Jeff Purinton is not a man of boast & bombast. He arrived from Alabama to Jonesboro with a quiet confidence, and he is leaving Jonesboro for a seemingly innocuous vice president’s position at Learfield Sports. Why? It’s none of my business. Maybe the futility of navigating a world made unrecognizable by NIL and the transfer portal no longer held much appeal. Perhaps the stress of chasing nickels and dimes for a Group of Five Program proved too exhausting. Or maybe, just maybe, Jeff Purinton saw his mission accomplished and was wanting a new challenge.

Why not the latter? When Purinton darkened Arkansas State’s door three years ago, the state of the Athletic Department was a fourth world and falling. The football program had lost its greatness, the basketball programs continued to sputter, and baseball was a lost cause. Meanwhile, sports like volleyball, tennis and golf were barely swimming above club level. Purinton, the former Crimson Tide Deputy AD, announced “I’m not gonna sit the the AD’s suite and drink wine,” and among his first acts as Arkansas State Athletic Director Vice Chancellor of Intercollegiate Athletics was to hire a director of baseball operations – a dull and sobering move that signified that at least Purinton gave a shit.

Part of Purinton’s methods of success included staying-the-course, a boring position in today’s atmosphere for wanting instant results, but that’s what Purinton did with Butch Jones and Destinee Rogers, whom he didn’t hire but believed in anyway,. Today both the women’s basketball and football programs are trending upwards. Later, he made some solid women’s sports hires with Sunjay Lama for Tennis and Brian Gerwig for volleyball, and those two programs are vastly improved, too. But it was during his second year at the helm when the universe presented its first test – the firing of unpopular men’s head basketball coach Mike Balado, and the hiring of his successor.

Many dull and uninspiring names were bandied about, but as it turned out, Jeff Purinton kept his Rolodex up-to-date. He gave charismatic assistant Alabama coach Bryan Hodgson a buzz, presented a golden vision, and brought the brash and bearded recruiter to Jonesboro. The result was an instant program turnaround the renewed the fickle fanbase’s interest in college hoops once again.

Purinton would dip into his bag of magic dust again for baseball, convincing head coach Mike Silva to leave the cushy confines of Nichols State and assume command of Arkansas State’s dilapidated program. Purinton rewarded Silva’s courage with some new turf and promises of major facility renovations. So far, nobody is confusing the Red Wolves with an elite baseball program, but the team’s pitching squad has shaved three runs off last year’s sad ERA, and the Red Wolves find themselves in the middle of the SBC pack – a massive shift in the paradigm that hadn’t felt even a tickle since the 1990s.

Purinton’s opus was to somehow find a replacement for Bryan Hodgson, a man who delivered the two best recruiting classes of all time to Arkansas State, plus two post season trips. Nobody wanted to be in Purinton’s shoes, but JP managed nonetheless, returning to the Alabama talent pool to find Xs and Os wonk Ryan Pannone willing to accept the challenge. What more could a fanbase want?

Good people come an go at Arkansas State, and that’s fine. None of us stayed students forever. We all left to forge our own paths, and so will Mr. Purinton. I just hope he takes a moment for an occasional glass of wine.

PHOTO IS MY OWN