Grobe not headed to Arkansas, will remain at Wake Forest

 

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -Coach Jim Grobe will return next season to Wake Forest, having apparently rebuffed an attempt by Arkansas to hire him to replace Houston Nutt.
“The bottom line is, it’s our players. I just love this football team,” Grobe said Thursday while the Demon Deacons practiced for the Meineke Bowl.
The Grobe-to-Arkansas speculation started late Wednesday, after a private university fundraising arm approved a salary supplement for the Wake Forest coach. There was no official word from Arkansas, however, on whether Grobe would replace Nutt, who quit Nov. 26 and was hired almost immediately by Mississippi.
“When all this stuff started running through the press, it kind of tugged at my heart a little bit,” Grobe said.
Grobe said Arkansas did not formally offer the job, and he met with Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman at the coach’s house Wednesday night and into Thursday morning, leaving at about 12:45 a.m.
“We were talking about the future of Wake Forest football and how important he is to that future, and what a great job he has done thus far,” Wellman said. “We’ve still got a lot to accomplish at Wake Forest and he’s the man to lead that charge.”
Incoming Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long said in a statement that no formal offer or agreement has been reached with a possible replacement for Nutt.
“I understand and appreciate the strong interest in the search by our supporters and fans,” Long said. “Our parameters for the search remain the same, finding the best head football coach for the University of Arkansas. We will continue to work expeditiously to that end and I’m confident that we will achieve our goal.”
Grobe said he is not receiving a raise or a contract extension to stay at Wake Forest. The 55-year-old coach is 45-39 in seven seasons at Wake Forest, one of the smallest schools in the Bowl Subdivision. He led the Demon Deacons to an ACC title and berth in the Orange Bowl last season. This year, Wake Forest finished 8-4 and will play Connecticut in the Charlotte-based Meineke Bowl on Dec. 29.
The consecutive bowl appearances are the first in school history.
Earlier this week, Grobe said he would listen if schools approached him about their vacancies, but stressed that he was not chasing other jobs and was content to continue coaching at Wake Forest, a program he rebuilt by patiently redshirting freshmen and developing them through their five seasons.
Last year, he repeatedly denied reports that he was a candidate for the Alabama opening, and in February signed a 10-year contract extension that runs through the 2016 season.
“Jim Grobe is a great football coach, and when you have a football coach like that, you know he’s going to have other opportunities and other people talking to him,” Wellman said. “Maybe the timing of it was a little bit of a surprise, but that’s just where we are – and thank goodness that’s where we are, because it simply means we have a very, very good football coach, one that we want and intend to keep.”