New Georgia coach Kirby Smart was interested in bringing Dan Enos to Athens. But Enos’ current employer said no.

On Sunday, Smart contacted Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema and asked for permission to talk to Enos, the Razorbacks’ offensive coordinator, about joining his staff with the Bulldogs. But Bielema had some bad news for the new Georgia coach.

Enos’ current contract contains a clause that prevents him from leaving Arkansas for another job in the SEC, unless it’s a head coaching job.

“Kirby called me early this morning (Monday), asked me for permission to talk to Dan just basically said … ‘I understand if you’ve got to talk to Dan if that’s something you want to do, but he’s got a non-compete clause in the SEC,’” Bielema told Arkansas News. “So that kind of null and voids those things from really becoming real within our conference.”

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long had inserted the clause in Enos’ contract. Bielema was initially against it, but on Monday, the head coach was glad Long did it, because it enables him to keep Enos.

“That was strictly a Jeff Long thing that he talked to me about and I was very, very opposed to it,” Bielema admitted. “When this issue came up a couple days ago, I texted him, ‘Hey, I love you, man,’ because he taught this ball coach something good.”

Arkansas had one of the SEC’s highest scoring offenses this year. In their last six games, the Razorbacks scored 54, 63, 52, 31, 50 and 28 points, respectively, and went 5-1. Arkansas was second in the SEC in total offense, averaging 456.8 yards per game. Georgia ranked eighth in the conference in total offense, averaging 381.4 yards.

This was Enos’ first season with Arkansas. He had spent the previous five years as Central Michigan’s head coach, and had led the Chippewas to two bowl appearances. Before that, he’d been an assistant coach at several schools, including Michigan State and Cincinnati.