Phil Elson & Tye Richardson discuss Chad Morris’ thoughts on LSU, basketball day, interview Nikki Chavanelle and more!
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Tuesday
Nick Mason joins Tommy & John to talk LSU, plus Chad Morris shares his thoughts on the game this week and his bye week
Fayetteville up to No. 5 in juggling of state’s football poll
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! | ||||
| OVERALL | Record | Pts | Prv | |
| 1. | Bryant (20) | 13-0 | 200 | 1 |
| 2. | North Little Rock | 8-5 | 168 | 9 |
| 3. | Bentonville | 11-1 | 138 | 2 |
| 4. | Pulaski Academy | 12-2 | 133 | 7 |
| 5. | Searcy | 12-1 | 112 | 10 |
| 6. | Benton | 9-4 | 70 | 6 |
| 7. | Joe T. Robinson | 14-1 | 54 | — |
| 8. | Bentonville West | 7-5 | 45 | — |
| 9. | Little Rock Christian | 13-1 | 38 | 3 |
| 10. | Harrison | 11-1 | 32 | 4 |
| 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) | 13-0 | 100 | 1 |
| 2. | North Little Rock | 8-5 | 78 | 4 |
| 3. | Bentonville | 11-1 | 60 | 2 |
| 4. | Bentonville West | 7-5 | 32 | — |
| 5. | Conway | 8-4 | 21 | 3 |
| Others receiving votes: Springdale Har-Ber 5, Fayetteville 4. | ||||
| CLASS 6A | ||||
| 1. | Searcy (20) | 12-1 | 100 | 3 |
| 2. | Benton | 9-4 | 79 | 2 |
| 3. | Greenwood | 10-2 | 61 | 1 |
| 4. | West Memphis | 7-2 | 32 | 4 |
| 5. | Jonesboro | 8-4 | 21 | 5 |
| Others receiving votes: Lake Hamilton 7. | ||||
| CLASS 5A | ||||
| 1. | Pulaski Academy (20) | 12-2 | 100 | 3 |
| 2. | Little Rock Christian | 13-1 | 75 | 1 |
| 3. | Harrison | 11-1 | 60 | 2 |
| 4. | Morrilton | 8-5 | 41 | — |
| 5. | Valley View | 10-1 | 12 | 4 |
| Others receiving votes: White Hall 10, Wynne 1, Vilonia 1. | ||||
| CLASS 4A | ||||
| 1. | Joe T. Robinson (20) | 14-1 | 100 | 2 |
| 2. | Shiloh Christian | 14-1 | 77 | 3 |
| 3. | Ozark | 12-2 | 37 | 5 |
| 4. | Arkadelphia | 11-2 | 36 | 1 |
| 5. | Crossett | 9-4 | 28 | — |
| Others receiving votes: Nashville 20, Jonesboro Westside 2. | ||||
| CLASS 3A | ||||
| 1. | Harding Academy (20) | 15-0 | 100 | 2 |
| 2. | Osceola | 12-2 | 80 | 3 |
| 3. | Prescott | 11-3 | 57 | 4 |
| 4. | Camden Harmony Grove | 11-3 | 38 | — |
| 5. | Rison | 11-2 | 16 | 1 |
| Others receiving votes: Melbourne 5, Booneville 2, Hoxie 2. | ||||
| CLASS 2A | ||||
| 1. | Fordyce (20) | 13-2 | 100 | 3 |
| 2. | Junction City | 11-2 | 80 | 1 |
| 3. | Gurdon | 10-4 | 46 | — |
| 4. | Salem | 10-2 | 31 | 5 |
| 5. | Des Arc | 9-3 | 20 | 4 |
| Others receiving votes: Hazen 17, Foreman 4, Magnet Cove 1, Carlisle 1. | ||||
Hogs will need some bullets for final three games of season
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
(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
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
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
Phil & Tye recap the weekend and interview Blake Lovell!
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
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
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.
