Tom Mars pulls back curtain on Arkansas' pursuit of John Calipari

John Calipari is settling in as the new head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks, but more information about how the deal was put together continues to surface in the weeks following.

Calipari’s lawyer, Tom Mars, joined the Paul Finebaum Show on Thursday afternoon to discuss his role in Arkansas’ blockbuster move to take Calipari away from Kentucky after 15 seasons.

According to Mars, he decided to send Calipari a text the Friday night before the announcement — the same day Calipari met with Razorback AD Hunter Yurachek in his hotel room in Phoenix — giving him some advice on a potential out from having to go through a potential messy firing at Kentucky if the 2024-25 season hadn’t worked out. That out ended up being the Arkansas job.

“He said, ‘Let’s talk in the morning.’ I had no idea that he had talked to Hunter Yurachek, the Arkansas AD, that day,” Mars explained. “When I sent the text message, to be honest with you, I almost immediately thought, ‘Well, that’s a stupid thing to send to Cal.’ I mean, why would I do that?”

Mars and Calipari talked early the next morning and by 9:30 a.m. ET, he was on the phone with Yurachek to iron out the details of Calipari’s contract. By Saturday night, it was worked out and Calipari was set to be named the new head coach of Arkansas.

Once the initial proceedings with Yurachek was through, Arkansas Athletics’ lawyer, Matt McCoy, who Mars has known for years was brought in to finalize it.

“He is the best in the business,” Mars said of McCoy. “And Arkansas’ template for Coach contracts is the gold standard. So I said to Hunter [Yurachek], you know, ‘Let’s just do a contract.’ So he brought Matt into the equation on Sunday morning. … Matt and I just worked all day Sunday and all day Monday to put together a 28-page contract. And then of course a lot of exhibits and addendums, but you know it was it was a great experience.”

To summarize Mars’ timeline, Calipari got the ball rolling with Arkansas on Friday night, Mars met with Yurachek on Saturday and then him and McCoy set the contract together on Sunday and Monday. Calipari was officially introduced as the Arkansas head coach that Wednesday.

“Cal is everything he appears to be when he was introduced,” Mars said. “One of the best guys I’ve ever met, and it was a great experience.”