Logan Nutt continuing coaching family legacy

NEWPORT, Ark. (KAIT) - The Nutt family has plenty of roots in the world of college athletics, especially in Arkansas. Of course, Houston Nutt is a former Razorback football coach, and his brother, Dickey led Arkansas State basketball to an NCAA Tournament appearance. Now, Dickey’s son, Logan, has his first college head coaching job.

Logan is the new head men’s basketball coach at ASU Newport. The school is joining the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and will compete in men’s basketball and softball starting in the 2023-24 school year. Both teams have signed several Region 8 athletes already.

“I’m definitely looking forward to all the challenges that will be presented,” Nutt, a former high school head coach at Doniphan (MO) and a former assistant coach at Crowley’s Ridge College said.

To say Logan will have a wealth of resources to dig into to start up the basketball program is an understatement. His dad spent 19 years as head coach between Arkansas State and SEMO. He’s now an assistant coach for Missouri, a team that won 25 games and reached the NCAA Tournament as a 7 seed this season.

His uncle Houston is a member of three different Hall of Fame classes: Murray State’s (won 31 games in 4 seasons), the Cotton Bowl (won in 1999 with Arkansas, 2008 and 2009 with Ole Miss) and the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

Houston spent 14 years as a head football coach in the SEC between Arkansas and Ole Miss and is currently working as an analyst for CBS Sports.

“Coming from a coaching family is definitely a benefit to be able to call my dad or other relatives to ask for any type of advice,” Logan said. “And that doesn’t just mean on-the-court advice, especially off-the-court advice.”

That advice Logan has been given is a case of what to do, or even what not to do.

“I’m first to tell you that I don’t have all the answers, hey, they ran me out of the state of Arkansas right over in Jonesboro, so I don’t have that kind of advice,” Dickey laughed. “But I can offer a little bit of experience. I was able to be fortunate enough to put together a program such as this over in Charlotte, North Carolina [Gaston College] a couple years ago, and so we did the same thing and so it starts with one brick at a time.”

Dickey was the athletic director and head men’s basketball coach at Gaston College, a program that had been dormant for over 50 years. He finished 18-10 in his only season there before joining Missouri’s staff this season.

Both Dickey and Houston say relationships are key to building a program.

“I think the biggest thing is you’ve got to be yourself and you’ve got to have a great plan of recruiting, development and then it’s the relationships,” Houston said. [Logan’s] been a good recruiter wherever he’s been, but it’s the development and the relationships... He loves it, it’s not a job to him and he’ll be a difference-maker with young people and I just think it’s going to be awesome.”

“I know I’m dad talking, but Logan is special,” Dickey added. “He’s the guy for the job. He’s single and he’s eat up with ball that’s all he wants to do is talk about ball.”

Nutt and the Aviators will start play at Newport High School in the winter.