Smackover’s athletic department and football program will officially be under new leadership on Monday.
Don Harrison, who was named the school’s new football coach and athletic director at the end of January, officially starts his new positions on Monday.
“It opened and I knew about Smackover and the tradition that they have and things that have gone on there in the past,” Harrison said. “My interest in the job was immediate. I got to go down there and interview the first time, and I really enjoyed the interview and meeting the people that I met. The second time, I toured the town and my wife and kid were with me. Then I had the second interview, and they called and offered me the job, so we’re really excited to be there.”
Harrison, who has spent the last two seasons as Russellville’s offensive coordinator, said he wants to get familiar with the community before evaluating the football program.
“The first thing is I want to meet the community and get to know the kids,” Harrison said. “The good thing is I’m coming into this place and I have no connection to anybody there. I didn’t grow up there, I don’t know anybody from there, I have no connection, so I get to come in fresh and new. I get to meet all these kids, I get to meet their parents, I get to meet the great people in this town. That’s what I’m really excited to do and want to do first.
“Then I’ll start evaluating the kids, learning my coaches and getting to know them really well. This isn’t my first time coming in and taking a place over, and I really am not big on watching film from last year. I’ll watch a little bit, but I really want to see and evaluate the kids during spring ball. I don’t like to go into it because that was six, seven months ago. This kid might be different now, and I don’t want to watch film of something he did in September and be like, ‘Well, that’s him.’ I try to stay away from watching that film.
“I want to put them in situations in spring and see what has happened and really get to evaluate the kids that way. I’m going to come in and tell them, ‘I don’t care about what’s happened in the past. We’re all coming in on a clean slate here. You guys don’t know me, I don’t know you.’
“First impressions are important, but I want to see what you’re all about, I want to see what you can do, so show me out here in practice and see what you can do.
“That’s just how I’ve always kind of done that when I’ve gone in. I’m a lot more worried about the present and what he can do for us now.”
Harrison, who also has head coaching stops at Newport, Lincoln and Stillwell (Okla.), will see a familiar face when he arrives in El Dorado coach Chris Hill.
“Chris Hill was a mentor of mine when he was the head coach at Wynne and I was the head coach at Newport,” Harrison said.
“As soon as I got the job, I called him and told him. We’ve known each other for a while. He has said nothing but great things about the area. They really love the area, and he told me that me and my family are going to love it as well.”
Harrison added that Hill helped him greatly when he was starting his coaching career.
“When I was a young coach at Greenwood and I was working for Rick Jones, Chris Hill had worked at Greenwood years before,” Harrison said. “A lot of guys had worked with him that were still there, and they talked very highly of him. When I took over at Newport, we actually played each other. Back then, Newport was 4A and Wynne was 5A. They were actually our Week 2 game.
“I hate to say it, but almost like that Greenwood fraternity. He made sure to keep an eye on me. I could call him and say, ‘This is the situation I’m dealing with, what do you think?’ I could call him and say certain things, ‘Offensively, we can’t run this screen right, what am I doing wrong?’
“I could send him film and he would look at it and say, ‘You need to change this and do that.’ He’s one of the really good guys. I was a long way from home back then and I was really young. I was in a spot where I really didn’t know anybody.
“Him and Billy Elmore kept an eye on me and took care of me. We just kind of had that connection. It’s just an interesting dynamic, just knowing him.”
When asked about what type of offense he will bring to Smackover, Harrison said it’s one he learned from one of the most familiar names in Arkansas high school and college football.
“My offense is very similar to what you’ll see with coach (Gus) Malzahn,” Harrison said. “That was one of the first jobs I had was working for him in 2003 at Springdale High School and learning his offense and him teaching it to me.
“Then when I worked for Rick, some of the stuff I do is stuff that Rick taught me at Greenwood, but really I’ve gone back to a lot of the stuff that coach Malzahn had taught me. We’ll run a fast-paced, wide-open offense, but we will run the football. Running the football is very, very important to me. That was one of the things that coach Jones instilled in me.
“It’s the same way when you watch coach Malzahn’s offense. They’re in the spread and doing all of this stuff, but they’re running the ball. They make their money running the ball. We’re going to be fast, spread and wide open, but we’re going to run the football and play good defense.”
As far as the defense is concerned, Harrison there is one that he favors.
“I like a 4-2-5. I enjoy the 4-2-5, I think you can do a lot of good stuff out of it, but I also like being able to switch it up and run a three front,” Harrison said. “I think with the 4-2-5, you can drop one of your ends into a linebacker position and go to a three front.
“I think there’s times a three front is a little better. For some of the stuff you’re seeing, I think you can disguise blitzes and coverages a little easier in the three front, but I really want to be able to be good in the 4-2-5 and also be good and be able to drop into a three front if we can.”
Harrison said he is eager to see the coaching staff work in spring practices.
“I want to see them coach in spring,” Harrison said. “I’ll talk to them about what they’re most comfortable with and how they feel about what they’re going to do. I want to see what they can do, and then I’ll move on from there.”