Family First

Arkansas Has Become One Again With The Arrival of Houston Nutt.
by: Suzi Parker
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For Houston Nutt, his coaching philosophy is crystal clear. It's all about family. Sounds simple enough, but when he arrived at the University of Arkansas, the plan didn't look so easy.

He was dealing with 15 seniors who had one season left in a football program that certainly had seen better days in the Southeastern Conference. The players went to him and said, "Coach, we want to win, and we are willing to do whatever it takes to do it."

Nutt could have slid into a pessimistic frame of mind. Media representatives picked Arkansas to finish last in the SEC West in 1998. Razorback fans­some of the most dedicated in the country­had lost enthusiasm. In a program that had a legendary history, the glimmer of a championship was long gone. Danny Ford was chased after the 1997 season after posting back-to-back 4-7 campaigns. Arkansas had not been to a major bowl since 1989 (when Ken Hatfield's Hogs lost to Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl). Nutt, though, opted for a positive outlook. The coaching job was a dream come true for Nutt, and he was determined not to let down anyone.

"Negativity will get you nowhere," Nutt explains.

Before the season even began, Nutt traveled through Arkansas, a Razorback obsessed state, racking up support and enthusiasm for a team that many had dismissed as second-rate. Nutt spoke to Razorback clubs, high school banquets, civic clubs­any group that would listen to him about a team that he was determined to make winners.

"This is the job I have always wanted," explains Nutt. "I remember how exciting it was as a player to hear those fans calling the Hogs for us. It was exciting to be an assistant coach at Arkansas and I enjoy being part of this great tradition."

Nutt adds a sentence that he said many times last season, "No one wants Arkansas to win more than I do."

Enthusiasm certainly garnered Nutt a winning team and a slot in the Citrus Bowl against Michigan, 1997's national champion. Nutt's wins more than likely inspired athletic director Frank Broyles to plan a multi-million dollar addition to Razorback Stadium.

Nutt's coaching manner doesn't reflect the old-school tough love approach. In fact, the Arkansas native doesn't believe in tough love. While it sounds somewhat Pollyanna, Nutt refuses to talk trash to his players or his staff. Instead, he instills in everyone around him that politeness gets you everywhere.

"It does not pay to be mean to those boys or your staff," Nutt says. "Sports should be about respecting yourself and you can't respect yourself if others don't respect you. I refuse to have talking down or insulting in my locker room or on the field. In fact, really anywhere where I am."

First, Nutt developed respect in his huddle. Then, he created harmony and an united front. He swears that his play book consisted of more mental plays than offensive or defensive ones. Perhaps, he is right.

"I think Coach Nutt is a great motivator to our team, which is what we needed, I think, coming off (last) season," says Emanuel Smith, who will be a senior this fall. "We wanted to win. That's the first thing we told him, and he helped us do that. Some of the fans didn't think we had the players to get the job done. We needed extra motivation."

Players don't like to lose. Fans don't like to watch a losing team. Nutt knew what he was up against. He explained to his team that mistakes happen. A team, though, must move on.

"He's positive about everything," says Smith. "Something bad happens, he makes something good out of it. It is so much easier to work for a guy who is standing behind you 100 percent no matter what you do."

When Nutt took the coaching job, he saw a down-trodden, beaten bunch of players. The first day in the locker room, he noticed black teammates on one side, whites on the other. The players had never noticed this segregation. It was the first thing Nutt observed. He immediately changed it.

"I look at this team as a family," says Nutt. "We do things as a family. We play as a family. We have fun as a family, and we care about each other as a family."

Since players no longer live in the same dorm, Nutt makes sure to stay in touch with his players. He visits them in their various dorm rooms or apartments. A player never knows when Nutt or one of his staff will drop in on him. He keeps his players on their toes. Nutt even makes spot appearances in classrooms to make sure players are observing one of his golden rules: sitting in the first three rows of all of their classes.

In turn, they are always on their best behavior.

"You never know when he will pop in," says Smith. " He's just like a mom or dad, making sure you are alright. And you better be doing right. Coach Nutt preaches 'Always do right, after practice, always do right when no one is looking at you, son.'"

Nutt is known far and wide as a player's coach. He isn't in it for the fame or the glory, but rather to be a good mentor for his players, to teach them to be good people on and off the field and to play as best they can to be "winners." But being winners on the football field must transcend off the field.

"These days are so fast paced," says Nutt. "You have to teach your players to learn to cope with life as well as a football. This sport isn't going to be their life forever. They've got to study and learn to deal with life's issues. I'm the only male role model some of these boys have and I am going to do my best to be respectable to them."

Respect goes a long way. Nutt's staff and players learned this in one season. Look back at the games played and won, and one suddenly sees that one single player's great plays or horrible fumble simply doesn't stand out. The Razorbacks have become a team united, one who focuses on the good plays, briefly analyzes the mistakes and moves on to the next obstacle. It's all about camaraderie, an intensity and energy that results when a coach coaches in a "respectable" way.

"We don't single out players, especially when they make a mistake," says Nutt. "It's not one person's mistakes. It's a team mistake. When you start pointing out what one person did wrong, then you start to break down that team. You single out a guy and he starts feeling bad. It trickles down, and before long you don't have a team at all."

The team that plays together sticks together. They team that watches movies together every Friday night also stays together. Nutt takes his team­the entire team­to the movies every Friday before a game. It doesn't really matter what the team watches, Nutt simply wants to create a bonding for the next day's big game.

During the holidays and even off-season, Nutt and his staff invite the players over to their homes. Coaches and players play basketball together. They know each other's wives and girlfriends. In the Arkansas football media guide, not unlike many others around the country, coaches are pictured with their families.

No topic of discussion is off-limits. In fact, Nutt insists on getting to know each player and their likes, dislikes and beliefs. He'll even check out what kind of music his players are blaring on their CD players.

"We go to see them off campus in their own environment, at their dorm or apartment," says Fitz Hill, Arkansas' wide receiver coach and recruiting coordinator, who Nutt retained along with quarterbacks coach Joe Ferguson and now-Director of Football Operations Louis Campbell when hired in December of 1997. "This summer, we will have them over to our houses, play dominoes with them. We all have kids of her own, and we treat these players as we want our kids to be treated. The success you are seeing is about being a family."

At times, the philosophy seems a tad on the new-age side. Actually, though, it's all about common-sense, a turn back to the days when a coach was a coach and not a CEO, a vague figure who sits in an office, shows up at practice to watch drills, figures a few plays and puts on a smile on Saturday afternoon when the fans and cameras are watching.

"Coach Nutt really believes in treating everyone individually as a person," explains Hill. "He will go over and beyond to help young men. Sometimes people think he is being lenient, but he doesn't want to put anyone out in the street. He doesn't mind giving players opportunities to help themselves. I really have never worked for a guy as positive as him."

To fire up the team, Nutt created a new format for the Sunday night football shows, which are legendary in Arkansas. The shows, in the past, had become stale and at times, they used too much high technology to show simple fumbles. Nutt simplified and used his "It's family" philosophy to show Arkansans his coaching style. The cameras are always in the locker room­pre-game, half-time, post-game. Viewers actually feel like they are a player, experiencing Nutt's energy as it happens.

When Nutt explains a play like a traditional Southern Baptist preacher, the fans are there. When he becomes passionate about the next quarter, viewers see the players wide-eyed and energized, ready to hit the field with only winning on their minds.

Nutt, though, wasn't the star of his own show. He made sure the rest of his staff­ co-defensive coordinators Keith Burns and Bobby Allen, and position coaches Hill, Ferguson, Mark Hutson (TEs/ST), Mike Marksuson (OL), Clifton Ealy (DBs) and Bill Keopple (DL)­ all received their share of the limelight. When Danny Nutt, Houston's younger brother and running back coach, became ill late in the season, the players, and the entire state, rallied behind him.

"Coach Nutt works hard to get guys to believe in themselves," says Hill. "It's not just his players but his staff, too. He is a master. You don't hear all that abuse. It's not like that at all."

With Nutt, what you see is what you get. While he invited cameras into his locker room, he invites players and staff into his office. His door is never closed. When a player has a problem, Nutt is not put out when he comes to ask for help or advice. Nutt expects it. He wants to know what is going on with his players.

"Coach Nutt will see you on campus and say, 'Have you talked to your mom this week? How's your family?' It's not all about football with Coach Nutt. He wants to talk about everything and not just football. He knows that football can't be our lives all the time. We have to study, and we have to have other outlets."

Nutt knows about burn-out. He's played football and coached for years. He also works for a legend, Broyles, who contacted Nutt in 1997 to let him know he was the search committee's first choice. Unlike other past coaches, Nutt, who played under Broyles, says he has nothing but respect for the elder statesman on the hill.

"He is great," says Nutt. "I have nothing to say about him but good things. He knows how to run a program and get the best out of the people he hires."

With lessons from a solid first season behind him, Nutt is prepared to lead the resurgent Razorbacks for quite some time.

"Every step of my coaching career has prepared me for this moment," says Nutt. "The best move I ever made was going to Murray State as a head coach. No assistant totally realizes everything that goes into being a head coach until he becomes one. Every decision is on you. Every decision you make could affect someone's life. You deal with budget, staff, personnel, overall strategy. Instead of affecting 10 lives as an assistant, you affect 115 or so."

For all the complication that comes with coaching, Hill, perhaps, sums up his boss in the easiest way. "Coach Nutt is a coach for the 21st Century. It's all about simplifying in an age that is anything but simple. Coach Nutt has got it down to an art, though." While he and his staff were stumped by Michigan in the Citrus Bowl, the Razorbacks befuddled most of the SEC in Nutt's first season.

With Clint Stoerner at the helm, Arkansas went 9-3 and finished second in the SEC West in 1998.

The Houston Nutt File

Year School Position

1981 Oklahoma State GA/DBs
1982 Oklahoma State GA/RBs
1983 Arkansas GA/RBs
1984 Oklahoma State Receivers
1985 Oklahoma State QBs/Rec.
1986 Oklahoma State QBs/Rec.
1987 Oklahoma State QBs/Rec.
1988 Oklahoma State QBs/Rec.
1989 Oklahoma State QBs/Rec.
1990 Arkansas Receivers
1991 Arkansas Receivers
1992 Arkansas Receivers
1993 Murray State Head coach
1994 Murray State Head coach
1995 Murray State Head coach
1996 Murray State Head coach
1997 Boise State Head coach
1998 Arkansas Head coach

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