It seems to follow a familiar script. The scowling coach, fresh off his squad’s 52-0 drubbing, storms to the press conference podium to offer a few choice words to reporters.
Arkansas coach John L. Smith had the scowl and the yell Monday after Alabama crushed the Razorbacks. But he didn’t insist his players raise their level of performance or his coaches better prepare their charges.
Instead, he told everyone in the room to smile.
“Smile! SMILE! Or I’m not talking!,” [he demanded](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d3nRp77x50) at his press conference.
That same day, Smith’s younger brother passed away in Idaho. He also signed off on Chapter 7 bankruptcy documents that, when released two days later, revealed the coach had $300 in cash, $500 in his checking account and $25.7 million in debt.
And to think John L. Smith was the one telling reporters to smile.
It was just another bizarre day in this college football season’s strangest, saddest saga — one that’s left little reason for any Arkansas supporters to smile.
It all started in April, with the mysterious motorcycle crash of former coach Bobby Petrino. What was assumed a back-road joyride gone wrong morphed into something far more sinister when police revealed that he actually had a passenger, a 25-year-old former volleyball star he’d just hired for the program’s staff.
Once the dust settled and the text message records came out, it became clear Petrino had illegally hired his mistress, leaving the Arkansas administration little choice but to fire him and little time to find a replacement to salvage a season in which the Razorbacks started ranked top 10 in the nation.
The man they tapped was Smith, the 63-year-old who had coached Arkansas’ special teams for the past three seasons. The eccentric Smith had plenty of success at smaller schools like Idaho, Utah State and Louisville but was best known for a disastrous turn at Michigan State. During his last year there, [he slapped himself](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlUO-7m9RuA) in a press conference, the moment for which he’s most known among college football fans.
Hired in the offseason as head coach at Weber State, Smith jilted a low-pressure retirement at his alma mater for a 10-month contract he presumably saw as the opportunity of a lifetime. Because of Smith’s experience and familiarity with the program, the thinking went, the Razorbacks could live up to their potential and win the SEC and Smith could secure his job permanently.
Of course, Smith’s gamble hasn’t paid off, as the Razorbacks started the season 1-3. After an opening-weekend win, the team suffered an overtime upset by 30-point underdog Louisiana-Monroe, the aforementioned annihilation at the hands of Alabama and a 36-25 defeat to a mediocre Rutgers squad last Saturday.
Some intense Arkansas fans, incredulous that the Razorbacks couldn’t snag a better coach, want Smith sacked after just four games. But though he’s no longer in charge, Arkansas’ season died when Bobby Petrino’s Harley skidded off the side of the road.
People don’t say many positive things about Petrino, but you can agree on this: he’s damn good at coaching football. Almost every team he comes to gets better quickly. His offenses found success even against the SEC’s best defenses, in no small part due to a penchant for play calling (one that his brother Paul, Arkansas’ current offensive coordinator, seems to lack).
And though he hardly inspired love among players, Petrino realized fear is also a powerful motivator. He commanded from players a level of effort and a sense of respect that Smith, whose contract left him a glorified temp from the start, never could.
John L. Smith isn’t as good at his job as Bobby Petrino. Smith was probably never the caliber of coach that could lead an SEC champion. But at this shell-shocked program, with this contract, under the weight of these personal circumstances? Not even Bear Bryant or Nick Saban could’ve brought the Hogs the SEC championship they wanted.
Smith’s still the man in Fayetteville for a few more months, however, and the Razorbacks have seven SEC games to play. Two of them, helpfully, are against Ole Miss and Kentucky. There’s also a winnable-looking non-conference matchup with Tulsa, but the rest of Arkansas’ games look like losses. The likely blowout in the season-ender with LSU would be a fitting requiem for a distressing year, an inevitably sad goodbye for a star-crossed coach.
Nobody’s smiling in Arkansas until the new, permanent coach takes the podium for his introductory press conference in December. At least, unlike his predecessor, he’ll have a chance.
