Arkansas coach Chad Morris took a couple of minutes after practice Monday morning to update the media on Noah Gatlin’s ACL injury suffered in the early practices.
McClellion on improving cornerback skills, new approach
Razorbacks cornerback Jarques McClellion talked Monday about his confidence in covering folks and the team’s emphasis on making every single detail of play matter.
Razorbacks pick up transfer forward from Stetson, Musselman announces
FAYETTEVILLE — Abayomi Iyiola, a 6-9 forward who spent the past two seasons at Stetson University, is transferring to Arkansas for the 2019-20 season, Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman announced.
He will sit out the 2019-20 season per NCAA transfer regulations and have two years of eligibility remaining.
Iyiola (pronounced a-BAH-yum-Mee …. EE-EE-oh-la) led the Hatters in both scoring (10.8 avg.) and rebounding (7.6 avg.) this past season and was named to the 2018 ASUN All-Freshman team.
A product of Greenforest HS in Decatur, Ga., Iyiola played in 63 games in two seasons at Stetson, totaling 656 points (10.4 avg.), 434 rebounds (6.9 avg.) and 58 blocked shots while adding 12 double-doubles.
Abayomi Iyiola
6-9, 210, F
Atlanta, Ga. (Greenforest HS / Stetson Univ.)
2018-19 (So. at Stetson): Led the Hatters in both scoring (10.8), rebounding (7.6) and blocked shots (37) … Ranked among ASUN leaders in rebounds per game (4th) and blocks (5th) while ranking second in offensive rebounds (2.74 avg.) … Also averaged 10.6 points and 8.3 rebounds in league play … Posted eight double-doubles while scoring in double figures 15 times and reaching double digits in rebounds 10 times … Scored a career-high 26 at USF while tallying a career-high four blocked shots … Tied a career-high with 13 rebounds versus VMI, adding 12 points for his second double-double of the season.
2017-18 (Fr. at Stetson): Voted to the ASUN All-Freshman team … Led the team and ranked eighth in the ASUN with 6.2 rebounds per game … His 10.1 points per game average ranked third-best on the team and his 322 total points ranks seventh among Stetson freshmen all-time … Was seventh in the ASUN in field-goal percentage (.519) and fell one rebound shy of becoming the fourth freshman in program history with 200 rebounds in a season … Registered four double-doubles, scored in double figures 18 times and had four double-digit rebound games … In his collegiate debut, posted a double-double with 21 points – a season high – and 13 rebounds – establishing a career high – against Webber … Had 16 points and 6 rebounds in an overtime win at South Alabama … Averaged 9.4 points and 5.9 rebounds in ASUN Conference play.
HIGH SCHOOL: Rated a 3-star recruit by ESPN.com … Led Greenforest to its second straight Class A-private state championship … Averaged 10.2 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game as Greenforest posted a 27-5 overall record … GCA was 27-2 during his junior season as he averaged 9.7 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Monday
John & Tommy discuss Noah Gatlin’s injury, plus Clay Henry joins the program to discuss fall camp!
Slow down on assumptions … we have no idea what we don’t know
Two days into the start of another football season at Arkansas, the questions are coming fast and furious about what fans should be expecting this season.
Pump the brakes on that, dude.
It’s really too early to even be wondering what we should be asking about and no evaluations made now are binding beyond the next practice. Even for coaches.
While a lot of folks like to strut around giving their opinion — regardless whether anybody asked or not — the fact of the matter is nobody knows anything right now except the Razorbacks have managed to find their way from the dressing room to the practice field.
Don’t expect a lot from the brief time anybody gets to watch practice. For some reason, Chad Morris likes to keep a somewhat tight rein on anybody finding out that quarterbacks hand off and throw the ball.
Through two practices, we’ve been asked not to film field goals in one and punts in the other. I have no idea, so don’t even ask.
In the first 20 minutes of practice (which consists of four five-minute periods), we see the same basic formula we’ve seen since spring practice in 2018 … in almost exactly the same order.
None of that’s a complaint. It is what it is and nobody asked before making that decision. It’s kind of a strange way to build enthusiasm around a new program, but whatever. For those that don’t know, NFL locker rooms are required to be open every day during a set time and coaches required to stand in front of the media. There are some that would never be heard from if there wasn’t a requirement.
All of that is just a prelude to tell you we don’t see enough to make a lot of judgements.
Quite frankly, the coaches may like what they see after two practices, but they aren’t going to make a lot of decisions based on that.
For example, the working theory at quarterback is graduate transfer Ben Hicks will start the first couple of regular season games, then give way to another grad transfer, Nick Starkel, who will take over and be the caretaker for KJ Jefferson, who will take over next season.
If you watch the workouts in shorts, you have to wonder why Starkel would be behind. The ball literally jumps off his arm on passes. It gets to the receivers on some routes we’ve seen a full one-two steps ahead of what we saw last year.
By Starkel’s own admission on Razorback Media Day on Saturday, we found out he’s just a hair under 6-foot-5, which is something I’ve suspected since 2017 standing next to him at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. He’s listed at 6-3 and I’ve wondered if he slouched or the measuring tape slipped.
Jefferson looks like he could walk on the field right now and take things over.
But that’s without pads. That’s without a defense coming at him with the general goal of rendering him null and void as many times as possible.
At this point, we don’t even know what to be questioning other than the same routine queries about who’s doing what at this position or that position.
About the only thing we know at this point is the team, as a whole, looks completely different this year.
Physically, they are bigger, faster and look far more confident than even the last couple of seasons. Even some of the returning players that were recruited before Morris got here have changed their bodies and their body language is different this year.
Whether that means a thing or not probably won’t be known until they start playing games.
Shoot, we may not even know until the end of September.
Of course we won’t know if we should know that until October.
FACES OF CAMP: Some of photos from Friday, Saturday workouts
Here are some of the photos taken during Arkansas’ first two football practices of fall camp Friday evening and Saturday morning.
PHOTOS BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM
Devwah never sees it coming; TJ interviews Ty Clary
At Razorback Media Day on Saturday, defensive players Jonathan Marshall and Dorian Gerald upended running back Devwah Whaley during interview and TJ Hammonds took over Ty Clary interview.
HOGS’ MEDIA DAY: Running back Devwah Whaley
Arkansas players were available to the media Saturday afternoon to talk about the first couple of practices of fall camp and the direction, attitude this season.
HOGS’ MEDIA DAY: Running back Rakeem Boyd
Arkansas players were available to the media Saturday afternoon to talk about the first couple of practices of fall camp and the direction, attitude this season.
HOGS’ MEDIA DAY: Quarterback Ben Hicks
Arkansas players were available to the media Saturday afternoon to talk about the first couple of practices of fall camp and the direction, attitude this season.










