Garrick McGee is expected to be in Birmingham today as UAB announces his hiring
as football coach.

Bobby Petrino has already bid him a fond farewell.

ESPN says he’s already accepted.

Has Arkansas offensive coordinator Garrick McGee signed on to be UAB’s new football coach? It could be only a matter of hours before the university confirms it, though officials said Saturday that negotiations were still taking place.

Last week, UAB fired Neil Callaway after a disastrous 18-42 record over five seasons.

McGee was born in Tulsa. He served as quarterback for Arizona State for 2 years, then Northeastern Oklahoma A&M for a year, ending up at Oklahoma in 1994 and 1995. His career includes serving quality control coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars and an assistant coach at several colleges, including Northwestern and UNLV.

During his 4 years at Arkansas, McGee, 38, helped the team reach the Sugar Bowl this year with an offense ranked No. 8 in the nation.

He’s a finalist for the Broyles Award, given to the best assistant coach, against SEC rivals Sal Sunseri at Alabama and John Chavis at LSU, plus two other nominees. The winner will be announced Tuesday.

The UAB job would be McGee’s first time as head coach. As a black coach, he would join a growing number of minority coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision, currently 19 out of 119 schools.

Update: UAB Athletics has confirmed the hire.

Video: Garrick McGee talks with reporters after Arkansas’ loss to LSU last week.

Video: Reporters B.J. Millican of CBS 42 and Steve Irvine of the Birmingham News
discuss the latest on Garrick McGee.

Video: Garrick McGee tours UAB. [added Dec. 5]

• MCers: Is McGee the one for the job? Will the University of Alabama System trustees approve the hire? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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