We have come to the conclusion.
Here at Razorbacks Wire, we spent this last full week before the season opener giving our picks for the All-Time Arkansas Roster.
We picked starters and reserves on the offense and starters and reserves on the defense earlier this week
Now it’s time for special teams and the coaching staff.
Make no mistake, this was not an easy task (except for picking the head coach, of course). Weeks were spent in preparation. Sixteen of them, in fact.
And, yes, we could hear arguments for moving some our listed back-ups to starters, adding a player for another here and there. We aren’t perfect.
Starting K - Zach Hocker Hocker, who had the fortune of kicking for the most prolific offenses in Arkansas history, isn’t just here because of who was on his offenses. The man had a boot. His 61 field goals are tops in school history and he made more than five from greater than 50 yards.
Reserve K - Kendall Trainor Trainor’s All-American season of 1988 remains the last one gained by a Razorbacks kicker. He’s fourth all-time in field goals and still leads Arkansas in both single-season and single-game kicks.
Starting P - Greg Horne Horne is the only punter-only All-American the Razorbacks have ever had. A four-year starter, his 44.4 average from the mid-1980s is second in school history.
Reserve P - Dylan Breeding No one has punted the ball farther than Dylan Breeding. A four-year starter for the Razorbacks in the Bobby Petrino era, Breeding was a two-time All-SEC choice and averaged 42.9 yards per punt in his career.
Starting returner - Joe Adams The funny thing is Joe Adams only returned 36 punts in his whole career. But when four of 19 in one season go for touchdowns and the team goes 11-2, you earn this spot.
Reserve returner - Decori Birmingham Felix Jones may have been more dynamite, but Birmingham was the last pure return-man specialist Arkansas has had. In the mold of a Brian Mitchell, Birmingham had 546 punt-return yards and 1,321 kick-return yards. The total ranks him second in total return yards in school history.
Assistant coach 1 - Jimmy Johnson Johnson was Arkansas’ defensive coordinator from 1973-76, but of course he’s most remembered as coaching the Miami Hurricanes in the 1980s and the Cowboys and Dolphins in the NFL in the 1990s. And, of course, that hair.
Assistant coach 2 - Merv Johnson The legend says Frank Broyles brought Johnson from Missouri to keep Barry Switzer out of trouble. Johnson is a football lifer, having been a staff member for 51 straight seasons until his retirement 2016.
Assistant coach 3 - Wilson Matthews Matthews coached the Arkansas defensive ends and linebackers from the late 1950s to late 1960s. That after making what is now known as Little Rock Central the premier high-school football program in Arkansas.
Assistant coach 4 - Charlie Coffey Coffey turned his five seasons coaching Arkansas’ defense into a head coaching job at Virginia Tech. Coffey was the architect of the late 1960s bunch that included Cliff Powell and Ronnie Caveness. They made each other better.
Offensive coordinator - David Lee Three stints at Arkansas, including two of which that were OC jobs, and Lee is the pick here. His 2007 offense was arguably the best of the modern Razorbacks’ and his job in 1988 with Quinn Grovey and Barry Foster helped Arkansas to a 10-2 record.
Defensive coordinator - Jim McKenzie A heart attack at age 37 took MacKenzie from the Earth just one season after his first head coaching job at Oklahoma after the 1966 season. MacKenzie earned that job plying his trade under, who else, Broyles for the nine seasons before that. One of the all-time ‘what ifs’ in the sport.
Head coach - Frank Broyles There was never any doubt, was there? Broyles is the Mount Rushmore of Arkansas football.
There aren’t even three other faces on the mountain.