, went 18-8 in his last two seasons at the UA, while half the fanbase had turned on him, and his agent luckily found him a talent-ready SEC job.

Don't think that Hatfield or Nutt didn't know what was coming, though, if they stuck around. Fan disenchantment had hurt their recruiting, and that was soon to surface.

The point is, there's a grace period for a coach like Lou Holtz or, today, Bobby Petrino, or for a returning native son, but there's little loyalty among fans when their hopes, however outlandish, have been regularly dashed.

Now, would we like to see Petrino and staff welcome in all the Razorback oldtimers like family? Certainly. Would we like to see this new staff embrace the fan base beyond the required Razorback Club meetings and the money-making private gatherings with the big boosters? Absolutely.

Petrino hasn't done a whole lot to assure anyone here that he's a lifer in Arkansas. Some say it's because Petrino's a "Yankee" from Montana, with a different way.

But take a look around the SEC: There aren't many Southern gentleman coaches anymore.

A coach doesn't need to make assurances of commitment these days. Nobody in Arkansas has ever proven they'll stick by their coach when the wins don't pile up in fashion more fitting a program with far greater resources, either.

* ON THE WEB

More Jim Harris columns are available online at ARKASASSPORTS360.com

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