Arkansas raised some eyebrows when it tabbed Remy Cofield as its all-sports general manager in March.
The much-anticipated hire was different from most of athletic director Hunter Yurachek’s peers, many of whom brought in football or basketball-specific GMs to run their top programs.
There may be a year where we need a little bit more for men’s basketball and a little bit less for football because he’s done a really good job negotiating contracts, so you can move that money around,” Yurachek said on May 12. “Once you say, ‘Hey football GM, here’s your money,’ they’re going to spend all of that money and I’m not going to be able to move that around.
“I just thought it was really important for somebody to see the whole picture of what we’re doing.”
It was a strategic move by the Razorbacks’ AD and made with future hires in mind, as Yurachek added that Cofield will eventually have an entire front office staff that includes sport-specific assistant GMs, as well as those who work in player relations and analytics.
As of mid-May, the goal was to get a football-centric assistant GM in place as well as filling the player relations and analytics roles by the start of August. The other sports will then follow suit as the UA continues to navigate the budget challenges of the House settlement that legalized the distribution of up to $20.5 million to student-athletes in the form of revenue sharing.
However, when he met with reporters for the first time Thursday afternoon, Cofield admitted the Hogs are a little behind schedule and that such hires could be “further down” the road, though they have talked to potential candidates.
Despite being on the job for more than three months, Cofield has yet to put a staff in place. But he didn’t seem to be in too big of a hurry on that front.
“I think we’ll go over that when the time is right,” Cofield said. “I do think we’ve gone back and forth about a few positions that will help us in the long run.
“We talked to a few people about different things, and I think it’s about getting the right people in to help us out and be a part of this, because it’s important we get it right the first time.”
Cofield also declined to reveal exactly how many staffers they planned to hire, instead harping on the “right people” aspect of the process.
