All I've really seen is names thrown out, which is quite boring and honestly is a simplistic argument for who should get the job. Just because a coach has a winning record elsewhere doesn't mean he will be able to win here or be a fit for the program (see: Bert).

My criteria of what would be best for the job:

A younger coach, in the 30-50 year old range of age, basically a coach who could give a decade to the program before hitting retirement age at least.

As much as I don't like the style of play, we need a coach who runs an offensive system that is spread based, majority pass but still involves running backs for the ground game, and utilizes several RPOs in his scheme.

On defense we need a coach who values speed and fundamentals with his system, we can get plenty of undersized LBs and linemen, so the obvious answer to me would be a coach that is blitz happy looking to create turnovers vs trying to keep everything in front of them, bend don't break. Either way we are still going to give up big plays during games due to the amount of talent that can be signed on this side of the ball so in my mind we need a coach who can counter this by creating turnovers during the course of the season.

He must also give a shite about special teams, not talking about FGs only, he needs to care about not giving up a ton of yards on kick offs or punts, he needs to make an effort to have a solid kicker and punter every season.

He needs to be a recruiter, or willing to have recruiters on his staff, he can be a shitty recruiter personally but a micromanager to help his recruiters on the field with development and teaching fundamentals. He can't be a piss poor recruiter and leave this up to his assistants who are piss poor on field coaches, or vice versa he can't be an outstanding recruiter and a piss poor coach or have a staff comprised of these types of coaches.

Basically the coach needs to have the same basic philosophy and system as what is being played in High School in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi. These 5 states should combine to create the majority of his roster, Bert's and Petrino's biggest problem in recruiting is they wasted to many resources trying to recruit outside of these states, sure Arkansas can and will pull a few players from the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, but you can't rely on those states to fill your roster.

The last two items on my check list, one being obvious, the second will take time to see if it is present to the fanbase, Long should be able to identify this trait during the interview process:

He should understand what it is to be a Razorback.

Petrino didn't, but he had enough instate guys who did on his roster to make up for this, its an anomaly not the norm in that regard, Bert damn sure didn't. His attitude from day one was Arkansas was the same status as Ms. State not a top 25 program historically that it is.

The past two HC's have eroded the only real positive from Nutt's tenure, for all his fault's his kid's in the program understood what it meant to put on that helmet, his teams never quit and gave their all in 95% of the games.

Petrino's teams would quit when outmatched, Bert's team's have a had no fight and no pride when taking the field like Nutt's. We saw this before after Crowe/Ford, it can be restored, it doesn't necessarily have to be a coach with ties to the state or university, he doesn't have to Rah-Rah their way to understanding it, but he must have his teams understand that Arkansas has always been known as a program that doesn't quit, this reputation stretches back before even Broyles arrived, and when you really think about it, that is what pisses you off the most about Bert, his teams have no pride in the helmet and a ton of quit in them...

The last check list that only those who have direct contact with the coach will know, Long should have a peak at during the interview process, He isn't satisfied with success, he sees praise as a toxin entering his program and works harder when it is present.

Saban has this, not many others do, it doesn't necessarily have to be to Saban's extreme level, but the problem that has plagued every HC going back to Broyles is when all the praise for a good job is given, they get comfortable and the program either stalls out or starts to decline.

At this time we see our coaches either become lazy and think that level is "good enough" (Broyles, Hatfield, Ford, Nutt, Bert) or start to do extremely dumb shite off the field thinking the are untouchable (Holtz, Petrino).

I don't really care what the name is, but if the majority of this list is not a "yes", then I do not see how you can expect the program to elevate to a level higher than currently seen.