Noland will be a Hog; playing youngsters nothing new

Connor Noland is going to be playing for Arkansas and the idea that he has no shot at being THE quarterback come fall isn’t out of the question.

It’s a different world and quarterbacks come into college with more competitive experience than maybe any other position. They play 7-on-7 all summer, work with specialized quarterback coaches and compete against the best almost year-round.

But rookies starting at quarterback is nothing new in college football.

“If a dog’s gonna bite you, he’ll do it as a pup,” was one of former Texas coach Darrell Royal’s sayings.

Royal was talking about Bill Bradley, who started as a sophomore for the Longhorns in 1966. Bradley was the mid-60’s equivalent of today’s 5-star “can’t miss” quarterback. Believe it or not, there were no recruiting services or such back then, but the legend of “Super Bill” at Palestine was the stuff of Texas high school legends.

Former Razorback tailback David Dickey (66-69) grew up and played with Bradley in high school at Palestine, so he had a pretty good vantage point.

“He was the best white athlete I ever saw until Matt Jones,” Dickey said this week. “Matt was taller, faster and had bigger hands! Bill had small hands and was susceptible to fumbling. But he was a competitor.

“When he was a freshman at Palestine, he asked the coach if he could run the mile in the district track meet to see if he could letter as a freshman. A top five finish in the district meet earned a letter. He never had run the mile before. He finished fifth and lettered.”

In case you were wondering, Bradley was actually the first Wishbone quarterback. The small hands weren’t great in that offense and Royal moved James Street in at quarterback and, as they say, the rest is history.

But the athleticism was there. He moved to safety and ended up setting Texas records in interceptions, punt returns and punting. He had an All-Pro NFL career, mostly with the Philadelphia Eagles.

The bottom line is talent trumps experience. Championship coaches have followed that theory since Knute Rockne was running around Notre Dame in knickers in the early 1900’s.

Noland is talented.

Forget all that stuff about him heading off to pro baseball this summer. After talking to some people last fall, the thought here was he was going to be a Razorback. He made it official Monday, taking his name out of the discussion for pro baseball for the immediate future.

I'm 100% committed to being an Arkansas Razorback! Can't wait to be on campus in Fayetteville very soon with @RazorbackFB & @RazorbackBSB!!! #HammerDown #OmaHogs #WooPig ??⚾️

— Connor Noland (@cnoland_13) April 9, 2018

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Others said forget it when his name came up in the quarterback picture.

“He’ll be playing baseball,” they said.

This included some folks in the media. Many fans expressed the same thought. Some figured it was a waste of a signing when he signed his letter of intent in Rome back in February.

“I told you in November he wasn’t going to play baseball,” one fan told me in a text message after Noland’s tweet came out. It’s not just us media guys that tend to drop an occasional told-ya.

Looking back, Noland never really appeared to be anything but headed to Fayetteville to play for the Hogs.

And it wouldn’t be surprising if he’s the starting quarterback as a freshman. Before the typical knee-jerk reaction many fans have about freshmen playing, Noland has more experience in an offensive system as close to what they now have in Fayetteville than everybody else … combined.

Greenwood coach Rick Jones has an offense similar to Chad Morris’ because, well, he’s known him awhile. He’s had Noland making decisions for years.

“If we snapped it 70 times a game, Connor probably made 65 decisions,” Jones said in an interview right after Noland signed with the Hogs.

That’s the problem with the quarterbacks on the roster now. Their decision-making is not to the break-neck pace Morris wants in this new offense.

Noland — and fellow incoming freshman John Stephen Jones from Highland Park — can probably run Morris’ offense better than anybody on the Hogs’ roster right now.

Remember, it’s about making decisions on the fly in this offense. The days of the quarterback simply running the play the coach called have been over for a few years.

There’s a decision to be made almost every snap now.

Noland made the decision Hog fans were hoping he’d make earlier rather than later.

He may be making more on the field in September.

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