Arkansas coach Chad Morris said after the 45-31 loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday the Razorbacks “didn’t earn” a victory.
Harris, Hayden, Storey after loss to Commodores
Razorback players De’Jon Harris, Chase Hayden and Ty Storey talked about the problems in Saturday’s 45-31 loss to Vanderbilt.
Razorbacks whipped in home loss to Commodores, 45-31
Vanderbilt’s offense was too much for Arkansas on Saturday as the Commodores came away with a 45-31 win.
The Razorbacks trailed at halftime, 21-14.
This story will be updated following press conferences.
Baton Rouge lineman picks up morning offer from Hogs
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, University Lab High School three-star offensive tackle Dylan Rathcke is on an unofficial visit to Arkansas today and picked up an offer from the Hogs this morning.
“I’m on a unofficial,” Rathcke said before the offer in a text message. “I’m hoping they liked me as much as I like the program.”
Rathcke is excited about the visit today and spoke on what he is looking forward to on his trip to Fayetteville.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the facility, the town, and meeting the coaches,” Ratchke said. “Also experiencing the game day and seeing the fans. I was able to see the facility and meet the coaches today. I loved the campus. It was amazing. I’m looking forward to the game tomorrow.”
Rathcke elaborated on his skill sets as a football player.
“My biggest strength as a football player is probably my drive and athleticism,” Rathcke said. “I think about the play. I watch lots of film on my opponents and do everything possible to outwork them. I believe in blocking and contributing until the whistle blows. I’m also very coach able.”
Rathcke was asked what school is recruiting him the hardest at the moment?
“I’m blessed to have multiple offers from great programs and coaches,” Rathcke said. “Right now Kentucky and Colorado State are recruiting me the hardest. I have other programs that are coming in late and showing interest but no offers.”
Rathcke likes the Arkansas coaching staff.
“The Arkansas coaches are great people,” Rathcke said. “I was able to spend time with the entire staff. It was great seeing coach (John) Chavis today. I haven’t seen him since he was at LSU. It was really nice getting to meet coach (Chad) Morris and coach (Dustin) Fry today. I like coach Fry’s philosophy on coaching and I know I fit what he’s looking for.”
Rathcke commented on what makes Arkansas different from the rest of the schools recruiting him.
“I was really surprised in every way about Arkansas,” Rathcke said. “I had just pictured it to be a different way. I loved the layout of the campus and how modern everything was. I like how the facility has everything all in one section.”
Rathcke made his prediction on the Arkansas-Vandy game today.
“I think today is going to be a great game,” Rathcke said. “Vanderbilt has come a long way and is playing good football. I believe Arkansas has turned a corner also and the home field advantage will help them win.”
Rathcke spoke on when he will commit to his school of choice.
“I don’t have a set time to commit,” Rathcke said. “I plan on taking my officials and making the best decision for my future.”
Hogs start slow before cruising to big win
FAYETTEVILLE — Isaiah Joe scored a game-high 18 points, making 5-of-8 from 3-point range, while Reggie Chaney recorded a double-double to lead Arkansas to a 96-47 exhibition victory over Tusculum on Friday night at Bud Walton Arena.
Despite the large margin of victory, Arkansas got off to a slow start in the first half. Tusculum jumped out to an 8-0 lead to start the game and Arkansas did not score until the 15:51 mark.
However, Gabe Osabuohien came off the bench to spark an 7-0 run that ballooned into an 18-4 run.
Tusculum was able to keep close and only trailed by six at the break as Arkansas only had five assists with 13 turnovers while shooting just 18.2 percent from 3-point range and making just 8-of-20 free throws.
The second half saw the Fastest 40 kick in as the Razorbacks opened with a 14-0 start as part of a 23-4 run to put the game out of the reach. In the period, Arkansas only committed seven turnovers, dished out 18 assists and shot 47.8 percent (11-of-23) from long-range.
The Razorback defense only allowed 23 second-half point while holding the Pioneers to just seven assists while forcing 29 turnovers for the game.
All told, five Razorbacks scored in double figures including Joe (18), Daniel Gafford (13), Jalen Harris (13), Keyshawn Embery-Simpson (13) and Chaney (13). Chaney added 10 rebounds while Osabuohien had eight and Gafford nine.
Arkansas will play the second of its two exhibition games next Friday (Nov. 2) versus Southwest Baptist. Tip-off at Bud Walton Arena is set for 7 pm.
First Half Notes – Arkansas 30, Tusculum 24:
• Arkansas controlled the tip but neither team scored until 17:33, a 3-pointer by Tusculum’s Austin Hall.
• The Pioneers went on an 8-0 run to start the game.
• Arkansas’s first point was a free throw by Adrio Bailey at the 15:51 mark.
• Gabe Osabuohien entered the game and provided a spark for the Razorbacks as Arkansas would immediately go on a 7-0 run. The Razorbacks would eventually make that an 18-4 run with 9:17 left to play.
• Most of Arkansas’ offense came on strong defense, namely its full-court press.
• The highlight of the run was a defensive stop that led to long pass to Daniel Gafford, who tipped the ball to Mason Jones for a layup. The Razorbacks immediately forced another turnover as Osabuohien stole a pass and would get fouled before making two free throws.
Second Half Notes – Arkansas out-scored Tusculum 66-23:
• Jalen Harris started second half with a 3-pointer and Isaiah Joe followed with a 4-point play, hitting a trey and free throw. A second 3-pointer from Harris and a dunk by Reggie Cheney capped a 14-0 run to start the period at the 15:57 mark.
• Overall, Arkansas opened a 23-point lead thanks to a 23-4 run to start the second half.
• Arkansas held Tusculum to just 23 second-half points while the Razorbacks shot 52.5 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes.
• In the second half, Reggie Chaney started and scored 10 points. Daniel Gafford, who battled foul trouble, entered the game at the 10:24 mark of the second half with just two points and one rebound. However, he just missed a double-double as he finished with 13 points and nine boards.
Notes:
• Arkansas is 15-0 in exhibition games under head coach Mike Anderson.
• Arkansas has scored 88-plus points in 10 of those 15 wins with an average margin of victory of 31.1 points.
• Arkansas has won 29 consecutive exhibition game dating back to 2004-05 season.
Anderson on young team’s slow start in win Friday
The Razorbacks started slow, but put it together in the second half for a 96-47 win over Tusculum in the exhibition opener Friday night at Bud Walton Arena.
Harris, Joe talk about Hogs’ opening exhibition win
Arkansas’ Jalen Harris and Isaiah Joe talked with the media after the 96-47 win over Tusculum on Friday night at Bud Walton Arena.
Quick hits and a Razorbacks’ win over Vanderbilt
Remember when Vanderbilt was an automatic ‘W’ on your conference football schedule?
Not if you are an Arkansas Razorbacks fan in modern history you do not. Since the Commodores defeated us in what was (at the time) considered an upset against us in Week 2 of 2005, only one of the subsequent contests was not close … even scary.
Omit the blowout that we had against them in 2010, and our margin of victory over the remaining two games has been 2.5 points.
So many have said it: Every foe that is considered a lesser program always gets “up” in the season in which it rolls onto the Arkansas schedule. Vanderbilt is no exception this year.
Three fast points that could lead to a victory for the Hogs:
• Ty Storey is back in the lineup as the starting quarterback (as he should be).
• The defense must show heart in defending a Vanderbilt squad that has played close in several games this year against solid competition, including Florida and Kentucky. These were winnable ball games for the scholars from Nashville.
• I’ve picked on the special teams a lot as of late. Guys, I apologize. Connor Limpart is on a streak, and I have a strong feeling he will be the difference in this game. Keep up the great work, gentlemen.
Hey, we are still bowl eligible, are we not? Stranger things have happened. The Hogs (at home) keep that possibility alive.
Ryan McCrystal agrees:
Vanderbilt is a road favorite at Arkansas tomorrow… this hasn’t been a great debut season for Chad Morris at Arkansas, but Vandy has done nothing to deserve that kinda respect in an SEC road game.
— Ryan McCrystal (@Ryan_McCrystal) October 26, 2018
Arkansas 34 – 30
Andy Hodges is claiming a victory on our season competition early. With my being six games back I cannot help but hope his complacency his is downfall.
• (9) Florida at (7) Georgia – Bulldogs find a way to win a close one.
• (12) Kentucky at Missouri – The Wildcats make the Tigers fold late.
• (16) Texas A&M at Mississippi State [UPSET ALERT] – State is at home and returns to their dorms with a close victory over the Aggies.
• Tennessee at South Carolina – Vols by 10
• Alabama has scored so much this season that they take the week off and still earn a ‘W’.
Go HOGS!!!
Follow me on ‘Twitter’: @PeterMorganWPS
Hogs have best shot at league win against Vanderbilt
When the late, great, Paul Eells came to Arkansas in 1978, the first game he broadcast was a matchup with Vanderbilt, the school where he had been doing games for a number of years.
“I’ll never have a better situation than that again,” Eells said during the summer before that opener.
The last time Eells broadcast an Arkansas-Vanderbilt matchup was 2005 as he was tragically killed the following summer.
Interestingly, that was the last time the Commodores beat the Razorbacks. It was a mediocre Vandy team with a good quarterback in Jay Cutler. That 28-24 loss jumpstarted the negativity towards then-Hogs coach Houston Nutt with one of his worst teams.
Fast-forward to this year where Chad Morris is trying to get this team turned around with an overhaul from the bottom up and it’s a team that needs another win after beating a rather unimpressive Tulsa team last week.
Morris won’t use the word “rebuilding,” but that’s exactly what Arkansas is slap in the middle of right now. Morris and his staff have had to deal with the usual things that happen after a 10-year tailspin in the program that may have finally crashed in a 44-17 loss to North Texas back in September.
Special teams cost this team against Auburn, then Texas A&M where the Hogs had a chance to win it late. Next was Alabama who is, well, maybe the most dominating team we’ve seen and the Hogs put up 31 points and over 400 yards of offense, both of which are season highs against the Crimson Tide.
Then came the injury-plagued game against Ole Miss where Arkansas should have won before injuries caused yet another fourth-quarter collapse.
Last week against the Golden Hurricane, the Hogs didn’t exactly put on an offensive masterpiece. But freshman Connor Noland played solid at quarterback and Rakeem Boyd got nearly 100 yards for the third straight game (he finished with a frustrating 99 yards) to put up 23.
It was the defense, though, that raised eyebrows. They pitched a shutout on a team that came into the game averaging over 24 points a game.
With Ty Storey back this week, along with a healthy Boyd, this team may have gotten the shot of confidence they needed with that win last week.
The oddsmakers have Vanderbilt as a slight favorite. That’s because the Commodores have played just well enough to look good in losing five games in the toughest part of their schedule. That includes, by the way, a five-point loss to Notre Dame in South Bend.
Don’t look for much of a home advantage for the Hogs. With some luck, this game might draw 45,000 people to the stadium. That includes the band and cheerleaders, by the way.
But I think the coaching staff is also getting things figured out with this group of players and we’ll find out how well they deal with some success.
Let’s go with the Hogs in a low-scoring game that might come down to another fourth-quarter game.
Arkansas 20, Vanderbilt 16
It’s league games this week with four teams getting byes (notably Alabama and LSU in advance of their big game next week). For the season I’m 62-9 with another perfect week last week while Peter Morgan limps into the final stretch of the season at 56-15.
-1 Georgia vs. Florida
The Gators nearly got caught napping in their last game against Vanderbilt two weeks ago, but snapped back for a 37-27 win.
It may have been a case of looking too far down the road.
Georgia lost to LSU, 36-16, which I think proved what I’ve suspected about the Bulldogs — they have been over-rated.
Georgia doesn’t have the running game they had last season and now they have drama all over the place at the quarterback position.
Look for the Gators to jump in the driver’s seat over in the East.
Florida 27, Georgia 24
-7 Kentucky at Missouri
When will the Wildcats come down to earth? Probably not this week.
Mark Stoops has quietly put together a pretty team, having built the program up from about as low as one can get.
If you don’t believe it, Hog fans, just think back to that game in the driving rain in 2012 where they just called it off at halftime because of the huge lead and the Wildcats were just so awful.
They aren’t now and Missouri hasn’t exactly been impressive.
Kentucky 31, Missouri 21
-1 Texas A&M at Mississippi State
No idea from here on what has happened with the Bulldogs’ offense, but it hasn’t been as good the last few weeks as it was early in the year.
We’ll see in this one.
The Aggies still have a path to win the West, but a lot of it is out of their hands and depends on what happens in Baton Rouge next week.
Too much uncertainty with the Bulldogs for me to go with them in this one.
Texas A&M 28, Mississippi State 20
Tennessee at -8.5 South Carolina
The Vols shocked Auburn, but then folded up like a 40-year-old lawn chair against Alabama.
The Gamecocks haven’t really been impressive, but I’m not real sure anybody expected them to be this year.
Still, though, they should be able to win this one at home.
South Carolina 28, Tennessee 17
Razorbacks bring home sixth straight SEC cross country championship
AUBURN, Ala. — The No. 5 Arkansas women’s cross country team had five runners finish in the top-10 at the Southeastern Conference Cross Country Championships en route to its sixth-consecutive SEC Cross Country title Friday morning.
The Razorbacks have now won 19 cross country conference championships, more than the 13 other conference teams combined.
“To be able to put as many as we did in the top-ten just shows our firepower,” said coach Lance Harter. “I think if we can use this as a rehearsal for regionals, a rehearsal for the things we want to do at the National Meet, we’re well on our way.”
With all five scorers finishing in the top-10, Arkansas scored a total of 24 points, it’s lowest score since 2006 when the Razorbacks scored 17 points.
It’s the fourth time in program history that Lance Harter’s squad has scored fewer than 25 points at the SEC Championships since joining the league in 1991.
The Razorbacks also became the first school in conference history to win six cross country title in a row.
Setting a new program record in a 6K run, freshman standout Katrina Robinson paced the Razorbacks, finishing second overall with a time of 19:00.88.
Her time eclipses Andreina Byrd’s 17-year record of 19:07.29 also set in Auburn in 2001 and her finish marks the sixth-straight year the Razorbacks have had a top-two finisher at the conference meet.
“She (Robinson) had a fantastic race. She led part of the race, and she really wanted to win it. That’s just her nature. (Jessica) Pascoe is a phenomenal athlete with great credentials and was able to get away from her in the last kilometer, but she was able to support Lauren (Gregory), Carina (Viljoen), and Taylor (Werner).”
“We all ran as a team,” said Robinson. “I was really proud of us for getting a team victory. We trained through this week, so I don’t think any of us felt amazing, but I’m really proud that we got the job done.”
Lauren Gregory and Carina Viljoen finished third and fourth, respectively, each improving on last year’s finish that saw them take 12th and sixth.
Gregory, who took the SEC Freshman of the Year award, finished with a time of 19:07.90, while Viljoen was shortly behind at 19:10.15.
Taylor Werner finished sixth with a time of 19:22.17. Gregory, Viljoen, and Werner’s times are now the second, third, and fourth fastest 6k times in program history.
Rounding out Arkansas’ scoring was Sydney Brown who finished ninth with a time of 19:43.78. Arkansas, who took the maximum 12 runners allowed by the league, saw even non-scores have a good day on the course with Maddy Reed and Micah Huckabee finishing 10th and 16th, respectively to make it seven Razorbacks to finish in the top-20.
No other team had more than four finish in the top-20 in Friday’s race.
All-SEC Teams
First Team (Finishers 1-7)
Katrina Robinson
Lauren Gregory
Carina Viljoen
Taylor Werner
Second Team (Finishers 8-14)
Sydney Brown
Maddy Reed
All-Freshman Team (Top seven freshmen finishers)
Katrina Robinson
Arkansas will take a two-week break from action before returning to the course Nov. 9 in College Station, Texas for the NCAA South Central Regional.
Quinn Grovey on why choosing Arkansas was the best decision
Former Hog QB Quinn Grovey on why choosing Arkansas was the best decision of his life!
