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Well, if we’re all going to start claiming titles now …

Andy Hodges
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Central Florida is taking things into their own hands concerning the national championship in football.

They are hanging their own “National Champions” banner and declaring themselves the top team in the world of college football.

UCF athletic director Danny White said Wednesday the program has decided to claim a national championship and will place a championship banner inside Spectrum Stadium to recognize its undefeated 2017 season.

The Knights beat Auburn 34-27 in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl to cap a 13-0 season, finishing as the only undefeated team in college football.

But because UCF doesn’t play in a Power 5 conference, it entered the bowl game ranked No. 12 by the College Football Playoff selection committee and was not given an opportunity to play for the national championship.

White told ESPN Radio’s Dan Le Batard on Tuesday that the school is planning a parade for the team. He initially told Orlando radio station 96.9 The Game about plans for the banner.

“If you take the long view of the history of college football, there’s an awful lot of national championships being claimed by universities that didn’t accomplish what we accomplished this year in those respective seasons, so we feel we’re more than justified to claim our first national championship, and we think it’ll be the first of many,” White told ESPN.

“I don’t think our kids should be penalized because we weren’t respected by the College Football Playoff committee, nor should our program be penalized because we weren’t around 20 or 30 years ago when people were claiming national championships left and right. We’re trying to build our program and we feel very strongly as the only undefeated team and having beat Auburn, who beat both teams competing for the national championship, that we have an extremely sound case to claim the crown.”

Maybe Arkansas should just claim a national title for 1977, too. For those too young to remember, the Razorbacks had lost only to No. 1 Texas, 13-7, in October, then ran the table, went to the Orange Bowl and beat No. 2 Oklahoma, 31-6.

The winner in the wire service polls that year was Notre Dame after the Irish beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl and jumped all the way from fifth to No. 1, leapfrogging No. 3 Alabama, who beat Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl.

That left a bunch of teams with one loss for the season and Notre Dame took the top spot followed by Alabama and Arkansas, then Texas.

Based on what Central Florida is doing (and what Oklahoma State did recently awarding itself a national championship from the 1940’s or something), then the Hogs might as well give themselves one for that magical 1977 season.

Morning Rush Hour 3

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Wednesday

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Wednesday

Morning Rush Hour 2

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Morning Rush Hour 1

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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KNWA VIDEO: Macon, Anderson after loss

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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VIDEO COURTESY OF KNWA

Arkansas’ Daryl Macon and Mike Anderson talked with the media after the Razorbacks’ loss in Starkville to Mississippi State on Tuesday night.

Hogs drop nail-biter at Mississippi State, 78-75

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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STARKVILLE, Miss. — Arkansas (11-3, 1-1) fell in its conference road opener Tuesday night 78-75 to the Mississippi State Bulldogs (13-1, 1-0).

Arkansas took advantage of Mississippi State’s slow start, jumping out on the Bulldogs 7-1, after State missed its first six shots of the game.

The Bulldogs would go on an 8-2 run of their own to tie it at nine, before freshman Daniel Gafford slammed home his third dunk of the game with 13:31 left in the first half.

Gafford had eight of Arkansas’ first 11 points.

Arkansas and Mississippi State would go back and forth all half, as the Razorbacks would lead by as many as six, while the Bulldogs would take their largest lead of the half with them to the locker room, up four at 32-28.

Arkansas got in foul trouble early, recording 11 first-half fouls to just five by the Bulldogs.

Arkansas shot just four free throws before the break, while Mississippi State had 16 attempts.

Neither team shot the ball very well from the floor, as Arkansas went 12-of-31 (.387), missing five straight to close the half, allowing State to take the lead before the break.

Mississippi State shot 11-of-31 (.355) from the floor in the opening frame.

Hogs came out of the locker room firing. Senior guard Daryl Macon scored five straight to give Arkansas back the lead, before fellow senior guard nailed a three-pointer to stretch the Razorbacks’ lead to four.

Much like the first half, Mississippi State would never let Arkansas build a comfortable lead. The largest lead Arkansas would gain was eight, before State would eventually tie the game. The game included nine ties and 11 lead changes.

Arkansas would lead by four with a little over two minutes left in the game, then Weatherspoon brothers each dropped a three-pointer to give State the late lead that it would hold on to.

One of the biggest keys was free throws. State went 24-for-40 from the charity stripe, while Arkansas reached the line just 12 times, making five. Arkansas committed 26 team fouls to the Bulldogs’ 11.

Macon would record his fifth 20-point effort of the season, leading the Hogs with 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting, including going 5-of-7 from deep.

Gafford would finish with 17 points, going 8-of-11 from the field with five dunks and five rebounds.

Despite scoring just 11 points, Jaylen Barford recorded team highs in rebounds with seven and assists with five.

The Razorbacks continue their two-game road trip, as Arkansas travels to Auburn on Saturday for a 5 p.m. tip on ESPNU against the Tigers.

Arkansas diving set for Tennessee Invitational on Wednesday

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Arkansas divers will open the 2018 portion of the Razorbacks’ schedule on Wednesday, competing at the Tennessee Diving Invitational.

All five Razorbacks divers will be in action this week in Knoxville, as the invite runs from Wednesday through Friday. Maha Amer, Nicole Gillis, Marissa Green, Brooke Schulz and Caroline Welch will all compete on the one-meter and three-meter springboards, while Gillis, Green and Welch will also dive in the platform event.

“We are excited for our divers to compete at the Tennessee Invite, where the majority of the top talent in the SEC are all competing,” said head coach Neil Harper. IT should be great competition and experience to prepare us for the conference championships.”

Between the five divers they have combined for 30 zone diving scores so far this season with 14 in the 1m, 15 in the 3m and one in the platform.

Arkansas is led by Schultz who has had a stellar freshman campaign, winning 12 of her first 13 dives to start her collegiate career. In her most recent outing, Schultz paced the field through 15 dives to capture the three-meter national title at the 2017 USA Winter Diving National Championships with a score of 912.25.

In the fall, Gillis broke her career best on the platform at the Art Adamson Invite, scoring a 249.85.

Green has set all three of her career bests in the fall, scoring a 275.40 on the 1m and a 299.63 on the 3m against Nebraska, while scoring a 201.15 at the Art Adamson Invite.

Welch also set all three career bests in the fall with a 262.53 on the 1m against Nebraska. She scored a 289.95 against Missouri and South Carolina, while recording a 178.85 at the Art Adamson Invite 0n the platform.

Amer set her career best in the 1m against Nebraska (289.80), while breaking her 3m best at UCLA with a score of 319.30.

SCHEDULE
Wednesday, Jan. 3
1m Prelims – 10:30 a.m.
1m Finals – 1:06 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 4
3m Prelims – 10:00 a.m.
3m Finals – 12:42 pm.

Friday, Jan. 5
Platform Finals – 10:00 a.m.

Neighbors knows Hogs facing tall task at Mississippi State

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Arkansas coach Mike Neighbors knows his team faces a challenge against highly-regarded Mississippi State on the road Thursday night.

Gus can’t run this time after Auburn’s, uh, ‘collapse’

Andy Hodges
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You had the feeling when Gus Malzahn turned his back on Arkansas a month ago there wasn’t going to be a long honeymoon period at Auburn.

That lasted about, oh, a month.

Hours after the Tigers had lost to Central Florida in the Peach Bowl, Kevin Scarbinsky at AL.com blistered Malzahn:

There’s no excuse. None. Zero.

As many numbers as there are in Gus Malzahn’s new seven-year $49-million contract, there is no excuse for Central Florida 34, Auburn 27.

Central Florida’s entire coaching staff spent the last month doing double duty, preparing for a new gig at Nebraska while also getting UCF ready for the Peach Bowl.

What did the Auburn staff do? Count its money?

Malzahn reportedly had a shot at the Arkansas job after Bret Bielema was fired after the Missouri game the day before the Tigers knocked off No. 1 Alabama.

He pointed them to Chad Morris. So did Terry Don Phillips, who was the athletic director at Clemson when Morris was hired there.

Julie Cromer Peoples had the good sense to listen and follow the advice in handling the coaching search. Hunter Yurachek simply said okay coming on as athletics director.

Malzahn proceeded to lose to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, then put together a Top 10 recruiting class in the early signing period … and fall flat on his face in the Peach Bowl against an undefeated AAC opponent that saw a coaching staff doing two jobs.

When Scott Frost accepted the Nebraska job, he took his entire staff and they spent much of December recruiting for the Cornhuskers, but managed to keep things together with Central Florida and win a New Year’s Six bowl game.

A little over a month ago, Malzahn was riding high on The Plains.

Now? Well, Scarbinsky summed it up pretty well:

For all the good things they did, the Tigers still finished 10-4 with a two-game losing streak. For how much Auburn is paying Malzahn going forward, some things about this program have to change if the school is going to get its money’s worth.

So, to summarize for Gus, he turns down one of his reported dream jobs coaching the Razorbacks (being the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys is the other) to stay at Auburn. He gets a huge raise.

And now he’s right back on a seat that is hot … coming off a 10-4 season. He’s been there before, just not at Auburn.

In 2006, he was in the same position at Arkansas after Houston Nutt’s best team finished the season with a thud, losing to Florida in the SEC Championship game, then Wisconsin in the Citrus Bowl.

Malzahn bolted for, well, Tulsa. Nutt stayed.

And left after the next season with a big chunk of the Hogs’ fan base applauding.

This time Gus can’t run away.

Just two games after being on the top of the mountain, Gus’ seat at Auburn is hot and folks are already asking questions.

One game isn’t the final word on whether Auburn overreacted to the interest from mediocre Arkansas and overpaid Malzahn far beyond what his accomplishments to date should merit. It is a major caution flag.

Now what does he do?

Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Tuesday

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Tuesday

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