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.
Schultz grabs second silver medal at Pan Am Games on Saturday
Brooke Schultz picked up her second silver medal in as many events on Friday in Lima, Peru, at the 2019 Pan American Games, diving to second place in the 1-meter springboard.
One day after earning a silver medal alongside Sarah Bacon in the synchronized 3-meter springboard, the Americans squared off as individuals and rallied late to take the top two spots on the podium with Bacon taking gold.
Schultz entered round four in fifth place with two dives remaining. The rising Arkansas junior scored a 62.40 to vault into second place thanks to a reverse 1.5 with 1.5 twists on her fourth dive.
She turned in an inward 1.5 pike to put 57.40 points on the board. But after finishing ninth in preliminaries, she was forced to sit through eight more divers — including three of the top divers — before knowing she had earned her second sliver of the games.
“It was very close. I didn’t realize how close it was until the last round,” Schultz said afterwards to USA Diving. “It’s a bit of a relief once you see scores pop up. That waiting – maybe she did, maybe she didn’t – you don’t really know until the scores pop up so definitely really exciting. It’s always interesting to have a close competition.”
Schultz will compete in one final event in Peru when she steps up to the individual 3-meter springboard.
HOGS’ MEDIA DAY: Wide receiver Michael Woods
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: Offensive lineman Dalton Wagner
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: Linebacker Grant Morgan
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.










