28.2 F
Fayetteville

Reeder, Overstreet get wins at SEC Championship match play

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Arkansas sophomores Tyson Reeder and Mason Overstreet picked up wins Saturday morning, but the 16th-ranked Razorbacks lost, 3 & 2, to Auburn in match play action at the 2018 SEC Championship at Sea Island Golf Club.

Overstreet jumped out to the lead quickly, winning the first hole. The match was squared twice before Overstreet took the lead for good on the fifth hole of the round. He went on to a 3 & 2 win over Ryan Knop getting Arkansas on the board.

Reeder had a back-and-forth battle with Jovan Rebula before winning in 19 holes. Reeder won the first hole, but the match would be square through the turn.

Reeder reclaimed the lead on the 11th hole of the round and held the advantage as the duo moved to No. 9 — their 18th hole of the round.

Rebula knocked it close and won the hole forcing extra golf. Reeder won the 19th hole for Arkansas.

Tied at 2-all, the match was decided by Wells Padgett’s three-hole win over William Buhl. Padgett took the lead three holes into the match and would never surrender the advantage securing the Tiger victory.

2018 SEC Championship Quarterfinals – Match Play
(4) Auburn 3, (5) Arkansas 2
Tyson Reeder (ARK) def. Jovan Rebula (AU), 1-up (19)
Trace Crowe (AU) def. Luis Garza (ARK), 1-up
Brandon Mancheno (AU) def. Alvaro Ortiz (ARK), 2 & 1
Mason Overstreet (ARK) def. Ryan Knop (AU), 3 & 2
Wells Padgett (AU) def. William Buhl (ARK), 3 & 2

The Razorbacks return to Fayetteville and await word of their NCAA Regional Selection. The NCAA Selection Show airs live on the Golf Channel on Wednesday, May 2, at 4:30 p.m.

Long ball propels Hogs past Crimson Tide in opener

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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VIDEO FROM ESPN SEC NETWORK
FAYETTEVILLE — With home runs from Dominic Fletcher, Eric Cole, and Casey Martin, coupled with another strong pitching performance from Blaine Knight, No. 7 Arkansas cruised to a 7-3 win to open its series with Alabama Friday night at Baum Stadium.

Arkansas (30-13, 11-8 SEC) and Alabama (23-21, 5-14 SEC) matched each other run for run in the first two innings before the Hog offense flexed its muscles in the middle innings.

Fletcher’s home run in the third was part of a two-run inning that broke a 2-2 tie. It was his fifth of the year and one of three hits he had in the game as he went 3-for-4 with a run scored and a double.

With the win, the Razorbacks reach the 30-win plateau, making them one of only five teams in the SEC with 30 wins or more at this point in the season.

It’s also the 24th win at Baum Stadium this year and fifth-straight at home.

The Hitting

Four different Razorbacks recorded multi-hit performances in Friday night’s game, while the team, combined, had 11 hits.

It was the 26th game this year that the Razorback offense has recorded 10 or more hits in a game and the Hogs are 20-6 in those games.

The Hogs jumped on Alabama starting pitcher Sam Finnerty early in the first inning, scoring two runs before the first out.

Martin provided the first RBI of the game with an infield single to the shortstop, followed by Alabama fielding error that led to the second run.

Martin went on to go 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBIs, his 15 multi-hit game of the year.

He homered to lead off the fifth inning, a straight-away rocket to the centerfield portion of the Hog Pen, and build Arkansas’ lead to 5-3. It was his ninth long ball of the year and second in conference play.

Arkansas went on to hit three home runs on the night, driving in four of their seven runs from the big swings.

Fletcher continued his hot streak with a home run of his own in the third inning, his fifth of the season. Fletcher extended his hitting streak to six games with his three hits on Friday and is hitting .478 during that stretch.

Eric Cole, who took over as the lead-off batter Friday, went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBIs, his ninth multi-RBI game of the year.

His team-leading 10th home run of the year came in the sixth inning to push the Hogs ahead 7-3.

Two innings later, he nearly homered again, this time from the other side of the plate, but fell just a couple of feet short of the wall.

The Pitching

Junior Blaine Knight gutted out a strong performance on the mound, going six innings strong with only three runs on three hits allowed to stay undefeated at 7-0.

He also struck out six, giving him six appearances with six or more strikeouts this year.

Knight hit a milestone in the first inning when he struck out Cobie Vance to start the game for his 200th strikeout of his Razorback career.

Knight joins just 12 other Razorback pitchers that have thrown 200 or more strikeouts in their careers. Overall this season, Knight has racked up 63 strikeouts. He struck out 96 a year ago and 46 as a freshman.

Tonight’s outing was Knight’s ninth of five innings or more. He has only gone short of five innings twice this year and has yet to give up more than three runs in each of his last three starts.

After Knight completed a nine-pitch sixth inning, he gave way to junior Jake Reindl, who finished the game with a three-inning save, his third save of the year.

Reindl struck out four and scattered three hits over his scoreless outing. He’s only allowed two runs over his last 16.2 innings and has also only allowed nine hits over that same span.

With his third save under his belt, he joins Matt Cronin as the only Razorback pitchers with multiple saves on the year and tonight’s was Reindl’s first coming in conference play.

Razorback Quotables

“Well, he looked like he wasn’t hurt. He legged out a hit that got the inning going a little bit more. Hit a ball in there between the shortstop and third basemen and beat it out, showed how quick he was. Obviously, defensively, he turned a super double play, showed some really good arm strength, quickness. That play in the hole to his left was really nice. Oh yeah, he hit a ball about 400 feet. I would say he had a pretty good game.” — Coach Dave Van Horn on Casey Martin’s return

“The diving play, it’s almost like he makes one every series, or every other day. He’s a very good defender. That ball was hit extremely hard by a left-handed hitter and the ball started backing up and coming back to him. He got inside that ball and hammered it, it started slicing and Dom made a great break on it.” — Van Horn on Dominic Fletcher

“Defense has definitely gotten better. Yeah, we got off to a slow start with it, but every team gets off to a slow start in some form or fashion of the game. We’re picking it up, and like I said before Dom (Fletcher) is the best centerfielder in the country. I really didn’t think he was going to get to that ball. I thought it was in for a hit, I started backing up a base and he came up with it which was huge. Big thanks to him, and he’s going to keep doing it.” — Blaine Knight on improved defense

“Usually, off the bat, I’ll know if I can catch it or not, that one I didn’t think I had a chance at it just kind of stayed up just long enough for me to get my glove underneath there.” — Dominic Fletcher on his diving catch

“A lot people say defense wins championships, and I felt like tonight we were really good defensively overall. Outfield, infield, pitching, hitting, it was all good.” — Casey Martin on Razorback defense

Up Next

Arkansas and Alabama return to the field for game two of the three-game series tomorrow at Baum Stadium. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. and will be televised online on SEC Network+.

Brown, Brooks shine in 100 meters to open National Relay Championships

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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FAYETTEVILLE —  No. 5 Arkansas showed up and showed out at the inaugural National Relay Championships Friday afternoon at John McDonnell Field.

The Razorbacks posted nine personal-bests as well as four season-best marks.

“The only lowlight in today’s meet was finishing runner-up in the 4-x-1,500-meters to Oklahoma State,” said coach Lance Harter.

“The anchor for Oklahoma State had another gear and we were unable to respond, but I thought the relay as a whole ran really well. Our sprint crew ran really solid, the two hurdles [Brown and Brooks] ran absolutely fabulous. Janeek [Brown] she is a super competitor, and anytime you can handle a person like Taliyah Brooks you have to be doing something right. Taliyah [Brooks] at 12.82, that’s the fastest that shes ever run. That was a great start for us. Janeek came back and ran a PR in the 100-meters which shows that her speed endurance continues to improve. My hats off to [Assistant Coach] Chris Johnson, he does a fantastic job of bringing those kids around. Tomorrow, center stage for us will be to run a good 4-x-100-meters and a good 4-x-400-meters.”

Janeek Brown and Taliyah Brooks bolted down the track in the 100-meter hurdles finishing second and fourth, respectively.

Brown finished in 12.73 (+2.6) followed by teammate Brooks in 12.82 (+2.6). Both times were lifetime bests under all-conditions.

The 400-meters featured three Razorbacks on the track. Morgan Burks Magee finished 14th in 54.03 while Sydney Davis (55.04) and Sydney Hammit (55.35) took 24th and 25th. Hammit’s mark was a season-best.

Brown returned for the 100-meter open, finishing in 11.34. Jada Baylark (11.36) and Kiara Parker (11.47) finished fifth and ninth, respectively.

Rounding out competition in the event for Arkansas was Tamara Kuykendall (11.83) in 21-place.

The lone competitor in the 800-meters for the Razorbacks, Emily Jeacock recorded a season-best of 2:15.56.

In the 1,500-meters, seven of the nine who stepped on the track in the Cardinal and White, seven finished with either a personal-best or a season-best time:
16th Micah Huckabee – 4:33.66 (personal-best)
21st Rachel Nichwitz – 4:37.49
24th Alex Ritchey – 4:41.79 (personal-best)
28th Sydney Brown – 4:46.78 (season-best)
29th Greta Taylor – 4:47.35 (personal-best)
30th Grace Taylor – 4:49.44 (personal-best)
36th Kristen Larkan – 4:55.09 (personal-best)
37th Payton Brown – 4:56.58 (season-best)
39th Tess Iler – 4:59.73

Baylark and Parker returned to the oval once again, this time in the 200-meters. Baylark finished fourth running 23.12, and Parker took 14th with a time of 23.81.

In the field, Riley Hoogerwerf competed in the discus with a best throw of 38.21m (125’-4”) – a personal-best – to take 15th-place.

Carmen Sitz tied her personal-best in the high jump clearing 1.70m (5’-7”) for fourth-place, while in the long jump, Taliyah Brooks finished fourth with a best jump of 6.28m (20’-7.25”).

The final event of the day for Arkansas saw the Razorbacks finish runner-up in the 4-x-1,500-meter relay at 17:46.87.

National Relay Championships
Friday Results

Women’s 100-meter hurdles
2. Janeek Brown – 12.73 (+2.6)
4. Taliyah Brooks – 12.82 (+2.6)

Women’s 100-meter
4. Janeek Brown – 11.34
5. Jada Baylark – 11.36
9. Kiara Parker – 11.47
21. Tamara Kuykendall – 11.83

Women’s 200-meter
4. Jada Baylark – 23.12
14. Kiara Parker – 23.81

Women’s 400-meter
14. Morgan Burks Magee – 54.03
24. Sydney Davis – 55.04
25. Sydney Hammit – 55.35

Women’s 800-meter
19. Emily Jeacock – 2:15.56

Women’s 1500-meter
16. M. Huckabee – 4:33.66
21. R. Nichwitz – 4:37.49
24. A. Ritchey – 4:41.79
28. S. Brown – 4:46.78
29. Greta Taylor – 4:47.35
30. Grace Taylor – 4:49.44
36. K. Larkan – 4:55.09
37. P. Brown – 4:56.58
39. T. Iler – 4:59.73

Women’s 4-x-1500-meter relay
2. Arkansas – 17:46.87

Women’s Discus
15. Riley Hoogerwerf – 38.21m (125′-4″)

Women’s High Jump Invitational
4. Carmen Sitz – 1.70m (5′-7″)

Women’s Long Jump Invitational
5. Taliyah Brooks – 6.28m (20′-7.25″)

Mowatt runs third best NCAA 400 time at ‘National Relay’

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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FAYETTEVILLE — No. 11 Arkansas kicked off the inaugural National Relay Championships at John McDonnell Field as the Razorbacks took first in the opening relay of the event.

“We had some good performances today,” said coach Chris Bucknam.

“I was very pleased, we had unbelievable weather, great competition. It’s great to have all these schools from around the country here. I think the athletes from the other schools got a lot accomplished as well. We had a good day, Obviously Kenzo [Cotton] in the 100-meters and Kemar [Mowatt] in the 400-meter hurdles. That was a stellar field that [Kemar] beat. I know coach Case has him being really aggressive in the front half of the race so I feel that will pay off at the end of the year. Kemar really took it out the first seven or eight hurdles and he looked strong, that was outstanding. The 4-x-1500-meters was a very competitive race. We got good legs from all four athletes, and obviously Cameron [Griffith] beat a pretty good Kentucky kid, Kentucky showed up today and did a great job, that was a tough win but I’m glad we got it. All-in-all it was a good day, we got a lot accomplished. We got some [First-Round] qualifiers in Laquan [Narin] and Trae [Carey] in the long jump, I’m looking forward to a good day two.”

Reminiscent of the DMR win at the 2018 SEC Indoor Championship, Arkansas trailed Kentucky the first three legs of the 4-x-1500 meter relay as Cameron Griffith began the final leg.

As Griffith made the final turn, he overtook the big Wildcat lead as the Razorbacks took the first relay victory at the National Relay Championships. The time was the No. 19 time in collegiate history.

Obi Igbokwe ran his season-opener in the 400-meters that saw him cross the finish line in 45.91 seconds taking fourth-place.

Kenzo Cotton gave all in attendance a show in the men’s 100-meters.

The senior shot out of the blocks like a bullet in a first-place finish, covering the distance in 10.19 seconds – his second-fastest wind-legal time of the season.

In the 400-meter hurdles, Kemar Mowatt attacked the backstretch with authority breaking the stagger on the field after only two hurdles and never looking back.

Mowatt finished with a time of 49.80 that is a season-best and currently the third-fastest time in the NCAA.

In the men’s 1,500-meters, Gilbert Boit (3:47.67) and Kyle Levermore (3:47.76) finished second and third, respectively, each posting personal-bests in the race.

Day two of the National Relays field events begin at 10:45 a.m. with the hammer throw. Running events begin at 7 p.m. The relays will be televised live on the SEC Network beginning at 7 p.m.

National Relay Championships
Friday Results

Men’s 1500-meter
2. Gilbert Boit – 3:47.67 PR
3. Kyle Levermore – 3:47.76 PR
12. Colin O’Mara – 3:57.83

Men’s 400-meter hurdles
1. Kemar Mowatt – 49.80
7. Travius Chambers – 51.67

Men’s 100-meter
1. Kenzo Cotton – 10.19
10. Roy Ejiakuekwu – 10.48

Men’s 110-meter hurdles
4. Larry Donald – 13.98
19. Travius Chambers -14.85 (+2.4) PR

Men’s 400 meters
4. Obi Igbokwe- 45.91

Men’s 4-x-1,500-meter relay
1. Hosting, Bruce, Dalquist, Griffith – 15:14.18

Men’s High Jump Invitational
5. Brendon Rivera – 2.03m (6′-8″)

Men’s Long Jump
5. Trae Carey – 7.45m (24′-5.50″) +2.1

Men’s Discus
14. Erich Sullins – 49.12m (161′-2″)
20. Gabe Moore – 43.32m (142′-1″)

Men’s Sprint Medley
3. Arkansas – 3:20.81

Men’s Javelin
7. Alex Springer – 60.25m (197′-8″)
11. Andrew Henn – 54.43m (178′-7″)

Men’s Long Jump Invitational
8. Rubin Owens – 7.57m (24′-10″)
9. Laquan Nairn – 7.55m (24′-9.25″)
10. Harrison Schrage – 7.52m (24′-8.25″) +2.8

Van Horn on win over Bama, Cronin out for series

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn talked about the opening win over Alabama and told the media that ace reliever Matt Cronin was not active for the weekend and they are hoping he doesn’t have mono.

Knight, Fletcher, Martin on win over Tide

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Arkansas players Blaine Knight, who started on the mound, along with centerfielder Dominic Fletcher and second baseman Casey Martin talked with the media after the Hogs’ win to start the series.

No. 16 Razorbacks hosting Ole Miss on senior weekend

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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FAYETTEVILLE — No. 16 Arkansas is back at Bogle Park this weekend for its last SEC home series of the season.

The Razorbacks will play host to Ole Miss beginning Saturday afternoon with first pitch set for 3 p.m. Admission is free with gates opening one hour prior to start time.

Prior to Sunday’s game, Arkansas’ four-player senior class of A.J. Belans, Autumn Buczek, Tori Cooper and Loren Krzysko will be honored with an on-field recognition. The ceremony will begin at 3:45 p.m.

No. 16 Arkansas (34-11/9-9 SEC) vs Ole Miss (28-18, 5-13 SEC) | Game Notes
Bogle Park (Fayetteville, Ark.)

Game 1: Saturday, April 28 at 3 p.m. – SEC Network | Live Stats
Game 2: Sunday, April 29 at 4 p.m. – ESPNU | Live Stats
Game 3: Monday, April 30 at 6 p.m. – SEC Network | Live Stats

All-Time Series vs Ole Miss

Saturday’s series opener will be the 60th meeting between Arkansas and Ole Miss. In addition to an overall lead in the series, the Razorbacks own a 16-12 advantage in games played in Fayetteville. Arkansas is looking for its first series win against Ole Miss since the 2010 season.

Last Time Out

The Razorbacks split a doubleheader at No. 11 Auburn with a 4-2, 10-inning win in the opener and a 4-2 setback in the finale. A.J. Belans’ two-run home run in the 10th lifted the team to its eighth win over a ranked team this season. It was Arkansas’ first road victory in the series since 2012.

Rankings Watch

Arkansas maintains its No. 16 ranking in the NFCA and USA Softball polls. The team is also 18th in this week’s release of the NCAA RPI, down just one spot from a week ago. The Razorbacks are one of 12 SEC teams inside the RPI top 25.

A Look at the Stat Sheet

The Razorbacks carry top-50 national marks in strikeout to walk ratio (sixth/5.19), home runs (T22/47), team ERA (28/2.10) and slugging percentage (38/.464). Arkansas is also just outside the top 50 with 5.24 runs per game.

It’s Getting Late

Arkansas’ 4-2, 10-inning win at No. 11 Auburn (April 22) was the program’s longest game since an 11-inning win at No. 8 Missouri during the 2013 season. The Razorbacks are 1-1 in extra-inning games this year.

An Eye on 200

Freshman Mary Haff enters the series with Ole Miss ranked No. 7 on Arkansas’ single-season list with 194 strikeouts. With six more strikeouts, she would become just the fourth pitcher in program history with 200 Ks in a season and the third freshman to do so.

Razorbacks surge back at SEC Championship, move on

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Arkansas played the second nine holes 9-under par Friday, vaulting up six spots on the leaderboard and qualifying for match play at the 2018 SEC Championship.

The Razorbacks opened the day in 11th place but played to a 6-under 274 moving up into a tie for fifth place by day’s end.

The top eight teams advance to match play beginning on Saturday. Teams will play a morning match with the four winning teams returning to the course for an afternoon match.

That cuts the field to two teams who will meet on Sunday to determine the league champion.

Sophomore William Buhl paced the Razorbacks and finished T3 overall shooting 207.

His rounds of 70-68-69 were all even or under-par and his finish is the best at the league championship since Sebastian Cappelen’s win in 2013.

It is the ninth top-10 individual finish at the SEC Championship under head coach Brad McMakin.

Buhl and the Razorbacks opened their day on the back nine at Sea Island Golf Club and he struggled early in the round turning at plus-4.

Five birdies on the second nine sent him to the clubhouse with a 1-under 69.

Mason Overstreet, Alvaro Ortiz and Luis Garza all tied or bettered their previous round scores in the final day of stroke play.

Overstreet was nearly flawless in his round three 66, tying for the best score of the day.

His scorecard had five birdies and one bogey as he moved up 19 spots while helping the Razorbacks climb the leaderboard. Overstreet finished T16 shooting 211 with rounds of 71-74-66.

Ortiz and Garza also moved up in the final round on Friday. Ortiz collected five birdies and Garza added four in his round as the duo finished T36 shooting 217.

Tyson Reeder rounded out the Razorback scoring shooting 73-72-78=223 and finishing T59.

The No.11 LSU Tigers finished first in stroke play and were nine shots better than the rest of the field. The rest of the top-8 included No. 4 Vanderbilt and No. 7 Florida tied with 834.

No. 6 Alabama, No. 9 Auburn and No. 16 Arkansas all tied for fifth with 848 and No. 34 Ole Miss and No. 2 Texas A&M rounding out the top eight shooting 851.

The Lineup

PLACE PLAYER SCORE TO PAR
T3 William Buhl (4) 70–68–69—207 -3
T16 Mason Overstreet (2) 71–74–66—211 +1
T36 Alvaro Ortiz (1) 75–74–68—217 +7
T36 Luis Garza (3) 75–71–71—217 +7
T59 Tyson Reeder (5) 73–72–78—223 +13


The Field

PLACE TEAM SCORE TO PAR
1 No. 11 LSU 281-276-277=834 -6
T2 No. 7 Florida 293-278-272=843 +3
No. 4 Vanderbilt 276-283-284=843 +3
T4 No. 9Auburn 280-286-282=848 +8
No. 16 Arkansas 289-285-274=848 +8
No. 6 Alabama 283-280-385=848 +8
T7 No. 34 Ole Miss 288-277-386=851 +11
No. 2 Texas A&M 296-277-278=851 +11
9 No. 50 Tennessee 280-290-284=854 +14
10 No. 19 Kentucky 286-283-287=856 +16
11 Georgia 291-282-289=862 +22
12 Mississippi State 293-284-287=864 +24
13 No. 38 South Carolina 288-287-290=865 +25
14 No. 39 Missouri 287-296-290=873 +33


Match Play Pairings

1 LSU-8 Texas A&M
2 Florida-7 Ole Miss (with a repeat matchup of Zhang and Wegener)
3 Vanderbilt-6 Alabama
4 Auburn-5 Arkansas
Jovan Rebula (AU) vs. Tyson Reeder (Ark.)
Trace Crowe (AU) vs. Luis Garza (Ark.)
Brandon Mancheno (AU) vs. Alvaro Ortiz (Ark.)
Ryan Knop (AU) vs. Mason Overstreet (Ark.)
Wells Padgett (AU) vs. William Buhl (Ark.)

Live Scoring: http://bit.ly/2HzuhjN
Watch: SEC Network at 3 p.m.

Cronin named to national watch list for ‘Stoppers Award’

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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FAYETTEVILLE — As one of the biggest arms out of the bullpen this season for Arkansas, sophomore Matt Cronin has gotten even more notice across the college baseball nation this week as he was tabbed to the Midseason Watch List for the 14th Annual National Collegiate Baseball Writers’ Association (NCBWA) Stopper of the Year Award.

The NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award is given annually to the top relief pitcher in NCAA Division I Baseball.

With already nine saves to his resume this year, Cronin is closing in on the Arkansas single-season saves record of 13 set by current volunteer coach Colby Suggs in 2013.

The Navarre, Florida native got to nine saves quicker than any other relief pitcher in the league, needing only 16 games, and is only one behind the current SEC saves leader, Michael Byrne of Florida.

Cronin has earned saves in five of his last six appearances and became the first pitcher in the Dave Van Horn era to earn two saves in the same day when he closed out both ends of the doubleheader against South Carolina on April 14.

Six of Cronin’s nine saves have come against SEC opponents this year. In those six games, he has worked two or more innings five times and only walked one while striking out 16.

His two SEC road saves at No. 2 Florida and No. 4 Ole Miss might have been his greatest performances of the year as he tabbed multi-inning saves in each game and struck out four or more.

Cronin has a long accomplishment list in his short time in Fayetteville. Last year, he generated a 2.00 ERA, which was the lowest among all Razorback relief pitchers and held opponents to a .136 average, lowest on the staff.

In the 2017 postseason, he made five appearances and didn’t give up a hit.

He was also part of the combo with Dominic Taccolini and Josh Alberius that threw a seven-inning no-hitter in the SEC Tournament against Auburn (May 25) for the 13th no-hitter in school history and first since 2006.

Mayfield first; Cowboys LB; Jackson may affect Mallett

Andy Hodges
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Listening to the NFL experts Thursday before the annual cattle auction of college talent, not very many were talking about Cleveland taking Baker Mayfield first.

Which, of course, is the exact thing they did.

Mayfield, who was caught from behind and dragged down by a Fayetteville police officer last year, was taken at the No. 1 spot … and immediately many of the Great Unwashed said the Browns wasted yet another No. 1 pick.

Of course, the biggest knock on him is his height (he’s 6-foot and a couple of fractions) and the fact he’s been rather brash and done some things folks consider improper.

All of that is balderdash.

While it’s true today’s NFL does consider inappropriate sexual behavior, beating people up and racial insensitivity as big-time problems. Being a college student and getting drunk isn’t necessarily a big deal unless it’s a documented pattern of behavior.

After all, the NFL has a fine tradition of alcoholic quarterbacks who played pretty well when admittedly they were hung over and had left the party to come play the game. Bobby Layne, Don Meredith and Joe Namath pop immediately to mind.

What Cleveland saw in Mayfield is a guy that makes plays. When things fall apart, he’s shown an ability at a high level to still make lemonade without lemons.

Besides, height isn’t an automatic negative … if the guy can still make plays. Check out Drew Brees. Granted, guys over 6-foot-5 and under 6-foot-2 haven’t exactly dominated the game, there have been some pretty good ones.

Which is why Arkansas fans shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss John Stephen Jones coming in at quarterback this year.

At Highland Park, he showed an uncanny ability to make big plays and the comeback he led the Scots to in the state championship game last season will be a YouTube classic for years.

Now, whether that translates to success at the SEC levels is yet to be determined. Plus he’s going to have some stiff competition from Connor Noland.

But don’t dismiss him based on height.

Cowboys draft linebacker

When Dallas cut Dez Bryant a couple of weeks ago, everyone figured getting a receiver in the draft would be a priority.

Instead, the Cowboys took linebacker Leighton Vander Esch from Boise State at No. 19 to fill a need there. If you paid attention at all the Cowboys had more needs than wide receiver, but you still figured they would address that.

Of course, Jerry Jones may have followed the Gil Brandt theory.

Brandt, the longtime personnel guy for the Tex Schramm-Tom Landry regime, told a group of us in 1986 that the Cowboys weren’t going to take a little-known receiver from Mississippi Valley State named Jerry Rice because, “I can go find a receiver on any street corner in Dallas any day of the week.”

In the NFL, what folks say and what they do is usually in direct proportion to what they CAN do at any particular time.

But there’s not a big time playmaker at wide receiver now in Dallas. They were obviously ready to part ways with Bryant, but didn’t take the chance to get one in the first round of the draft when a couple were available (D.J. Moore and Calvin Ridley were still available).

As it always is with the NFL Draft, we’ll see how it plays out.

Jackson nearly falls out of first round

Every draft has one player in the staging area that sits around like the last kid to be picked at a school dance.

That fell to Louisville’s Lamar Jackson on Thursday night.

He becomes Bobby Petrino’s highest-drafted quarterback. Yes, the Great Playcaller has never really been able to develop quarterbacks that have much success in the NFL.

Ryan Mallett’s been the best, which is sort of a backhanded compliment. Mallett has thrown a total of 345 passes over seven seasons for a career rating of 66.8 with 9 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

He’s like a lefthanded baseball pitcher with a 100 miles per hour fastball that finds the plate occasionall because somebody will always have a roster spot for him.

While the talking heads like to rave about Petrino’s NFL-style offense and how quarterbacks in his system have all this great experience, the fact is they really don’t.

Jackson has a lot of flaws in terms of playing quarterback in the NFL, although Michael Vick made it work for a few years and maybe Baltimore is willing to change it’s offense to fit him.

With Joe Flacco still under center for the Ravens, he doesn’t have a tenth of the athleticism Jackson has.

Oh, by the way, Mallett has been Flacco’s backup in Baltimore the last couple of years. Razorback fans know how athletic he is … he’s slower than a cow with arthritis.

The guess here is Mallett will be looking for a new team within the next two years.

Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Friday

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Friday

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