Phil Elson and Tye Richardson hit on the hogs not having Ty Storey for Saturday, FOMO Friday, plus interview coach Matt Zimmerman!
‘Morning Rush’ confirms Storey out for Hogs this week
The Morning Rush on ESPN Arkansas reported this morning that it has been confirmed Arkansas quarterback Ty Storey will not be starting Saturday’s game against Tulsa.
Show personality Tommy Craft reported on the show, which runs from 6-9 a.m. on several stations across the state, that he had confirmed Storey had failed the concussion protocol this week.
Storey suffered the injury in the loss to Ole Miss last week in Little Rock on a big hit on the Razorbacks’ second offensive play in the fourth quarter.
Arkansas coach Chad Morris gave no indications earlier this week who might replace Storey, but it likely will be either freshman Connor Noland or Cole Kelley, who started the season opener and against North Texas this season.
Storey had practiced Tuesday and Wednesday and all appeared normal, but the concussion protocol tests are much more intensive than anything seen at practice.
‘Steamboat’ has sailed; Noland should get start
Arkansas quarterback Ty Storey won’t play against Tulsa Saturday after failing concussion protocol following a nasty hit against Ole Miss last week, according to some reports.
That leaves Hogs coach Chad Morris with a tough decision. Well, not really.
Morris’ obvious choices to fill Storey’s spot are sophomore Cole Kelley or true freshman Connor Noland, the Greenwood High School product.
Storey and Kelley have taken most of the first-team snaps and both have started games this fall. However, Storey has firmly secured the starting spot with Kelley being used in the “Steamboat Package” when his 6-foot-7, 256-pound frame can be used to pick up short yardage, mostly plowing straight ahead.
Although Kelley has shown a knack for throwing the deep ball, Storey clearly has a better command of the offense.
That was obvious in last week’s loss to Ole Miss when the Hogs struggled with Kelley under center when Storey had to leave the game for good in the second half.
Kelley did throw a deep touchdown on his first play subbing for Storey when he was knocked out for a play in the first half, but when he was asked to lead the offense and sustain drives, the Hogs sputtered and allowed Ole Miss to come back and eventually win the game late.
The final thud came when Kelley threw a horrible pass to no one in particular that was intercepted by Ole Miss and ended any chances the Razorbacks had to win.
Two factors must be mentioned in his defense, though. Kelley didn’t have the benefit of handing the ball off to dominant running backs Rakeem Boyd or Devwah Whaley.
Both were injured in the first half and didn’t return. That left the diminutive Chase Hayden as the featured back which is a role he is not suited for.
The other thing to consider is just before the pick, Kelley threw a nice ball to La’Michael Pettway over the middle for first-down yardage but it was dropped.
So, Kelley isn’t all to blame of course.
However, I’m fairly certain that if Storey had stayed in the game with the same personnel, he could have helped the offense do enough to preserve its first SEC win.
With the defense faltering even worse against Ole Miss’s high-powered offense, Morris needed his offensive unit to pick up a few first downs and run clock. Storey showed he could find a way to get that job done.
So, that leads us to the present dilemma. Morris’ most consistent QB is on the shelf and a 1-5 Tulsa team awaits. This is a must-win for a last gasp at trying to build some momentum to end the season. A loss to the Golden Hurricane may lead to four more straight losses and a 1-11 campaign.
Morris needs a signal caller he can count on to salvage this very winnable game. Kelley hasn’t shown that he’s that guy.
Noland’s only chance has been a few snaps in the second half of a lop-sided loss to North Texas. Noland was 4 of 7 for 25 yards and an interception.
Noland is the quarterback of the future at UA. He has the talent to be better than both Storey and Kelley. With Arkansas in full rebuild mode, he needs to be playing.
Starting him against a lackluster Tulsa team seems to be the perfect time to get meaningful snaps. And if he shines, look at making him the full-time starter to finish the season.
Or if you subscribe to the theory that a starter shouldn’t lose his job to injury, then move him up to No. 2 on the depth chart and spell Storey from time to time to end the year.
Arkansas isn’t going to a bowl game, there is no guarantee that Storey will even be back at Arkansas next year, so the future should be front and center in Morris’ mind. That future is Noland.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Friday
John & Tommy share QB news for Saturday, interview Austin Chadwick, plus Fenceman Friday picks!
Razorbacks-Mississippi State fight to scoreless draw Friday
STARKVILLE, Miss. — Arkansas fought to a scoreless draw with No. 25 Mississippi State on Thursday night at the MSU Soccer Field, racking up its sixth shutout of the year and fourth in conference play.
The Razorbacks (10-3-3, 5-2-1 SEC) and Bulldogs (9-4-2, 2-4-2 SEC) played very evenly throughout the first 90 minutes and into overtime.
Shots were even after the first half at 10-10 before Arkansas took the slight advantage in the second half and the two extra periods, finishing with a 20-16 advantage.
Even with the lack of legitimate scoring chances, Arkansas’ defense was up to the challenge led by redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Taylor Beitz, who finished the match with a career-high 11 saves, five more than her previous high of six set against LSU (Oct. 4) earlier this year.
Beitz has been the consistent presence for the Arkansas back line in recent weeks, totaling four shutouts in her last six starts.
Those four clean sheets have all come against SEC opponents and ties for the second-most conference shutouts in a season in school history.
Thursday’s match with MSU was Arkansas’ fifth to go into overtime this year. The Razorbacks are now 1-1-3 in overtime matches this season, but has garnered a result in each of the last two (vs. LSU).
With the draw, Arkansas is now in a tie for third place in the SEC standings at 16 points with Texas A&M and Tennessee.
League-leader Vanderbilt remained unbeaten in conference play with a 3-0 win over Auburn. It sits alone at the top with 22 points and two matches remaining. South Carolina is three points back in second place.
Although Thursday’s match between the Razorbacks and Bulldogs ended in a draw, the match wasn’t short on its exciting moments on the offensive end.
Junior Tori Cannata and sophomore Taylor Malham combined for nine of Arkansas’ 20 shots in the match, each with one on goal.
Malham had some of the best chances for the Razorbacks in the overtime periods, finding space on multiple breakaways, but not being able to get clean shots off against the Mississippi State defense.
One of the best chances for Cannata came in the final five minutes of the second half when sophomore Julia Laskaris got the ball on a good cross into the middle of the box.
Cannata was there with the well-timed header that rocketed towards the goal, but it flew just wide of the post.
Junior Kayla McKeon, who had at least one point in four of the last five matches coming in, was held in check for the most part during the match. The Texas native only registered three shots, but played all 110 minutes for the Razorbacks.
From Head Coach Colby Hale
“Ties are tough. I thought the players deserved more tonight, but they played hard and created enough chances to win the match. Ties stink, but I’m certainly proud of our performance tonight.”
Up Next
Arkansas has a quick turnaround before its next match as it welcomes in No. 21 Auburn for a match on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Razorback Field.
It will be the final home regular-season match for Arkansas and it will also be Senior Day for Ellie Breden, Reece Christopherson and Carly Hoke.
The match on Sunday will be broadcast online on SEC Network+.
White captures ‘Fall World Series’ for Hogs’ baseball
FAYETTEVILLE — Sophomore Heston Kjerstad was perfect at the plate Thursday night as he helped Team White clinch the Razorback Fall World Series, 12-4, over Team Cardinal, sweeping the best-of-three series at Baum Stadium.
Kjerstad finished the game 4-for-4 with six RBIs, including a home run. He fell just a triple shy of the cycle, but was one of three players on Team White to record a multi-hit game.
Kjerstad’s outburst one of many strong offensive performances from Team White throughout the week that helped it win both games of the series by a combined score of 21-5.
The Amarillo, Texas native seemed back to regular-season form this week as he went 5-for-9 (.556) at the plate with seven RBIs and three extra-base hits. This showing came just one week after the flu forced him to miss the Razorbacks fall exhibition at Little Rock last week.
Redshirt freshman Jacob Nesbit along with sophomore catcher Casey Opitz also had good days with the bat, combining to go 3-for-6 (.500) with two of the hits coming from Nesbit.
The duo made up the No. 4 and No. 5 slots in the lineup and Opitz took advantage of RBI opportunities Matt Goodheart, Casey Martin, Kjerstad and Nesbit ahead of him. Opitz finished with two runs driven in, his second-straight game with two or more.
On the mound, Cody Scroggins got the start and gave up only one hit over five innings, striking out eight of the 17 batters he faced. Caden Monke, Jacob Burton and Landon Brown followed out of the bullpen. Team Cardinal was able to get four runs after the switch to the bullpen late, but Team White had already built an 11-0 lead before that first Cardinal run.
Arkansas will finish its fall practice in the coming week with a few more team practices before settling into individual workouts throughout November and December. Full team workouts will resume in January, roughly one month before Opening Day.
The Razorbacks will open the 2019 season on Friday, Feb. 15 against Eastern Illinois, the first of a three-game series at Baum Stadium.
2018 Fall World Series Schedule
Game 1 – White 9, Cardinal 1 (Team White leads series 1-0)
Game 2 – White 12, Cardinal 4 (Team White wins series 2-0)
Neighbors talking about Hogs in second season at Media Day
Arkansas women’s basketball coach Mike Neighbors talked about his team at SEC Media Day on Thursday in Hoover, Alabama.
Bryant’s biggest asset to Hogs might not be on field
Arkansas fans have been in a tizzy the last few days over former Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant coming to town for an official visit as the graduate transfer is considering coming to town.
From Chad Morris’ perspective, it has to be as much for what he can do mentoring the younger quarterbacks as what he can do on the field.
It’s not because he’s not talented. He is. But let’s face it, counting on a graduate transfer quarterback is a little bit of a crapshoot, based on history.
For every Russell Wilson success story (North Carolina State to Wisconsin), there is the case of Brandon Harris (LSU to North Carolina) and Malik Zaire (Notre Dame to Florida).
For every Trevor Knight story (Oklahoma to Texas A&M), there’s Jeremiah Masoli (Oregon to Ole Miss), Everett Golson (Notre Dame to Florida State) and Max Browne (Southern Cal to Pitt).
What history shows us is the one-year transfer quarterback isn’t going to give your team a tremendous boost in wins or losses. You are what you are, in other words.
Yes, Wilson took the Badgers to the Rose Bowl in 2011, but that was the middle team in Bret Bielema’s three-year run of getting them there … only to lose that bowl game each time.
You can’t say Wilson lifted them higher than what they were.
Knight didn’t want to hang around Norman and back up Baker Mayfield, so he went south to College Station and stabilized a shaky quarterback situation and got the Aggies to an 8-5 season, which was the same record as the previous season.
And those examples are the best-case scenarios of what works out. A one-year graduate transfer can keep you from slipping or stabilize a shaky quarterback situation.
The Razorbacks, unfortunately, can’t slip much more than where they are. A change at quarterback may help a game or two, but it’s not going to get them where Morris or anybody else wants them to be.
Talk shows this week have speculated with how the Hogs would have done this year with Bryant at quarterback and it’s an impossible question to answer because he’d still have the same offensive line in front of him.
And we don’t know what Bryant can do behind a shaky offensive line. Clemson didn’t have a bad one during his one season as a starter.
But what he does bring to the table is something that isn’t dependent on the players around him and that’s experience of being around a winning college football program for four seasons. One that’s won at an extremely high level.
Bryant has said in interviews he wants to go somewhere for him to develop more as a quarterback. The translation on that is he needs somewhere that can put him on the field, which does pretty much fit the description at Arkansas.
Oh, Ty Storey will have a year of eligibility left and there’s a couple of true freshmen on the roster, but none have shown the ability to jump into the starter’s role and start winning ballgames. Of course they haven’t had the chance, so we don’t really know that.
Through seven games, Morris has been doing what he can do to try and win ballgames. With the chance of a bowl game now looking almost out of reach, there has to be a time soon when player development will come into the picture.
With a young group of quarterbacks, Bryant could be a big influence on and off the field.
By all accounts, he was a mentor to Trevor Lawrence at Clemson, but didn’t want to hang around unless he could still be the starter while teaching the youngster the ropes.
Morris is finding some players that came in this year. Rakeem Boyd has shown enough of a spark to be one of the best for the Hogs in a long, long time. His speed breaking away from people is impressive … defensive backs can’t catch him.
There’s help on the way. Arkansas’ recruiting class for 2019 is shaping up to be one of the best in decades, not just years. At least on potential. They still have to be coached up or you end up no better than before they showed up.
That may be the biggest reason Morris wants Bryant to be a Razorback for a year.
The hardest thing for new coaches to do is instill a winning mindset in a group of players that haven’t had a lot of experience in knowing what it takes to win and how to win.
Bryant has been around that. He’s shown a willingness to mentor younger players, based on what we’ve heard about him at Clemson with Lawrence.
And that could help more than anything he does on the field.
???? Thursday Halftime Pod — Featuring Tulsa’s Bruce Howard
Phil Elson and Tye Richardson discuss Kelly Bryant’s weekend, You Spent What, plus Tulsa play-by-play broadcaster Bruce Howard!
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Thursday
John & Tommy discuss SEC Basketball Media day, Eddie in Clarksville and interview Richard Davenport!
Hogs win third straight, sweeping past South Carolina
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas swept South Carolina Wednesday night to earn its third conference win of the season and second-straight victory.
With the win, the Hogs improved to 9-9, 3-5 SEC.
FINAL
Arkansas 3, South Carolina 0 | Box Score
Attendance: 546 | Time: 1:24
Barnhill Arena
#RazorStats
• Stat leaders vs South Carolina
o Kills: Hailey Dirrigl – 10
o Digs: Okiana Valle – 26
o Blocks: Kelly O’Brien – 4.0
The first set started close, with neither team earning much of a lead. Arkansas gained momentum mid-set, going on a 7-0 scoring run and earning a 25-19 victory. The Razorbacks led the entire second set, eventually winning 25-20.
Both teams played evenly in the third set, with the score seeing seven ties and five lead changes. The Hogs were able to pull ahead mid-set, clinching the sweep with a 25-20 win.
Okiana Valle had a remarkable night at the service line, recording 13 service points.
The Razorbacks will return to the court Sunday afternoon to host the Alabama Crimson Tide in the team’s Pink Game. First serve is set for 1 p.m.
