Tye & Tommy on the SEC practice change, Kevin McPherson/Mike Golic Jr. join the show, plus What’s Your Beef Wed!
Dawson on Razorbacks’ basketball with Joe returning plus a little football
WholeHogSports’ Dudley Dawson covered a wide range of Razorback-related items Thursday with Blair Cartwright and Zach Arns (Ruscin & Zach) on ESPN Arkansas.
SEC pushes back start of fall practices after delaying start of season
The official start of football practices has been pushed back 10 days by the SEC after last week’s announcement that the starting date will be three weeks later than originally scheduled.
The conference announced the change Tuesday, so Sam Pittman getting to have a regular practice after no spring practice is delayed again.
Tthe conference approved a 10-game, conference-only schedule last week but nobody knows exactly what anybody’s schedule is going to be as two additional games are going to have to be added to every team’s schedule.
Teams will be allowed up to 14 hours per week of strength and conditioning, meetings and walk-throughs beginning Friday and running through Aug. 16.
The conference said in a press release the change was developed based on recommendations from the SEC Return to Activity and Medical Guidance Task Force and provides for a total of 25 practices with a limit of 20 hours per week of practice time starting on Aug. 17.
For Pittman and the Razorbacks they will continue dealing with the various curveballs thrown their way since spring practice was cancelled in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The new calendar allows for more days off and fewer practices than permitted under current NCAA rules.
Schools will be required to provide a five-day acclimation period with two days in helmets only, two days in shells and the fifth day in full pads.
ON HALFTIME: Chavanelle on latest Razorback commitment in Stephens
Nikki Chavanelle from HawgBeat.com talked Tuesday afternoon about the Hogs’ weekend commitment from speedy Oklahoma City receiver Bryce Stephens with Phil Elson, Matt Jenkins and Matt Travis (Halftime) on ESPN Arkansas.
Murphy on Joe deciding to return to Hogs, key lines for football starting
Last week Tom Murphy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette felt the trends were turning towards Isaiah Joe staying in the NBA Draft and talked Tuesday morning about the change on The Morning Rush.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast – This football season, Muss/IJ reaction, Tom Murphy
Tye & Tommy on the football season ahead, Tom Murphy joins, Muss/IJ audio and more!
One of Holtz’ trademark phrases still plays well … so have high expectations
In 1977, none of us had heard a lot of the sayings many know by heart now from newly-hired Arkansas coach Lou Holtz and it was something new almost every day.
Someone pointed out to him nobody was expecting a whole lot from a team that may have been the most talent on any one team in Razorback history that was completely lost in the frustration of a 5-5-1 team.
Holtz wasn’t buying it.
“People live up to — or down to — what is expected of them,” he said.
A few folks rolled their eyes. Most just chalked it up to another coach trying to sell a bill of goods to the fans.
That team, of course, came within a blown call and a late screen pass to Earl Campbell that gave Texas a win on a windy day in Fayetteville to go 11-1 and have as good of a claim as anyone in the country to a national championship, but coming in third in the final polls.
No, the current Hogs’ football team probably isn’t going to do that, but there is enough talent to stop a 0-16 run in SEC games. Yeah, they get to play 10 of those this year so they have more opportunities, but they would have broken it anyway.
First of all the talent on the team really isn’t as bad as their schedule showed the last couple of years. With a coaching staff that didn’t have a clue what to do at the SEC level, players really played down to the expectation level of Chad Morris and his staff.
All we heard from him for two years was how he had to have more players to turn things around. The players he had figured he didn’t have much faith in them so they didn’t have a lot in the coaches.
Nowhere was that more obvious than on offense where eight different players started at quarterback over the last two seasons. Very few coaches have consistently won with a rotation at the quarterback position.
New offensive coordinator Kendal Briles knows that. It’s why the odds-on guess is graduate transfer Feleipe Franks will be the opening day starter Sept. 26.
The Hogs may have pulled off a big one getting him to come in. He quarterbacked Florida to a 10-win season a year after they won just four games with a team in complete chaos.
We’ve seen at other places that graduate transfer quarterbacks can come in and be successful immediately … with good coaching.
It might make a difference when the coaches expect to win with the players they have and are consistent with a message the players buy into.
Which is why this delayed start to the season may not be preferred and certainly wasn’t planned but may work out even better for the Hogs. They will have a couple of more practices than they would have had with a spring practice.
Plus no break of a few months where the coaches hope the players remember it.
And it’s okay to have expectations others may deem to be unrealistic.
You get the idea the coaches and players have high expectations, too.
Muck on how high school football practices very different in current pandemic
Jeremy Muck of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette talked Monday afternoon with Phil Elson, Matt Jenkins and Matt Travis (Halftime) on ESPN Arkansas about how practices look different this year.
Joe on decision to put off NBA Draft to return to Hogs, hoping for big season
Isaiah Joe told Eric Musselman a week before he made the decision last Saturday to forego the NBA Draft and return to play his junior season for the Hogs.
