Blytheville athletic director, David Hixson, hopes to have a head football coach by the end of next week.
"This is a critical time," said Hixson. "The 'dead weeks' start next week. If we can have a coach in place next week, they'll have some time to get together with the coaching staff and put together a game plan. That way, we can hit the ground running when practices start up again."
Hixson said he's interviewed four and will probably looking at a total of six candidates all together.
"The quality is high but it's a limited field. This is the worst time of year to hire a football coach."
Hixson said that a majority of people are under contracts for next season. He said that he's had to eliminate a number of possible candidates because they weren't sure that they would be able to be released from their current situation.
"Right now, a lot of the discussions have been over the phone. You've got guys who are already in the middle of camps and can't exactly get out of town and come in for a visit without affecting their current situation. We're trying to be respectful of that but at the same time, we need a coach."
Hixson also said that there are issues with hiring a coach and filling a teacher's position.
"We can fill (Maurice) Moody's spot but we don't have a teaching vacancy," he said. "We only have room to bring in a coach. As for filling teaching vacancies, I'll say this -- there is none. We don't have room for someone to bring in an assistant. That's no one's fault; it's just how the system is set up."
Hixson said he's keeping the current staff up-to-date on candidates and receiving input from them as well. He said that they are looking to hire an experienced offensive-minded coach.
"We feel good about the defensive side of the ball. We've got a good coordinator. What we need to do is get someone with experience on offense. Right now, we've got six or seven kids who are probably going to play both ways. If we have someone teaching a different style of defense and trying to teach a new offense, it could get cause a lot of confusion."
Another concern with a situation that Blytheville is in is keeping the current crop of players in tact.
"We've got numbers in the high 40's. A lot of times when you lose a coach, you lose kids. Our staff has done an excellent job of keeping the kids engaged in what's going on. I don't think we've lost anybody because of what's happened."
Hixson said that while they need to act fast, they have to stay focused on the quality of the candidates as well.
"We're being diligent in what we're doing. But we understand that we've got to get someone hired quickly."