Arkansas defensive coordinator Barry Odom and offensive coordinator Kendal Briles updated the media via teleconference Friday on becoming teachers and confident of installs on both sides of ball.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Pittman’s love for Arkansas, Steve Atwater and more!
Tye & Tommy on Pittman’s love for Arkansas, Clay on the assistants’ strengths, Steve Atwater joins and more!
Atwater plans to be smiling for eternity on bust for Pro Football Hall of Fame
Somewhere along Steve Atwater’s journey, former Denver assistant coach Charlie Waters tagged him with the nickname “Smiling Assassin” and it’s going to follow him to the Hall of Fame and stay there.
The former Arkansas All-American Friday was on The Morning Rush with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft on ESPN Arkansas and said he wasn’t crazy about it at first but accepted it.
“I like to have a good time even on the field,” Atwater said. “Our defensive backs coach Charlie Waters first told me about it and I thought it was corny then and still do, but it’s all right.”
Each player has a bronze bust of their likeness and Atwater will have some kind of smile on his as each member has some input to how it’s made.
“You have guys with big huge smiles and Ronnie Lott had that scowl,” he said. “I’m going to smile. Not a big cheesy smile, but it fits the ‘Smiling assassin.'”
With the current global health pandemic putting gatherings of large people in question, the Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremonies in August in Canton, Ohio, fall into that category, too. Atwater knows the realities of the situation.
“Ideally would like to be in person,” Atwater said. “But I’ve always been one able to adapt to reality. If we have to do it by Skype or Zoom that’s the way we’ll have to do it. I’d love to have all of us get together and have a great time.
“If we have to push it out a year we have to do that. The big thing is we’re in. If for some reason it can’t happen in this instance it’s quite understandable. A lot of lives have been lost and it would be an issue.”
Atwater still lives in Colorado and works with the Broncos where he made his mark after an Arkansas career that will always be remembered, unfortunately, for a play he wasn’t able to make — a dropped interception that would have given the Hogs an upset win over Miami in 1988.
“That was a rough game,” Atwater said of the 18-16 loss that came on a field goal at the end. “If I’d caught that interception in the end zone they wouldn’t have been able to kick the field goal.”
Other teams like Florida State have given Atwater grief over the dropped interception because they would have jumped past the Hurricanes. in the rankings.
“The whole conference down there was upset with me,” Atwater said, laughing. “I wish I could have that one back. I also had interception in Super Bowl 32 and dropped it.
“Those drops were part of what was keeping me out of the Hall of Fame for awhile, but it doesn’t matter now.”
Through it all, from the time he arrived in Fayetteville to now waiting to be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame, Atwater’s biggest trait hasn’t changed.
“You gotta be a good person first and other things take care of themselves,” he said.
Kleine on Sutton’s honor, playing ‘miniscule part’ on 80’s great Bulls teams
Former Arkansas player Joe Kleine was on the Ruscin & Zach Show with Derek Ruscin and Zach Arns on ESPN Arkansas covering a wide range of topics from Eddie Sutton being selected for the Hall of Fame and playing with the Chicago Bulls.
ESPN is debuting a 10-part series on the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls and their dysfunctional trip to an NBA title with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman among others.
“I was a very miniscule part of a great dynasty,” Kleine said. “That was the Golden Age of basketball when (Larry) Bird and Magic (Johnson) came in and then thru (Michael Jordan) was when NBA basketball was at it’s finest.”
Kleine was with the Bulls for the 1997-98 season was there when the run of six titles in eight seasons ended.
“Coming from the outside I had no idea (of the dysfunction),” Kleine said. “It was us against them. Not me, but Jordan, (Scottie) Pippen and Phil (Jackson). A lot of it was centered around the Bulls would not re-negotiate contracts.
“That was the main ingredient.”
Into the middle of the hysteria that surrounded Jordan’s rock-star status and the overall high profile nature of the Bulls, they brought in Dennis Rodman.
“That was like having a blazing fire then throwing gasoline on it,” Kleine said. “He was harmless … he was wild.”
But Rodman did work at basketball outside of the zany antics.
“He was there every day for practice,” Kleine said. “He was accountable.
Yurachek tells Halftime he’s working at home in wine room these days
In a day and age with a lot of questions and almost no answers with college athletics, Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek is keeping busy at home … working in the wine room.
No, seriously. That’s what he told Halftime’s Phil Elson and Matt Jenkins on ESPN Arkansas on Thursday afternoon.
“I’ve kinda been relegated to the wine room,” Yurachek said. “I’ve been sharing a home office with my wife and two sons that are at home and doing their school work. I’m kinda hunkered down in the wine room and found some work peace down there.”
It left co-host Elson more or less wondering where the problem was with that.
“The wine cellar is not a terrible place to be holing up to do work during the day,” he said.
“It is not,” Yurachek said, laughing. “Especially later in the afternoon.”
Getting back to the serious part of this global pandemic, though, Yurachek is probably overcoming so separation anxiety. He’s at almost every sporting event the Razorbacks have.
“The biggest void for me is seeing our events, seeing our coaches, seeing our student-athletes and seeing our staff and seeing our fans on a daily basis in person is what’s really missing for me,” he said.
On the most pressing subject lately, Yurachek echoed the general theme voiced by college administrators across the country about football being played.
“If it’s not safe enough for our fans to be in the stands, somebody’s going to have to really sell me on what protocol is in place that it’s safe enough for those young men on both sides of that line of scrimmage, one foot apart, sweating on each other, spitting on each other, sharing a football, how it is safe for them,” he said.
It will come down to, obviously, a decision to be made by people much higher up than Yurachek.
“There’s so many unknowns,” he said. “Way too many questions and not answers.”
Musselman calls in to The Morning Rush and head coaches go to front of line
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman headed out of his driveway Thursday morning, had the radio on and decided to call into The Morning Rush on ESPN Arkansas with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft, but he had questions.
“As I was pulling out I said I’m going to try this call-in number and see if they really like pick up or if they just put you on hold or how does this really work,” he said at the end of a 10-minute conversation. “My first official call-in due to the virus of boredom so I appreciate you guys putting me on. I didn’t know if you were going to tell me to call back tomorrow or say we don’t have time today so why don’t you try calling back on Tuesday or Wednesday or something.”
Craft put it pretty simply how things work in Arkansas sports radio.
“Head coaches go to the front of the line,” he said.
After Wednesday’s signing day where Musselman landed four signatures including big men in Fort Smith Northside’s Jailyn Williams and graduate transfer Vance Jackson.
Both are 6-foot-9 and will go with 7-3 Connor Vanover and totally change the look of the lineup at least and, in theory, the way the team plays.
“We’re going to have to explore,” Musselman said. “Not having the guys right now makes it a little more difficult because we will have so many new faces.”
Having a bigger lineup and an awful lot of time to do his analytics and tinkering it’s a good bet all the film teams have on the Razorbacks from last season will be nearly useless.
“We want to try to get creative,” Musselman said. “We’re watching teams that play two bigs together. Right now that’s one of our projects. The big thing is how do we play pick-and-roll with a bigger lineup. We might not be able to close out as quickly as five guards.”
One thing he doesn’t want to do is give up too much ground on what the Hogs did best last season — guarding the three-point line.
“For all the problematic defensive rebounding issues we had we were number one in the country at defending the three,” he said. “When you get bigger, defending the three and extending your perimeter defense you become a little bit more vulnerable.
“Statistics are telling you now the three ball is as important as anything so we’re going to have to work with some of our bigs because we don’t want to lose one of the things we did better than anybody in the country in defending that three-ball line.”
In his NBA career he’s seen some pretty creative things, going all the way back to when his father, Bill Musselman, was coaching in Minnesota and faced the Los Angeles Lakers.
“One of the most creative matchups I’ve ever seen in my life my dad had Randy Brewer at 7-3 guard Magic Johnson in a game,” Musselman said Thursday morning. “They encouraged three-balls and took away all of his post-up.”
One thing is for certain, though, just as things are different with a media-savvy coach that makes unplanned call-ins to the morning show, coaches are going to have to figure out the Hogs as the early games get under way.
Vote now in Round 2 of greatest Razorback game of all time bracket
The opening round of voting for the greatest Razorback football game of all-time bracket went great! But it’s time to continue the bracket! Today, we wrap up 2nd round voting with the Ken Hatfield Region! Make sure to submit your votes below!
Click here to view the full bracket!
On Monday, we will begin voting in the Sweet 16, and there are some good match ups coming up! Get out there and vote on what you think the Greatest Razorback Football Game of All Time!
Pittman will ‘deal with it’ whenever they come up with date to get rolling
On a day when the Coronavirus Task Force talked with college football people, the bottom line is everyone just wants a date when the colleges open which will signal a date to re-start football.
This past week the momentum nationally has turned into getting everything opened again.
“We’re fighting this virus and trying to get our economy back so we can go to a football game,” U.S. Rep. French Hill of Arkansas 2nd Congressional District said on The Morning Rush with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft on Wednesday morning.
That was before Vice President Mike Pence spent a good time listening to the College Football Playoff Management Committee, who pointed out they have to get the colleges open first, which is more or less obvious.
As the momentum is shifting toward re-opening certain aspects of life (which should be starting soon in Arkansas), Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman is basically staying focused on recruiting.
“We’ll just deal with it,” he told Derek Ruscin and Zach Arns on the Ruscin & Zach Show on ESPN Arkansas on Wednesday afternoon. “If we could get started by the first of July we’d be in great shape.”
Other coaches have said they have to be back and going by July 1. Pittman would like that, but he’s not using it as a drop-dead date like the strength coaches are.
“Well, our strength and conditioning coaches would like 6-8 weeks,” he said. “That’s what they’re familiar with, that’s what they’re comfortable with.”
Then he said what I’ve suspected for awhile that he’ll at least have some experience if it opens a month later.
“I was around when players used to come in August 1,” he said.
He’s been doing this so long in the 1980’s the majority of players on campus in the summer were either trying to get their acadmics straightened out or re-habbing an injury. Coaches spent most of August trying to whip players into shape for the season.
“We could come in August 1 and go,” Pittman said.
Pittman did point out getting the offense in before the first game every year probably wasn’t going to happen even with spring practice and that’s not limited to first-year coaching staffs.
“You never have your whole playbook in for the first game,” he said. “You just don’t. You really don’t do a whole bunch of nothing very good. If we end up August 1 you’ll see everybody cut their playbook back a little bit.
“Ours will be a little more than that simply because we haven’t been out on the grass with ’em.”
He did say, though, execution of whatever they do is going to the key.
“If we have to cut back, we have to make sure whatever we install is our favorite and that we do that well.”
Doing just a few things well is the tried-and-true way most coaches have done things for several decades now. It has shown it works better than having a bunch of stuff and you can’t do anything well.
Which is what Hog fans have seen the last few years.
