John L. Smith will not be back at the helm as the head football coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks next season. Smith was a late hire as Arkansas fired Bobby Petrino late in the coaching carousel last year, and was only hired for this season. So let's look at the Razorback's this season under former head coach Smith using the FBS college production model.
The Razorbacks finished the season at 4-8 and bowl ineligible. First, Arkansas has played a much tougher schedule compared to the average strength of schedule for this season - five of their eight losses against currently ranked top 25 teams in the production model. That said, Arkansas three of the four Arkansas wins were against teams currently ranked greater than 100 in the FBS college production model (#125 Jacksonville State, #106 Auburn and #111 Kentucky). Arkansas best victory (19-15) was against currently ranked #34 Tulsa and their worst defeat was a 27-30 loss against currently ranked #50 Mississippi. Even with this difficult schedule, the Razorbacks are currently the #96 team overall - finishing third from the bottom in the SEC; and currently have both the #87 ranked offense and defense.
Analysis of NCAA FBS coaches fired this season:
Boston College's Spaziani,
Auburn's Chizik,
California's Tedford,
Western Michigan's Cubit,
Tennessee's Dooley,
Kentucky's Phillips,
Idaho's Akey.