HawgBeat - Eric Musselman emerges as USC's primary candidate
Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman has emerged as USC Trojans top head coaching candidate.
arkansas.rivals.com
HawgBeat reported Tuesday that Eric Musselman would be interviewing for the vacant head coaching position at USC, and now national reporters have taken that a step farther.
Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports and Jeff Goodman with Field of 68 have both indicated that Musselman is the favorite to land the Trojans' coaching job.
Sources have indicated that the situation should move fast, with USC expecting to name its head coach by the end of the week.
Musselman just concluded his fifth season in Fayetteville with a16-17 (6-12 SEC) record, the worst mark in his career and the worst record the Razorbacks have posted since going 14-18 (7-9 SEC) in 2009-10. Over his five seasons at Arkansas, Musselman compiled a 111-59 (65.3%) record, with three NCAA Tournament appearances.
Those three tournament appearances each led to the second weekend, as the Hogs made two Elite Eights and three Sweet Sixteens run. Before Musselman, the Razorbacks had not made a second weekend run in 26 years dating back to 1996.
Southern California is a program that has also been to three NCAA Tournaments in the past five years, but posted a losing season this past season. The Trojans made the Elite Eight in 2021, as well.
While Musselman's tenure at Arkansas has been successful, there have been rumors of him being tied to other job openings for quite some time.
The latest set of events that sparked controversy in the Razorback fanbase was Athletics Director Hunter Yurachek posting a three-year-old video suggesting Musselman would return to Arkansas, then making a podcast appearance talking about the state of the Razorback basketball program.
"He has been well taken care of in his past contracts, where he has a couple of extensions in the past few years and six figure increases," Yurachek said. "There's not a new contract in place for him this year. That video was just to dispel some of the rumors that, 'Hey, he's still our basketball coach.' Now, this may change tomorrow - you'll have to ask Coach Musselman that - but we very much want him to be an Arkansas Razorback."
That clip was posted Monday, and then it was reported Tuesday that Musselman was reportedly set to interview with USC on Wednesday. As of Wednesday morning, reports indicate that he is the leading candidate for the Trojans' opening.
