Musselman staying focused on his team in final exhibition matchup
Arkansas men’s basketball coach Eric Musselman talked Thursday afternoon about not doing a lot of scouting on Southwestern Oklahoma. He’s more concerned with reducing mistakes from first game.
Morris with final media update before ‘opportunity’ against Alabama
Arkansas coach Chad Morris talked about the “great opportunity” the team has going to Tuscaloose to face the top-ranked Crimson Tide.
Vecenie: Isaiah Joe… the Absolute Legend
Sam Vecenie is one of the most respectable NBA draft analysts in the industry. He was over at CBS Sports and now is employed by The Athletic. They’re lucky to have him.
If you’re a college basketball/NBA fan, he’s worth the follow on twitter. Puts out solid content in that wheelhouse. Not to mention, he’s real high on Isaiah Joe right now.
In this episode of Game Theory, he is joined by Cole Zwicker who writes for The Stepien. Like Vecenie, Zwicker has an infatuation with watching Joe playing basketball. These two do not hold back on their takes concerning the Fort Smith native.
“Isaiah Joe is the most fun player in college basketball that like 20% of college basketball fans know who the f*** he is.” -Vecenie
“He literally put Herro’s a** on the bench because Herro couldn’t stay with him.” -Zwicker
I went ahead and clipped out the 4ish minutes dialogue of them talking about the Arkansas sophomore. Doubt these two will be the last national college basketball pundits giving the Arkansas shooting guard additional attention this season.
Zwicker wrote a great long-form piece which you can read here: A Closer Look at Isaiah Joe . In this article, he explores what makes Joe such an intriguing prospect. Takes a minute to get through, but it is worth your time.
You can listen to Vecenie’s full podcast here: Game Theory Podcast
Happy Wednesday buddies.
???? Halftime Pod presented by Jeff’s Clubhouse — Chad Morris’ contract
Phil & Tye explore contracts in CFB, expectations for the basketball team, and more!
Could staff shakeup combined with contract be only way Morris keeps job?
Chad Morris has a problem … with Arkansas football fans if not folks higher up in the pecking order.
If he thought starting his time with a 4-15 overall record and not winning a single game in SEC play would not cause problems, he’s not following his own statements he’s repeated every time he’s changed quarterbacks.
“It’s not a lifetime appointment,” he’s said in what has becoming a revolving door behind center halfway through his second season.
As usual in these situations, everybody has talked to somebody and there’s one wild story after another coming out of the Smith Center. Take that with a double dose of salt.
The Hogs certainly have issues, but there’s no guarantee Morris is gone.
But you have to wonder if it’s as much economics as anything else. Let’s face it, Frank Broyles probably would have already fired him. Frank threatened to fire just about everybody after every loss and Jim Lindsey or other boosters would talk him off the ledge.
If athletics director Hunter Yurachek has that immediate reaction it’s probably Jon Fagg who talks him off the ledge.
The guess here is Morris might be in a better position to keep his job than most people think, although at some point the financial aspect of it has to take into account the retention bonus he gets paid on January 1 every year plus lost ticket revenue.
Right now, though, is Arkansas ready to pay millions to two coaches to NOT coach here?
Let’s face it, attendance percentage at a funeral similar to what Arkansas is putting in the stands at football games these days would be considered downright sad.
For a team in the SEC, where it just means more, it’s a fast track to oblivion.
Can Morris have a coaching staff shakeup that would buy him at least another year?
Most fans tend to agree that is a minimum requirement, mostly centered around offensive coordinator Joe Craddock.
Now this is not personal because I like Craddock, but it has looked like he started off confused and that was the high-water mark. Sorry, but going through five starting quarterbacks in 15 games and you still have major technical flaws comes back to the coach.
Especially when the one freshman that started won one of those four games. Connor Noland was the starter against Tulsa last year.
Does Craddock have the experience to handle adversity? Anybody can keep the train on the tracks when everything is working correctly, but the key is how they handle problems.
The Hogs’ offense hasn’t made improvements.
Now, granted, the offensive line has struggled. After Sam Pittman built a nationally-recognized line for Bret Bielema, it has gone steadily downhill since he left for Georgia after the 2015 season.
Bringing in the equivalent of an NFL graduate assistant combined with Bielema’s lack of attention to recruiting the position caused degraded things across the entire line.
There’s no fair way to judge offensive line coach Dustin Fry because most of his time has been spent juggling players that are either newcomers in years or playing on the line.
In football there may not be a position group that requires more experience and time spent together than in the offensive line. The SEC literally requires you be at least average there to have any success at all.
Something’s got to give, but that’s not going to be this week unless the Alabama team bus gets hijacked on the way to the stadium.
After the worst start in program history, Morris going to have to make changes and there better not be a bunch of youngsters brought into key coaching roles, either.
Of course, that’s assuming the change doesn’t start at the top, which is still a real possibility.
But the odds of a change there might be a little different than anyone thinks.
Boyd on wearing No. 5, hoping they don’t retire it until he finishes playing
Arkansas running back Rakeem Boyd talked Tuesday after practice about Darren McFadden, but he doesn’t want No. 5 retired until his playing days here are over.
Harris on facing another really good Alabama team Saturday
Razorbacks linebacker De’Jon Harris talked with the media after practice Tuesday about another game against another No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide team.












