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Fayetteville up to No. 5 in juggling of state’s football poll

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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North Little Rock went from preseason to the final week of the season at No. 1 in the Arkansas Media High School football poll, but the rest of the Top 10 was juggled all over the place.

This will be the final poll before one after all of the state championship games are played in December.

Bryant downed Conway last week and the Hornets moved back to No. 2 in the overall rankings while the Wampus Cats dropped from second all the way to sixth.

Bentonville won the 7A West title downing crosstown rival Bentonville West last week and the Tigers moved up to No. 3 in the poll while West dropped from sixth to eighth.

Class 6A Greenwood stayed at No. 4, Fayetteville jumped two spots to No. 7 and Class 5A Pulaski Academy moved up one spot to No. 8.

While West Memphis stayed at No. 9, Class 4A Warren dropped out of the poll after an ugly loss to Helena-West Helena Central and Class 6A Benton moved in at No. 10.

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RANKINGS
Last year's final Arkansas High School Football poll as voted by a panel of state media. The new poll will be released Sunday night!
OVERALLRecordPtsPrv
1.Bryant (20)13-02001
2.North Little Rock8-51689
3.Bentonville11-11382
4.Pulaski Academy12-21337
5.Searcy12-111210
6.Benton9-4706
7.Joe T. Robinson14-154—
8.Bentonville West7-545—
9.Little Rock Christian13-1383
10.Harrison11-1324
Others receiving votes: Greenwood 27, Conway 24, Harding Academy 22, Shiloh Christian 10, Fordyce 8, Springdale Har-Ber 8, Fayetteville 6, Morrilton 3, LR Catholic 2.
CLASS 7A
1.Bryant (20)13-01001
2.North Little Rock8-5784
3.Bentonville11-1602
4.Bentonville West7-532—
5.Conway8-4213
Others receiving votes: Springdale Har-Ber 5, Fayetteville 4.
CLASS 6A
1.Searcy (20)12-11003
2.Benton9-4792
3.Greenwood10-2611
4.West Memphis7-2324
5.Jonesboro8-4215
Others receiving votes: Lake Hamilton 7.
CLASS 5A
1.Pulaski Academy (20)12-21003
2.Little Rock Christian13-1751
3.Harrison11-1602
4.Morrilton8-541—
5.Valley View10-1124
Others receiving votes: White Hall 10, Wynne 1, Vilonia 1.
CLASS 4A
1.Joe T. Robinson (20)14-11002
2.Shiloh Christian14-1773
3.Ozark12-2375
4.Arkadelphia11-2361
5.Crossett9-428—
Others receiving votes: Nashville 20, Jonesboro Westside 2.
CLASS 3A
1.Harding Academy (20)15-01002
2.Osceola12-2803
3.Prescott11-3574
4.Camden Harmony Grove11-338—
5.Rison11-2161
Others receiving votes: Melbourne 5, Booneville 2, Hoxie 2.
CLASS 2A
1.Fordyce (20)13-21003
2.Junction City11-2801
3.Gurdon10-446—
4.Salem10-2315
5.Des Arc9-3204
Others receiving votes: Hazen 17, Foreman 4, Magnet Cove 1, Carlisle 1.

Hogs will need some bullets for final three games of season

Andy Hodges
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Chad Morris just wanted to get away from the pressures of his first football season in the SEC when he finally got an off weekend.

Like a lot of Arkansas fans, he went to a deer stand in the woods with his son, Chandler.

He wasn’t particularly looking to kill anything.

“I didn’t even have bullets in the gun,” Morris said Monday. “I had no desire to do anything but sit there.”

You get the impression that’s how draining this 2-7 season has been on Morris. Not firing one bullet after another is something he hasn’t faced much in his coaching career.

When he got a chance for some peace and quiet, he just enjoyed the peaceful serenity out in the woods with his son, who had bullets but didn’t get anything, either.

Razorback fans can relate. It’s been that kind of year. The guess here is there were more than a few around the state as we kick into the heaviest hunting season of the year a couple just sat on the deer stand in silence.

“Maybe he didn’t want to shoot one,” defensive coordinator John Chavis, who IS an avid hunter, said after Morris on Monday. “When I go, you can bet your bottom dollar I’ll have bullets in the gun.”

Offensive coordinator Joe Craddock uses a bow-and-arrow when he hunts, so bullets in the woods aren’t a big priority.

“If it wasn’t a scouting trip, then I’d have arrows for sure,” Craddock said. “Other than a scouting trip, I’d load up and shoot.”

Apparently, this season has taken away everybody’s desire to shoot. The bye week featured a lot of recruiting evaluations.

Most of the work for the 2019 class is done. Oh, there are still a few holes they plan to fill, but the biggest part of the work is done, barring mass decommitments that nobody sees coming.

A lot of the focus has been on speed, which is something Morris talked about in his first press conference last December.

“You either have speed or you’re chasing it,” he said then.

This team has spent a lot of time chasing speed.

In the practices during the bye week, there was a lot of scrimmaging with the players who haven’t seen the field much this year.

There were plenty of names thrown around about who looked good in the workouts, but whether we see any of them in many of these last three games remains to be seen. The coaches don’t want to use a redshirt for eight or nine plays, but they do want to see them play against SEC competition.

Chavis said the first priority is to win games, then develop talent.

Translated, that means in these final three games that if it’s close, you probably won’t see many young players in the game unless coaches have seen something that makes them think that’ll help them win that particular game.

We’ll see how that plays out.

For now, though, Morris, Chavis and Craddock all are just hoping they have some bullets left for these final three games.

They’ll need ’em.

Morris on off week, handling personnel rest of this season

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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(Editors Note: Due to a technical error, the first part of the press conference was not available. To sum it up fairly quickly, Morris expects LSU’s best effort, they regrouped and scrimmaged in the bye week.)

Arkansas coach Chad Morris met with the media for the first time since the loss to Vanderbilt and talked about senior day, facing LSU in final home game Saturday.

Craddock on handling personnel rest of way, baby due

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Hogs offensive coordinator Joe Craddock and his wife are expecting a baby boy “any day now” and how he’s handling the work load in addition to the personnel in final three games of season.

Chavis had pork chop sandwich, watched games

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Razorbacks defensive coordinator John Chavis talked about his Saturday with no game as he had a pork chop sandwich and watched an awful lot of football games over the weekend.

???? Monday Halftime Pod- Featuring Blake Lovell

Tye Richardson
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Phil & Tye recap the weekend and interview Blake Lovell!

Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Monday

Tye Richardson
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Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Monday

John & Tommy talk about Bama dominating LSU, interview Tom Murphy, and take your calls!

Razorbacks fall to LSU on OT penalty kicks in SEC Tournament

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Arkansas fell short of its first SEC Tournament title Sunday afternoon, falling to LSU in penalty kicks, 4-1 after ending the first 110 minutes of the match tied 1-1.

It was the fifth time Arkansas reached the finals, with this year being the third in a row.

“First off, congrats to LSU,” Arkansas coach Colby Hale said. “I’m gutted for our players. They gave it their all. It took a wonderstrike from 45 yards to beat us and this stings right now. We will get back to Fayetteville and get ready for NCAAs. We still have a lot more to play for and I wouldn’t want to go to the national tournament with any other group.”

The Razorbacks (13-5-3) had come so close in each of the last two years, falling by a single goal in 2016 to Florida and in 2017 to Texas A&M. This year, the Razorbacks looked like it would break the drought with Malham scoring her fifth goal of the season in the 13th minute.

Junior Stefani Doyle had the first look at the net on the play and fired from the top of the box, but her shot bounced off the crossbar and back into play.

Malham picked up the rebound and headed it back in for the score.

Malham now has five goals on the year and 18 points, tying her with junior Tori Cannata for second on the team. Doyle now has seven assists on the year and 11 points, good for fifth on the team.

Arkansas was the aggressor in the first half, but LSU started to turn up the heat in the second half, pressuring the back line to find shots on goal. The Tigers tied the game on a 45-yard strike from Shannon Cooke in the 72nd minute.

After going through both overtimes without a goal, both teams had to settle in penalty kicks to determine the champion. LSU, who had defeated Tennessee in 7-6 in penalty kicks earlier in the tournament, went first in Sunday’s shootout.

Alex Thomas of LSU made the first shot to put LSU up 1-0, before Stefani Doyle had her shot blocked by the LSU keeper.

The Tigers proceeded to make their second shot, and went up 2-0 after Taylor Malham’s shot hit the left post and went wide.

Haley VanFossen gave the Razorbacks life in the third round of shots, but needing to hold the Tigers scoreless under a 3-1 deficit proved too much. Tiger Abbey Newton would drain the final shot to end the match 4-1 in PK’s.

At the conclusion of Sunday’s final, VanFossen, Doyle, and junior Kayla McKeon were named to the All-Tournament team. McKeon had the game-winner against Florida giving her a team-leading five game-winners on the year.

Up Next

Arkansas now awaits to see who its first opponent will be in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. The selection show will be aired on NCAA.com tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.

LSU shows rest of SEC West just how wide gap is to Alabama

Andy Hodges
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LSU’s best defensive player had to sit out the first half against Alabama on Saturday night and it appeared the offense stayed with him in support.

Devin White came back in the second half, but it didn’t matter. The Tigers’ offense didn’t matter much, either, as the Crimson Tide rolled to a 29-0 win that produced more yawns and shrugs than anything else.

“There was nothing we could do about it,” Ed Orgeron said later.

Alabama’s win was so dominating there wasn’t even need for the usual coach-speak. What would be the point? Everybody saw the Tide’s dominance.

It also should have shown Orgeron that you have to score points these days to win a championship. Yeah, in football today the defense will win you some games, but offense wins championships.

You have to be good in both areas unless you’re in the Big 12 where you only have to win a key game every year to land in the playoff.

In the SEC West, you’ve got to get past Alabama, who is now No. 1 in the nation in offense and No. 12 in defense.

Nick Saban, like nearly every other great coach in college football history, has shown a willingness to change his thinking as the game has changed. Ten years ago, the Tide won by running the ball and playing great defense.

Now they throw the ball to set up the run and the defense starts the season as a work in progress and gets better every week.

Don’t believe it? Arkansas put up over 400 yards on Alabama. LSU on Saturday night didn’t get half of that.

You get the idea Orgeron wants more offense, but until they change their approach and — maybe more importantly — the perception, that isn’t going to happen because they simply don’t have the offensive personnel.

That comes from years of following the defense-first mindset. It kinda worked for Les Miles until he couldn’t make it work anymore.

Now it’s on Orgeron.

“We weren’t even close to them tonight,” he said after the loss Saturday night.

It did show just how far the gap is between the Tide and the rest of the West. Over the last few years that gap has started getting bigger … much bigger.

Comparing results against Alabama is folly, at best. Yes, the Razorbacks put up better numbers, but the Tide wasn’t really too worried about their trip to Fayetteville. They were more focused going to Baton Rouge.

“We really wanted to make a statement in this game,” Nick Saban said later. “A lot of people talk about our schedule. What better opportunity is there to make a statement than the circumstance we were in?”

Now the motivation turns to LSU.

Remember, Miles wasn’t fired because he couldn’t beat Alabama. He was fired because he would turn around and lose to Arkansas (6-5 in his time) and Ole Miss (7-4) after losing to the Tide.

There were some other issues, but losses to those two threw Miles’ wagon into the ditch after it was already wobbling.

The Tigers come to Fayetteville this week in the only night game at Razorback Stadium this season against an Arkansas team looking for something to salvage in a season of a few ups, but mostly downs.

Beat LSU would avoid the worst record in Razorback history since 1952. That was at the end of the Otis Douglas era.

Which, of course, was the worst hire in program history until Bret Bielema who is responsible for the situation with the Hogs now. Considering his two coordinators in Fayetteville will be coaching the SEC Championship Game in December, well, it’s pretty easy to see where the problem was the last five years.

Hey, when the gap to Alabama is so wide, you have to find some interesting games where you can find them in the SEC West these days.

Razorbacks down Gators, headed to third straight SEC final

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Arkansas is, once again, in the SEC Tournament final after defeating eight-seed Florida, 1-0, in overtime Friday afternoon.

Junior Kayla McKeon headed in a perfect cross from junior Marissa Kinsey in the 92nd minute, sending Arkansas to its third-straight tournament final appearance, fifth overall.

Arkansas (13-4-3) will be going for its first SEC Tournament championship on Sunday when it will face seven-seed LSU at 1 p.m. on the SEC Network. The Razorbacks beat LSU earlier this season, 2-1, in double overtime, getting a two-goal performance from junior Tori Cannata.

LSU (13-6-2) reaches the title game after winning three matches this week, similar to Arkansas’ run last year. The Tigers have eliminated 10-seed Missouri, two-seed Tennessee and six-seed South Carolina en route to its title appearance.

McKeon’s goal was her eighth of the year, tying her with fellow junior Tori Cannata, who scored one goal in Arkansas’ 4-0 win over Ole Miss on Tuesday.

Friday’s score was McKeon’s fifth game-winning goal of the year, the most by a Razorback since Lindsey Mayo had five during the 2016 season.

The Razorbacks have made reaching the tournament final normal practice over the last three seasons, but have yet to raise the trophy as conference tournament champions in their history.

In each of its last two appearances, the goal difference has been only one goal. Arkansas fell to Florida in 2016, 2-1 in overtime, then fell to Texas A&M by the same score in regulation in 2017.

By reaching Sunday’s championship game, Arkansas is the first team to make the final in three or more consecutive seasons since Florida made it five-straight seasons between 2010 and 2014.

Sound Byte

“This team is just tough. I think they really wanted it. They’ve seen two different teams celebrate winning the title and I think this team just said ‘We want to win it. We want to win an SEC championship. Every team is a little bit different and we thought this team had a chance to do it. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”  — Coach Colby Hale how his team was able to reach the SEC Tournament final for the third-straight season

“It’s interesting so far. We’ve played two teams that have beaten us earlier this season, but got to face them again in this tournament. This team just has a tremendous mentality. When all the chips are on the table, this team is the one you want to bet on.” — Hale on the mentality his team has had this season with the goal of winning the SEC Tournament title this week

“We’re extremely excited about this. We just lost to Florida, 3-0, last week, so it was good to come out and get a team win like this. We’ve all bought in to our plan and this shows how much we’ve come together as a team. It’s really impressive.” — Carly Hoke on the win over Florida

“I honestly thought the ball was going to go out. But when Stef (Doyle) saved it and Marissa (Kinsey) put in a good cross, it was a whole team effort. We were in their half for nearly the entire game and it was the press that hurt them. We just kept going and kept fighting and knew we would eventually get one.” — Kayla McKeon on her game-winning goal

“It’s just about the way we play and the way we press. All year, we’ve been preparing for this. The way we practice prepares us for this. It’s nice we’ve made it three years in a row, but we want to win it this time.” — Hoke on reaching the SEC Tournament final three years in a row  

“We are ready to get the ring. We’ve made it to two-straight championships and we’ve been working towards this since last year and even since my freshman year. We are very ready to finish this thing out. We know we are very capable of it.” — McKeon on the motivation of trying to win the program’s first championship

Other Key Notes

• With the victory,  Arkansas now has 13 wins on the year, which is the third-most ever in a season in program history.

• The goal by Kayla McKeon was her eighth goal of the year, one less than her previous career-high of nine goals set during her freshman season (2016).

• McKeon now has five points in her two tournament games this week, which leads the team. She had a career-high three assists in Arkansas’ 4-0 quarterfinal win over Ole Miss on Tuesday.

• Friday’s win was Arkansas’ second win all-time against the Gators, the first coming in 2016. Florida leads the all-time series with Arkansas, 2-22.

• Arkansas is returning to the SEC Tournament final for the third-consecutive season and will be making its fifth appearance in the final all-time.

• Arkansas is now tied for the second-most tournament final appearances all-time. Florida leads all teams with 17 appearances, while Arkansas, Tennessee and Auburn each have five appearances.

• Marissa Kinsey has had a hand in three of Arkansas’ five goals during this week’s SEC Tournament, including Friday’s winner over Florida. Kinsey only had one assist coming into the tournament, but now has four goals and four assists (12 points) heading into Sunday’s final.

• The Razorbacks locked up their eighth shutout of the year and second of the tournament after defeating Florida, 1-0. Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Taylor Beitz has been in goal for six of those clean sheets and is averaging four saves in those matches.

Up Next

The Razorbacks will go for its first SEC Tournament title on Sunday when it faces seven-seed LSU at 1 p.m. at the Orange Beach Sportsplex.

The game will be televised on the SEC Network.

Hogs get 100-63 win over Southwest Baptist in last exhibition

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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PHOTOS BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM

FAYETTEVILLE — Daniel Gafford had a double-double (17 points and 12 rebounds), while Isaiah Joe had a game-high 19 points and Mason Jones added 17 points, to lead Arkansas to a 100-63 victory over Southwest Baptist in the Razorbacks’ second and final exhibition game prior to next Friday’s season opener versus Texas in the ESPN Armed Forces Classic at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

Joe was 5-of-9 from the field — all from 3-point range — and 4-of-4 at the line. Gafford added three blocked shots to go with his double-double and Jones was 7-of-8 from the free throw line to assist in his 17-point effort.

Keyshawn Embery-Simpson came off the bench to score 11 points, making 4-of-6 from the field (3-of-5 from 3-point range).

Much as they did in the first exhibition, Arkansas turned a close game at halftime into a blow-out early in the second half as the Razorbacks went on an 18-4 run to put the game out of reach.

In a tale of two halves, Arkansas only had nine assists with 10 turnovers in the first half while using its up-tempo brand to dish out 12 second-half assists while committing just five turnovers.

Defensively, Arkansas forced 15 turnovers each period and finished with 18 steals – nine each half.

Arkansas will open the 2018-19 season next Friday (Nov. 9) versus Texas in the ESPN Armed Forces Classic.

The game will be played on Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.

FIRST HALF: Arkansas 40 – Southwest Baptist 30

• Starters were #1 Isaiah Joe (G); #2 Adrio Bailey (F), #5 Jalen Harris (G), #10 Daniel Gafford (F) and #13 Mason Jones (G).

• Arkansas led by one, 13-12 with 11:59 left in the first period. Mason Jones sparked a 10-0 run, hitting a layup and 3-pointer – to pit the Razorbacks up 11 at the 7:57 mark.

• The Bearcats trimmed their deficit to six (36-30), thanks to a 3-pointer by Quinn Nelson, with two minutes to play in the period.

• Desi Sills drained a pair of free throws and Daniel Gafford made a layup with 39 seconds left to put the Razorbacks up 10 at the break.

• Mason Jones led the way with 10, first-half points while Daniel Gafford had seven points and five rebounds.

SECOND HALF: Arkansas out-scored the Bearcats 60-33

• Teams traded baskets the first two trips down the floor to start the second half until Isaiah Joe sank back-to-back 3-pointers two-and-a-half minutes into the half. Those treys ignited an 11-0 run to put the home team up 21 (55-34). All told, Arkansas had an 18-4 run as the clock went under 14 minutes.

• At the 8-minute media timeout, Arkansas pushed its lead to 30, 81-51. In the first 12 minutes of the second half alone, Daniel Gafford put up eight points and seven rebounds while Isaiah Joe had nine points on 3-of-4 shooting beyond the arc.

• Ethan Henderson had a break-away dunk just before the final buzzer to put the Razorbacks in triple digits.

Quick Hits:

• Arkansas is 16-0 in exhibition games under head coach Mike Anderson and Coach Anderson is 34-0 as a head coach in exhibition games.

• Arkansas has scored 88-plus points in 11 of those 16 wins with an average margin of victory of 31.5 points.

• Arkansas won both exhibitions this season by an average margin of 43 points, including a 49-point win versus Tusculum and a 37-point win over Southwest Baptist.

• Arkansas has won 30 consecutive exhibition games dating back to 2004-05 season.

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