Razorbacks wide receiver Deon Stewart talked after Wednesday’s practice about the new quarterbacks, the young receivers pushing the veterans and practices.
Love named recruiting coordinator for women’s basketball
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas coach Mike Neighbors made another move with his staff today, announcing Pauline Love will take over as recruiting coordinator.
“After a two year long interview and a 10 second negotiation, it was obvious to me that the best candidate for our open position wasn’t in the stack of resumes, pages of emailed portfolios, or a phone full of text messages,” Neighbors said. “She was down the hall and already had keys to the facility.
“Trust, talent and time are three major pillars of our program, and coincidentally, they happen to be three of the best qualities of our new recruiting coordinator, Pauline Love. She is trusted implicitly by players and coaches.
“She is uniquely talented in relationship building and maintaining. She utilizes her time to help better the lives of everyone around her.
“Coach Love has been involved in every phase of helping us get out of the Wednesday play-in games to the SEC Finals in the last 28 months. Her succeeding in her new role will be vital in our program’s continued climb toward the top of the SEC.”
“The proudest moment of my life is when Mike Neighbors called and offered me the job here,” Love said. “I never thought I would get an opportunity to coach at home. I will forever be grateful to coach Neighbors. He gave me the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Love joined Neighbors’ staff back when he was initially hired at Arkansas in 2017, coming on as an assistant coach.
Her ability to connect with players was the reason she was hired, and her ability to do so successfully has played a key role in developing Neighbors’ program.
“She is valuable because of her knowledge,” assistant Todd Schaefer said. “Although our student-athletes get more resources than any other student-athletes in any generation, it’s still not easy.
“What I love about Pauline is that nothing has been easy for her, either. So when our players reach out to her, and they are going through something hard, she can speak to them through her own experiences.
“When she talks to them, it is coming from the heart. And it wasn’t that long ago for her, so they know it’s real. She’s just got an infectious personality. She can talk to and get along with anybody.
“She’s got what coach calls a ‘chameleon personality:’ she can morph to fit into any situation. She can relate to anyone anywhere. It is truly amazing.”
Love has always been magnetic. During her coaching days, she has used her background as a self-made player to connect with players on a deeper level.
Love, an Arkansas native, has made coaching stops at McNeese State and her alma mater, Southern Miss. In four seasons with the Golden Eagles, Love’s duties included all aspects of recruiting, assisting in basketball camps, on-the-floor coaching, scouting opponents and film breakdown.
While working at McNeese State, Love handled on-campus and off-campus recruiting, social media, marketing, coordination of camps and clinics, scouting, skill development and working with both the guards and post players.
Even during her playing days, Love’s magnetism was frequently on display.
Her combination of play and personality while in high school was so prominent, it led to her own holiday in her hometown of Luxora, declaring July 15, 2016, as Pauline Love Day.
Love played at Rivercrest, then Jones County Junior College (becoming their first NJCAA All-American in nearly a decade), then at Southern Mississippi.
While at Southern Miss, Love was a double-double machine, finishing her career averaging 16.1 points per game and 11.1 rebounds per game.
The three-time first-team All-Conference USA performer was especially dominant during her senior season, averaging 18.3 points per game and 12.8 rebounds per game.
During that season, Love ranked second in the nation in both rebounds per game and double-doubles (21), while also ranking 33rd in scoring.
Love completely rewrote the Southern Miss record books during her time in school, finishing in the Top-10 in program history in nine different categories, including second in rebounding average (11.1), third in rebounding (1,051), fourth in scoring average (16.6), fifth in field goals made (648) and field goals attempted (1,436), sixth in scoring (1,576), seventh in 3-point goals made (94) and attempted (307), and 10th in minutes played (3,188).
Razorbacks’ schedule for 2020 released … and it won’t be easy
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ football schedule is set for the 2020 season with the full schedule released on Wednesday by the SEC and in looking at it, Paul Finebaum said on the SEC Network he wanted a season ticket next year.
The Razorbacks will host seven games inside Razorback Stadium, including four SEC games.
The 2020 season begins with Kent State on Sept. 5. The match-up with the Golden Flashes will be the first between the two schools on the gridiron. Kent State is the first of three new opponents for the Razorbacks on the football field.
A two-game road swing followed by the Hogs’ annual game against Texas A&M at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas wraps up September.
The Razorbacks will travel to Notre Dame on Sept. 12 for the first game of a home-and-home series with the Irish. Notre Dame is scheduled to travel to Fayetteville in 2025.
It is the first-ever matchup between the two schools.
Arkansas travels to Mississippi State for the first SEC contest of the season on Sept. 19.
The Razorbacks return to Fayetteville on Oct. 3 for the first of four straight home games on The Hill with the first-ever meeting against Charleston Southern. The Hogs host Alabama (Oct. 10) and LSU (Oct. 17) in back-to-back weeks before hitting the open date on Oct. 24.
Following the open date, the Razorbacks host Tennessee (Oct. 31) for the first time since 2011. Arkansas last met the Volunteers on the football field in 2015 in Knoxville.
Arkansas returns to the road the following week with a trip to Auburn (Nov. 7) before returning to Fayetteville for the final two home games of the season.
Ole Miss makes the trek to Northwest Arkansas on Nov. 14 for the teams’ annual showdown and familiar foe Louisiana-Monroe visits on Nov. 21 to finish off the home schedule for the Razorbacks.
Arkansas travels to Missouri for the Shelter Insurance Battle Line Rivalry on Nov. 28 in the regular season finale.
2020 Arkansas Football Schedule
Sept. 5 — Kent State
Sept. 12 — at Notre Dame
Sept. 19 — at Mississippi State
Sept. 26 — Texas A&M (Arlington, Texas)
Oct. 3 — Charleston Southern
Oct. 10 — Alabama
Oct. 17 — LSU
Oct. 24 — OPEN
Oct. 31 — Tennessee
Nov. 7 — at Auburn
Nov. 14 — Ole Miss
Nov. 21 — UL-Monroe
Nov. 28 — at Missouri
Information from Razorback Sports Communications is included in this story.
???? Halftime Pod presented by Jeff’s Clubhouse — w/ Bill King
Phil & Tye hit on Chad Morris’ comments from Tuesday, plus Bill King with the best CFB talk!
Brown on different attitude with Razorbacks’ defense
Arkansas defensive back Montaric Brown talked Wednesday after the defense got more turnovers about how they are coming with a complete change and mindset this season.
Clenin on difference with bigger numbers in group
Razorbacks offensive lineman Shane Clenin talked with the media Wednesday about how much improvement is being made with the numbers much higher in the position group.
Foucha on improvements with Razorback secondary
Arkansas defensive back Joe Foucha talked after Wednesday’s practice on how the defense is improving in the first fall camp.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Wednesday
Phil & Tommy discuss Cheyenne O’Grady in trouble again, LR Touchdown Club, Clay Henry, and What’s Your Beef Wednesday!
Isn’t defense being ahead right now what should be happening?
Too many folks appear to be caught up in the fact that Arkansas’ defense is ahead of the offense after four fall practices which, of course, probably is wrong on a couple of fronts.
First of all, it’s exactly four practices of more than 20 before the season opener August 31 in Razorback Stadium against Portland State. That’s not enough time to be deciding the fate of the season.
The next question is, when the offense catches up (and the guess here is it will in a couple of weeks), is the complaint going to be about yet another weak defense?
At times you wonder exactly what some fans want or even remember what to expect from a good team four practices into fall camp.
“Defensively right now we’re playing at a speed we haven’t played at since we got here,” Chad Morris said after Tuesday’s practice.
That should be an eye-opener to anyone who’s paid the least amount of attention over the past few seasons with the Razorbacks.
“I love where this team is right now,” was how Morris opened his press conference Tuesday.
He wasn’t saying that last year. Then everything was, “we’ve got a long ways to go.”
Morris hasn’t said that this year, but to compete at the top of college football’s toughest division, there going to have to be better than even where they are now.
As you might guess, the improvement of the defensive line is creating problems with the offense.
“Offensively, we’re not as consistent as we need to be, but we’re much better,” Morris said. “We’ve got a stout defensive line and they are very disruptive. We’re going to continue to push each other and get better.”
We’ve heard the defense has been dominating in these first four practices, much like they did in the spring. If you can learn to stop the simple plays on defense first, then you can worry about coaching against the big ones.
Try and do it in reverse and the opposing offenses aren’t going to try for the big plays … they won’t have to.
My guess is the offense will be okay. The scheme last year wasn’t the problem, it was simply a lack of players with the combination of skill and work ethic to make much of anything work very well.
You can look in the rearview mirror and see last year’s wreck coming a couple of years back down the road.
Now there appears to be some players.
Freshman wide receiver Treylon Burks made a big-time play in practice Tuesday. At least that’s what the media was told because we didn’t see it.
“Treylon Burks made a one-handed catch out here today that I don’t know if I’ve seen a kid make,” Morris said. “It was unbelievable.”
The folks in Warren pretty much yawned hearing that. They saw similar catches on a regular basis with the Lumberjacks over the several years.
“He’s just powerful,” Morris said. “He’s very much attention to detail and that comes with being a young guy and coming out making plays.”
Burks is not the only one of a talented group of freshmen receivers making plays. Trey Knox, Shamar Nash and TQ Jackson have shown flashes of ability and it’s elevated the play of returning receivers like Jordan Jones, Deion Stewart and De’Vion Warrn.
“The stage is not too big for these guys we brought in here,” Morris said.
And, as Morris has said, the play of the newcomers at several positions on offense has made the returning guys pick up their play dramatically.
Which is why you shouldn’t be worrying about the offense being a little behind right now.
Wait a couple of weeks.
???? Halftime Pod presented by Jeff’s Clubhouse — w/ Steven Lassan
Phil & Tye discuss SEC coaches on Chad Morris, interview Steven Lassan of Athlon Sports and more!
Morris on how much he likes where team is right now
Arkansas coach Chad Morris was pleased with where the Razorbacks are after the fourth practice of fall camp Monday when he finally got some warmer weather.
