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Atwater inducted into SWC Hall of Fame on Monday

FORT WORTH, Texas — Former Razorback football All-American and Denver Broncos’ All-Pro safety Steve Atwater was among nine honorees inducted into the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame on Monday during a luncheon at the Brown-Lupton University Union on the TCU campus in Fort Worth, Texas.

Hosted by the Texas Sports Hall of Fame (TSHOF), the event honored Atwater as well as other legends from schools previously affiliated with the Southwest Conference. Each inductee received a gold medal as well as a Hall of Fame ring.

“Long before he was delivering bone-jarring tackles for the Denver Broncos, Steve Atwater was an outstanding safety for the Arkansas Razorbacks,” Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek said. “He has never forgotten his time at Arkansas and treasures the great moments he and his Razorback teammates enjoyed during his collegiate tenure.

“Steve remains a great ambassador for our University and the Razorback program. It was an honor to join Steve, his wife Letha and other members of his family for this special day as he was enshrined as one of the best to ever compete in the Southwest Conference.”

Among those on hand to help celebrate Atwater’s induction on Monday were Yurachek, Atwater’s coach at Arkansas, Ken Hatfield, longtime athletic trainer Dean Weber, former Razorback quarterback Bill Montgomery and longtime UA staff member and SWC Hall of Fame Committee member Kevin Trainor.

Hatfield and Montgomery are also members of the SWC Hall of Fame.

Atwater is a member of the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor as well as the school’s All-Century and All-Decade teams.

He was named to three All-America teams as a senior in 1988 (Associated Press and Sporting News second team, Football News third team). Atwater was a three-time All-Southwest Conference performer (1986, 1988 first team, 1987 second team).

The St. Louis native still holds the school record of 14 career interceptions. He also recorded 229 career tackles and 28 pass deflections in his Razorback career.

He had 70 tackles, nine passes broken up and four interceptions in 1988, helping Arkansas to a 10-2 record, a Cotton Bowl appearance and the Southwest Conference championship.

The Hogs were a combined 38-11 in his four years with appearances in the Cotton, Liberty, Orange and Holiday bowls, and finished ranked 12th, 15th and 12th following his freshman, sophomore and senior seasons, respectively.

The 20th pick in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos in 1989, he played 11 years in the NFL, finishing with 818 tackles and 24 interceptions, and helping the Broncos win Super Bowl titles in 1997 and 1998.

He was selected to the Pro Bowl eight times, second most in franchise history.

Atwater started all 155 games while he was with Denver, with 14 post-season starts including in Super Bowl XXXII where he posted one of the best performances ever by a safety in a Super Bowl. He ended his career with the New York Jets.

In addition to Atwater, the 2018 class included All-SWC Baylor basketball player, Tommy Bowman, All American basketball player from the University of Houston, Larry Micheaux, former women’s track & field coach from Rice, Victor Lopez, SMU basketball standout, Denny Holman, University of Texas All-American baseball player, Brooks Kieschnick, Texas A&M football and track legend, Curtis Dickey, former TCU star basketball player, Kurt Thomas and All-SWC quarterback from Texas Tech, Joe Barnes.

The Southwest Conference Hall of Fame is one of four separate halls of fame housed within the Texas Sports Hall of Fame’s physical structure.

They include the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame, the Texas Tennis Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and now, the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame.

Hogs will play Auburn at night, but TV not decided yet

Arkansas’ SEC opening game on The Plains at Auburn will be at night on Sept. 22, but the television channel won’t be decided until after this week’s games are played.

The conference office released the times of the games Monday for that weekend.

The schedule for the fourth weekend of the regular season is comprised of six conference games and two non-conference games.

The weekly SEC Network triple-header will feature Kent State at Ole Miss in the first game of the day, South Carolina at Vanderbilt in the afternoon window and either Arkansas at Auburn or Florida at Tennessee in primetime.

SEC Television Schedule

  • Georgia at Missouri, 11 a.m. on ESPN
  • Kent State at Ole Miss, 11 a.m. on SEC Network
  • Texas A&M at Alabama, 2:30 pm on CBS
  • South Carolina at Vanderbilt, 3 p.m. on SEC Network
  • Mississippi State at Kentucky, 6 p.m. on ESPN or ESPN2 or ESPNU*
  • Louisiana Tech at LSU, 6 p.m. on ESPN2 or ESPNU*
  • Arkansas at Auburn, 6 p.m. on ESPN or ESPN2 OR 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network#
  • Florida at Tennessee, 6 p.m. on ESPN or ESPN2 OR 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network#

*denotes network designations to be made after games of September 15

#denotes time and network designations to be made after games of September 15

Is Morris sacrificing future for Hogs’ immediate success?

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Chad Morris was first to the podium for Monday’s final post-mortem on the loss to Colorado State on Saturday night and he basically dodged the whole quarterback issue.

Offensive coordinator Joe Craddock came later and basically followed the script.

Both certainly left the impression it’s a two-man position between Ty Storey and Cole Kelley.

Arkansas fans can be excused for wanting to pull their hair out over this. That’s not really what anybody wanted to hear.

“I don’t know if the quarterback situation is a concern as much as the fact that you need someone to lead the team,” Morris said. “It’s not ideal to have to play two guys. It’ll be a week-to-week process right now.”

Then there’s two freshmen sitting on the bench that you get the impression Morris and Craddock are somehow reluctant to put them into the game. Whether that’s because Storey and Kelley have more game experience or the freshmen aren’t practicing well isn’t really clear.

Some players have told folks Connor Noland is the best quarterback running the offense. Apparently, the coaches don’t agree with that assessment.

“The other quarterbacks still get reps in practice so they gotta be ready when the opportunity presents itself, but Cole and Ty will continue to battle this week,” Morris said.

Just looking at the passing numbers last week was bad enough. Storey was 5-of-13 for 36 yards with two interceptions (both not totally his fault, we found out Monday) while Kelley wasn’t much better, hitting 6-of-9 passes for 102 yards.

Then look a little closer. Kelley gets passing credit for a little pop pass to T.J. Hammonds, who took what is effectively a handoff 64 yards. Subtract that and Kelley has just 38 yards.

Yes, for those trying to do the math, an SEC team only had a realistic 68 yards passing against a non-Power 5 opponent who came into the game with two losses.

“This is a work in progress,” Morris said.

Well, Chad, the fans have figured that out. What no one can figure out is why you have a pair of freshmen who haven’t seen the field and nobody appears to be happy about either of the two guys playing quarterback.

Is Morris not confident enough of an SEC win he’s trying to win the nonconference games just to get some wins on the board?

In the opener against Eastern Illinois, Kelley started and didn’t make it to the second quarter. Last week, Storey started and basically did a remarkable imitation of a man lost trying to play quarterback for a half.

“It’s not on the wide receivers or the quarterbacks, it’s on all of us,” Morris said. “We had some drops the other night, we have to make plays, we’ll fix it.”

Since this is Morris’ first season and only the second game, we’ll ignore the “fix it” comment that’s starting to sound a lot like Bret Bielema’s “we’re close.”

“I don’t know what’s happened in the past, but this is on my watch,” Morris said. “I assure you that we’ll get that fixed.”

For the first time since, oh, probably 2008 that the Razorbacks haven’t been settled on the quarterback position, right or wrong. Yes, there were folks questioning both Brandon and Austin Allen starting at times, but the coaching staff never wavered.

Morris wanted to run the ball against Colorado State and that’s what the Hogs did. You get the idea at times he’s more dedicated to running the ball than the previous staff was.

But maybe that’s because they don’t have a quarterback they really like.

Which begs the question of what they are waiting for in looking at the two freshmen.

Let’s face it, this team hasn’t looked exactly hammer-down, full-tilt boogie or any of the other little catchwords Morris has used.

Is Morris sacrificing some of the near future development at quarterback in trying to produce wins in the immediate future?

Thats the question some folks are having right now.

Including me.

 

 

???? Monday Halftime Pod — Featuring former Arkansas QB Matt Jones

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Phil Elson and Tye Richardson discuss the Arkansas loss, three best/worst things from the weekend, interview former Hog QB Matt Jones and more!

Morris takes ownership of loss, looks ahead to UNT

Arkansas coach Chad Morris said Monday the problems in Saturday’s 34-27 loss at Colorado State start with him and the coaches and he’s facing a team he’s familiar with in North Texas this week.

Craddock apparently sticking with Storey, Kelley at QB

Arkansas offensive coordinator Joe Craddock talked Monday about the quarterback play against Colorado State last week and staying the course with Ty Storey and Cole Kelley at least for this week.

Chavis puts Colorado State collapse on himself, coaches

Arkansas defensive coordinator John Chavis took the blame for the defense’s collapse Saturday night in the 34-27 loss at Colorado State and looked ahead to North Texas this Saturday.

Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Monday

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John and Tommy talk what happened on Saturday night, take your calls, and interview Tom Murphy!

Has time come for freshmen duo to see field for Hogs?

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After yet another fourth-quarter meltdown by Arkansas there will be questions about the quarterback position which at times lately has resembled a schoolyard volunteer position.

The numbers aren’t that bad and we’ve all heard about how Chad Morris likes his numbers. Being a math major with a statistics minor at Texas A&M tends to indicate someone’s going to lean in that direction.

But sometimes a coach just has to go with the feel.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve seen it blow up both ways.

When Tom Landry coached the Dallas Cowboys he always referred to his “feel” for which quarterback to use. Folks tend to forget there always seemed to be some sort of quarterback controversy there. It was basically a revolving door most of his 29 years there.

After a particularly inept offensive performance one time in the 1980’s when the Cowboys couldn’t find a quarterback, Landry was asked why he didn’t make a change at the position when they couldn’t get close enough to a first down most of the day to even have a lot of debate over what to do.

“We weren’t moving the ball,” Landry said. He was serious and pretty much ignored the snickering and wide-eyed looks from the media. “If we’d been moving the ball and not scoring I might have made a change.”

That was Landry Code for his game plan blew up in his face (and he did the game plan for the offense, defense and special teams himself), so he wasn’t about to start trying to juggle quarterbacks to see if it would make a difference. He was convinced it didn’t matter.

Two games into this season, Morris hasn’t even looked at freshmen Connor Noland or John Stephen Jones. He’s already said there’s a package for Daulton Hyatt, which is code for there’s only a certain kind of plays he can do.

But could Noland or Jones actually do worse than the struggling Ty Storey and Cole Kelley have done through two games the Hogs should have won handily?

We’re seeing on the field what Morris and offensive coordinator Joe Craddock have talked about since the spring. Both quarterbacks do some good things, but nothing consistently enough for this team to hang it’s hat on.

Which begs the question why not see what the freshmen can do?

With the new redshirt rule, you can put them out there the next four weeks and if they don’t work out, well, they will have a redshirt available.

Could it get worse? Probably, but not much worse.

Both Storey and Kelley have rather unimpressive numbers.

Storey is 17-of-30 passing with two interceptions against Colorado State, three touchdowns for 297 yards. Kelley is 15-of-21 for 194 yards.

Add both of them together and you’ve got a routine single game for Ryan Mallett or Tyler Wilson.

This is a case where Morris’ numbers aren’t telling the whole storey. Neither one of them have looked completely comfortable at times. At other times they both appeared completely lost.

For a position that often sets the tone for the entire offense, well, it seems to be a problem.

Coaches want consistency. If things are consistent, they can figure out what to fix, but when you fix one thing and two other fall apart, well, you’ve got one of those situations that causes migraine headaches.

Is it time to put the two freshmen in the game that each quarterbacked a team to a championship less than 12 months ago?

Winning is a habit.

So is losing.

Both have been on Razorback teams that made falling apart late a habit. Neither one of them likes it, but it appears neither have the ability or leadership to change it.

Neither freshman may be able to change it, either.

But you wonder if Morris and Craddock are ready to find out.

Scores from across Arkansas on Week 2 of the high school season

Here are scores from across Arkansas on the weekend of high school football games.

Class 7A

Bryant 17, Bentonville West 10
Fort Smith Northside 46, Van Buren 21
Greenwood 52, Fort Smith Southside 27
Little Rock Catholic 42, Jacksonville 0
Rogers at Little Rock Central, cancelled
Springdale 37, Alma 7

Battle on the Border At Independence Bowl Stadium, Shreveport
North Little Rock 35, Shreveport Evangel Christian 20

CLASS 6A

Cabot 27, El Dorado 10
Conway 37, Jonesboro 16
Harrison 42, Siloam Springs 7
Lake Hamilton 56, Malvern 10
Marion 20, LR Parkview 19
Nettleton 43, Mountain Home 7
Springdale Har-Ber 27, Russellville 7
Watson Chapel at Pine Bluff, cancelled

CLASS 5A

Ashdown 49, Hope 14
Beebe 17, Lonoke 7
Crossett at White Hall, cancelled
Farmington 49, Gravette 2
Forrest City 46, Pine Bluff Dollarway 8
Little Rock McClellan 34, Sylvan Hills 14
Maumelle 62, Vilonia 22
Morrilton 47, Little Rock Fair 12
Nashville 63, De Queen 7
Newport 60, Greene County Tech 28
Pulaski Academy 56, Memphis Ridgeway 35
Searcy 40, Batesville 15
Texarkana, Texas, 43, Texarkana 35
West Memphis 35, Blytheville 15
Wynne 35, Arkadelphia 28

CLASS 4A

Bald Knob 21, Harding Academy 19
Benton Harmony Grove 33, Gurdon 0
Central Arkansas Christian 38, Baptist 13
Camden Fairview 25, Hamburg 19, OT
Commerce, Okla. 32, Green Forest 0
Danville 43, Dover 19
Dardanelle 35, Prairie Grove 17
Dumas 30, McGehee 6
Elkins 54, West Fork 0
Fountain Lake 40, Hot Springs Lakeside 27
Greenbrier 41, Heber Springs 16
Highland 27, Riverview 20
Huntsville 21, Berryville 14
Jonesboro Westside 44, Hoxie 21
Lamar 34, Subiaco Academy 12
Lincoln 40, Park Hill (Okla.) Keys 7
LR Hall at Mills, cancelled
Magnolia 42, Monticello 7
Mena 19, Hot Springs 0
Osceola 35, Gosnell 30
Ozark 42, Clarksville 13
Piggott 44, Brookland 14
Pocahontas 49, Paragould 21
Rivercrest 24, Valley View 14
Shiloh Christian 35, Trumann 7
Waldron 54, Paris 28
Warren at Stuttgart, cancelled

CLASS 3A

Bauxite 28, Glen Rose 16
Bigelow 25, Cedarville 20
Booneville 28, Pottsville 26
Clinton 55, Conway Christian 21
Harrisburg 35, Cedar Ridge 0
Hector 39, Perryville 7
Mayflower 53, Marshall 8
Mineral Springs 7, Fouke 0
Mount Ida 21, Jessieville 6
Murfreesboro 24, Horatio 14
Palestine-Wheatley 30, Marvell 12
Poyen 58, Bismarck 27
Rison 41, Brinkley 6
Salem 52, Yellville-Summit 6
OPEN Drew Central

CLASS 2A

Atkins 20, Magnet Cove 0
Bearden at Hazen, cancelled
Camden Harmony Grove 30, Fordyce 28
Cutter Morning Star 46, Rose Bud 12
DeWitt 26, Carlisle 12
Earle 36, Barton 16
Clarendon at England, cancelled
Foreman 21, Parkers Chapel 0
Genoa Central 17, Lafayette County 0
Greenland 53, Mountainburg 39
Helena-West Helena 50, Marianna 14
Johnson County Westside 48, Two Rivers 6
Lake Village 20, Strong 6
Manila 27, Marked Tree 24
Mansfield 47, Lavaca 0
McCrory 30, Des Arc 28
Mountain Pine 48, Dierks 13
Quitman 32, Midland 0
Rector 15, Corning 14
Walnut Ridge 41, East Poinsett County 18
OPEN Spring Hill

SATURDAY

Battle on the Border At Independence Bowl Stadium, Shreveport
Aledo, Texas 51, Bentonville 14

KNWA VIDEO: Morris talking about loss to Colorado State

Video courtesy of KNWA

Arkansas coach Chad Morris talked with the media after Saturday night’s loss to Colorado State where the Hogs squandered a 27-9 second-half lead, falling 34-27 on the road.