Former Arkansas assistant men’s track coach Dick Booth has found a new job.

Booth, who was fired by Arkansas coach Chris Bucknam last week after 27 years with the Razorbacks, will be joining the staff at Florida. Gators coach Mike Holloway announced the hiring a little while ago. A release, which you can read here, says that Booth will be responsible for coaching the jumps and assisting with recruiting and other key phases of the program.

“It’s weird,” Booth told me a few minutes ago. “It’s kind of unusual. But I’m very happy. The way things have happened here in the last few days, you never know. It was kind of a shock at first. It caught me pretty much totally unaware. It certainly wasn’t the turn in my life that I had planned. So then you just kind of go along for the ride and see how things turn out.”

Booth said he knew Florida had an opening on its staff several weeks ago, but didn’t know if it was still there after he was surprisingly fired by Bucknam last week. Booth said he needed a few hours to come to grips with the fact he was no longer coaching for the Razorbacks before figuring out his next move. The same day he was fired, he placed a call to Florida.

The rest is history.

“I felt like everything was going to be OK,” Booth said about his Arkansas departure. “I’d be finishing up my career in Fayetteville. It didn’t work out that way, but the alternative is just fine.”

It’s an interesting move by the Gators. One that will keep Booth in the same conference. He likes the thought, too, although Booth said it’s not for vindictive reasons. He just wants to continue coaching in the best conference. Florida is pretty good, too, after finishing tied for second at the NCAA Outdoor meet in Fayetteville last month.

Arkansas will see Booth with his new team a couple of times next season, too, because the SEC Indoors and the NCAA Indoors will be held in Fayetteville. Can someone say intriguing storyline?

“It’s kind of a nice little bonus,” Booth said. “So I’ll get to see our guys here and come in with a good team and have a good chance to be successful.”

  Turns out, there’s more Arkansas news to report, this time involving the men’s track and field team.

  Dick Booth, Arkansas’ longtime field events coach, will end his run with the Razorbacks and not return for another season. Judging by the statements in a press release sent out a few minutes ago, Booth’s departure comes as a result of Arkansas coach Chris Bucknam’s decision to shake up his coaching staff.

  Coincidentally, Arkansas’ track athletes lobbied for Booth to be hired last summer as John McDonnell’s replacement before Bucknam was hired away from Northern Iowa.

  “I recognize the head coach of any program has the right and ability to shape his coaching staff as he feels is appropriate,” Booth said in a statement released through the university. “In this instance, coach Bucknam felt like a change on the staff was the direction he wanted to move.

  “I have been blessed to be a coach in the Razorback program for 27 seasons. In that time, I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of Razorback student-athletes whose hard work and commitment resulted in extraordinary team and individual success. I am proud to have been a part of the great tradition of Razorback track and field.”  

   Booth spent 26 years as an assistant under McDonnell from 1978-84 and 1988-2008, helping turn Arkansas into a track powerhouse. Bucknam retained Booth when he was hired, and in their one season together, they won both an SEC indoor and outdoor title. 

  “When I first was hired at Arkansas and was assembling my staff, Dick and I talked about his future with Razorback track and field,” Bucknam said in a statement. “We decided that as we moved forward we would evaluate if our coaching philosophies and approaches were a good fit for each other and our transitioning program.

  ”Following the season, as I considered the continued evolvement of the program, I decided this would be an appropriate time to move in a different direction within our coaching staff.”