:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/27356353/20140103_kkt_su8_133.0.jpg)
It was revealed Thursday afternoon that former Arkansas defensive coordinator Chris Ash took a $30,000 per year pay cut to take the same job at Ohio State.
Of course, this brought all the usual dumpster fire mockery of Bret Bielema and the Arkansas program. Bielema, after all, is the one who made a big deal about keeping his assistants when he took the Arkansas job.
But look, as we all know, the talent level on Arkansas' defense is really bad. Ash didn't get too much blame in 2013 because of those talent issues, but sooner or later, if the defense didn't get much better in a hurry he definitely would. It's not like the Hogs have a slew of 4 or 5* defensive recruits coming in next year, and Ash isn't known as a great recruiter anyway,
So he took a 5.5% pay cut to work with a higher profile program that's already got better players. As opposed to risking his reputation as a coach with what's not expected to be a great Razorback team in 2014? How is that shocking?
As Jim Harris wrote recently, this works out better for everybody. Arkansas needs a defensive coordinator who can build a defense from scratch. Someone who can get a raw group of players to work as a functioning unit. Ash was hit and miss in that department. He'll probably do better with the group in Columbus. No hard feelings. Makes sense.
Now we're just waiting on official word from Fayetteville on who's going to replace him, someone who will hopefully be a better fit.
