ON THE MORNING RUSH: CBS Sports’ Tony Barnhart said Friday morning if Nick Saban can’t be at Alabama-Georgia, it’s worth at least a touchdown.
Pittman fully confident Hogs will be playing against Ole Miss on Saturday
Arkansas coach Sam Pittman with the media Thursday afternoon on expecting to play Rebels on Saturday despite Covid reports in Oxford.
ON HALFTIME: Holt on how Covid-19 starting to affect football in SEC
Bob Holt of the Democrat-Gazette talked about the cancellations of some SEC games, game with Ole Miss still set to be played pending tests.
Neighbors tells Elson his head is going to have to swivel a lot faster this season
Mike Neighbors told radio announcer Phil Elson on Thursday this team is faster, which is going to make Phil’s head probably spin around.
Van Horn ahead of Razorbacks starting fall series at Baum-Walker on Friday
Arkansas opens the team’s fall series on Friday afternoon inside the friendly confines of Baum-Walker Stadium.
The roster has been divided into two teams, with student assistant DJ Baxendale and volunteer assistant coach Bobby Wernes coaching the competing squads.
The series opens Friday at 3 p.m. but due to Covid-19 fans will not be allowed to attend the fall series this year.
Beginning on Sunday the series will be available on SEC Network+ starting with Game 2 at 1 p.m.
The two teams will square off in a seven-game series with the intent to play all seven games. All seven games are scheduled for seven innings.
The Razorbacks are coming off a shortened season that saw the team go 11-5 before the remainder of the season was canceled due to the pandemic.
The Hogs were led by Heston Kjerstad and Casey Martin, who were both picked in the limited Major League Baseball Draft in June. Kjerstad was picked second overall by Baltimore with Martin going in the third round to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Van Horn’s Hogs return six players that started at least 13 of the team’s 16 games, including outfielder Christian Franklin who hit .381 with eight extra-base hits.
On the mound, the team returns seven arms that started games last spring, including weekend starters Connor Noland and Patrick Wicklander.
Game – Date – Time – Starting Pitchers (Red vs. Black)
Game 1 – Friday, Oct. 16 – 3 p.m. – LHP Caden Monke vs. RHP Connor Noland
Game 2 – Sunday, Oct. 18 – 1 p.m. on SECN+ – RHP Kole Ramage vs. RHP Caleb Bolden
Game 3 – Monday, Oct. 19 – 3 p.m. on SECN+ – RHP Zebulon Vermillion vs. LHP Patrick Wicklander
Game 4 – Wednesday, Oct. 21 – 3 p.m. on SECN+ – RHP Blake Adams vs. RHP Jaxon Wiggins
Game 5 – Friday, Oct. 23 – 3 p.m. on SECN+ – LHP Lael Lockhart vs. RHP Will McEntire
Game 6 – Saturday, Oct. 24 – 1 p.m. on SECN+ – TBA vs. TBA
Game 7 – Sunday, Oct. 25 – 1 p.m. on SECN+ – TBA vs. TBA
| Red Team | Black Team |
|---|---|
| Position Players | Position Players |
| 1 Robert Moore | 4 Jalen Battles |
| 3 Zack Gregory | 5 Jacob Nesbit |
| 6 Michael Brooks | 7 Cayden Wallace |
| 8 Braydon Webb | 9 Clayton Gray |
| 10 Matt Goodheart | 11 Cason Tollett |
| 12 Casey Opitz | 15 Dylan Leach |
| 14 Cullen Smith | 19 Charlie Welch |
| 16 Zac White | 24 Bryce Matthews |
| 17 Brady Slavens | 25 Christian Franklin |
| 44 Jackson Cobb | 26 Ethan Bates |
| Pitchers | Pitchers |
| 18 Lael Lockhart | 13 Connor Noland |
| 21 Jacob Burton | 20 Elijah Trest |
| 27 Blake Adams | 22 Jaxon Wiggins |
| 28 Kole Ramage | *29 Nate Wohlgemuth |
| 32 Zack Morris | 31 Caleb Bolden |
| 34 Nick Griffin | 33 Patrick Wicklander |
| 35 Ryan Costeiu | 39 Evan Taylor |
| 36 Peyton Pallette | 40 Corey Spain |
| 37 Caden Monke | 41 Will McEntire |
| 38 Mark Adamiak | 43 Miller Pleimann |
| 48 Heston Tole | 45 Kevin Kopps |
| 49 Liam Henry | 46 Tyler Cacciatori |
| 50 Matthew Magre | 52 Louis Stallone |
| 58 Evan Gray | 55 Gabriel Starks |
| 59 Issac Bracken | 57 Nathan Rintz |
| 88 Zebulon Vermillion | * also listed as an outfielder |
RECRUITING THURSDAY: Davenport on punter commitment, other top recruits
Arkansas got a commitment earlier this week from highly-regarded punter and kicker Patrick Foley and Richard Davenport talked about it on The Morning Rush.
Murphy says Covid making big news seem a little routine during unusual season
Ole Miss short of players, Nick Saban positive for Covid-19 part of a year like no other, says Tom Murphy on The Morning Rush on Thursday.
Hogs could be bowling after NCAA eliminates win requirement for year
Sam Pittman could get a nice boost in his first season by getting Arkansas into a bowl game and now there’s no minimum number of wins.
One-time rules changes in Division I football were announced Tuesday and a lot of the major one-year-only changes were overshadowed when news broke of Alabama’s Nick Saban and athletics director Greg Byrne testing positive for Covid-19.
It was that kind of sports news day.
In addition to all football programs eligible for a bowl game — regardless of record — all winter athletes will now get an extra year of eligibility.
That will have a major impact on basketball teams across the country and makes life interesting for Eric Musselman and Mike Neighbors, both of whom have proven pretty adept at juggling a roster every year.
But the football bowl game issue could be huge for the Razorbacks.
And the entire SEC.
In a year like no one has ever seen, bowl games could get a boost by getting an SEC team as opposed to a non-Power 5 opponent.
Getting fans is something every bowl game wants. The main money behind them the last few years, though, is the television money (primarily from ESPN) and the more eyeballs watching an SEC team is going to be worth more than a smaller team.
For Pittman and the Hogs, getting to a bowl game in his first year could be a huge recruiting tool … and I really don’t care what the record is to get there.
As SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said on The Paul Finebaum Show on Tuesday, there’s no asterisk connected to anything this season.
Arkansas, sitting at 1-2 right now with lots of optimism among a fan base that has endured a three-year descent into the depths of hell in football, could benefit greatly from a bowl game … any bowl game.
The NCAA’s Division I Council is meeting this week and those aren’t the biggest items on the schedule.
The subject of name-image-likeness is a topic for discussion, but don’t expect anything resembling a final decision on that even if the NCAA says it’s okay.
State legislatures will have a say, too.
But the good news is the Hogs could go bowling this year … regardless of the record.
Kiffin confirms Covid-19 outbreak at Ole Miss; game still on
As of right now, Arkansas’ game with Ole Miss on Saturday is still a go, but it has changed television networks and fans will be holding their breath.
Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin confirmed an outbreak of Covid-19 on the team during the SEC Teleconference on Wednesday but wasn’t making any numbers available.
“We could play today, so we’ll see,” Kiffin said. “We are not in a great situation, numbers-wise, at all.”
Exactly who the players in question are is not known and there’s no point in guessing at any hidden meanings behind his comments.
My old buddy David Johnson at the Ole Miss Spirit (himself a Covid-19 survivor after 44 days in the hospital, 21 on a ventilator) reported what they had found out:
The Ole Miss Spirit has learned through sources that none of the positive COVID-19 tests, thus far, have been among offensive starters. One area that has been affected, per those sources, is the defensive front.
In addition, due to other postponements of SEC games, the Hogs-Rebels game at 2:30 Saturday will air on the SEC Network instead of ESPN2.
Kiffin said he didn’t think the players contracted the virus from within the team and had an idea where it came from.
“I think so. I mean I know who it did. I don’t think it was actually anything while they were here,” he said Monday morning. “I said Sunday or Monday … our first meeting … that it just got real. Anytime you talk about things, it doesn’t hit home until it happens to you.
“Now they’re seeing it and seeing depth charts move. People have to change positions and different things. I hope it really was another reminder. It only takes one person to really screw it up.”
The SEC requires three tests per week from its member programs. Those tests are conducted on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, meaning the Rebels’ COVID-19 numbers and close contact traces could certainly grow by the weekend.
Like Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said earlier in the week, the Rebels weren’t in the greatest physical shape coming out of a 63-48 loss to Alabama last weekend.
“We’re beat up, too, from a very intense game versus a great team Saturday (Alabama),” Kiffin said.
