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Former Hogs quarterback Casey Dick what Fayetteville High School football needs

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The past three Fayetteville High School football coaches were veterans with Hall of Fame resumes.

The fourth coach in five years has only completed his second season as a head coach, but he may bring something the others didn’t — stability.

Last week, FHS announced the hiring of former Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick as its new head coach after the abrupt resignation of legendary Arkansas prep coach Billy Dawson, who finished his second season at Fayetteville last fall.

Dick, 32, served as the Van Buren coach in 2018 and guided the Pointers to a 4-7 mark, which includes a forfeit win to Springdale Har-Ber. The record was good enough to land Van Buren in the playoffs for the first time since 2011.

Dick spent two seasons as the Bentonville West offensive coordinator and a stint as an assistant at a Texas high school before that.

Saying the former Hogs signal caller is green compared to his predecessors is an understatement. Daryl Patton guided Fayetteville to the school’s first title in 2007.

The Bulldogs racked up three more before he resigned in the spring of 2016. Legendary Oklahoma prep coach Bill Blankenship, who gained national acclaim as the Tulsa Union coach and served as the Tulsa University coach, stopped in Fayetteville for a season in 2017 and delivered the school’s fifth title.

After Blankenship headed back to Oklahoma to coach Tulsa metro program Owasso High School, FHS athletic director Steve Janksi made another impact hire by securing Dawson, who guided Russellville to the Class 6A title in 2016 and multiple championships at Nashville.

So, on paper Dick isn’t as impressive. However, most coaches wouldn’t stack up well against those three, but Janski is banking on Dick earning that status while he guides the Bulldogs to championships.

Janski, a former coach at Heber Springs and an assistant under Houston Nutt at Arkansas, knows how to evaluate coaching talent.

He sees Dick as a rising star. He’s seen how Fayetteville teams have worked to stop his innovative offensive schemes at Bentonville West and Van Buren. He knows with the loaded roster that Fayetteville produces every season; Dick’s system will be full of fire power.

What he is also convinced of is Dick isn’t going to bail on the program anytime soon. His daughter is enrolled in the school district and Fayetteville is a second home after spending his college years there. It’s home for him.

While Fayetteville has been successful with its short-term coaches, Janski wants a head man who is interested in putting down roots and putting his stamp on the program.

Dick was intent on doing that at perennial doormat Van Buren, and leaves a solid foundation for new Pointers coach Crosby Tuck, a former Shiloh Christian star receiver who called the plays for Van Buren a season ago.

The difference is the Fayetteville program is already built with talented players and a winning tradition. All it needs now is stability.

Even though Fayetteville offers Dick an ideal situation to win immediately, there are challenges. The 7A-West conference schedule is a gauntlet of heavyweights, but Dick knows that after the past three years of coaching the in league.

A program can be very good and still lose a few games in that league. Plus, the 7A, as a whole, is tougher now with the emergence of North Little Rock and defending champion Bryant, who will most likely be the two teams favored to play for the state title again this season.

Gone are the days that 7A-West teams can pencil in playoff wins against the top 7A-Central teams.

Some of the tough conference games and playoff games will test the young coach’s mettle. He will be facing many successful veteran coaches, who have a great deal of experience coaching big games.

However, Dick is the only coach in the lot who has experience as a starting quarterback in the SEC. There is no question that experience leading the Hogs under Houston Nutt has helped kick start his high school coaching career.

Not to mention, his experience under center has been a big boost to his quarterback pupils and offensive units.

The Purple Dogs return some talented skill players and will have a chance to light up the scoreboard this fall. Dick knows the expectations are higher and that simply making the playoffs isn’t acceptable.

He takes the job with aspirations of leading Fayetteville back to War Memorial Stadium for the first time since Blankenship won in 2016.

It remains to be seen if Dick can pull that feat off in his debut season, but he is a good fit for the job and will keep the program at a high level and stick around for more than just a cup of coffee.

April 29 — Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast

John & Tommy discuss the Vols sweep, Razorbacks drafted, and more!

Hogs get walk-off double in 10th to finish sweep of Volunteers

FAYETTEVILLE — Sophomore catcher Casey Opitz delivered a 2-0 fastball down the left field line in the bottom of the 10th inning Sunday afternoon to help Arkansas defeat Tennessee, 4-3, in walk-off fashion for their second-straight SEC series sweep and seventh conference win in a row.

Opitz, who came into the at-bat 0-for-4 and with just one hit in the series, came up in the 10th with two outs and runners on second and two outs and sent the 9,419 fans in Baum-Walker Stadium home happy as he was able to score Jack Kenley with his hit.

It was Opitz second walk-off hit this year as he also had the walk-off single in the series finale against Missouri (March 17), which also finished off a sweep.

PHOTO BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM

Arkansas (34-11, 15-6 SEC) actually struggled at the plate early on against Tennessee (31-14, 9-12 SEC) starting pitcher Zach Linginfelter, managing just two runs in 4.1 innings, one coming off a solo home run by Kenley in the second.Linginfelter finished with nine strikeouts, but was relieved in the fifth inning after loading the bases with one out.

Redmond Walsh came into the game in a tight spot and hit Heston Kjerstad on his first pitch to bring Arkansas’ second run home.

After leaving runners in scoring position in the fifth, seventh and eighth innings and with Tennessee taking a 3-2 lead, the Hogs finally got the big swing it needed to tie the game and send it to extras in the bottom of the ninth.

Christian Franklin, who was coming off a four-hit game, tailed a 2-1 pitch the opposite way and wrapped it around the foul pole for his fifth home run of the year, tying the game at 3-3.

PHOTO BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM

Franklin was 2-for-3 in the game and finished the series 7-for-11 (.636) with three extra-base hits and two RBIs. He joined Kenley as the only Razorbacks with a multi-hit performance on Sunday.

Following his homer in the second, Kenley had a double in the fourth and a single in the 10th that helped extend the game-winning rally. It’s his second game with three or more hits this year.

PHOTO BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM

Noland sharp for second-straight week

Freshman right-hander Connor Noland looked sharp for the second-straight week, going seven strong with just one unearned run allowed on two hits and a career-high 10 strikeouts.

Noland had a no-hitter going until the sixth inning when Jake Rucker hit a lead-off single. That hit eventually led to the unearned run, snapping a scoreless streak of 15.1 innings for Noland.

Hogs making habit of walk-off

Sunday’s walk-off win was the third for the Razorbacks this year and fifth game won in the final inning.

Casey Opitz now has two of Arkansas’ walk-off hits this year, while Heston Kjerstad had his own in the opening weekend to help the Hogs sweep Eastern Illinois.

On the road, Arkansas won game two of its series with Auburn, scoring three runs in the top of the 15th inning before shutting it out in the bottom half.

PHOTO BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM

The next week, Arkansas staved off the sweep at Vanderbilt, scoring five runs in the top of the ninth, winning 14-12, which was the first win of the now seven-game conference winning streak.

The seven-game streak is the longest for the Razorbacks since winning nine conference games in a row in 2010.

PHOTO BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM

Razorback quotables

“I thought Connor Noland was lights out. The guy had everything working. I think he just got a little bit tired, but man, he was spotting up his fastball in, he could throw it away. He started mixing in that slider and some changeups. Then he had the regular curveball. He was good and he gave us a chance on a Sunday when we didn’t have a lot of experienced arms that were ready to go.” — Coach Dave Van Horn on Connor Noland’s performance

“I feel great about it, because you’ve got to take the wins when you can get them. You never know when it’s going to flip on you. You have injuries, you have guys go into little slumps. Teams hit balls that are flares. The game isn’t always fair. You can make pitches and you don’t get a call. You can hit the ball on the nose and it goes right at somebody. So, whenever you need a chance to win a game, you need to win it. Fortunately, we came back and won today.” — Van Horn on the seven-game conference winning streak

“This team is pretty much fearless. They just play and they think they can win. They don’t really care how far they’re down. If they’ve got some at-bats left, they feel like they can come back.” — Van Horn on his team’s attitude late in games

“I pretty much had the mindset I had for every at-bat.  I’m a good hitter. You’ve got to believe that or nothing is going to happen for you. I just came up there and took that at-bat for what it was. I took what he gave me and produced. It was a fastball down the middle.” — Casey Opitz on his mindset in the final at-bat even though he was hitless

“My blood was rushing really fast. I didn’t have any control over what I was saying. I went into the dugout screaming ‘Let’s go!, to my teammates.” — Christian Franklin on the feeling of hitting the game-tying homer in the bottom of the ninth

“It was just one of those things where you go in, and you’re like, ‘I got to get this done for my guys.’ I did my best to try and throw strikes and get outs.” — Elijah Trest on coming out of the bullpen and throwing a perfect 10th inning

PHOTO BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM

Up next

Arkansas will play its final non-conference game of the year on Tuesday when it travels down to North Little Rock, Arkansas to play Grambling State in Dickey-Stephens Park.

Game time is slated for 6:30 p.m., but will not be televised in any capacity.

Van Horn on Noland’s seven innings, snatching win in 10 innings

Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn recapped a win he felt fortunate to get and young players step up to win a game and sweep series over good Tennessee team Sunday.

Trest, Franklin, Opitz on 10-inning win over Tennessee on Sunday

Arkansas players Elijah Trest, Christian Franklin and Casey Opitz talked with the media after Opitz’ 10-inning walk-off double to sweep the series against the Vols.

Haff shuts out Aggies, Warrick homers to lift Razorback to win

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Arkansas’ Mary Haff pitched eight scoreless innings Sunday evening and Katie Warrick hit a three-run homer for a 3-0 win over Texas A&M.

The Razorbacks and Aggies will meet for the rubber match Monday night.

Haff’s shutout was her seventh of the season. She recorded five strikeouts in the win, walking only one Aggie over the course of the extra-inning outing.

Haff’s strong performance included only three allowed hits on the night, stranding six Aggie runners on base.

With two outs on the board, Warrick saw an opportunity ahead of her with Razorback base runners, sophomores Hannah McEwen and Danielle Gibson on first and second.

She connected on the first pitch from Aggie starter, Payton McBride, bouncing her 10th home run of the season off the scoreboard in left field.

While the Razorbacks recorded three hits, including Warricks’ home run, with two outs, Haff managed to keep the Aggie bats at bay, forcing the opponents to go 0-for-8 with two outs down and 1-for-13 with runners on base.

Behind Haff, the Razorbacks tallied seven total hits, three of which came off the bat of sophomore Danielle Gibson. Sophomore Hannah McEwen recorded a multiple-hit game as well (2-for-3).

Notables

• Haff now has 18 career shutouts, two shutouts from ranking 2nd in the Arkansas record book for shutouts in a career.

• Arkansas has played extra innings in two contests this year, going 2-0 in those games.

• Hannah McEwen extends her on-base streak to 13 contests, reaching base safely in 47 of 51 games this season.

Up Next

The Razorbacks will face the Aggies for game three, Monday evening at 6 p.m.

All three games in the series can be seen on SEC Network with Eric Frede (play-by-play) and Erin Miller (color) on the call.

Authenticated subscribers can access streams of all three games through WatchESPN and the ESPN app on their computers, mobile phones, tablets, smart TVs and other connected devices.

Razorbacks take SEC Men’s Championship, downing Auburn

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Julian Perico won the 18th hole to give Arkansas its first SEC Men’s Golf Championship since 1995.

Perico, William Buhl and Tyson Reeder each won their matches Sunday to give the Razorbacks a 3.5-1.5 victory over Auburn at Sea Island Golf Club (Seaside Course).

Perico, the only Razorback to win all three of his match play contests, was tied with Grayson Huff through 17 holes. Perico bombed his tee shot to wedge distance while his playing partner had to layup out of the fairway bunker.  Perico landed his approach shot to about nine feet and two-putted for the 1-Up win.

“We hung in there all day long,” said coach Brad McMakin. “William (Buhl) went out and won that first point which I think is so key in match play. After Auburn tied it, Luis Garza and Julian were down one or two through 13 holes but they continued to fight and make a couple of putts.

“These guys will always be champions together. This is a very close group, maybe the closest I’ve coached. They really came together over the last two months and showed this weekend what I thought they were capable of this season.”

The other match on the course was Garza and Jovan Rubala, who halved the final point. The pair was in a playoff on the 10th hole but was not completed after Perico’s win. Garza was 2-0-1 in his three matches.

As he did, in the semifinal, Buhl gave Arkansas its first point with an impressive win over Jacob Solomon. Down the stretch, Solomon threatened as he holed out from the front bunker for an eagle on 15.

However, Buhl followed with an eagle of his own from the same bunker to remain 3-up with three to play. The junior then had a par on the 16th to secure the 3&2 win.

Mason Overstreet played well and was even par for the day but ran against a buzzsaw in Auburn’s Brandon Mancheno, who won 6&5 thanks to four birdies and an eagle to close the match and even the team score at 1-1.

Tyson Reeder put Arkansas up 2-1 after winning his match 2-up over Trace Crowe. Reeder led the whole round but Crowe cut his deficit to one by winning the 16th hole. Both players had par on 17 to make the 18th hole interesting.

Reeder threw a dart into the 18th green while Crowe was off the green to the left. Crowe’s chip ran past Reeder’s ball and Reeder’s birdie putt was conceded for the 2-up win.

Arkansas will learn its destination for the 2019 NCAA Regional on Wednesday (May 1) from 8-9 p.m.

The regional sites are: Palouse Ridge Golf Club in Pullman, Washington; Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, California; TPC Myrtle Beach in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina; University of Louisville Golf Club in Simpsonville, Kentucky; University of Georgia Golf Course in Athens, Georgia; and University of Texas Golf Club in Austin, Texas. Regionals will take place May 13-15.

Thirteen teams and 10 individuals not on one of those 13 teams will compete at each of three regionals while the other three regionals will have 14 teams and five individuals, also not on those teams.

The low five teams and low individual not on those teams from each regional advance to the finals at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas May 24-29.

CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

Arkansas def. Auburn 3.5-to-1.5
Match 1:  William Buhl (Arkansas) def. #61  Jacob Solomon (Auburn):  3&2
Match 2:  Tyson Reeder (Arkansas) def.  #82  Trace Crowe (Auburn): 2-Up
Match 3:  Luis Garza (Arkansas)  AND  #55  Jovan Rubula (Auburn): Tied
Match 4:  Julian Perico (Arkansas)  def.   Grayson Huff (Auburn): 1-Up
Match 5:  #86 Brandon Mancheno (Auburn)  def.  Mason Overstreet (Arkansas):  6&5

Long ball, Wicklander, lifts Hogs to series-clinching win over Vols

FAYETTEVILLE — For the second straight night, Arkansas scored 10 or more runs and notched 10 or more hits as they dominated Tennessee, 15-3, Saturday night in Baum-Walker Stadium.

The Razorbacks not only clinched the series, but got its sixth conference victory in a row.

Arkansas (33-11, 14-6 SEC) utilized a four-run third inning and four-run fourth inning to help knock out Tennessee (31-13, 9-11 SEC) starter Garrett Stallings after 3.2 innings, his shortest outing of the season.

With an 8-0 lead, freshman starter Patrick Wicklander was able to work into the sixth inning before allowing his first run, but Tennessee’s offense stayed relatively quiet the entire night.

Six different Razorbacks recorded multi-hit games with freshman Christian Franklin having the best night, going a career-high 4-for-4 with three runs scored and one RBI.

PHOTO BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM

Trevor Ezell and Heston Kjerstad both went 3-for-5 with seven combined RBIs. It was Ezell’s second-straight three-hit performance, while Kjerstad drove in five of Arkansas’ 15 runs off two homers. It was his fourth career multi-home run game and second of the year.

Casey Martin and Kjerstad combined for 10 RBIs in the game, seven from home runs.

Martin hit a three-run homer in the third inning, his ninth of the year, while Kjerstad’s came in the sixth and seventh innings. He now has 12 home runs, which ties for second in the SEC and the five RBIs for him and Kjerstad were both season-highs.

Wicklander earned his fourth win of the year after allowing just two runs on four hits in a career-long 5.2 innings. His seven strikeouts were just one off his career best and fifth-straight outing with four or more.

PHOTO BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM

The Hogs have notched 10 or more hits in six consecutive games and eight of its last nine. On the flip side, Tennessee had allowed just 23 runs combined in its last 11 games before giving up 26 to the Razorbacks in this weekend’s series.

Next man up

Junior Jordan McFarland came through when his name was called again Saturday night.

With usual starting designated hitter Matt Goodheart out with a sore shoulder, McFarland got the start and delivered a 2-for-3 performance at the plate with a solo home run in the third inning that got everything started.

It was McFarland’s second home run and second in as many appearances as he had one on Tuesday against Northwestern State. McFarland is 9-for-18 in his last five games with six RBIs and two home runs.

PHOTO BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM

Ezell surpasses 300 hits in career

Redshirt senior Trevor Ezell reached the 300 career hit plateau in his first at-bat Saturday night on a lead-off single to right field.

Ezell finished the game with three hits and now sits at 302 for his career. Ezell totaled 251 hits over four years at Southeast Missouri State prior to joining Arkansas for the 2019 season.

He now sits at 51 hits this year, third most on the team.

PHOTO BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM

Got the long ball working

Over the last nine games, Arkansas’ offense has hit a blistering .391 and slugged .672 with 19 home runs.

Four of those home runs came in Saturday’s victory as Kjerstad not only went deep twice, but McFarland and Casey Martin did as well.

It’s the fourth game this year that the Razorbacks have hit four or more home runs in a game and ups their season total to 56, which is good for a tie for second in the SEC.

Razorback quotables

“The offense is clicking right now. With baseball, that’s just kind of the way it works. Sometimes you struggle and you fight it, and when it’s going good you’ve got to get as many wins as you can and score runs when you can. Our offense has just been seeing the ball well. We’ve had a lot of timely hits. We’ve just done a great job. It all started a couple weeks ago and we’ve hit the ball pretty well. Even in our loss this past Wednesday, we still hit the ball hard and scored seven runs and probably hit another six or seven balls on the nose right at people. But that’s kind of the way the game works.” — Coach Dave Van Horn on his offense clicking over the past two weeks

“Just a really, really good start by Patrick Wicklander. A true freshman, and I think for the second week in a row in conference play, he’s gone out and given us an opportunity to kind of get our feet underneath us and see what we had to do to score some runs against the opposition. He just pitched great. He had a good fastball and a really good breaking ball, mixed in some changeups. He kept them off balance a little bit.” — Van Horn on Patrick Wicklande

“It was real good. He’s struggled a little bit and he made an adjustment with his hand placement on the bat a couple of days ago. I think it’s flattened his swing out a little bit and if it didn’t, it sure gave him some confidence. He let the ball get deep four times and hit four balls hard the other way. It was really good to see.” — Van Horn on Christian Franklin’s four-hit performance

“Yeah, most Friday-Saturday guys are going to be really good to put it lightly. I think once we kind of broke it open there he started trying to get the ball up more and we definitely took advantage of that.  I think we had several hits in a row that inning and then the next inning we put it on him again. So, the hitting tonight was kind of infectious. I thought we did really good getting him out of there and then continuing it after the bullpen came in.” — Jordan McFarland on the offense taking it to Tennessee’s starting pitcher

“It’s always fun when you go against a pitching staff like them. One of the better ones in the nation from what everyone has bene saying. When you match up against a pitching staff like that we all love the challenge and the competition and I think that brings the best out of all of us hitters.” — Heston Kjerstad on the offense performing well against a good Tennessee staff

Up next

Arkansas will go for its second-straight SEC sweep on Sunday as it hosts the Volunteers one more time at Baum-Walker Stadium with first pitch slated for 4 p.m.

The game will be televised nationally on the SEC Network.

Arkansas gets more hits, but not more runs in 3-1 loss Saturday night

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Arkansas got more hits than Texas A&M on Saturday night, but a three-run fifth inning by the Aggies was enough for a 3-1 win in the first game of the series.

Arkansas (34-16, 8-11) has held opponents scoreless for 16 of its last 19 innings, but the Aggies took advantage of a timely base-hit, a wild pitch, and Razorback error to score three runs in the fifth, gaining the lead and holding on for the win.

The Razorbacks looked to be starting a rally in the sixth inning, as Katie Warrick, Kayla Green, and Sydney Parr hit consecutive base hits to load the bases with one out on the board.

Senior Haydi Bugarin’s groundout to second base would be enough for Warrick to score from third, but no other runs would cross the plate for the Hogs.

Sophomore Hannah McEwen finished the night 2-for-3 at the plate, extending her on-base streak to 12 games, reaching base in 46 of 50 contests.

Junior Sydney Parr, too, recorded two hits against the Aggies, good for her 10thmultiple hit game of the season.

Aggie starter, Kendall Potts (11-10) earned the win, facing 29 Razorbacks at the plate and striking out five.

Up next

The Razorbacks face the Aggies in game two Sunday evening at 7 p.m. All three games in the series can be seen on SEC Network with Eric Frede (play-by-play) and Erin Miller (color) on the call.

Authenticated subscribers can access streams of all three games through WatchESPN and the ESPN app on their computers, mobile phones, tablets, smart TVs and other connected devices.

Keep up with the Hogs

Game 2 | Watch | Live Scoring
Game 3 | Watch | Live Scoring

Van Horn on strong outing from Wicklander, bats staying hot

Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn talked about Patrick Wicklander’s performance on eight days rest and the hitting groove after clinching series over Vols on Saturday night.

Wicklander, Kjerstad, McFarland recapping series-clinching win

Arkansas starting pitcher Patrick Wicklander, centerfielder Heston Kjerstad and designated hitter on another offensive explosion to clinch series over Tennessee, 15-3.