Arkansas senior woman administrator Derita Ratcliffe on Thursday afternoon talked with Phil Elson, Matt Jenkins and Matt Travis (Halftime) on ESPN Arkansas about her hopes the protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd are helping advance attitudes.
Preparing for worst, hoping for best, once live sports actually resumes
I’m so ready for live sports, that I nearly did a cartwheel when I discovered my youngest son’s baseball league in Bryant will resume its season later this month.
As I am sure is the case with you, our family is restless dealing with the Covid-19 restrictions. J.D. (11) is resuming soccer practice but no games and Luke (8) will most likely play on two baseball teams by the end of June.
That is welcome news and even if it isn’t quite the MLB or NBA, it’s something.
Still, we can’t help but long for live pro and collegiate sporting events. We had planned to see at least one Arkansas baseball game in May and maybe more.
Right now, I’d give anything to be with my family in the bright sun at Baum-Walker Stadium with an order of nachos and a hot dog.
However, as we dream of that day and envisioning what it will be like watching new UA football coach Sam Pittman running out of the tunnel for the first time (Hopefully, Sept. 5 as scheduled), there is a reality that isn’t entirely pleasant.
Iowa State announced a plan last week to limit its football game attendance to 30,000 fans in its Jack Trice Stadium, which has a capacity of more than 60,000. Social distancing rules will apply.
That got me thinking. This could be very polarizing.
Some fans will be upset they can’t attend games because the first dibs goes to season ticket holders. Other fans won’t want to attend because of underlying conditions. It could be because the Cyclones, which are preseason nationally ranked, to have a much lesser of a home field advantage.
It’s safe to say, the atmosphere won’t be as good. It appears there is a plan to change the limit if things improve, but Iowa has been hit harder than Arkansas.
I am sure many athletic directors studied Iowa State’s plan and the feedback it received from fans. Others will start to unveil plans soon.
Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek claims plans are in place to keep attendance at capacity with fans required to wear masks, etc. That’s another sticking point.
Masks are very polarizing these days, and unfortunately it’s become political.
When it was revealed some of the travel baseball tournaments were requiring mask use from parents more than a few took to social media to voice displeasure about how uncomfortable that would be in the 90-degree heat.
Personally, I have gotten used to the mask. To protect my family, I wear it often to the grocery store and gas station.
Working remotely, my interaction is limited but basically when I’m in public I wear one. If you are a diehard fan, it’s a small price to pay to see college football.
Yes, it may be hot, but it can be removed to drink and eat, etc.
It’s an inconvenience, though, and is a big change. There will be other rules to regarding entering and exiting the stadium and moving around. It’s similar to air travel following 9/11.
The rules totally changed and travelers had to adjust to some pretty intrusive policies. Some patrons probably opted not to fly for a while.
The same could happen to live sports. Lately, with television quality and coverage improving and the price of tickets skyrocketing, attendance of games has gone down.
The restrictions could make that number drop even more.
As it stands today, there is an increasing number of cases in our state and in Northwest Arkansas.
If you have an existing condition or are elderly or have someone in your house that is elderly or vulnerable, you may think twice if a game was played this weekend
Luckily, we have a few months to monitor the spread.
However, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson insists Covid-19 will be with us for the long haul. Translation — during football and maybe basketball season. Some scientists worry about another wave during the winter.
Regardless, the days of fans moving around a full stadium carefree may be on hold. That is something all fans will have to consider before buying tickets.
It will be the price they pay to have sports resume.
Boyd named preseason second team by Athlon in preseason magazine
FAYETTEVILLE — Three Arkansas players were named to the Athlon Sports SEC Football 2020 Preseason All-Conference Teams, including a pair of multi-year honorees.
Senior running back Rakeem Boyd landed on the second team offense, while sophomore offensive lineman Ricky Stromberg was placed on the fourth team unit.
Senior De’Vion Warren rounded out the group with fourth team specialist honors. It’s the third-straight year Warren has appeared on an all-conference squad from the outlet, while Boyd is making his second showing on the list.
Boyd, from Houston, Texas, was the team’s leading rusher for the second consecutive season, totaling 1,133 yards on 184 carries, scoring eight times in 2019.
He ranked fourth in the SEC and 27th nationally with an average of 94.4 rushing yards per game and ninth in the conference with 6.2 yards per carry. He ran for 100+ yards in five games, posting a season-high 185 yards against Western Kentucky on Nov. 9, his most rushing yards as a Razorback.
His five 100+ yard performances brought him to a total of eight over two years, making him one of 16 Arkansas running backs in school history to do so. Boyd also hauled in 160 yards through the air on 19 catches in 2019.
Stromberg, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, played in all 12 games as a freshman last year, moving into the starting position at guard, with each of the last nine games coming at the right guard slot.
He totaled 741 snaps in 2019, according to Pro Football Focus, participating in every offensive play in five games. Stromberg did not allow a sack in 417 pass protection plays, recording three grades over 80.0 from PFF in the category.
He blocked for an offense that scored 28 times and racked up 4,081 total yards, including 2,315 passing yards, 1,766 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns both through the air and on the ground last season.
Warren, from Monroe, Louisiana, appeared in nine games for the Razorbacks in 2019, seeing time as a regular on both offense and on Arkansas’ special teams units.
He returned a team-high 16 kickoffs for 326 yards, averaging 20.4 yards per turn. His longest of the year came on a 37-yard return at Ole Miss on Sept. 7, coming a yard shy of it the following week against Colorado State with a 36-yard play.
Warren finished the year with nine of his 16 returns going for 20+ yards. He also caught four passes for 19 yards, while also rushing five times for 51 yards, providing a threat every time he touched the ball.
Information from Razorback Sports Communications is included in this story.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Sam Pittman comments, Coach Crutchfield, Trivia Thursday!
Tye & Tommy on what Sam Pittman had to say, Chris Crutchfield joins the program, plus Trivia Thursday!
Crutchfield on taking job at East Central to spend more time coaching his kids
Former Arkansas assistant coach Chris Crutchfield didn’t plan on having opportunity to get head coaching job and had to clear it with his kids that are already there first.
He talked about it Thursday morning with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft (The Morning Rush) on ESPN Arkansas.
Hammonds’ speed, doing ‘what he needed to’ gets him back on scholarship
When T.J. Hammonds re-joined Arkansas last year after sitting out a semester he did it without a scholarship but Sam Pittman announced Wednesday that changed Tuesday.
“He signed it yesterday,” Pittman said. “We’re happy to be able to do that. He earned the right to get his scholarship back.”
Hammonds does add some speed and Pittman may have given a little bit of a clue what’s he’s trying to address immediately in recruiting for the Razorbacks
“You can beat people two ways,” Pittman said. “You can beat them with speed or you can beat them bigness. You can beat them with large humans. Right now it’s a little faster for us to get fast guys than it is get a whole team of big guys.”
Hammonds delivers that. After a 64-yard scoring run against Colorado State in 2018, the rest of the way has been up and down and out. It appeared there was some sort of disconnect with the previous coaching staff, but that’s pure speculation.
Last season he rushed for 65 yards on eight carries and caught four passes for 10 yards after sitting out the first four games after re-joining the team. He redshirted in 2018 after playing the first four games.
“He’s fast,” Pittman said Wednesday. “He’s got a lot of speed.”
Which is something Pittman obviously wants more of and adding Hammonds back is a way to start on that immediately.
Razorbacks’ Pittman ‘excited’ to have players returning to campus for workouts
Players return officially to campus Monday for what Arkansas coach Sam Pittman repeated several times Wednesday afternoon were “voluntary” workouts but it’s a big step towards getting back to some real coaching.
After talking with Majors on Sunday night, his death shocked Sherrill
When the news broke Wednesday morning about the death of Hall of Fame coach Johnny Majors maybe no one was more surprised than one of his many protogés, Jackie Sherrill.
“I was kinda shocked,” Sherrill said from his home in central Texas on Wednesday afternoon. “I talked with him Sunday night and we had talked about how good he was feeling.”
Their relationship was a deep one that started in Fayetteville when Majors was an assistant for Frank Broyles from 1964-67, a four-year run were Arkansas was 34-8-1 with a national title in 1964 and a 30-3 stretch before that last season.
Sherrill had come in from Alabama as a graduate assistant after spending a year working for Paul “Bear” Bryant and playing for the Crimson Tide.
Both liked winning. That was a big part of a relationship that launched Sherrill’s career. When Majors departed for Iowa State after that 1967 season he took Sherrill along as a defensive assistant.
“My wife said to me after we got the phone call this morning that, ‘Coach Majors was probably the biggest father figure in your life,'” Sherrill said. “She’s probably right.”
It started when Sherrill was a star high school player in Biloxi, Mississippi, and Majors was an assistant coach at Mississippi State.
“Rabbit Brown was the main guy recruiting me,” Sherrill said (and you just don’t have enough good names like that in coaching anymore). “Coach Majors came down and watched me play a few times but I decided to go to Alabama.”
Majors specialized in turning teams around. He did it everywhere he went and was a key figure on the staff of turning things around with the Razorbacks from 1963 to winning it all the next season.
“He was able to make players do things they really didn’t want to do,” Sherrill said. “Everybody just liked him, he was a true role model and he got players to accomplish things they didn’t know they could do.”
Majors’ first head coaching job was at Iowa State in the old Big 8 and they were terrible. He didn’t do immediate improvements but he got the Hawkeyes to their first (ever) two bowl games in 1971 and 1972.
“The only games that 1971 Iowa State team lost were to Nebraska, Oklahoma and Colorado,” Sherrill said. “Those were the teams that finished 1-2-3 in the country.”
Then he went to Pittsburgh, taking Sherrill with him as defensive coordinator.
In four years they took the Panthers from 1-10 to an undefeated national championship season before Majors answered the call at his alma mater, Tennessee, and rebuilt a program that had dropped a little back to a national contender.
“That first year at Pitt we took five busloads of players to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, for preseason camp,” Sherrill said. “We came back in three buses.”
His best team with the Vols was 1989 … that he capped by hanging on in an epic Cotton Bowl win over Arkansas in a shootout.
For Sherrill, he sounded glad he had that phone conversation with Majors on Sunday night.
“We were laughing and talking about old times,” he said. “He lived in this house overlooking the Tennessee River, he fell asleep there last ight and didn’t wake up.
“He left his mark on a lot of people in a lot of places.”
Majors, 85, was in Fayetteville during spring practice in 2019 and spent most of his time visiting with people but when the coaches lined up the players for their version of the Oklahoma Drill, Majors quit visiting.
He got as close as he could and was watching closely.
Just like old coaches tend to do.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Lost respect in the SEC,Nick Kayal and more!
Tye & Tommy on the anonymous SEC coach on Arkansas, loads of sports coming, Nick Kayal, and more!
Is figuring out Razorbacks’ identity biggest challenge facing Pittman?
Right now there are more questions than answers surrounding Arkansas football with a first-year coach that’s never been a head coach or even a coordinator at the college football level.
“I’m not sure many people know a ton about the guy other than reading his Wikipedia page or looking at his resume,” Nick Kayal of Athlon Sports on Wednesday morning told Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft (The Morning Rush) on ESPN Arkansas about new Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman.
That’s not as negative as it sounds. It’s more of a reflection of the lack of a track record to go on combined with Pittman being an offensive line coach and those guys aren’t in the headlines a lot.
College football insiders have known how respected Pittman is developing NFL-ready linemen and being a relentless recruiter.
Nobody has a clue how he’ll do as a head coach at a place where the football program has dug deeper down the chaos hole for several years.
“What a lot of people do when they look at a coach at a program in the conference, they automatically look at the head coach and if the name doesn’t have any glitz or glamour to it or if it’s not a splashy hire or sexy move we automatically assume he’s not going to get that program back to where it needs to be,” Kayal said.
Ole Miss hired Lane Kiffin for that.
The same with Mississippi State and Mike Leach. When things went sideways in the Missouri coaching search they grabbed Eliah Drinkwitz, who at least had one year as a head coach at Appalachian State.
The Hogs have been going through an identity crisis for over a decade. They had some winning years in there but it was clear (even winning 11 games just a few seasons ago) that wasn’t going to continue.
Nobody has really understood the uniqueness of the Arkansas program for over a decade. They’ve tried to create success and programs from other places into the Razorback program and it has failed miserably.
“They are going through an identity crisis right now from where they were five years ago with a guy like Bret Bielema to Chad Morris,” Kayal said. “From a physical, up-front trench team to more of a spread team. We’ve seen the differences the last five years. The win total go from 8 to 7 to 4 to 2 and 2.”
He compared the Hogs to Vanderbilt, who have actually moved ahead of Arkansas in the league. It was Craft who pointed out Arkansas has to get back to competing with the M’s on their schedule … that’s Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Missouri.
Let all of that sink in for a minute. When Missouri came into the league in 2012 there were media people in this state that laughed at the Tigers and said it would be years before they could compete much less win anything.
All they did was win the SEC East two straight years in their second and third years in the league. None of us know if the Hogs will ever get back to that level. Most will continue to predict doom and gloom.
“Now it just seems they’re facing a major identity crisis,” Kayal said. “Before you can rebound and become relevant again you’ve got to decide what you want to be and what you are. That’s the issue they’re going to face this year.”
Pittman at least understands what Arkansas is. He’s shown that in the few months he’s had the job.
But there are more questions than answers and he would probably admit that. Shoot, Pittman hasn’t even had a chance to see his players on a practice field with a ball.
And it’s all speculation … even for folks like Kayal.
“I’d be lying if I said he was going to fail or he was going to get this team back to eight wins in two or three years simply because I don’t know enough about the guy,” he said.
At least we can start seeing SOMETHING on Monday. That’s when the players officially start working out again.
And even that won’t provide answers.
