this has been much debated, but after his last few years at Arkansas probably not many SEC programs would have hired him. Ole Miss did and it's paying off.
The general consensus this time last year was that Arkansas fans were complete idiots for running Nutt off. He went 42-38 in the SEC there. If you're Arkansas, you're not going to to much better than that.
We're not talking about Vanderbilt here, Arkansas has one of the biggest budgets, nicest facilities, and best recruiting in the SEC. The Nutt-love that started here after last year was Tyler Hansbrough-esque. The "general consensus" this time last year was surprise that Ole Miss had hired a coach who had just been fired from another SEC school.
And yeah, "if you're Arkansas" you're not going to do much better than .500 in the SEC in football. LSU, Bama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee are all historically better football schools than Arkansas ever was. They're not competing against Texas and the 7 dwarfs like they used to.
They might look like it now, but there wasn't a majority feeling either way, pretty split. Many thought it was time for Arkansas and Nutt to part ways.