Arkansas OC Dan Enos squabbled with students via email after Texas A&M loss, FOIA request confirms
It turns out Arkansas offensive coordinator Dan Enos had more than one opponent Saturday.
The foe most people knew about was Texas A&M, who beat the Razorbacks 34-22 to knock their record down to 2-3 in Enos' first season with the program. Arkansas gained only 174 total yards (3.1 yards per play) and fell short on a pivotal fourth-and-1 in the second quarter, when a play in shotgun saw running back Raheim Sanders stopped at the line of scrimmage.
Enos' other opponent Saturday was a few Arkansas students, who used the school's email system to complain about Enos' play-calling to the man himself. Screengrabs of one such exchange hit X (formerly known as Twitter) later Saturday, with confirmation arriving Thursday in the form of a Freedom of Information Act request by Rivals' HawgBeat.com.
In the exchange seen on X, an account by the handle of @RobMason_02 can be seen writing, "I just wanted you to know that I'm available to call 4th downs for y'all if y'all need it AND y'all don't have to pay me millions. What a disgrace."
Enos replied roughly an hour and a half after the game ended by asking what the sender would've called instead. Once he answered "QB sneak," the 55-year-old Enos proceeded to rip into him for calling the play against the Aggies' defensive scheme and sarcastically inviting the student to join the coaching ranks.
— Rob Mason (@RobMason_02) September 30, 2023
The FOIA request turned up two other exchanges involving Enos and students, with both questioning why Enos didn't use a QB sneak with the 247-pound KJ Jefferson. They received a similar response:
"Just one message was sent from that anonymous account: "Our quarter back is 240 pound, put the man under center."
"Enos responded with "What would u have run vs that structure???" No other messages were sent between those two.
"Another email thread was started around 4:45 p.m. CT by another anonymous account which titled the thread "Football." The first email stated "Is a QB sneak on 4th and inches too much to ask for?" Enos responded one minute later at 4:46 with "Great idea!! Even vs gaps?? (emoji)" That email thread ended at 4:51 p.m. CT."
It's not that Enos deserves to be punished for this, but this is not the kind of thing we typically see from coaches excelling at their jobs.
Enos joined Arkansas under Sam Pittman last offseason, replacing the departed Kendal Briles. A former head coach at Central Michigan, Enos previously worked as offensive coordinator at Arkansas under Bret Bielema from 2015 to 2017. Since then, he has held additional coaching stints with Alabama, Miami, Cincinnati and Maryland, with no stop lasting more than two seasons.
Arkansas currently ranks 97th among 133 FBS team in yards per play, with 5.3, and 42nd in points per game, with 33.6.
