John Calipari is settling in as the brand new head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks, however extra details about how the deal was put collectively continues to floor within the weeks following.
Calipari’s lawyer, Tom Mars, joined the Paul Finebaum Present on Thursday afternoon to debate his position in Arkansas’ blockbuster transfer to take Calipari away from Kentucky after 15 seasons.
Based on Mars, he determined to ship Calipari a textual content the Friday evening earlier than the announcement — the identical day Calipari met with Razorback AD Hunter Yurachek in his resort room in Phoenix — giving him some recommendation on a possible out from having to undergo a possible messy firing at Kentucky if the 2024-25 season hadn’t labored out. That out ended up being the Arkansas job.
“He mentioned, ‘Let’s speak within the morning.’ I had no concept that he had talked to Hunter Yurachek, the Arkansas AD, that day,” Mars defined. “After I despatched the textual content message, to be sincere with you, I nearly instantly thought, ‘Nicely, that’s a silly factor to ship to Cal.’ I imply, why would I try this?”
Mars and Calipari talked early the following morning and by 9:30 a.m. ET, he was on the telephone with Yurachek to iron out the small print of Calipari’s contract. By Saturday evening, it was labored out and Calipari was set to be named the brand new head coach of Arkansas.
As soon as the preliminary proceedings with Yurachek was by, Arkansas Athletics’ lawyer, Matt McCoy, who Mars has recognized for years was introduced in to finalize it.
“He’s one of the best within the enterprise,” Mars mentioned of McCoy. “And Arkansas’ template for Coach contracts is the gold customary. So I mentioned to Hunter [Yurachek], you recognize, ‘Let’s simply do a contract.’ So he introduced Matt into the equation on Sunday morning. … Matt and I simply labored all day Sunday and all day Monday to place collectively a 28-page contract. After which after all plenty of displays and addendums, however you recognize it was it was an ideal expertise.”
To summarize Mars’ timeline, Calipari acquired the ball rolling with Arkansas on Friday evening, Mars met with Yurachek on Saturday after which him and McCoy set the contract collectively on Sunday and Monday. Calipari was formally launched because the Arkansas head coach that Wednesday.
“Cal is every part he seems to be when he was launched,” Mars mentioned. “The most effective guys I’ve ever met, and it was an ideal expertise.”
