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Razorbacks fight to draw with ninth-ranked West Virginia

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — A highly physical match between Arkansas and No. 9 West Virginia went into overtime late Sunday morning, but neither team could find the scoring touch in the extra 20 minutes as both teams fought to a 1-1 draw at Jeffrey Field.

Junior Stefani Doyle provided the lone goal for the Razorbacks in the 16th minute, her first of the season and 12th of her career. Meanwhile, the Arkansas defense had another strong match led by sophomore goalkeeper Rachel Harris, who racked up a career-high nine saves.

Arkansas’ result with West Virginia on Sunday marked its fourth win or tie against a top-10 opponent in its last seven opportunities going back to the 2016 season.

With the tie, the Razorbacks will head into the second week of the season undefeated for the sixth time in the last seven years.

From Head Coach Colby Hale

“What a great game. West Virginia is a very talented and well-coached team. We were up for it and had a bunch of chances to win it. Overall, I’m pleased with many parts of where we are. It was a good weekend. We’ll go and watch the video and see where the areas we need to continue to improve are. What a great effort by the players.”

How It Went Down

16th minute – Junior Stefani Doyle’s goal broke the scoreless match open early in the first half, giving the Hogs the early advantage. With West Virginia trying to go on a counter attack, sophomore Abbi Neece came up with a loose ball to turn the tides. Neece was able to find Doyle streaking down the middle of the box, who, then, followed with a nice move to beat the keeper and finish with a left-footed shot.

Doyle is coming off a five goal, 16-point sophomore season and has tallied points in two of her last three matches going back to last year. As for Neece, the Texas native was making her first start of the season and now has three assists in her career.

61st minute – West Virginia did even up the match after being awarded a penalty kick midway through the second half. Bianca St. Georges was called to take the shot and Harris was unable to come up with the tough save.

87th minute – West Virginia forward Sh’Nia Gordon was given a red card with four minutes left in the second half forcing the Mountaineers to continue with only 10 players for the remainder of the match.

90th minute – Harris came back in a big way to finish regulation as she came off her line to make the low dive on a St. Georges shot attempt from 15 yards out. The crucial save sent the match into overtime where neither team was able to break the tie.

108th minute – After only earning one shot attempt in the first overtime period, Arkansas had just 10 more minutes to try and find the winner. Junior Madison Louk nearly had the golden goal on another counter attack, but her shot attempt from the left side was blocked by West Virginia.

Other Key Notes

• In its last seven matches against top-10 opponents going back to 2016, Arkansas has won or tied four times. Sunday’s match was its second-straight result over a top-10 team.

• Sophomore goalkeeper Rachel Harris turned away a career-high nine shots in 96 minutes Sunday. Her previous high of four saves came against James Madison on Sept. 1, 2017.

• Senior Carly Hoke and sophomore Haley VanFossen played all 110 minutes of Sunday’s match. For Hoke, it’s the third time in her career she’s played 110 minutes, while it’s the second time for VanFossen.

• Sunday’s meeting was the first between Arkansas and West Virginia.

Up Next

Arkansas will return to Razorback Field for its next match as it will open the home portion of its schedule against Nebraska-Omaha on Friday, Aug. 24 with first kick set for 7 p.m.

Cornelius talks about offense in scrimmage Saturday

Arkansas wide receiver Jared Cornelius talked with the media after Saturday’s scrimmage and pointed out what he felt was a 99-yard pass play for the offense at one point.

Nance on how offense performed in scrimmage

Razorbacks wide receiver Jonathan Nance talked with the media about how the offense looked in the scrimmage Saturday inside Razorback Stadium.

Richardson on defense’s performance in scrimmage

Hogs defensive lineman Gabe Richardson talked with the media after Saturday’s scrimmage about how Sosa Agim is adapting and Randy Ramsey being back along with others.

Curl on how defense played in scrimmage

Arkansas cornerback Kamren Curl talked about the defense’s performance in Saturday’s scrimmage, but he didn’t see any 99-yard pass completion.

Morris pleased with second scrimmage to end camp

Arkansas coach Chad Morris met with the media after the second scrimmage of the fall Saturday as they prepare to break camp Saturday night to get ready for the first game.

Craddock on offense’s performance in scrimmage

Offensive coordinator Joe Craddock didn’t have a lot of definitive comments after the scrimmage inside Razorback Stadium because he was in the press box making calls.

Chavis not happy with tackling in scrimmage

Arkansas defensive coordinator John Chavis met with the media after Saturday’s scrimmage inside Razorback Stadium and wasn’t happy with their tackling during the 140-play workout.

Anderson honored at Burlsworth Foundation’s Legacy Dinner

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas coach Mike Anderson was honored Friday at the annual Brandon Burlsworth Foundation Legends Dinner.

Anderson becomes the ninth Legend the Burlsworth Foundation has honored, joining John Paul Hammerschmidt (2010), Frank Broyles (2011), John Boozman (2012), Mrs. Pat Walker (2013), Randy Veach (2014), Asa Hutchinson (2015), Judy McReynolds (2016) and Curt Bradbury (2017).

University of Arkansas Chairman of the Board of Trustees Mark Waldrip served as the master of ceremonies while Scotty Thurman, Steve Smith, Hunter Yurachek and Nolan Richardson each spoke during the program before Anderson was honored.

“The Legends Dinner recognizes a person each year who has made great contributions to our state,” said Marty Burlsworth, Chairman/CEO and Founder of the Brandon Burlsworth Foundation. “Coach Anderson has a long history with the University and the state of Arkansas, so it was an easy choice for our board of directors to honor him in this way.”

Anderson is starting his eighth season at Arkansas and owns a 151-86 record with the Razorbacks.

Overall, this season will mark his 17th as a head coach, posting a 351-184 career record, and this season will be his 25th at Arkansas.

He is one of four Division I coaches with 15-plus years of head coaching experience and has never experienced a losing season while being the only coach to accomplish the feat at three different programs.

In his 16 years of being a head coach, Anderson has led his teams to 11 postseason berths, including nine NCAA Tournament appearances, and posted 11, 20-win seasons.

This past season, the Razorbacks reached the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, made the NCAA field for the third time in four seasons and played in the postseason for the fourth time in the last five years.

Prior to becoming a head coach, Anderson was part of the basketball staff when Arkansas won the 1994 NCAA Championship and finished runner-up for the national title the following year (1995), while helping the Razorbacks to three Final Four appearances and 15 postseason appearances in his 17 years as an assistant.

While his on-court success is evident, Coach Anderson is equally a champion in the community.

He created his own Mike Anderson Foundation, which provides funding for programs focused on preventative health care education and assists organizations that offer nutritional support for children. Anderson is active with the Yvonne Richardson Center and Samaritan’s Feet.

Also, each year at the annual Red-White Game, fans get in free with a canned food item, which helps support the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. In fact, Anderson has done similar food drives as the head coach at Missouri and UAB as well as assist with Special Olympics at all three stops.

Bud Light Countdown: 14 days until Hogs kick off the season

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Stoerner to Lucas.

Photo credit: Brian Bahr/Getty Images

Don’t count on passing top QB requirement for Hogs

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With Chad Morris not wanting to put any particular quarterback ahead of another in fall camp, it does lead to a constant conversation topic for radio talk shows and any gathering of two fans or more.

The view from here is many fans simply haven’t paid close enough attention to what Morris has been saying since the spring.

Being the best passer isn’t a primary measuring stick. This isn’t the same scenario for Arkansas as it was in 2008 when Bobby Petrino took over.

Morris wants to run the ball. Petrino made no secret of the fact he preferred passing, even saying on a couple of occasions he wasn’t patient enough to run the ball downfield, gaining four and five yards at time.

You get the feeling if the Razorbacks were getting 4-5 yards a clip by simply handing it off on the first read in Morris’ offense there wouldn’t be a pass thrown.

And the time between snaps would be so fast you better not look down to grab your popcorn.

Morris has said since he was announced as coach his offense is a two-back, run-oriented offense that will take deep shots down the field. I didn’t think that was very hard to understand, but a lot of folks still aren’t grasping it.

His offenses are remarkably balanced.

At SMU last year, they ran the ball 486 times and passed it 487 times. You don’t get much more balanced than that, but there’s a more important message.

If you thought this was going to be slinging it all over the field in the air like Petrino, forget it. That’s not what Morris does.

While Petrino’s first team struggled the first year, a lot of that was adjusting to a coach who, let’s be nice here, was not a players’ coach. For the players returning, it was in stark contrast to the Houston Nutt style. For high school players, well, there were some who decided before the halfway point of the season they were leaving and had to be talked out of it by Bobby.

There were other issues, too. Most of the skill position players coming in had played a Morris-style offense in high school. For example, it took Tyler Wilson some time to adapt to getting the snap from under center and dropping back. In high school he started back where Petrino wanted him to get to.

An astonishing number of the Hogs’ current skill position players — both returning veterans and newcomers — played a Morris-style offense in high school. Some an offense created after their coach went to one of Morris’ clinics.

The learning curve isn’t that steep. As commentator Greg McElroy pointed out on the SEC Network last week, the learning curve isn’t nearly as steep making this change as it was from Petrino to Bret Bielema’s style.

Now don’t misunderstand me. This team would need a lot of breaks and maybe a miracle or two to get to nine or 10 wins. No way I will go out on that limb and make a prediction in that range.

But there is a path to get there … if they get the breaks and that miracle or two. In Lou Holtz’ first year, he got some breaks:

• After winning the league in their first year in 1976, the Cougars were dealing with a pesky NCAA investigation that finally blew up just before playing the Hogs and they simply showed up as the Hogs romped to a 34-0 win in Little Rock.

• At Texas A&M a month later, the Hogs had to get a very late pass completion from Ron Calcagni to Robert Farrell, on a route they modified for a score to pull out a 27-22 win. Patrick Martin had to intercept a pass in the end zone to salvage the win.

• In Lubbock on Thanksgiving, the Hogs sleepwalked through the first half, threatening to derail an Orange Bowl bid, and finally did just enough for a 17-14 win over the Red Raiders. Tech had lost the previous week to Houston, 45-7, after the Cougars shook off the midseason NCAA slump.

The point is, to win nine or 10 games, there’s always a break or two, plus usually something bordering on near-miracle that makes the difference. Very few folks just steamroll their way to even nine wins.

To have a shot at any of that, Arkansas is going to need a quarterback that makes quick, correct decisions.

And THAT is the No. 1 thing Morris and offensive coordinator Joe Craddock are trying to find on this team.

Which is why worrying about who’s got the biggest arm of the bunch is likely not even in the equation. From what I’ve seen in limited views, every one of the quarterbacks can make the throws required in this offense.

How accurate they are is more important than how fast they get the ball there. Getting rid of it fast is a factor, but still not the biggest factor.

Who starts at quarterback is likely going to be more about what’s going on above the shoulders than anything below that.

And it won’t be surprising if Morris waits until game day to make the decision.