Phil Elson and Tye Richardson discuss the the QB dilemma, interview Rivals’ Nikki Chavanelle, GET OFF MY LAWN SEGMENT and more!
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Tuesday
John, Tommy and Tyler harp over mistakes, what needs to change and more!
Class 4A Lumberjacks crack overall Top 10; NLR, Bryant, Fayetteville still top of poll
There was no change from last week in the top three spots of the Arkansas Media High School Football Poll, but perennial Class 4A powerhouse Warren slipped into the poll at No. 10.
Conway moved up to No. 4 overall while Fort Smith Northside dropped a place to fifth.
In Class 6A, Greenwood stayed at the top, but Benton has moved past Pine Bluff, who is struggling just to play a game due to weather, into the third-place position.
Not surprisingly, Pulaski Academy continues to lead Class 5A while the Lumberjacks are solidly atop the Class 4A rankings while Joe T. Robinson is second and Nashville third.
Booneville leads in Class 3A and Mount ida tops Class 2A.
| 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. | ||||
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?
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
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
John and Tommy talk what happened on Saturday night, take your calls, and interview Tom Murphy!













