An eventful weekend on the hill. Hogs take 2 of 3 from Mizzou. Spring game gave us a look at Silverfield’s first crew. Hog basketball lands elite commitment, Tennis AXED at U of A. Guests: Trey Daerr!
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: 4-27-26
Arkansas spring game: Red’s big plays seal 14-13 win over White
Spring practice is over in Fayetteville and Ryan Silverfield’s first chapter as Arkansas coach closed with a competitive one-point finish that gave fans a little bit of everything to talk about.
The Red beat the White 14-13 Saturday afternoon at Razorback Stadium, but the final score doesn’t tell the whole story.
Two plays — a pick-six by sophomore cornerback Nsongbeh Ginyui and a 65-yard touchdown reception by CJ Brown — were the backbone of the Red’s win and neither one came with much buildup.
The Hogs ran two standard 15-minute quarters before Silverfield announced each offense would get one final drive from midfield to close the scrimmage.
No live special teams were used, though punts and kicks exchanged possession throughout.
White draws first blood
AJ Hill ran the White offense to open the game and moved the ball efficiently on the team’s second possession.
Cam Settles carried the load on the ground, ripping off runs that set up short-yardage situations.
Hill finished the drive himself on a quarterback keeper and just like that the White had a 7-0 lead with under three minutes left in the first quarter.
The Red couldn’t answer. Braeden Fuller spelled starter KJ Jackson on one possession and the drive went nowhere.
Earlier in the quarter Jackson had moved the offense with purpose — true freshman TJ Hodges picked up a first down on the ground, Jasper Parker turned a stutter-step into a 16-yard gain and Jackson found Antonio Jordan over the middle for 17 yards — but a missed 40-yard field goal by Braeden McAlister kept the scoreboard blank for the Red.
Cade Trotter entered at quarterback for the White and found Blair Irvin for 14 yards on a crosser but couldn’t convert on fourth down and the Red got the ball back still trailing 7-0.
Ginyui and Brown flip the game
That’s when the scrimmage shifted. Hill took over for the White and on his first pass, Ginyui jumped the route and returned the interception for a touchdown.
McAlister’s extra point tied the game 7-7 and the momentum swung hard toward the Red Team.
It didn’t take long for Jackson to make the most of it. He found Brown on a deep post route and Brown hauled it in and sprinted untouched for a 65-yard score. The Red led 14-7 and the White offense was uddenly in a hole.
Jamari Hawkins gave the White life in the final drive, catching a 33-yard pass from Hill on a comeback route and breaking a tackle that kept the drive alive. Settles punched in a seven-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit to one.
The White Team passed on the extra point and lined Settles up in the Wildcat for a 2-point conversion. The snap sailed over his head. He threw it away. The deficit stayed at one.
Red closes it out
Jackson took over at midfield for the Red’s final possession needing only to manage the clock.
He faced a fourth-and-9 and delivered anyway, finding Jordan on a post for a 17-yard leaping catch that drew a loud reaction from the crowd.
Quincy Rhodes closed the scrimmage with a sack and the Red’s 14-13 lead was official.
Silverfield’s first spring in Fayetteville is done. Fall camp can’t come soon enough.
Arkansas falls to Missouri in series finale, ending nine-game win streak
COLUMBIA, Mo. — No. 24 Arkansas couldn’t finish the job on Saturday afternoon.
The Razorbacks fell to Missouri 6-1 in the series finale at Taylor Stadium, ending what had been a dominant stretch against the Tigers and snapping a nine-game winning streak in the head-to-head matchup.
The loss dropped Arkansas to 29-16 overall and 11-10 in SEC play heading into the final stretch of the regular season.
The Tigers improved to 21-23 on the year and 4-17 in conference action with the win — a result that proved Missouri wasn’t going to go quietly at home.
Still, Saturday’s result didn’t wipe out the bigger picture from the weekend.
Despite the defeat, Arkansas concluded the weekend with its fourth consecutive series win in Columbia and its sixth straight series win against Missouri.
The Hogs came to town, took the series and head home knowing the weekend belonged to them even if the finale didn’t.
The problem Saturday was simple when the Razorbacks dug a hole they couldn’t climb out of.
Early Damage Dooms Arkansas Starter
Missouri tagged Arkansas starter Colin Fisher for five runs on four hits and a walk in 1.1 innings of work, opening a 5-0 lead after just two frames.
The Tigers scored three in the first and added two more in the second. arkansasrazorbacks
That kind of damage in the first two innings against a ranked opponent on the road is difficult to overcome.
Fisher didn’t have it on Saturday and Missouri’s lineup made him pay quickly. The early deficit essentially decided the outcome before the game had time to develop.
To be fair to Arkansas, what came next from the bullpen was encouraging.
The Razorbacks turned to Gabe Gaeckle, Parker Coil and Cooper Dossett after Fisher exited and that trio answered the call.
Gaeckle went 2.2 innings, allowing just one run while striking out four. Coil followed with 3.2 innings and five strikeouts.
Dossett handled the final 0.1 innings. Combined, the three relievers allowed just one run and struck out nine across 6.2 innings of work. arkansasrazorbacks
The bullpen held the Tigers in check for the better part of the afternoon. The issue was that the offense couldn’t give them anything to work with.
Offense Goes Cold at Wrong Time
Arkansas’ bats came up short when they mattered most. The Hogs stranded six runners on base and went just 2-for-14 (.133) with runners on and 1-for-5 (.200) with runners in scoring position.
Against a pitcher who’s getting it done, those numbers are hard to overcome — and they weren’t.
The Razorbacks’ only run came on Zack Stewart’s RBI fielder’s choice in the top of the ninth inning. That single run was enough to avoid a shutout, but it wasn’t nearly enough to get back in the game.
The fact that it took until the ninth to score says a lot about how quiet the lineup was for most of the afternoon.
With the 1-0 run Saturday, Arkansas avoided being shut out by an SEC opponent on the road for the first time since a 1-0 loss at Texas A&M on May 16, 2024.
It’s a footnote, but it shows just how rare a goose egg is for this program even in tough road games.
The Hogs simply didn’t put together quality at-bats when runners were on base and Missouri’s pitching staff made them work for every opportunity they had.
What’s Next for the Razorbacks
The series loss in the finale doesn’t change the trajectory of a team that’s won four straight series to close April.
Arkansas came to Missouri and did what it needed to do in the win column. Saturday was a day the Tigers earned, plain and simple.
The Hogs return to Fayetteville next, heading back inside Baum-Walker Stadium for their final two midweek games of the regular season.
Arkansas hosts Northwestern State in a double midweek series from April 28-29 to close out the month. arkansasrazorbacks
Those two games against Northwestern State give the Razorbacks a chance to reset, sharpen their at-bats with runners on and carry some momentum into whatever weekend series follows.
At 29-16 and sitting at 11-10 in the SEC, there’s still plenty to play for on the conference side of things.
Saturday stings. But a series win on the road in the SEC is something the Razorbacks can take heading home.
Everything Razorbacks said after 14-13 Red-White game Saturday
Arkansas coach Ryan Silver field on accomplishing goals in spring game.
Razorbacks quarterback KJ Jackson, running back Cam Settles and quarterback AJ Hill after spring game
Nsongbeh Ginyui, Steven Soles and CJ Brown with the media on how spring has been
COVID derailed his recruiting but Washington now a Las Vegas Raider
Right before the world shut down in 2020, Texas A&M wanted Mike Washington at one of their camps.
He and his family were convinced that if the Aggies’ coaches could see him move in person, an offer was coming.
Then COVID-19 hit and the door slammed shut.
“I remember like it was yesterday,” Washington said. “Just before COVID, Texas A&M wanted me to come to one of their camps. Me and my family, we felt once they could see how I move, they’d probably end up offering me. [Lockdown] ended everything. I wasn’t able to visit any schools.”
That missed camp visit set off a chain reaction that took Washington from Buffalo to New Mexico State, then to a committed spot at Utah where he didn’t feel truly wanted and finally to Fayetteville, where everything clicked.
Now, years after a pandemic rewrote his football story, the former Arkansas running back is headed to Las Vegas as a member of the Raiders.
“COVID kind of ruined a lot of things,” Washington said, “but we’re still here.”
Feeling wanted made all the difference
When Washington took a visit to Arkansas on a whim after growing frustrated at Utah, he felt something different the moment he arrived in Fayetteville.
The Razorbacks wanted him and they made sure he knew it.
Arkansas running backs coach Kolby Smith didn’t waste any time making the pitch either.
“[Coach Smith] asked me, he’s like, ‘You want to play in the SEC?'” Washington said. “And it was like, one of them things was like, yeah, it was a no brainer.”
Washington had been highly recruited as a high school junior, but mostly by Group of Five programs.
COVID wiped out any shot at Power Five offers materializing. His transfer to New Mexico State was actually his first official visit ever taken, a detail that shows just how much the pandemic disrupted the normal recruiting experience for players in his class.
Once he got to the Hogs and earned his way into the starting lineup, he made the most of it.
He ran for 6.4 yards per carry and averaged 8.1 yards per reception, putting up numbers that got NFL scouts paying close attention.
Game that put him on the map
Ironically, the game that truly announced Washington’s NFL credentials came against Texas A&M, the program that never got to see him at that canceled camp years earlier.
On the very first play of that game, he powered through the Aggies’ defensive line for 15 yards off the left side.
On the very next play, he found a crease and outran the entire defense to the 10-yard line. Two plays. Sixty-five yards.
By the final whistle, he had 147 yards on 16 carries — nearly 10 yards per carry — and added three receptions out of the backfield to show he can be a dual threat. The scouts in the stands had seen enough.
Draft wait and Raiders’ call
At 6-foot-1 and 223 pounds with a 4.33 in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, Washington had checked every box.
Comparisons to Adrian Peterson and Derrick Henry followed. Most analysts had him going in the second or third round as the third-ranked back in the class.
But the NFL’s longstanding trend of devaluing the running back position took hold. Two Notre Dame backs were taken at opposite ends of the first round and then silence fell at the position.
The first three rounds ended up featuring the fewest running backs drafted in the modern era. When San Francisco finally took a back late in round three, it was Indiana’s Kaelon Black — not Washington — who got that call.
Las Vegas eventually came calling and Washington’s wait was over.
He’s boarding a plane to the desert as a professional, headed to a team that genuinely wants him there.
It’s a feeling he’s learned never to take for granted.
Not after a pandemic took away his shot at a Power Five offer, not after bouncing through three programs before finally landing in the SEC.
The Hogs’ standout has been proving people wrong at every stop.
The Raiders are just the next stop on that same road.
Razorbacks eye sweep after blanking Missouri behind two-hit pitching gem
Cole Gibler grew up about 110 miles from Taylor Stadium. Friday night, he pitched like he owned the place.
The Arkansas sophomore right-hander threw a career-high 90 pitches across six innings, giving up just one hit and three walks while striking out five in his third career start.
When Steele Eaves came out of the bullpen in the seventh and finished off Missouri without a baserunner, the Hogs had their fifth shutout of the season and their first in SEC play.
It’s the kind of performance that makes a 6-0 road win look easy.
“He just continues to get better at starting,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said of Gibler. “Obviously he hadn’t done it [since high school] and I think he’s getting more comfortable with it.
“He’s managing his pitches, he’s throwing the ball over the plate more for contact, not trying to strike everybody out. That’s why he got six innings in tonight.”
Eaves recorded his first career save. Together, the two held Missouri to two hits on the night while Arkansas collected 10 of its own.
Missouri couldn’t find an answer at the plate
The Tigers came in struggling and never found their footing offensively.
Missouri fell to 20-23 overall and 3-17 in SEC play with the loss, their ninth defeat in a row and their 28th consecutive home SEC loss.
Missouri starter Brady Kehlenbrink actually kept Arkansas off the board through three innings, striking out seven Hogs the first time through the order without allowing a hit.
The second time through the lineup told a different story.
Kozeal’s homer broke the seal
Carter Rutenbar led off the fourth with a single and Camden Kozeal did the rest. The Arkansas shortstop launched a 362-foot home run to right field that put the Razorbacks up 2-0 and got the offense moving.
Kozeal wasn’t overthinking it.
“I just hit it pretty high and hit it pretty hard,” he said.
It was home run No. 12 on the season for Kozeal and it pushed him to 50 RBI — the first Razorback to reach that mark in this season. He’d had the benefit of seeing Kehlenbrink’s stuff for a full turn through the order before that at-bat, and he explained how that second look changes things.
“You just see his pitches,” Kozeal said. “You just see everything, and in baseball sight is a big deal, especially for hitters to see his pitch shapes, see how the ball is spinning, see the batter’s eye.”
Sixth-inning burst finished the job
Arkansas kept the pressure on in the sixth. Ryder Helfrick singled and Kozeal followed with a single the other way, chasing Kehlenbrink after 5 1/3 innings. The Missouri lefty finished allowing four runs on five hits with a walk and eight strikeouts.
Right-hander Eli Skidmore came on in relief and immediately ran into trouble. Maika Niu greeted him with an RBI double on his first at-bat, and then Zack Stewart delivered the blow that effectively ended things — a two-run single back through the middle that made it 5-0.
Stewart was pinch hitting for Kuhio Aloy in a left-on-right matchup, and Van Horn liked what he saw from his hitter in a tough spot.
“That was a really tough at-bat,” Van Horn said. “He got behind quick and then fouled off some pitches, took a couple of pitches and then he just fought him and hit the ball back through the middle and drove in two runs. All of a sudden we were up 5-0 at the time, and it just seemed that base hit took the air out of them a little bit over there.”
Reese Robinett added an RBI single in the eighth after Missouri’s infield committed a leadoff error on a Souza at-bat. The Hogs loaded the bases again in the ninth but couldn’t tack on more when Stewart was called out looking on a borderline 2-2 pitch from Luke Fricker. Arkansas drew four walks on the night to go along with its 10 hits.
Third road series win puts Hogs in rare company
With the series clinched, Arkansas improved to 29-15 overall and 11-9 in the SEC. The Razorbacks are now 8-3 in conference road games and 12-5 away from Baum-Walker Stadium this season.
It’s the program’s third road conference series win this year — something the 2024 team never accomplished. The last time the Hogs won at least three SEC road series in a year was 2021, when they didn’t lose a single series all season, home or away.
Earlier this spring Arkansas took a series at South Carolina in March and swept then-No. 9 Alabama two weeks ago. Their only road series loss came at then-No. 11 Auburn earlier this month.
Van Horn’s noticed what his team’s built away from home.
“We’ve played solid baseball on the road,” he said. “We need to play a little better at home sometimes, but sometimes it’s who you’re playing. There’s a lot that goes into it, but I’m really happy with the way that we’ve focused in on the road this year.”
Now there’s one more game to play Saturday, and Kozeal’s already got the mindset locked in.
“You’re never satisfied with just two wins,” he said. “Like Christmas Eve, it’s sweep eve — that’s how [strength coach Hunter] Bell put it.”
First pitch at Taylor Stadium is set for 2 p.m.
Arkansas DB Julian Neal drafted by Seahawks in 3rd round — first Razorback off the board
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Julian Neal’s wait is over.
The Arkansas defensive back became the first Razorback picked in the 2026 NFL Draft when the Seattle Seahawks called his name Friday night, selecting him 99th overall in the third round.
It’s a milestone moment for Neal and for the Hogs’ program, which has now placed a player in the draft’s third round in back-to-back years.
The pick lands Neal in the Pacific Northwest, where he’ll look to carve out a roster spot with a Seahawks squad that clearly liked what it saw on film from his time in Fayetteville.
The selection also marks a notable moment in Seattle’s own draft history.
The Seahawks hadn’t taken a Razorback since the fifth round of the 2016 draft, when they picked running back Alex Collins, a late-round find who went on to have a meaningful NFL career.
A decade later Seattle’s front office came back to Arkansas, but this time it didn’t wait nearly as long to pull the trigger.
Razorback DB drafted for first time since 2022
Neal’s selection means the Hogs have now produced a drafted defensive back for the second time in four years.
The last Arkansas defensive back to hear his name in the draft was Montaric Brown, who went to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the seventh round in 2022.
Neal’s climb to the third round represents a significant jump in draft capital for Arkansas’s secondary.
He came to Fayetteville after spending four seasons at Fresno State before transferring to Arkansas for his final college season.
That one year on The Hill turned out to be all he needed to make a strong case to NFL evaluators.
In his lone season with the Razorbacks, Neal started all 12 games and showed why he was worth the investment. He recorded 55 tackles and picked off a pair of passes, giving the Arkansas secondary a dependable presence throughout the year.
He wasted no time making an impression on the program, either.
Instant impact in Fayetteville
Just the second game of the season proved to be a coming-out party for the San Francisco native.
Neal put together a performance that featured 11 tackles, one interception and two pass breakups — a combination that hadn’t been seen from an Arkansas defensive back since 1997.
That kind of early production from a transfer told coaches and scouts alike that Neal wasn’t just filling a roster spot. He was there to compete.
His ability to make plays on the ball along with his willingness to get involved in the run game made him a versatile piece in the Razorbacks’ defense.
Those 55 tackles in a single season underscore the fact that he wasn’t just a coverage-first player, he was someone who could come downhill and be a factor against the run as well.
Before arriving in Fayetteville, Neal had built a solid body of work at Fresno State over four seasons.
In his final year with the Bulldogs in 2024, he appeared in all 12 games with four starts, racking up 35 tackles and five tackles for loss to go along with two interceptions.
The tackles for loss number stood out as a sign of his ability to be a disruptive presence beyond just pass coverage.
Career numbers tell the full story
Looking at his full college career across 42 games — split between Fresno State and Arkansas — Neal totaled 99 tackles with 8.5 tackles for loss and four interceptions.
Those numbers reflect a player who was consistently productive and whose game translated across different programs and systems.
The tackles-for-loss figure is particularly interesting for a defensive back, as it shows a comfort level playing in the box and a willingness to take on blockers in the run game.
For the Seahawks, getting a player with that kind of versatility in the third round is the kind of value teams look for during the draft’s middle rounds.
Neal’s path to the NFL — from Fresno State to Fayetteville to Seattle — is a reminder of how the transfer portal has changed college football.
He used his final season wisely, choosing Arkansas and performing well enough in one year to vault himself into the third round of the NFL Draft. It’s a decision that clearly paid off.
For Razorback football, Neal’s selection is part of a bigger story about the program’s ability to develop and showcase talent at the professional level.
Back-to-back years with a third-round pick — following Isaac TeSlaa going to Detroit and Landon Jackson heading to Buffalo last year — gives Arkansas’s recruiting pitch a boost heading into the future.
The NFL Draft’s final day covering rounds 4 through 7 kicks off Saturday at 11 a.m. on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and NFL Network.
Expect more Hogs to hear their names called before it’s all over.
479 Equipment Ruscin & Zach podcast April 24
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After struggling with first three batters, Hogs coach Dave Van Horn let him deal with it, then he settled down and had a very solid game.
