Thompson almost left college football
LITTLE ROCK - Until the right man picked up the phone at just the right time, John Thompson was out of college football.Fired after two years as head coach at East Carolina, Thompson was whiling away December in Greenville, N.C., taking his two sons to school and enjoying walks with wife Charleen. They had put their all into East Carolina and the heave-ho hurt.Thompson said "not interested" to one coach in the Southeastern Conference and another in the Atlantic Coast Conference. He considered a lifestyle change, maybe the insurance business, a coffee shop, or a Krispy Kreme franchise. He even flew home to Arkansas to talk about coaching at Heber Springs.Drawing a paycheck but feeling empty, there was a day in mid-December when he realized he had to do something. The next day, Steve Spurrier called to follow up on a conversation from three weeks earlier. "I've always looked up to him as the best," Thompson said. "Wouldn't that be cool to work for him."The courtship was somewhat flirtatious. Spurrier asked if Thompson was interested and got a yes.They talked about golf and individual struggles. Spurrier avoided the hard sell; Thompson told his potential boss about the things that would be important - no second-guessing and someplace to put down roots after stops in Fayetteville, Gainesville and Greenville just this decade.On the followup call, Spurrier said, "I'm thinking about offering you this job in the morning and I said, 'Well, I'll be thinking about taking it if you offer it,'" Thompson said.The next morning, Spurrier called with a semi-formal, "You ready to go?" Thompson begged off until the afternoon. During a walk, he and Charleen decided to say yes, but when Spurrier called, he asked for another 45 minutes. OK, Spurrier said, but the hiring could make a needed splash and would help with recruiting.Obviously on the move, Spurrier then told him the media was available. "Why don't I just put you on the speaker phone and why don't we have our press conference right now?"That done, Spurrier wanted to know who else was available. Dave Wommack, fired as Arkansas defensive coordinator, and Tyrone Nix, Thompson said."He said, 'Let's go get 'em," Thompson said. He told Spurrier that both men would need multi-year contracts and Nix might need a title after being defensive coordinator at Southern Mississippi. If Wommack had an ego, there could have been a problem, but he and Thompson go way back. Within days, it was done, with Nix sharing the coordinator's title with Thompson. On the job only a few months, it has been fun, Thompson said. Spurrier can crack up a staff meeting with a remark about sending South Carolina malcontents on to Clemson or North Carolina. At Florida, Spurrier had a way with those things, like his quote about Tennessee's numerous appearances in the Citrus Bowl: "You can't tell Citrus without U-T.""If I tried to say those things, I'd be run out of the profession," Thompson said.It's the same on the golf course where there are no gimmes and Spurrier is apt to mention how he missed that identical putt only days earlier.During the spring, the coaches kept score - awarding points for specific accomplishments, including stops and turnovers on defense. Spurrier announced that the offense had won, the newspaper headline agreed, and Thompson's guys did the post-practice running. That night, Spurrier called Thompson to tell him he had revisited the scoring system and the defense did, indeed, win.Spurrier is neither a baby sitter nor a micro manager, Thompson said, adding that he wished he had worked for the man before becoming a head coach. "I was too much in it," he said.Concerned about doing too much too fast on defense, he cracked up when Spurrier sidled up prior to spring practice and asked, "Can you do some of those exotic blitzes?'On the first play of spring, all 11 on defense were standing and moving and offensive line coach John Hunt was pulling his hair out.-----Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media Group's Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.

By Harry King