ANDY’S NOTES: Noland’s spring football, Hogs running out of games, Murray’s gamble

With the first baseball series starting this weekend for Arkansas, it is expected freshman Connor Noland will be on the mound at some time and that’s probably going to be early, according to Dave Van Horn.

Van Horn spoke to the Swatter’s Club on Monday and that’s what he said.

Last week Chad Morris was confident Noland will be at spring practice quite a bit, too.

It’s really not as difficult as it sounds, mainly because spring football isn’t as time-intensive as many think. It’s nothing like it was 40 years ago … or even 20.

Here are some of the key rules for spring practice and how it could affect Noland (remember, he’s a pitcher, so basically one day a week is all he’s in a game there):

• There are only 15 practices total. With the Razorbacks starting February 26, that’s three practices per week over a six-week period (the spring game will be April 6, according to a news release Monday).

• Morris usually practices on a Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday rotation. At most, that’s five workouts missed, but because the Hogs have a host of games in March, well, the guess is that number could be reduced.

• Of those 15 practices, only 12 can have any contact and only eight can have tackling to the ground. Of those eight, only three can devote more than half of the time on 11-on-11 … and the spring game counts for one of those.

To summarize, yes, Noland will miss some football practices but don’t be so quick to think he’s going to miss that much.

Van Horn and Morris have each indicated they want this to work. Both are smart guys and they each have a player with some pretty special abilities … in both sports.

Don’t be surprised to see Noland making the overwhelming majority of football practices.

And starting in baseball.

Anderson still positive, but that’s no surprise

At his press conference Monday, Mike Anderson was still positive, even explaining away the Hogs’ second-half collapse against South Carolina last Saturday by saying it’s the way the game is played today.

“If you watch basketball, we’ve had games where we’ve been 16 down, come back and go up,” he said. “There’s a lot of time in basketball.”

Against the Gamecocks, the Hogs had a 13-point lead with just over 15 minutes left in the game.

“That’s a lifetime in basketball,” Anderson said. “You want to be ahead at the end. You want to build on those leads, but if you watch around the country … it’s called learning how to win and learning how to finish.”

As someone who has defended the youth and inexperience, it’s getting hard to keep doing that.

If these freshmen haven’t figured it out in 23 games, there are some wondering if they ever will.

And if they’re going to learn how to finish, well, they’re running out of time.

The Hogs sit at 14-9 on the year, 5-5 in the SEC, and there are just eight games left in the season.

That includes, by the way, a road game against a surging Kentucky team. Four of the games will be at home and splitting those last eight games will leave the Hogs at 9-9 in the league.

Get ready.

The stretch run could be interesting.

Murray’s has a backup plan … baseball

With former Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray committing to play football over a guaranteed contract in baseball, he’s gambling he can make it bigger in that sport.

Talk about a gamble.

For him to make that decision, though, you have to at least make the educated guess somebody in the NFL has told him he’s going to be a high draft pick.

That’s a huge gamble for an NFL team to take a quarterback that’s not even 5-foot-10 inches tall.

Don’t believe it? Here’s the Sooners’ assistant athletics director on Twitter:

Keep hearing TV talking heads question the 5-10 height at which we list Kyler. Have heard a couple even say they think he's more like 5-8. Before the season, our strength staff measured him at 5-9 7/8 in socks.

— Mike Houck (@mhouckOU) January 14, 2019

By the way, only five quarterbacks 5-10 or shorter have thrown a pass in a league game since 1960. Doug Flutie was the last one in 2005.

Only two quarterbacks shorter than 6-1 have been drafted in the first round since the leagues merged the draft in 1967.

What this says is the odds are against Murray, but then again he could have a plan to give it a shot in the NFL and if it doesn’t work out … go back to baseball.

It’s always good to have a plan.