John Franklin Broyles was an American college football player and coach, college athletics administrator, and broadcaster. He served as the head football coach for one season at the University of Missouri in 1957 and at the University of Arkansas from 1958 to 1976, compiling a career coaching record of 149–62–6. Broyles was also the athletic director at Arkansas from 1974 to 2007. His mark of 144–58–5 in 19 seasons at the helm of the Arkansas Razorbacks football gives him the most wins and the most coached games of any head coach in program history. With Arkansas, Broyles won seven Southwest Conference titles and his 1964 team was named a national champion by a number of selectors including the Football Writers Association of America.
Houston Dale Nutt Jr. is a former American football player and coach. He currently works for CBS Sports as a college football studio analyst. Previously, he served as the head football coach at Murray State University (1993–1996), Boise State University (1997), the University of Arkansas (1998–2007), and University of Mississippi (2008–2011). Nutt's all-time career winning percentage is just under 59 percent.
Robert Patrick Petrino is an American football coach. He currently serves as the offensive coordinator for the Texas A&M Aggies. He is the former head coach for the Missouri State Bears. Previously, he served as the head coach of the Louisville Cardinals football team from 2014 until being fired during the 2018 season. He previously held the post from 2003 to 2006. From 2008 to 2011, Petrino was the head football coach at the University of Arkansas. He was dismissed from that position in the spring of 2012 for covering up an extramarital affair with a football department staffer. Petrino also coached the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL) for the first 13 games of the 2007 season. Petrino was in a Falcons team meeting when he told his staffers that he was hungry and left to get something to eat. Hours later, he still hadn’t returned. Staffers were extremely worried but then a staffer broke the news that he was being introduced as the new Head Coach of Arkansas on TV. While they thought he was out getting lunch, he was actually on a plane to Fayetteville. He spent the 2013 season as head football coach of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and 2020–2022 seasons as the head coach of the Missouri State Bears. He briefly was the Offensive Coordinator for the UNLV Rebels during the winter of 2022-23, but did not coach a game.
Hugo Francis Bezdek was a Czech American athlete who played American football and was a coach of football, basketball, and baseball. He was the head football coach at the University of Oregon, the University of Arkansas (1908–1912), Pennsylvania State University (1918–1929), and Delaware Valley College (1949). Bezdek also coached the Mare Island Marines in the 1918 Rose Bowl and the Cleveland Rams of the National Football League (NFL) in 1937 and part of the 1938 season. In addition, Bezdek coached basketball at Oregon and Penn State (1919), coached baseball at Arkansas (1909–1913), Oregon (1914–1917) and Penn State (1920–1930), and served as the manager of Major League Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates (1917–1919). He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1954.
Norman Carr Paine was an American football and basketball player and coach, college athletics administrator, and physician. He served as the head football coach at Baylor University (1913), the University of Arkansas (1917–1918), and Iowa State University (1920), compiling a career college football coaching record of 16–11–3. Paine was also the head basketball coach at Baylor during the 1913–14 season, tallying a mark of 1–8. He was the athletic director at Baylor from 1913 to 1914. Paine later practiced medicine in Los Angeles County, California.
John Thompson is a former American football coach. He served as the head football coach at East Carolina University from 2003 to 2004 and at Arkansas State University on an interim basis twice—first during the 2013 GoDaddy.com Bowl and then in the 2014 GoDaddy Bowl. He has compiled a career college football coaching record of 5–20.
George R. Cole was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at the College of the Ozarks—now known as the University of the Ozarks—in Clarksville, Arkansas from 1930 to 1933 and the University of Arkansas in 1942, compiling a record of 3–7. Cole was also the athletic director at Arkansas from 1970 to 1973.
Wilson David Matthews was an American football coach. He became a high school coaching legend in the state of Arkansas after winning 10 state championships and producing a 33-win streak in 11 years at Little Rock Central High School. He later became an assistant to Frank Broyles at the University of Arkansas.
Scott Conley is an American football coach. He is the assistant athletic director for football operations at Arkansas State University, a position he has held since 2018. Conley served as the head football coach at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas from 1996 to 1999 and Texas A&M University–Commerce from 2004 to 2008. At Trinity Valley he won a NJCAA National Football Championship and was named NJCAA National Coach of the Year in 1997. From 2009 to 2017, Conley was assistant athletic director for football operations and on-campus recruiting coordinator at University of North Texas, working under three head coaches, Todd Dodge, Dan McCarney, and Seth Littrell.
Thomas Emmet Mills was an American football player, coach of football, basketball, and baseball, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Creighton University (1915–1919), Beloit College (1920–1925), Georgetown University (1930–1932), and Arkansas State College (1934–1935), compiling a career college football record of 63–45–12. Mills was the head baseball coach at the University of Notre Dame from 1927 to 1929, during which time he was also an assistant football coach at the school under Knute Rockne. In addition, Mills was the head basketball coach at Creighton (1916–1920), Beloit (1920–1923), and Arkansas State (1935–1936), amassing a career college basketball record of 107–25. Mills died at the age of 60 on February 25, 1944, of a heart attack at the Rockne Memorial Field House in Notre Dame, Indiana. He served as the director of the field house for the four years before his death.
Larry Lacewell was an American football player, coach, scout, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Arkansas State University from 1979 to 1989, compiling a record of 69–58–4. Lacewell was later the longtime director of scouting for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League.
Bennie Ellender Jr. was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Arkansas State University from 1963 to 1970 and at Tulane University from 1971 to 1975, compiling a career college football record of 79–49–4.
Eugene Wasdon Lambert Sr. was an American football and basketball coach and college athletics administrator. He served as head basketball coach at North Texas Agricultural, Kenyon, Arkansas, Memphis State, and Alabama. He served as head tennis coach in 1957 at the University of Alabama, and head football coach at both North Texas Agricultural and Kenyon.
Archie "Gunslinger" Cooley is a former college football coach. He served as the head football coach at Mississippi Valley State University from 1980 to 1986, University of Arkansas–Pine Bluff from 1987 to 1991, Norfolk State University in 1993, and Paul Quinn College from 2000 to 2006. At Mississippi Valley State, Cooley coached the tandem of Willie Totten and Jerry Rice, future College Football Hall of Fame quarterback and wide receiver, respectively.
The Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys and Golden Suns are the athletic teams that represent Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, Arkansas. They are a charter member of the Great American Conference of the NCAA Division II.
Terry Don Phillips is an American former college athletics administrator. He served as the athletic director at Liberty Baptist College—now known as Liberty University—from 1980 to 1981, at the University of Southwestern Louisiana—now known as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette—from 1983 to 1988, at Oklahoma State University from 1995 to 2002, and at Clemson University from 2002 to 2012.
Chad Allen Morris is an American football coach. He served as the head football coach at Southern Methodist University (SMU) from 2015 to 2017 and the University of Arkansas from 2018 to 2019.
Kendal Briles is an American football coach. He is currently the offensive coordinator for Texas Christian University.
Eliah Drinkwitz is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, a position he has held since the 2020 season. Drinkwitz served as the head football coach at Appalachian State University in 2019. He was previously an assistant coach at North Carolina State University, Boise State University, Arkansas State University, and Auburn University.
David Gunn is a former American football player and coach and an athletic administrator. He most recently served as the assistant athletic director for football at Auburn University from 2013 to 2017. Gunn served as the interim head football coach at Arkansas State University for one game in 2011 after having served as an assistant coach since 2002 at that school. In January of 2022, he was appointed head football coach at Paragould High School.
