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Limpert field goal gives Hogs first SEC win
Arkansas kicker Connor Limpert drilled a 34-yard field goal with four seconds left in the fourth quarter to give the Razorbacks a 38-37 victory over Ole Miss Saturday afternoon in Oxford, Mississippi.
Hogs land commitment from power forward
Scotty Thurman has spent a lot of time in Las Vegas, but he wasn’t gambling.
He hit on a winner Friday night anyway.
Power forward Reggie Chaney of Findlay Prep, located in Henderson, Nevada, just south of Las Vegas, committed to the Hogs privately Friday night and made it public Saturday, according to Richard Davenport at WholeHogSports.com.
COMMITTED•??? pic.twitter.com/wvbI063hk5
— Reggie Chaney (@reggie_chaney) October 28, 2017
Chaney, 6-8, 230 pounds, chose Arkansas over Texas A&M, TCU, Oklahoma State and Wichita State.
“It just felt right,” he told WholeHogSports.com.
As a junior, he averaged 11.2 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.6 steals and a block a game for the 33-4 Pilots. He and fellow commitment, guard Jordan Phillips, officially visited Fayetteville Sept. 15.
He becomes Arkansas’ sixth commitment for the 2018 class.
Oral commitments are non-binding.
Hankins on how much he appreciated game with Hogs
Central Oklahoma coach Tom Hankins talked after the game about he much appreciated the opportunity for the Bronchos to play the Hogs.
Barford, Macon lead Hogs to win over Bronchos
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas opened exhibition play Friday with a 78-66 win over Central Oklahoma.
Arkansas opened the game on a 7-0 run to grab the early lead, only to be matched by seven straight by the Bronchos, tying the contest at the 14:01 mark of the first half. Senior guard Daryl Macon scored six straight, part of the Razorbacks 8-0 run, to stretch it back out to a 15-7 Arkansas lead.
After missing its first three field goal attempts, Arkansas sank eight of its next 11, including four straight from deep to extend its lead to double-digits. The Bronchos kept interesting y, never letting Arkansas build a lead larger than 13 in the first half. UCO managed to bring Arkansas’ lead to eight, before settling for a 10-point halftime spread.
Senior guard Jaylen Barford led all scorers in the first half, tallying 15 of his 19 points. Macon was the only other player in double-figures by the intermission with 10 of his own. Barford finished the contest with 19 points, a game-high six assists and five rebounds. Macon finished with a game-high 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including making all seven free throws.
The Razorbacks opened the second half on a 7-0 run to stretch their lead to 17 at 52-35. Despite the quick start, Arkansas struggled from the floor in the second half, going 11-of-25.
It allowed the Bronchos to keep up. With just over a minute left in the game, UCO cut the Arkansas lead to six at 72-66, before Arkansas scored six straight to close the game out, forcing two late turnovers.
The Razorback defense forced 17 turnovers, as big man Daniel Gafford had a game-high three steals. Gafford finished with eight points in seven rebounds, four offensive, in his first action as a Razorback.
Senior guard Anton Beard was the third Razorback in double figures, as the North Little Rock native finished with 12 points and three assists. The Razorbacks distributed the ball well, totaling 20 assists.
Five Razorbacks brought down at least five boards, as senior forward Trey Thompson led the way with eight and sophomore forward Adrio Bailey tied Gafford with seven. Sophomore guard C.J. Jones posted eight points and tallied five rebounds.
Arkansas returns to action next Friday, as the Razorbacks close out exhibition play against Missouri Western inside Bud Walton Arena at 7 p.m.
Hogs In Exhibitions
- Arkansas improves to 13-0 in exhibition games under head coach Mike Anderson.
- The Razorbacks have won those 13 games by an average of 31.1 points.
- During Anderson’s 15-plus years as a head coach, he is 31-0 all-time in exhibitions.
- Dating back to a 74-47 victory over Texas A&M Commerce to open the 2004-05 season, Arkansas has won 27 consecutive exhibition games.
How Morris could be hottest search name
As we start to fall into the name game in the coaching carousel, there are already rumblings from around the world of college football about possible coaching changes.
This year much of that is swirling out of Dallas, Texas. Chad Morris is only in his third year with SMU, yet has made the type of consistent progress you see in winning coaches (2-10, 5-7, 5-2 in year three) and is suddenly the hot name in the search circles.
His availability may affect decisions made on current coaches and whether a school will pull the plug or not.
Just to give you a quick background on why Morris is so hot, it’s simple: Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting. Everything he does is based on recruiting, including his house in Dallas which includes a lot of of amenities specifically targeted at recruits.
He is a native of Texas, won state championships in Texas high school football and is instantly accepted in every high school in the state.
His last class at SMU is 100 percent Texas signees, which is the first time in school history that’s happened. The results on the field are starting to show. Going into Friday night’s game against Tulsa, the Mustangs could become bowl eligible in the eighth game of the year.
Expect a tough fight, though. SMU has gotten alumni together like Eric Dickerson, Craig James and others to do whatever has to be done to keep Morris in charge of the Mustangs. The boosters have the resources to top any offer made by any other school in the country (their banking school is one of the largest in the country, so, yeah, money is kinda their thing).
Morris put together the offense Clemson has used to reach the national title game two years in a row. He was also the second choice at Texas Tech (they hired Kliff Kingsbury) and Ohio State (they hired Urban Meyer).
The groundwork has been laid for a wild, wild crazy year of coaching movement, especially in the SEC.
Possible SEC openings
• Arkansas: Bret Bielema is 10-26 in the SEC at four and a half years into his tenure with the Hogs. Sitting at 2-5 overall and 0-4 in the SEC, the Razorbacks will have a shot at a win Saturday as Ole Miss is viewed as being in total disarray. Realistically, this team is going to have to catch a team asleep (or in a coma) to make a bowl game this year. Luckily he’s at Arkansas otherwise he would have been gone two years ago.
Morris would be a dream candidate in Fayetteville. He could be the one person to bring back the Texas recruiting that has dropped off dramatically the last 10 years. He has an offensive style that is geared to take advantage of what players he has and doesn’t try to fit players to his system.
• Ole Miss: Matt Luke was named the interim coach and not the permanent coach for a reason. They will be in the hunt for a new coach this year and it will be intense.
In Oxford, Morris is so attractive for the same reasons as Arkansas. The Rebels’ third largest booster club is in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. They have a large, large percentage of students from Texas.
• Texas A&M: Kevin Sumlin was probably dismissed by many in the Aggie Nation back in September when he lost the opening game to UCLA, blowing a huge lead. Since then, he’s won almost every game, losing only to Alabama.
Quite frankly, Morris’ availability may be what forces them to pull the trigger if they are convinced they would be better with him than Sumlin. Tom Herman at Houston probably caused two coaches to be fired last year in Les Miles at LSU and Charlie Strong at Texas.
Morris graduated from A&M in 1992 with a math degree, but he didn’t play there, although once an Aggie always an Aggie.
• Tennessee: It’s almost a foregone conclusion that Butch Jones is not going to be back in Knoxville next season, although it’s still 50-50 he makes it to the end of the year.
Many Vol fans are still thinking they are going to land Jon Gruden. The rest think they will get Chip Lindsey. But it’s likely Morris’ name will pop up somewhere in the search.
Those are just the schools in the SEC. It’s not exactly a guarantee that Morris wants to be jump into that deep water that is filled with bloodthirsty sharks.
But it’s close to a guarantee he’ll have the opportunity to say no in a couple of months.
Arkansas’ Barford after winning opener
Arkansas’ Jaylen Barford talked with the media after the win in the exhibition opener over Central Oklahoma.
