Through the decades, a few native Arkansans have risen through the college football ranks using both Arkansas and Arkansas State as launching pads.
Springdale native Rhett Lashlee, for instance, walked on for the Razorbacks as a quarterback and then served as a UA graduate assistant in 2006. Six years later, he’d risen to offensive coordinator at Arkansas State, a single-year layover on a trajectory leading to his current position of No. 17 SMU.
Of all the crossover former Razorback/Red Wolves, however, none is more prominent than the man under whom Lashlee toiled for decades: Gus Malzahn.