Phil and Jenkins are joined today by Pig Trail Nation’s Jason Carroll for the show today, discussing Arkansas/Alabama and Gus Malzahn’s firing at Auburn. Also, Saturday Down South’s Connor O’Gara joins the show, 3 Up 3 Down, and what do you want for your Razorback Christmas?
Malzahn’s firing Sunday at Auburn catches media by surprise
Democrat-Gazette writer Tom Murphy was surprised at the news Sunday that Auburn had decided to part ways with Gus Malzahn …. now where do they go?
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast – Bama does it to everybody
Tye & Tommy on the loss to Bama, the win over UCA, Gus Malzahn news, plus Tom Murphy!
Neighbors on Shirey getting No. 600 as part of Hogs’ women’s basketball
Hogs’ coach Mike Neighbors on what Amber Shirey has brought to women’s basketball program as director of operations.
Dungee on playing in-state school, getting better in big win over UCA
Arkansas’ Chelsea Dungee (26 points, 2 steals) with the media after downing Central Arkansas, 105-58, on Sunday and using game to prepare for league schedule.
Auburn finally tires of Malzahn winning just enough to keep the job
Even when Gus Malzahn won big at Auburn it wasn’t enough because he didn’t win a title or beat Alabama often enough and apparently they were done with him.
Malzahn, after eight seasons and a 68-34 record, was fired Sunday, just a day after beating Mississippi State on the road, 24-10.
He was 3-5 against Alabama, which is about the all-time average for Auburn.
Malzahn, a native of Fort Smith, tried walking on for Ken Hatfield’s Razorbacks but decided he actually wanted to play and transferred to Henderson in Arkadelphia.
After several years coaching high schools, including Shiloh Christian and Springdale, he had a year as offensive coordinator for Houston Nutt with the Hogs. That didn’t work out and went to Tulsa, then Auburn where he was the offensive coordinator when Cam Newton and the Tigers won the national title in 2010.
Then he went to Jonesboro for a year before the Tigers dumped Gene Chizik just two seasons after winning the title and turned to Malzahn.
In his first season, Auburn rode two miracle wins over Georgia (the Hail Mary deflection) and Alabama (Kick Six) to the last BCS National Championship Game … and lost to Florida State on a last-minute drive.
Maybe the season that actually sealed his fate was also his last chance to return to coach Arkansas, a job people close to him had said was his dream job. Malzahn referred them to his longtime friend, Chad Morris.
Maybe Malzahn thought he was headed for a national title after beating Georgia and Alabama. That fell apart when the Tigers lost in the SEC Championship Game to Georgia, then Alabama beat the Bulldogs for the national title.
Meanwhile, Malzahn’s team was losing to Central Florida in the Peach Bowl.
At Auburn, that’s almost enough to get you fired and he might have been gone last year except he beat Alabama. Coaches don’t get fired at Auburn after beating the Crimson Tide … that’s a bad look.
Malzahn won’t go away broke. ESPN’s Alex Scarborough reported the buyout is $21.7 million and half of that is due in 30 days.
When he allowed his name to be floated as the leading candidate to replace the fired Bret Bielema, he got a seven-year extension worth $49 million, but also had his buyout reduced.
First, Malzahn was never coming back to Fayetteville. Second, he was never going to get all $49 million in that extension.
The Tigers were 6-4 this year and third in the SEC West, but the loss that may have finished him came back in October, losing to South Carolina.
Of course, Razorback fans are giggling hearing this news. There is zero reason to be concerned about Gus. He’ll be fine.
When Malzahn hired Morris as his offensive coordinator, Hog fans figured this was exactly what was going to happen.
Malzahn’s up-tempo attack, which he wrote a book about and became famous for popularizing as a coordinator and then a head coach, slowed and regressed in some aspects as Auburn ranked seventh in the SEC in points per game since 2018.
Now the question is who’s next?
People close to Auburn have told me for over a month it’s Hugh Freeze, the former Ole Miss coach who was fired for NCAA questions clouded by his use of his school cell phone to hire escorts while on recruiting trips. It was old news.
Sources in the SEC offices have said Freeze is out of the double-secret probation the guys in Birmingham like to quietly put coaches as an unpublicized punishment. Bobby Petrino still believes that’s why he didn’t land at Tennessee in 2012.
Don’t be surprised to see Lane Kiffin’s name floated in the mix. Remember, he left Tennessee after one year for USC in 2009. You can win a title at Auburn easier than you can at Ole Miss.
The coaching carousel is spinning and where it stops nobody knows.
Fantasy Football Sunday — w/ Vinnie Iyer of Sporting News
It’s playoff time in fantasy football!!! Catch the latest info from Vinnie Iyer
Tate, Notae pass 1k career points in Razorbacks’ 100-75 win over UCA
Jalen Tate and J.D. Notae each scored their 1,000th career points to lead Arkansas to a 100-75 victory over Central Arkansas on Saturday night at Bud Walton Arena.
This was the first meeting between Arkansas and Central Arkansas since the 1946-47 season. The Razorbacks are now 7-0 all-time versus the Bears, including a 4-0 record in games played in Fayetteville.
The series dates back to Arkansas’ first season of basketball (1923-24). Prior to tonight’s game, the last time Arkansas hosted an in-state school for a regular-season game was Nov. 28, 1950, versus Arkansas Tech (the Razorbacks won 50-45).
Tate, a graduate transfer from Northern Kentucky, also tallied his third career double-double, getting 17 points and a career-high 11 assists.
Notae, who played his first two seasons at Jacksonville University prior to sitting out at Arkansas due to NCAA transfer rules, finished with a game-high 22 points — 17 coming in the second half — with six assists.
UCA led for the first 11:20 of the game, but Tate hit a 3-pointer and gave Arkansas its first lead (26-25) with 7:43 left in the first half.
While the Bears tied the game at 28-28, Moses Moody hit a layup with 6L33 left and the Razorbacks held the lead the rest of the way.
Arkansas was down 10 (22-12) with 11:35 left in the first half before going on a 20-3 run.
The Hogs started the run with a 12-0 run and, after a UCA 3-pointer, capped the spurt with an 8-0 run.
For the fifth time in six games, at least five Razorbacks scored in double figures. Joining Notae and Tate were Desi Sills (17), Moody (15) and Justin Smith (12), Connor Vanover just missed a double-double, pulling down 10 rebounds with nine points.
Moody added seven rebounds and three assists.
UCA was paced by Deandre Jones and Rylan Bergerson, each scoring 13. Jared Chatman registered a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. SK Shittu added 11 points.
Arkansas will not play a midweek contest this week due to final exams. The Razorbacks return to the court next Saturday (Dec. 20) to host Oral Roberts.
Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. and the game will be telecast on SEC Network.
FIRST HALF: Arkansas 41, Southern 35
• UCA scored the first six points of the game. Jalen Tate got Arkansas on the board first with a 3-pointer at 17:02.
• UCA got off to a hot start, leading 19-12 with 12 minutes to go and shooting 64.3 percent from the field.
• Arkansas took its first lead at 7:43 (26-25) on a Jalen Tate 3-pointer. UCA tied the game at 28-28 but never regained the lead the rest of the period.
• Arkansas heated up on a 7-0 run to get to within two (25-23) and force a UCA time out at 8:16.
• Arkansas used a 12-0 run and an 8-0 run as part of a 20-3 run – making 8-of-9 from the field – over 5:35 to take a 36-28 lead at the 4-minute timeout (3:54).
• Arkansas led by as many as 10 (38-28).
• UCA ended the half strongly and trailed by six at the break.
• Desi Sills and Jalen Tate each scored 10 points to lead the Razorbacks in the first half.
• There were just nine total fouls called and just two free throws attempted as Desi Sills was 1-of-2 at the line.
• For the first time this season, Arkansas was outrebounded in the first half, 20-16.
SECOND HALF: Arkansas 59, Southern 40
• Arkansas pushed its halftime lead from six to 14 (51-37) at the 17:10 mark.
• UCA got to within six (64-58) at the 9:50 mark. Moses Moody went on a 5-0 run but UCA cut it to single digits (69-60) with 8:29 left to play.
• Desi Sills answered with an old-fashion 3-point play and the Razorbacks led by double digits the rest of the way. Sills started a 16-4 run to put Arkansas up 23 with 3:48 to go.
• Notae made two free throws with 14 seconds left in the game to provide the 100-75 final score.
• Arkansas shot 60.5% from the field in the second half and held UCA to 38.2%.
• Arkansas scored at least 50 in a half for the third time this season, getting 59 tonight. Arkansas scored 61 in the first half versus Mississippi Valley State and 81 in the second half of that contest.
Game notes
• Arkansas’ starting lineup was Jalen Tate (G) – Desi Sills (G) – Moses Moody (G) – Justin Smith (F) – Connor Vanover (F) for the fifth straight game.
• Arkansas won the tip and is 6-0 this year when winning the tip.
• For the first time this season, Arkansas did not score on the opening possession of the game. Central Arkansas’ Samson George scored the game’s first points at 19:03.
• Jalen Tate scored Arkansas’ first points, a 3-pointer from the right corner at 17:02.
• JD Notae was the first sub for Arkansas.
• This was the first meeting between Arkansas and Central Arkansas since the 1946-47 season. The Razorbacks are 7-0 all-time versus the Bears, including a 4-0 record in games played in Fayetteville. The series dates back to Arkansas’ first season of basketball (1923-24).
The last time
• Arkansas hosted an in-state school for a regular-season game was Nov. 28, 1950 versus Arkansas Tech. (Razorbacks won 50-45)
• Arkansas hosted an in-state school overall was Mar. 13, 1987 versus Arkansas State in the first round of the NIT. (Razorbacks won 67-64)
NOTE: Arkansas did host UALR last season in an exhibition game as Razorback All-American Darrell Walker brought his squad to play the first contest on Nolan Richardson Court. (Arkansas won 79-64)
• Jalen Tate scored his 1,000th career point at 14:57, a layup to give him 1,001. He now has 1,013. He is 31 rebounds shy of 400 and now has 313 career assists.
• With a 3-pointer at 5:49, JD Notae scored his 1,000th career point. Notae now has 1,009 career points. Notae has scored in double figures in 52 of his 66 career games, has led his team in scoring 32 times and has scored 20-plus 16 times.
• Justin Smith is up next as he now needs 105 points for 1,000.
Tate goes over 1,000 points for college career, has double-double in win
Razorbacks’ Jalen Tate (17 points, 11 assists) reached a college milestone scoring, dismissed injuries after 100-75 win over Bears on Saturday.
Notae overcomes slow start but gets hot to pace Arkansas’ win over UCA
Arkansas guard J.D. Notae (22 points, 6 assists, 3 steals) said his shots wren’t falling early, but then it started to click in big night.
Despite a virus, opt-out excuses, schedule, Pittman has made Hogs better
Despite catastrophic predictions to the contrary from just about every corner, Arkansas managed to complete a ridiculously tough schedule in a crazy year.
An uncontrollable virus led to the greatest excuse for players to quit and coaches to run off players are just the highlights of what Sam Pittman has had to deal with in his first head coaching gig.
The fact he actually improved on things with the Razorbacks may be lost on some after a 52-3 loss to Alabama on Saturday that probably wasn’t really as close as the final score might indicate.
In the second half, Nick Saban was looking to the SEC Championship next week, which matters considerably more than the margin of victory over the Hogs.
“The second half they were just trying to go home,” Pittman said of the Crimson Tide, who took the second-half kickoff and ran off over half of the third quarter. “We got our butts kicked today … bad.
“But that’s the only time this year.”
Yes, it was ugly and every bit as bad as Pittman said. It was worse than Georgia, Texas A&M or Florida. Don’t judge the season by the last regular-season game.
“I told them you can’t let one game define your season,” Pittman said about what he told a group with long faces after the game.”
The numbers say things turned around for the Hogs this season. The final record will say 3-7, but it should have been at least 4-6 (the Auburn loss), probably 5-5 (with one defensive lineman regular in loss to LSU).
Remember, Pittman didn’t even get to see his team practice until the summer with the coronavirus wiping out spring practice and delaying everything for a month in fall practices.
And the SEC handed him maybe as tough of a schedule as anybody has ever had to play. When you have every opponent but one ranked at some point during the season that’s tough. Half of the schedule was the Top 10 at some point, making it tougher.
Despite all of that, plus the craziness of opt-outs and safety protocols, the Hogs still won 30% of their games … all in the SEC.
Since the 2012 season, Arkansas has won just 20.3% of their conference games. In one season, Pittman took a roster that hadn’t won a single league game in two seasons and won nearly a third of the conference games.
Maybe Pittman’s best recruiting efforts when he got the job was keep the seniors from leaving in droves. He’ll be recruiting most of them again since they can come back due to the free year they all get this year.
His pitch is probably going to be to keep it going.
“These guys helped start turning the program,” Pittman said. “We’re not near where we need to be, where we want to be. They helped us.
“We won three SEC games and we hadn’t done that in three years.”
To put this season in context, Pittman has dealt with getting a job and not getting to coach his team for nearly nine months, then having to deal with a ridiculously difficult schedule while never knowing who he’s going to have on the team.
“Ya’ll have no idea what going through covid, opt-out and injuries are about,” he said. “I mean none. You basically put your team together on Friday because the test comes back on Thursday.”
You get the idea, though, the opt-outs that players do bothers Pittman more than anything. It does me, too.
While it was designed as a way for players concerned about their safety could not play and keep their eligibility, it’s turned into an excuse for some of them to flat quit and avoid criticism.
Coaches have also used it as a politically-correct way to run off malcontents.
“Hopefully if the vaccine gets out and things our depth will get better,” Pittman said. “The kids aren’t afraid of the virus and at that point opting-out would be a thing of the past. Our depth is probably better than it looks simply because of the virus and opting out.”
When all of this settles down (and it will, whether you want to believe it or not), there will be plenty of things that could have been done differently.
That’s for later.
For now Pittman will be holding practices this week and waiting to hear where the Hogs’ bowl destination will be.
And he sounds confidant the Hogs will go bowling.
“In a regular season when you beat three SEC teams, you usually have 3-4 wins in the non-conference games and that’s 6-7 wins, and you go to a bowl game,” he said.
It has nothing to do with playing a game. That’s simply for television (this year ESPN is wanting matchups that people want to watch because records don’t mean a whole lot).
“Teams that don’t go to bowl games, they lose about 15 practices … they lose a spring ball to everybody that [goes to a bowl],” Pittman said Saturday. “If we didn’t think practice is important, then we wouldn’t want to go to a bowl game. But we do, and we want to.”
The good news is he will be going to a bowl game, probably in Houston or Memphis. Pittman was careful not to mention any specific bowl games.
Practices will be held this week he said near the end of his postgame comments.
Most of this week is about recruiting where the Hogs are sitting at No. 19 in the national rankings, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings.
Which is the most important thing right now because the season is complete.
And that may ultimately be the biggest accomplishment of all.
