Mohajir open to playing football against Razorbacks … even in Fayetteville
Right now the feeling is the political excuse of future scheduling is the primary barrier between the matchup of Arkansas and Arkansas State, which is something that could be swatted around for awhile.
ASU athletics Terry Mohajir continued his stance of basically saying the Red Wolves will play the Razorbacks any where, any time, Wednesday with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft (The Morning Rush) on ESPN Arkansas.
“I’ve always said that,” Mohajir said. “We’ll always play whatever makes good sense for people. We play one bye game every year and if it’s Fayetteville or Little Rock that’s good. Our fans will travel. It makes complete sense.”
That bye game, by the way, is when Mohajir’s plan every year is a big payday going on the road to play a Power 5 team. This year it’s Michigan, then Washington and Ohio State in 2023.
The Razorbacks have regularly scheduled teams in the Sun Belt, where the Red Wolves play. Until the football program fell the last two seasons through the seventh gate of football hell, it was almost always a win.
Hogs athletics director Hunter Yurachek knows all this. He was at Houston when they tried to schedule games against Texas, Texas A&M and other big-name teams, but nobody really wanted to play those games.
My argument for years has been why is that money going out of the state? The Hogs have played Sun Belt teams and SWAC teams regularly. Why can’t that money go to ASU and UAPB?
Frank Broyles’ argument that grew tired and old was essentially the Hogs didn’t need to stoop to that level with in-state teams.
“I think it was behind the times,” Mohajir said. “I understand why they didn’t play back then. It was a longstanding philosophy. It doesn’t change our world that much. It doesn’t really surprise me because the people were adamant.”
Now things have changed. Hogs baseball coach Dave Van Horn has been pushing playing in-state teams for a few years. There’s not really much reason for the schools not to play in non-revenue sports.
The elephant in the room has always been football and basketball. Now economics has speeded things along. It’s basically taken a global pandemic to speed up games against in-state schools.
Money is going to be a little less simply because there haven’t been games played. Aside from revenue generated it’s the chief marketing arm to get regular students.
“Everybody’s trying to reduce costs because no one knows what the future looks like,” Mohajir said. “No one knows what it’s going to look like this year.”
The dollars and sense (that’s intended, by the way) means ASU can travel to Fayetteville to play games cheaper than they can go to some other places.
“To be candid, I think they started looking at flights, flying people all over the country,” Mohajir said. “It’s our obligation to get competition and make it as fiscally possible as you can make it.”
While he certainly would look at something played in Jonesboro or Little Rock, he knows Fayetteville is likely the only option with a realistic shot of happening … and that’s where the games should be played.
“We’re open to anything,” Mohajir said. “When they are ready to do it we’ll do it then. If they want to play in Jonesboro, Little Rock or Fayetteville we’ll do it. If (Yurachek) wants to do it that’s great. It would create a lot, lot of excitement.”
He threw the ball into the Hogs’ responsibility, which is where this thing has been all along. It would be an easier scheduling situation for them because they can have one high profile game and three games a year against non-Power 5 teams.
ASU can really only schedule one game a year against a high-profile opponent. They need a few non-conference games they can win, too.
They tried it with Central Arkansas a couple of years back … and lost.
“They came into Jonesboro and beat us,” Mohajir said. “It doesn’t change your world. They brought a lot of people.”
Mohajir and Yurachek talk. How often they communicate is something only they know. Whether he’ll admit it publicly or not, Yurachek can drop one of the non-conference games on the Hogs’ schedule.
Contracts for games are simply the starting point for negotiations when one side wants to break the deal. Michigan did it with Arkansas a few years ago, throwing the Hogs’ football schedule into what should have been a good situation, but did send them on the road to Colorado State.
Forget this 2-and-1 stuff. That has happened a couple of times but if you’re not in one of the Power 5 conferences it doesn’t happen on a regular basis.
“Hunter and I have talked about it,” Mohajir said. “He’s completely open to it. He gets it. He’s also fighting a policy that’s been around a long time. If it doesn’t make good financial sense that would be completely different.”
Which means it makes perfect financial sense for both schools and the state of Arkansas.
And that also means extra time is needed to sort out the politics.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Briles/Odom combo, Gary Parrish, and more!
Tye & Tommy on the high ranking of Briles/Odom, Gary Parrish joins the show, plus Hog FB tier ranking!
SEC Media Days for at least football going to virtual format this summer
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — The Southeastern Conference will hold its first-ever virtual football media days in 2020, the conference announced Wednesday morning in an e-mail.
SEC Football Media Days was scheduled to be held in Atlanta, July 13-16, at the College Football Hall of Fame and Omni Atlanta Hotel.
“Conducting football media days in a virtual format will provide us the opportunity to manage the event in a healthy manner,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in the e-mail. “(It) will provide flexibility for our programs to adjust their preparation for the 2020 football season according to the preseason calendar that is expected to be expanded due to the cancellation of the spring football season.
“We look forward to returning to our traditional media days format in 2021.”
The virtual event will feature Sankey’s annual “State of the SEC” address, as well as media sessions with the conference’s 14 head coaches and select student-athletes from each school.
The SEC is in planning with the SEC Network to provide wall-to-wall coverage of the virtual event.
The dates and times for SEC Virtual Football Media Days have not been announced at this time.
No announcement was made for the basketball sessions that happen later in the year before the season opens.
Information from the SEC is included in this story
Arkansas State Athletic Director Terry Mohajir on The Morning Rush
Arkansas State University Athletic Director Terry Mohajir joined The Morning Rush to discuss the possibilities of the Razorbacks playing the Red Wolves this season, and looking ahead to the possible matchup on the football field. Hear his interview here!
Parrish big fan of Musselman, in favor of regular series against Memphis, Hardaway
CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish talked Wednesday with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft (The Morning Rush) on ESPN Arkansas about how much he likes Eric Musselman and the Hogs playing Memphis, recruiting harder there against Penny Hardaway.
Yes, there’s a path for Hogs to get to bowl … but it’s bumpy, requires luck
While just about everybody looks at Arkansas’ schedule, the last two years and writes a 3 or 4 in the win column, there actually is a path to even a bowl game.
That’s not saying it’s easy, exactly clear-cut or needing an awful lot of fortunate bounces along the way.
“I doubt it, but I think they could,” Lynn Scarbrough of Lindy’s Football magazines hitting the news stands said Tuesday afternoon with Derek Ruscin and Zach Arns (Ruscin & Zach) on ESPN Arkansas.
It will provide hope for some while others say it’s impossible. While pre-season predictions are generally wild guesses and I avoid those at all costs, Scarbrough and I agree on this one.
There IS a path. Whether it will happen or not is anybody’s guess.
The key is the schools in Mississippi.
“Ole Miss and Mississippi State do not tremendously out-class Arkansas,” Scarbrough said.
Lane Kiffin with the Rebels and Mike Leach with the Bulldogs have a better track record than Sam Pittman but just as many questions. They are just very different questions.
Arkansas will play three SEC teams with coaches (don’t forget Eli Drinkwitz at Missouri) that have as many wins as a head coach in the league as Pittman does.
Pittman does have more years coaching in the league than the three of them combined times two.
The pressure is on mainly Kiffin and Leach. They were hired to produce instant results while Pittman sorta flew under the radar.
“He got a big advantage on this because so much prominence was given to Ole Miss and Mississippi State’s hires,” Scarbrough said. “They soaked up all the headlines.”
Scarbrough likes Arkansas’ offense … a lot.
“I really like Treylon Burks and the other young receivers,” he said. “Rakeem Boyd is excellent and was on our second team in a league that is really good this year at the running back position.”
Then there’s Feleipe Franks coming in at quarterback and he’s won more SEC games than every Arkansas quarterback combined over the last four seasons.
“It’s a great move,” Scarbrough said. “I’m excited about ya’ll’s offense. Your offense is not going to get the credit due. His record at Florida was good. He’s going to be the thing that’s going to be the difference.”
The personnel on the Hogs’ offense have gotten the headlines on potential the last year but didn’t show it on the field which is either a spectacular evaluation bust … or a coaching staff that really didn’t have a clue.
New offensive coordinator Kendal Briles is what makes the offense interesting for Lindy’s and all the pre-season guesses.
“Briles is picking up some good people,” Scarbrough said. “Arkansas’ skill people among the best in the SEC. It’s hard to find a team that’s got better skill people than what Arkansas will put on the field.”
But then there’s the other side of the ball.
“I’m not excited about the defense at all,” he said.
Nobody else is, either, but the guess is they will be better simply with a change in the leadership. New defensive coordinator Barry Odom is going to be better with today’s players.
But good enough to get this teams to six wins?
Check back with me in a couple of months. They really should be able to have at least one practice before we start making a lot of bold predictions.
Either way.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Justin Smith a Hog, Tom Murphy and more!
Tye & Tommy on Justin Smith choosing Arkansas, Tom Murphy joins, plus Sam Pittman on Finebaum!
Proposal by NCAA would give college football teams extra practice time
It is becoming apparent with every passing day everyone is pushing full speed ahead towards football as the NCAA is proposing starting with coaches the second week of July.
It’s not really where it should be, but it is a step forward, according to published reports.
Last week, Hogs coach Sam Pittman hinted at this but didn’t let any details get out but now his comments have some additional context.
“We’ve talked about it and we’re prepared for it,” Pittman said. “It just depends on what the hours situation is.”
Since spring training was disrupted so drastically with many teams not getting a single practice this is a critical window.
“We need on-the-field movement,” he added.
The story was first reported at Sports Illustrated on Monday.
Under the proposal, expected to be approved by a vote from the D-I Council on June 17, would let football coaches begin interacting with their players as soon as the second week of July and by mid-July, conducting walk-through practices with a ball.
That probably should be backed up to the first of June but the NCAA has never exactly moved fast with a lot of forethought.
A draft of the plan below has been circulated to conference offices and athletic departments for feedback.
Apparently, though, the vote is going to be a mere formality, according to the story:
“We’re 90% there,” Shane Lyons, the West Virginia athletic director and chair of the Oversight Committee, told Sports Illustrated in an interview Monday.
Here is the summary of the proposal:
• Voluntary workouts: June 1-25 (virtual instruction 8 hours per week)
• Mandatory workouts: July 13, 25 days before first permissible preseason practice date
• Walk-throughs and meetings: July 24, 14 days before first preseason practice date (8 hours weight training, 6 hours walk-through with football, 6 hours for meetings)
• Preseason practices: Aug. 7, 29 days before first game (20 hours per week)
Van Horn reportedly adds games against ASU, UCA on Hogs’ schedule
Considering Dave Van Horn has been one of the biggest proponents to opening Arkansas’ schedule to include games against in-state schools the report Monday that’s happened isn’t surprising.
WholeHogSports.com reportedly had the Razorbacks adding Arkansas State and Central Arkansas to a schedule that already included Arkansas-Little Rock and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Van Horn has repeatedly said he thought it would be a good idea for the Hogs to schedule games against in-state schools and did play Little Rock and UAPB last season.
According to reports, all four games will be played at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Before the covid-19 shutdown of the baseball season this past spring, the Hogs were scheduled to play a solo game against Little Rock in addition to a pair of games with UAPB.
