‘I like new challenges’ – Musselman on leaving Arkansas for USC

Lost in the shuffle of John Calipari moving from Lexington to Fayetteville was Eric Musselman leaving Arkansas for USC.

After five years with the Razorbacks that included a pair of Elite Eights and three Sweet Sixteens, Musselman bolted for the familiar confines of the West Coast following the first losing season of his collegiate head coaching career.

Anyone who expected Musselman to plant his roots and retire at Arkansas was living in a fantasy land, to be frank.

And to be fair, USC was always on the shortlist of jobs Razorback fans knew could lure the Muss Bus away if it ever came open.

Musselman joined Jeff Goodman of the Field of 68 for an interview on Wednesday and went in depth on his decision.

“My family knew that we had a great basketball job at Arkansas. That’s undeniable,” Musselman said. You look at all the coaches that have been at Arkansas. You look at all the players and all the success.

“And the success is going to keep coming at Arkansas because it is a great basketball job. The Razorbacks are the only thing in the state.”

Big picture, Musselman’s tenure ranks among the best in program history at Arkansas, but the circumstances around his departure — a brutal season, radio silence in the midst of wild rumors and an odd run of social media content and random interviews from AD Hunter Yurachek — left many fans with a sour taste in their mouths.

While social media can be a cruel place during times of change and adversity, Musselman has opted to ignore the internet and showed his appreciation for the relationships he built during his time in Fayetteville.

“If you could see the number of Arkansas people that have traveled here and stayed in our house or stayed at the Shade Hotel up the road, it’s every freaking day we have a different friend or family friend coming from Arkansas.

“The social media stuff that you see, in a lot of times it’s a smaller pool than what’s really happening. And the people that we really met in Arkansas that are true friends, they’re still going to be true friends.

“Matter of fact, they’re coming out here. They’re, hey, can we go to USC’s bookstore? They’re buying stuff. They’re Trojan fans too now, a lot of our friends that are living in Arkansas.”

For the podcast version of the Field of 68 After Dark interview with Musselman, click HERE for Spotify and HERE for Apple.

California has been a home for Musselman and his family, and that naturally played a role in making the decision to hop on the coaching carousel.

“Anytime a coach makes a decision, your family’s got to be a huge, huge part of it,” he said. “But, quite frankly, my two sons, the minute the job came open, they started packing and I hadn’t even interviewed. So, for my two sons, that was super easy.

“My wife, she has so many friends in LA and worked for NFL Network in LA. So she had a base of people, but it’s been a challenge for my daughter because, at her age, Arkansas, that’s kind of what she had become. That was her base of growing up happened in Fayetteville.”

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During his interview with the Field of 68, Musselman pointed to the brand at USC, athletic director Jen Cohen’s vision for the athletic department and her record on coaching hires as factors that added to the lure of the job.

However, an interesting admission on Musselman’s part was that after five years at Arkansas he was simply ready for a new challenge in a place he wanted to be.

A rolling stone throughout his career, Musselman’s five years in Fayetteville was his longest stop since spending six years with the Florida Beach Dogs from 1991-97.

“Five years. I mean, I like new challenges,” Musselman said. “A lot of coaches are content to be in one place.

“Now, it wasn’t my choice when the Warriors fired me in Golden State, and it wasn’t my choice when Sacramento fired me.

“But those are really the only two times all the other coaching moves have been, you know, our family type decision. I love a new challenge. I’m not nervous about new challenges. And sometimes you can get stuck in a comfort zone, but leaving the SEC is hard.”