Arkansas men’s coach Mike Anderson met with the media Thursday and talked about the final exhibition game against Southwest Baptist before opening the regular season against Texas on Nov. 9.
Limpert’s banner year moves him to semifinals for Lou Groza Award
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ Connor Limpert has been named a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award, which is presented annually to the nation’s top place-kicker.
Limpert, a junior from Allen, Texas, is one of 20 semifinalists for the honor, which will be voted on by a panel of more than 100 FBS head coaches, SIDs, media members, former Groza finalists and current NFL kickers to select the three finalists.
He was also named a nominee for the Burlsworth Trophy in October, given to the most outstanding player who began his career as a walk-on.
This season, Limpert is 16-of-20 in field goal attempts, splitting the uprights at least once in every game in 2018 and each of the last 10 contests.
He owns the longest field goal made among the 20 up for the award with a 55-yard FG coming against Vanderbilt on Oct. 27.
His 55-yarder is the second-longest in the country this season, while his 54-yard conversion vs. North Texas on Sept. 15 is good for No. 5 among longest field goals made in 2018.
Coming into the matchup with the Commodores, Limpert, one of the most accurate kickers in school history, had connected on 10 consecutive field goals over the previous five weeks of competition.
He saw his streak, the third-longest in school history, come to an end on a 60-yard attempt at the end of the first half that fell just a few feet short of what would have been the third-longest FG in school history.
Limpert padded the end of that streak with back-to-back games with four and three field goals made coming on a rainy night in Little Rock against Ole Miss and at home against Tulsa, respectively.
His 4-for-4 night marked the first time a Razorback had accomplished the feat since Alex Tejada against Troy on Sept. 1, 2007.
Saturday’s field goal against Vanderbilt also pushed Limpert into 10th among single season field goals made by an Arkansas kicker, putting him closer to the school record of 24 set by Kendall Trainor in 1988.
The finalists for the Lou Groza Award will be announced on Nov. 20 and honored at the 27th annual Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Awards Banquet on Dec. 3 in Palm Beach County.
The same panel then selects the winner, who will be announced live on ESPN at the Home Depot College Football Awards Show on Thursday, Dec. 6.
Razorbacks schedule home-and-home series with BYU for ‘22-‘23
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas and Brigham Young University will meet for the first time on the football field in 2022 as part of a home-and-home, two-game series.
The Razorbacks will travel to Provo, Utah in 2022 to take on the Cougars with BYU making the return trip to Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in 2023.
The first game of the series is set for October 15, 2022 at Lavell Edwards Stadium, in what will be the first-ever game between the two schools. The Cougars will make the return trip to Fayetteville on October 23, 2023.
The two-game series with BYU is the latest football series announced by Arkansas.
Earlier this fall the Razorbacks announced a two-game set with Oklahoma State with the Hogs travelling to Stillwater, Oklahoma in 2024 and hosting the Cowboys in 2027.
???? Thursday Halftime Pod — (11-1-2018)
Phil & Tye discuss their Halloween, trusting the process, and more!
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Thursday
Tyler Wilson joins Tommy & John to talk Halloween experiences, interview Tom Murphy and more!
Storey just might end up being the answer at QB for Hogs
Some will differ, but the opinion here is there is not a guaranteed solution to fix Arkansas’ problem at maybe the most important position on the field — quarterback.
Unless it’s Ty Storey.
Some think freshman KJ Jefferson is the answer, but that’s not likely for next year as it appears from reports he won’t be on campus until next summer. That will likely put him as a redshirt freshman for 2020 and some tell me he will need a couple of years of development to find out if he’s an SEC-caliber quarterback or not.
The answer to that is nobody knows what they’ve got with a player who has put up some gaudy numbers in a smaller division of Mississippi high school athletics against competition that’s not exactly stocked with a lot of SEC recruits.
Others feel Kelly Bryant will be the answer if the former Clemson quarterback chooses to come to the Razorbacks. There are some who feel that is going to happen.
In Bryant’s biggest game in 2017, he was 18-of-26 for 124 yards with two interceptions against Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinal.
He had a little more success earlier in the year against Auburn, but his best game against an SEC team was against South Carolina later in the year.
For the season, he rushed for a lower average than what Storey has done this season for the Hogs.
Former Arkansas quarterback Clint Stoerner has been on radio shows this week talking about how his respect for what Storey has done. If anyone would have a pretty good take on that situation, it would be Stoerner.
Stoerner took a pounding through a pair of 4-7 seasons before things improved with a 17-7 mark his final two years.
He correctly pointed out that Storey has improved this year to the point he’s the best option Arkansas has now and you get the impression he feels it should be his job to lose going into next season as well.
The more you think about it, he’s probably correct.
The bottom line is Kelly Bryant’s not going to come here and launch the Hogs into the College Football Playoff. What he did at Clemson was done with numerous NFL-caliber players.
How many does Arkansas have?
Bryant might — and I’m pretty emphatic about the might — make a two-game difference. Remember, he’s available because he was beaten out by a quarterback who was playing in high school this time last year.
Storey will likely be the quarterback next year and that might not be completely horrible. Yes, he’s turned the ball over, but they’ve happened while trying to force a play in situations where he felt that was needed.
You give Storey the Clemson roster and the results would be similar as Bryant. Shoot, when both of them signed in 2015, Storey was the higher-rated quarterback, according to the 247Sports.com composite.
If you want to stretch it a little farther, Storey was rated higher than Connor Noland or anybody else that will be on the roster next season, barring Morris and his staff landing someone not on the radar right now.
What does that mean? Nothing, really, except the previous coaching staff didn’t do a particularly good job of developing talent.
Yes, it’s not a perfect situation.
But Ty has improved every game. Don’t put the Vanderbilt loss on him. Maybe making a bad decision in the Ole Miss game to not step out of bounds, but he’s admitted he should have tried for the first down a different way.
At least he was trying to make a play.
For a team that has struggled to find playmakers, that is something. Considering the lack of playmakers at the wide receiver spots (let’s face it, Cheyenne O’Grady is the only one who has shown an ability to be called a playmaker), the options for any quarterback have been limited.
It wouldn’t be that surprising to see the Hogs playing five freshmen in receiver spots next year that are better than nearly everybody on the roster now.
Which might make Ty a better quarterback.
If the offensive line can get a little better, but that’s another conversation completely.
???? Wednesday Halftime Pod- Featuring Brett Goode
Phil & Tye talk about Halloween, interview with former hog Brett Goode, and the Change My Mind segment!
Morris would enjoy being in woods on this rare off weekend in season
With Arkansas having an off week, it gives Chad Morris and his staff a chance to hit the recruiting trail even harder than they have been, but he admits a break would be nice.
“I’d love to be sitting in the woods somewhere,” he said on the SEC Teleconference on Wednesday, which is the only media availability with him this week. “I’d love to get away from it.”
As the high school season winds towards the playoffs, using the new recruiting helicopter to bounce around to different games.
“It allows you to get into some of the smaller areas and schools,” Morris said. “Also, the appearance of it. Just being different. In recruiting, it’s all about being on the cutting edge and being different.”
The helicopter is something Arkansas hasn’t employed before. It is a show when it lands at a high school field on a Friday night.
“It’s similar to a plane, but not going nearly as fast,” Morris said. “Just the ability to maneuver is what’s unique about that.”
With a bye week, the coaching staff that has been recruiting at a pace not seen with the Razorbacks in a few decades will keep going.
“We’ll get away,” Morris said Wednesday. “Our coaching staff will get out of the office. We’ll be out recruiting Thursday night, Friday. We may watch some games.”
He also talked about part of the frustration he had in the 45-31 loss to Vanderbilt last week. In the post-mortem afterwards, he was as exasperated publicly as he’s been since taking over last December.
“The biggest thing, just disappointed in our performance,” Morris said. “We’ve shown a steady track of improvement this year. We didn’t show that on Saturday. We weren’t on the same track that we’ve been on. That was what was frustrating.”
It’s led to some workouts getting back to the basics and the coaching staff looking at players for development purposes.
“Our starters have gotten some good work in then we pull them out and get a lot of good individual,” he said. “It’s kind of a fall camp mentality mindset for these redshirt guys and younger guys.”
And, like we said, getting back to the basics.
“We’ll do some live work, some scrimmaging,” Morris said. “We’ll continue that process through the rest of the season now that there’s not going to be any bowl practice.”
With just three games left following the bye week against LSU, Mississippi State and Missouri, players who have only gotten into one game this year can play in all three and still have a redshirt available.
“Well, we have a few guys that still have a game, possibly two games,” Morris said. “We’d like to see them get some experience. Isaiah Nichols has another game. Noah Gatlin has another game.”
There are others, of course. John Stephen Jones at quarterback only played against North Texas and there are others.
As Morris said, with no bowl prospects, it’s a chance to find out over the next few weeks about the players he has before spring practice.
“We’ve got a chance to come in this week to focus on ourselves,” Morris said. “We can really dive into the attention to some of our younger players and get them some work.”
Morris’ injury updates
• Dre Greenlaw: “He hasn’t practiced this week. We anticipate him being back next week.”
• Jared Cornelius: “Questionable still. He hasn’t practiced this week.”
• Kevin Richardson: “Same.”
• Devwah Whaley: “Still questionable. We’ll wait and see on him. He ran a little bit yesterday.”
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Wednesday
John, Tommy, & Tye hit on Halloween festivities, WHAT’s YOUR BEEF WEDNESDAY, and more!
