Arkansas’ Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon talked with the media after battling back to down Tennessee on Saturday afternoon.
Hogs make contact with Louisiana cornerback
Arkansas will at least be getting a visit from highly recruited cornerback Eddie Smith from Slidell, Louisiana (Salmen).
Louisiana cornerback, Razorbacks connecting: Highly recruited cornerback Eddie Smith, who received a scholarship offer from Arkansas on Dec. 22, is planning to make an official visit to Fayetteville in January. https://t.co/Av99Ak9Mmk pic.twitter.com/haQVsIEnPe
— Richard Davenport (@ArRecruitingGuy) December 29, 2017
Chad Morris’ staff made Smith an offer Dec. 22 and Mark Smith, who has joined Morris in Fayetteville, talked with Eddie Smith the next day, according to a report from Recruiting Thursday’s Richard Davenport at WholeHogSports.com.
“He called me and told me they have a whole new staff at Arkansas, and he let me know how much they like me and how they love my film and my height and how I could come in there and play early as a freshman,” Smith told Davenport.
Smith, 6-1, 178, 4.40, has offers from Tennessee, TCU, Missouri, Georgia, Louisville, Ole Miss, Oklahoma State and Mississippi State among the more than 30 he has received.
He committed to TCU in June but reopened his recruiting on Dec. 17.
Familiar face may be returning to Razorbacks
Former Arkansas defensive line coach Steve Caldwell may be coming back to Fayetteville, according to media reports.
Boise State DL coach Steve Caldwell has resigned after 4 years. Speculation has him joining the Arkansas staff under new coach Chad Morris. Caldwell was a 14-year assistant at Tennessee (1995-08). He played at Arkansas State and has coached at ASU, Pacific, Arkansas and Nevada.
— Jimmy Hyams (@JimmyHyams) December 29, 2017
Texas A&M defensive coordinator John Chavis is expected to be named as Arkansas’ new defensive coordinator under new coach Chad Morris.
Caldwell was defensive ends coach at Arkansas from 2010-12 under Bobby Petrino and added special teams coordinator to those duties in his final season.
Caldwell joined the staff of Bryan Harsin at his alma mater, Arkansas State, in 2013. In 2014 he left with Harsin to go to Boise State. He has been assistant head coach and in charge of the defensive line there the past four seasons.
It has been rumored that John Scott, Jr., who coached the defensive line in 2017 at Arkansas under Bret Bielema, could join Morris’ staff as well. If so, he would likely coach defensive tackles.
Chavis is expected to coach the linebackers. At A&M, Terry Price coached the defensive ends and David Turner had the defensive tackles and was run game coordinator.
Caldwell also recruited well, getting Trey Flowers, Martrelle Spaight among others who are playing in the NFL now.
We still don’t know what we don’t know on buyout
After dragging Attorney General Leslie Rutledge into the mix, we still don’t know anything more than we did before about Bret Bielema’s contract.
Rutledge ruled earlier this week the Razorback Foundation could release the information about the buyout, but what we got was basically the same thing we’ve seen since former athletics director Jeff Long gave Bielema an extension back in February 2015.
ESPN, citing one anonymous source, reported Dec. 2 that Bielema and the athletic program agreed to an $11.8 million “negotiated buyout” that would be signed within a “few days.”
No one has been able to confirm that since then.
Now we find out, well, everybody is still trying to get things finalized, according to a story at WholeHogSports.com:
Scott Varady, the foundation’s executive director, said Thursday evening in a brief email that its release agreement with Bielema has not been finalized.
“I can share that we continue to work with Coach Bielema’s agent on the final release agreement,” Varady said. “We have not completed that process yet.”
Apparently, this has nothing to do with the UA, but is all being handled by the Foundation, according to the story:
UA Trustee Tommy Boyer said the university system’s governing board has not been part of the discussions.
“We haven’t been involved in that at all,” Boyer said. “It’s a deal between Bret Bielema and the foundation, not a deal between Bret Bielema and the University of Arkansas. We only deal with the University of Arkansas side, and the foundation has its own separate board of directors. They deal with that.”
What was released Thursday was the same agreement we’ve been seeing for months.
So the bottom line to all this is: It’s still being negotiated. Which means it would be interesting to see if Rutledge thinks the communication between all the parties should be public information.
If it was the UA doing it, we could see that communication. At the very least phone records would reveal a number of phone calls.
But that hasn’t happened yet.
So we still don’t know what we don’t know about Bielema’s final buyout numbers.
Anderson on Hogs’ game with Vols Saturday
Arkansas coach Mike Anderson met with the media Friday and talked about the SEC opener Saturday against Tennessee.
Barford, Thompson on being ready for SEC opener
Arkansas’ Jaylen Barford and Trey Thompson met with the media Friday to talk about the Razorbacks’ SEC opener against Tennessee on Saturday.
Will we find out about Chavis by Friday night?
With national media now saying Texas A&M defensive coordinator John Chavis will be joining Chad Morris’ staff at Arkansas, everyone is wondering, well, when?
Considering the Aggies meet Wake Forest in the Belk Bowl at noon Friday, he should be free by dark Arkansas time.
When should we expect an announcement? No idea, but you have to think it will be soon after that.
Could Morris trot to midcourt with Chavis in tow during the basketball game with Tennessee on Saturday?
That might be pushing it, but, hey, the Razorback Foundation plane has had a couple of weeks to get cleaned up after the whirlwind of activity from Thanksgiving to the first couple of weeks in December.
By now if Chavis is not the choice everybody is going to be stunned.
But it has given a chance for some in-depth research into Chavis’ numbers.
He’s been a defensive coordinator for 23 years at Tennessee (1995-2008), LSU (2009-14) and Texas A&M since 2015.
Here’s some interesting defensive ranking numbers:
• Three Top 5 defenses (one at Tennessee, two at LSU)
• Seven Top 10 defenses (four with the Vols, three at LSU)
• A total of 15 of his defenses ranked in the Top 25
As many of the Great Unwashed in Razorback Nation point to the fact that none of those were at Texas A&M, consider the circumstances, as one longtime coach told me Thursday.
While Chavis certainly had some great individual performers with the Aggies, the recruiting during his first two years there was focused primarily on the offensive side of the ball.
In 2016, Chavis’ second year at A&M, the Aggies signed just six on the defensive side of the ball. They signed 15 on offense.
Under Kevin Sumlin, A&M’s focus was primarily on the offensive side of the ball. He did sign nine quarterbacks during his six years, including six while Chavis was in College Station.
But even at Texas A&M, his defenses were considerably better than what Arkansas had the last three years, averaging eighth in the SEC. The Hogs’ average finish was at No. 11.
There could be massive improvement in the first year, but expecting something similar to what Larry Grantham did in one year at Mississippi State might be a little much.
He inherited a defense that finished tied for 108th in the nation (tied for 12th in the league) and shot up to No. 9 in the nation this past season.
Can Chavis accomplish that? Probably not, but it is possible.
Remember, Morris is not using the Nick Saban blueprint to redo Razorback football. The guess here is he’s going to use the Clemson approach under Dabo Swinney, who didn’t hire Brent Venables until after his third season.
That was right after the Tigers had given up 70 points to West Virginia in the Orange Bowl. That defense was No. 100 in the nation.
Remember that number because we’ll finish with it.
Venables took the Tigers to No. 74 in his first season, then 29th and led the nation in defense in 2014, his third at Clemson.
Chavis could see a jump like that in his first season. After all, the Hogs finished 74th in Robb Smith’s last season which was, basically two second-half meltdowns away from being a nine-win team.
Now back to that number we said we’d finish with. Morris has said on more than one occasion he thinks Arkansas is where Clemson was when he went there in 2011. He was the offensive coordinator when the Tigers’ defense finished, well, No. 100 in the nation.
Just like the Hogs.
He’s reportedly going to bring in Chavis, who many considered the best defensive coordinator in college football just a couple of years ago.
Now we see if he can get to that level again.
Monk, Williams lead Razorbacks past Grambling
VIDEO FROM KNWA
FAYETTEVILLE — Double-doubles by junior Malica Monk and sophomore Kiara Williams paced Arkansas to a 79-62 win over Grambling State in Bud Walton Arena on Thursday.
The game opened even with Arkansas taking a narrow, 15-11, lead after the first quarter of play. The Razorbacks heated up offensively in the second quarter, opening the frame with a 14-2 run.
That surge led to a 25-12 advantage in the second stanza and the game was never close after that.Arkansas (9-4) wraps up the non-conference season with a perfect 7-0 record at home after the win over the Tigers (3-8).
Monk got her double-double the hard way with 10 points and 10 assists. It is her first career double-digit assist game and her first career double-double. Williams dropped in 12 points and tied her career-best with 16 boards.
Devin Cosper tallied her 12th game in double figures finishing with a game-high 16 points. Junior Raven Northcross-Baker added 14 points to go with Williams’ 12 points and Monk’s 10 points in the win.
Arkansas was good from distance with 11 made 3-pointers and the Razorbacks outrebounded the Tigers 48-35 in the game.
Notes
• Devin Cosper was in double figures in the first half. It is the third time she has scored in double figures in a half, her 11th double figure game of the year and the 34th of her career.
• Kiara Williams had 13 rebounds at the break and finished tying her career-best with 16 boards. It is the fifth double-digit rebounding game of her career.
• Kiara Williams finished with her second career double-double with 12 points and 16 rebounds.
• Malica Monk had her first career double-double with 10 points and 10 assists. These are the seventh and eighth Razorback double-doubles of the year.
• Arkansas had eight made 3-pointers in the first half and finished with 11 makes from distance. It is the fifth game of the year with double-digit 3-pointers.
• Snapped – Malica Monk’s streak of 19 consecutive free throws was snapped in the first quarter.
• Malica Monk has scored in double figures in all 13 games this season.
• Arkansas held Grambling State’s leading scorer to two points (averages 13.3 ppg).
Up Next
The Razorbacks open Southeastern Conference play on Sunday hosting Ole Miss at 2 p.m. in Bud Walton Arena.
Rutledge: Bielema’s buyout can be released
We will soon know the details of Bret Bielema’s contract buyout, according to a report from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Thursday afternoon.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge issued an opinion earlier Thursday that the University of Arkansas should release a document that outlines a separate agreement with the Razorback Foundation on terms of Bielema’s buyout.
Bielema exercised his right under the Freedom of Information Act to delay release of the document, as the university intended, by asking for an attorney general’s opinion.
The University is closed this week, but it is expected the documents will be provided this evening to those requesting it.
The buyouts generally require monthly payments and offsets in payouts by future employment.
The Democrat-Gazette, the Arkansas Times and others have sought the document to get a firm idea of what it is costing the university athletic department and the private nonprofit Razorback Foundation to pay Bielema, fired after a losing season in his fifth year as Razorback football coach.
ESPN, quoting an anonymous source, has put the figure at $11.8 million.
The agreement specifies that the Razorback Foundation has a separate responsibility and it has claimed exemption from the FOI law.
The buyout clause:
Bielema was fired with a month left in 2017.
Money for the coaches flows from the private foundation, whose income includes payments for premium game tickets, and from the self-supporting athletic department, which shares none of the university’s state appropriations but uses university name and property to make money through ticket sales, TV contracts, merchandising and other means.
The Rutledge opinion, which went to Bielema’s agent, says the document constitutes a personnel record, which is open to public release unless it constitutes an unwarranted invasion of privacy.
It said public interest was “sufficiently strong” in a balancing test against privacy interests to favor disclosure. The opinion notes media attention and says:
“There is a very high level of public interest in documents bearing on the former employee’s departure from the university — a level of interest that is understandable given his prominence and the importance of the matter to the local community.”
With Jones out, Hogs turning to Gasaway?
Star City’s Jax Gasaway has heard from Arkansas.
After Pulaski Academy’s Luke Jones flipped his commitment to Notre Dame earlier this week, Arkansas has reached out to the 6-foot-7, 275-pound three-star lineman, according to Richard Davenport of Recruiting Thursday at WholeHogSports.com.
Both Jones and Gasaway, along with Jonesboro’s Noah Gatlin (already committed to Arkansas) were named to USA Today’s All-Arkansas team on Wednesday.
Some recruiting observers have said they were more impressed with Gasaway at some of the summer camps than Jones, but now it appears the Hogs are interested.
Arkansas’ Dustin Fry reached out to Gasaway via Twitter on Wednesday night and plans to see him when the January contact period begins.
“He just told me he was going to come see me as soon as recruiting opens back up,” Gasaway told Davenport.
The NCAA contact period which allows college coaches to visit prospects off campus began Nov. 26. The dead period started Dec. 18 and will run through Jan. 11. The contact period resumes the next day.
Gasaway has 11 scholarship offers from schools like Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Texas State, Marshall, Louisiana- Monroe and Air Force. He was named to the first team Arkansas Democrat-Gazette All-Arkansas Preps team on Sunday.
