WINSTON-SALEM -- After more than a flirtation with the open Arkansas head coaching job, Wake Forest's Jim Grobe is staying in Winston-Salem.

"I think that [Arkansas and I] had some good discussions, but in the end I'm still at Wake Forest," Grobe said at a Thursday news conference.

Multiple media outlets, including The Arkansas Morning News, the Arkansas Democrat and Gazette, and the Arkansas News Bureau, as well as premium recruiting sites like Scout.com, reported late Wednesday that Grobe had accepted the head coaching position at the University of Arkansas.

"If you have a conversation with somebody their [head coaching] position, it's going to be out and it's going to run," Grobe said. "The reports of being on airplanes and having press conferences, all those kind of things, obviously sometimes that goes a little bit too far."

When asked why he decided to stay, Grobe said it was his relationship with the players on his team.

"I think the bottom line is it's our players. I just love this football team. I love these guys that we've got here. And as I've mentioned, I think next year can be really special.

"I'm excited about not only next year's football team, but I just like our kids. I really like our kids, and when all this stuff started running through the press, it kind of tugged at my heart a little bit. I just felt like these guys needed me to be here."

Grobe, 55, is one year into a 10-year contract at Wake Forest that pays him an annual salary of $1.1 million. He signed the contract in February after leading the Demon Deacons to an Atlantic Coast Conference Championship and an Orange Bowl berth.

Grobe addressed that, as well:

"I think it's real important to know that -- and [athletics director Ron Long] will tell you this -- that I didn't in any way try to leverage my position. I'm not making any more money. I don't have any length of contract extension, and of course I was already at nine years, so it would be hard for me to ask him for more years. But that was not my intent whatsoever."

The Associated Press reported that a private fundraising arm of Arkansas athletics approved Grobe's salary supplement Wednesday. That salary was expected to top $2 million, but now Arkansas must look in yet another direction as its head coaching search continues.

Last year, Wake Forest was picked by the media to finish last in its division in the ACC, and after Wake Forest's on-field success, Grobe was named the Associated Press Coach of the Year.

He has accumulated a 45-39 record over seven seasons at Wake Forest, including a 19-7 mark the past two years. This season, Wake Forest (8-4, 5-3 ACC) will play the University of Connecticut in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte on Dec. 29.

Grobe is reportedly the third ACC coach to turn down the Arkansas job since Houston Nutt resigned after a 10-year stint with the school. He was 75-48 over the past decade but never won a Southern Conference title.

Arkansas was thought to have been interested in hiring both Butch Davis, an Arkansas alumnus, and Tommy Bowden, but each signed contract extensions with the University of North Carolina and Clemson, respectively.

Auburn's Tommy Tuberville and Florida state offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher also both signed extensions with their schools after being named possible successors to Nutt.

Arkansas' football head coaching search ironically mirrors the same search it had in men's basketball earlier this year when several big names turned down the Razorbacks' open basketball job, including then-Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie, Memphis' John Calipari, and USC's Tim Floyd.

Then on April 2, Dana Altman of Creighton memorably accepted the job, spent one day as Arkansas' head coach, and then had a change of heart and returned to Omaha to coach the Bluejays.