Mark May brought his trademark passion and then some to his appearance before the Little Rock Touchdown Club on Monday. Much of it was aimed against Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek, whom May criticized for comments made in September at the club regarding NIL, revenue-sharing and the new state of college football.
On Sept. 15, less than two weeks before he would end up firing head Hog Sam Pittman after an embarrassing home loss to Notre Dame, Yurachek lamented the unregulated state of NIL, which enabled schools to essentially pay for the players legally.
“There are two major paths right now for athletics departments,” he said. “There’s the revenue-sharing path, and there’s legitimate NIL. Some schools have chosen a third lane — illegitimate NIL. If we could all operate in those two lanes in college athletics, we’d be in good shape… Right now, we have a speed limit in place for NIL, but there’s no speed limit signs on the highway and no troopers patrolling. As an athletics director, you have to decide, are you gonna operate in this third lane you know you’re not supposed to be in, or are you gonna operate with the highest level of integrity and stay in those two lanes? That’s where the rub is in college athletics right now. That’s what we have to figure out at the University of Arkansas — how to operate in that third lane.”
Yurachek caught immediate flak from national media, and especially Razorbacks fans, for admitting publicly that Arkansas wasn’t prepared to compete financially for players. May, the former ESPN broadcaster and NFL Hall-of-Fame offensive lineman who won three Super Bowl rings with the Washington Redskins — echoed those sentiments. Asked by LRTDC founder and host David Bazzel what was missing currently at Arkansas, likely looking at a 2-10 and SEC winless season, May’s answer was direct.
“The first thing is, you’re missing a leader in the athletic department,” he said. “You’ve got to find that culture builder. This is a destination job. This is the SEC. You’ve got to be crazy to say that publicly. You don’t say that.”
May went on to list reasons why Arkansas should not be playing catch-up to its contemporaries in the SEC: the state has no [major league-equivalent] pro teams, it’s the “only game in town” with “no competition from other [in-state] colleges and it is home to a high number of billionaires per capita.
Regarding a list of potential candidates released by ESPN’s Pete Thamel during the broadcast of the Hogs’ game at Texas Saturday, which included Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield, USF’s Alex Golesh, North Texas’ Eric Morris and Alabama defensive coordinator (and former Hog and Arkansas graduate) Kane Womack, May said, “They’re all great coaches, but this is the big time. Get the best.”
May was making his third appearance at the club and, for the past 15 years, has been a weekly guest for Bazzel’s morning radio show on KABZ The Buzz 103.7. He told club members he considers Arkansas his second home. (He currently lives in Arizona.) On the Arkansas coaching search, May (perhaps somewhat playfully) endorsed former Tulane, Texas and North Carolina coach Mack Brown, who was the guest of the club on Nov. 17. May said he would offer his services as OL coach if Brown were hired and do away with the “bear-hugging” techniques seemingly taught today. He also offered up UNLV coach Dan Mullen (previously at Mississippi State and Florida) and UConn coach Jim Mora Jr. (UCLA) as options.
A native of upstate New York who played college ball at Pitt with Dan Marino, Hugh Green and Russ Grimm, the latter with whom he helped make up Washington’s famous “Hogs,” May became well known on ESPN for his 14-year run with Rece Davis and former Arkansas and Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz on Final Verdict, a segment on the network’s College Football Final. May said he remains close with both and admitted that he truly enjoyed playfully pushing Holtz’s buttons on the show.
May has never been shy about his disdain for the Washington franchise’s name switch to Commanders. He didn’t hold back Monday. He first apologized to the “tree-huggers” in the audience.
“It’s Redskins,” he emphasized. “Forget about it.”
May shared that his maternal grandfather is full-blood Seminole and was proud of May’s association with the Redskins.
“I don’t have a Super Bowl name without that name,” he said.
AY Media Group is a proud media sponsor of the Little Rock Touchdown Club.
Photos by DeWaine Duncan
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