Arkansas coach Mike Anderson talked with the media in advance of the team leaving for El Paso on Wednesday and is excited about starting the season with a strong opponent.
Gafford, Bailey on Arkansas’ opener against Texas on Friday
Razorbacks Daniel Gafford and Adrio Bailey talked Tuesday about the opening game in El Paso against the Longhorns, meeting and interacting with the troops.
???? Tuesday Halftime Pod — featuring Nikki Chavanelle
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!
