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Nick Mason discusses the Razorback basketball non-conference schedule.
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The guys discuss The AP Top 25 Poll and ask if Arkansas can make their way in the top 25 this season.
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Kurt Voigt of the Associated Press joins the guys on The Morning Rush to discuss the biggest headlines for the Razorback Football team going into the season.
As the Talking Season rapidly comes to a close, everyone is predicting how Arkansas will finish the year.
I’ve said it before, but there is a case to be made to predict nine wins … and a case to be made for five wins. This one is only about the higher numbers.
Yes, the Razorbacks could come in at nine wins and maybe go as high as 11.
There is no universe where enough alcohol or drugs are available to predict 12 wins. That doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but to predict it is an entirely different thing.
Here’s what has to happen, in my opinion, for the Hogs to get to nine wins or more:
1. Does Austin Allen have a record season. What he did last year isn’t going to be good enough.
Yes, he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC, but he’s not the best in the eyes of most people. He might be if he was allowed to make more plays with his legs, but that’s a different argument.
No, he’s got to manage every game almost perfectly, utilizing Bret Bielema’s system to shorten the game. That means checking down to short receivers to give them a chance for first downs instead of forcing the ball past open receivers to make a big play.
2. Will receivers become playmakers? With Jared Cornelius the only proven receiver returning, there are more questions than answers in every receiver position.
Can they turn an interception into an incompletion? Can they make the catch over the middle and hold it after being drilled? Can they adapt routes to get the first down instead of coming up a yard short?
Everybody looks good in practice catching the ball.
Can they make a big play when they HAVE to have one?
3. Has the offensive line improved? It is hard for Allen’s experience and skill to be showcased if he’s dodging big men who are angry at him all day.
I don’t care how tough you are, sooner or later it starts to affect you. It did Allen last year, whether anybody wants to admit it or not.
You can bet they will face 11 straight opponents who find out if the line still can’t pass protect (I’m leaving Florida A&M out of the mix).
4. Will the linebackers make plays? Perhaps the mirror of the wide receivers on the defensive side is at linebacker, which was exposed beyond belief last year.
On the eye test they don’t appear to be that much improved physically from last year. But there are more of them on the field.
Can they stop the problem of teams hitting the edge against them, then be able to catch them instead of watching their number get smaller as they run away from them?
5. Can the defensive line let the linebackers make plays? When you see great linebacker play it’s usually the result of great line play.
Every defense created in the last 60 years has attempted to figure out a way where the linemen can cause the offense to use more than one person on every defender “in the box.”
In a 3-4 with today’s offenses that becomes even more crucial. Arkansas’ linebackers aren’t overwhelmingly large. That means they better be fast and the defensive line, make running nearly impossible and pressure the quarterback.
6. Can the kicking game win a game? In Bielema’s time at Arkansas, the kicking game has been an adventure in one area or another every year.
They haven’t won many games. Dan Skipper blocking a field goal against TCU last year might qualify, but then it’s offset by the blocked field goal by Mississippi State the previous year.
For some reason, something has misfired in the kicking game every year that seemingly has caused issues. That doesn’t mean a missed 30-yard field goal at the end of the game, but a short punt, a busted kick coverage or no threats in the return game have had a tendency to show up at the worst time.
Will the Hogs finally get a kicking game that wins?
You’ll notice running backs and secondary aren’t on this list. Simple, really. If the questions above aren’t answered positively neither group has a chance to be highly successful.
Running backs can’t run without linemen. Defensive backs can’t cover people forever. Look at the best ones in those positions and there’s usually a person in the lines in front of them that are all-league material.
If Arkansas gets positive answers in these categories, then nine wins or more is a real possibility. They’ll need a break or two along the way, but that’s the case with every team.
Yes, nine wins is possible.
But I’m not ready to predict it.
A total solar eclipse does not happen around here very often.
It was 1978 the last time one passed across the United States. It will be 2024 before the next one comes along (passing directly over Arkansas this time).
Similarly, Arkansas football has blockbuster success about every 30 years or so. In 1978 (same as the last eclipse) under the great Lou Holtz, Arkansas won 11 games and finished number three in the country whipping Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.
In the 2010 and 2011 seasons, Arkansas went 21-5 and appeared in a major bowl game (a Sugar Bowl game that doesn’t count, but did occur) and won the Cotton Bowl (now a major New Year’s six bowl game).
It seems to me that like the earth, sun and moon, everything has to align perfectly for the Razorbacks to have that special season.
That season that comes along about every 30 years.
Sadly, we are now living in normal. This is how it supposed to be most of the time at a place like this with no great major metropolitan area producing boundless amounts of elite talent close to campus.
This is how it is when you play in the toughest division in all of football, including the NFL.
But one day, all those factors will align again and Arkansas will be back at the 10 or 11 win mark.
We just all hope it is sooner rather than in 2040.
Nick Saban answers questions on whether he will be watching the solar eclipse on Monday.
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas unveiled its final four opponents for the 2017-18 non-conference schedule on Monday afternoon, putting a lid on the most dynamic slate of the Mike Anderson era.
The final four opponents coming to Bud Walton Arena are Bucknell (Nov. 12), Fresno State (Nov. 17), Colorado State (Dec. 5) and Oral Roberts (Dec. 19). Bucknell is fresh off an NCAA Tournament berth after winning the Patriot League regular season and tournament championship a year ago, while Fresno State and Colorado State both appeared in the NIT last season.
The Opponents
• Arkansas’ 2017-18 opponents combined for an overall record of 221-161 (.578) last season, not including potential matchups at the Phil Knight Invitational against North Carolina, Oregon, Michigan State, Connecticut, DePaul and Portland.
• Seven of Arkansas’ 11 non-conference opponents had an RPI inside 100 last year and all 11 teams combined for an average RPI of 106.
By The Numbers
• Nine of the 11 teams are coming off 20-win seasons
• Could face two Final Four teams from last year at the PK80
• Six teams finished in the top four of their conference standings
• Two regular season championships
• Two conference tournament championships
• Four NCAA Tournament appearances
• Four NIT selections
The Breakdown
• Eight games in Bud Walton Arena
• Three games in Portland, Oregon
• One road game
• One game in North Little Rock
Exhibition Action
• Friday, Oct. 20 (Red-White Game)
• Friday, Oct. 27 (Opponent – TBA)
• Friday, Nov. 3 (Opponent – TBA)
Samford (Friday, Nov. 10)
• Posted a 20-16 record last year and reached the 20-win plateau for the first time in 11 years.
• Return 12 of their 13 players from a season ago, including 97-percent of their scoring production.
• Former Alabama guard Justin Coleman will make his Samford debut in Bud Walton Arena.
Bucknell (Sunday, Nov. 12)
• Recorded 26 wins last year and captured the Patriot League regular season and tournament championship.
• Returning all five starters and their top nine leading scorers from an NCAA Tournament appearance.
• Posted an RPI 66 last season, including nine true road wins.
Fresno State (Friday, Nov. 17)
• Won 20 games a season ago and earned an at-large bid to the NIT after finishing fourth in the Mountain West.
• Returning four starters and three of their top four leading scorers.
• Had an RPI of 77 with eight top 100 RPI wins last year.
vs Oklahoma (Thursday, Nov. 23) at PK80 in Portland, Oregon
• Return a young team as nine of the 16 players on the roster are underclassmen.
• Seven of the top eight scorers return for the Sooners.
• Finished third in the Big 12 in rebounding last year and return their top four rebounders.
vs North Carolina/Portland (Friday, Nov. 24) at PK80 in Portland, Oregon
• North Carolina is the defending National Champion and returns two of its five starters.
• Portland finished 10th in the West Coast Conference last year.
vs TBA (Sunday, Nov. 26) at PK80 in Portland, Oregon
• Will face Oregon, Michigan State, Connecticut or DePaul.
at Houston (Saturday, Dec. 2)
• Coming off back-to-back 20-win seasons and posted an RPI of 62 last year.
• Return 58.7 percent of their scoring, including Rob Gray’s league-leading 20.6 points per game.
• Finished second in the American Athletic Conference in three-point field goal percentage at 39 percent.
Colorado State (Tuesday, Dec. 5)
• Recorded 24 wins last season, finishing second in the MWC and advancing to the NIT.
• Despite losing the league’s leading scorer, the Rams return 71.1 percent of minutes played.
• Finished second in the MWC in scoring defense and rebounding margin.
Minnesota (Saturday, Dec. 9)
• Posted a 24-10 record last season and returned to the NCAA Tournament.
• Recorded an RPI of 25 last year and finished fourth in the Big Ten Conference.
• Returning their top four leading scorers and three All-Big 10 selections.
vs Troy (Saturday, Dec. 16) at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, Ark.
• Went 22-15 last season and had a top 150 RPI.
• Won the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
• Return their top two scorers and 62.4 percent of their scoring output from last season.
Oral Roberts (Tuesday, Dec. 19)
• Have a new head coach in Paul Mills who spent the previous 14 years at Baylor.
• Return top scorer who finished fourth in The Summit League last year at 17.4 points per game.
• Return top rebounder in who finished eighth in the conference last season, averaging 6.4 boards per contest.
Cal State Bakersfield (Wednesday, Dec. 27)
• Went 25-10 last season and won the WAC regular season championship.
• Posted a final RPI of 59 with five victories against top 100 RPI teams.
• Return 42.2 percent of their scoring and their second leading scorer.
Oklahoma State (Saturday, Jan. 27) in Big12/SEC Challenge
• Won 20 games last year and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
• Led the Big 12 in scoring offense last season, averaging over 85 points per game.
• Returning their second leading scorer and top two offensive rebounders.
To little surprise Alabama is No. 1 in the first Associated Press poll released Monday.
The Crimson Tide are 99 points ahead of second-place Ohio State, a large margin. Florida State, who will open the season against Bama in Atlanta on Sept. 2, is No. 3 and USC is fourth, just ahead of defending national champion Clemson.
Rounding out the top 10 teams are Penn State, Oklahoma, Washington, Wisconsin and Oklahoma State.
Curious about where the next SEC team is? Well, there haven’t been two SEC teams in the Top 10 since 2015 when Ole Miss was 10th (and, of course, Alabama was No. 1).
The next SEC team is in the second 10, which is dominated by the league.
In order, Michigan is 11th, then Auburn, LSU, Stanford and Georgia is No. 15. Bobby Petrino’s Louisville team is 16th, then Florida, Miami, South Florida and Kansas State rounds out the first 20 teams.
The final five teams, in order, are Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Texas, Washington State and Tennessee.
Whoa, WHAT?
Texas is No. 23. For those wondering, the Longhorns were also No. 23 in the Coaches Poll, too.
Apparently voters are banking on Tom Herman turning around things in Austin in a hurry. Last year, Texas finished 5-7, losing the last three games of the season.
Kentucky and Texas A&M were the only other SEC teams that received votes, garnering three each.
Bret Bielema spoke to the Little Rock Touchdown Club today and didn’t deliver any bombshells.
He did have one comment, though, that should have gotten folks’ attention: “It’s time to raise the bar on what’s expected on the field,” he said.
Finally, somebody talked about wins being important.
He spoke before that on getting players to do the right things both on and off the field and the challenges that has created since he got the job in December 2012.
“Coming off 3-9 season when I got here, I knew I wanted to build things in a certain way,” he said. “I wanted to set a standard what I wanted off the field.”
He has accomplished that over his first four seasons.
“Eighty percent of players had over 3.0 during spring semester,” he said. “If I was playing, I wouldn’t be in that 80 percent. We had 29 new players come in and 25 of the 29 had a 3.0. Only one had a grade below a C. They have to have the desire to be successful.”
Now he’s got to produce wins.
“That’s the hardest thing to do,” he said about getting wins from players who are doing the off-field things well for the most part. “Sometimes the GPA doesn’t match the 40-yard dash time.”
This year, he’s hoping it gets closer.
Don’t be expecting answers this week as Arkansas finishes fall practice.
Normally, you’d say they would be getting ready for the season opener, but, let’s face it, if the Razorbacks aren’t ahead of Florida A&M by at least 35 points at halftime, there’s a problem.
No, we won’t get any answers until sometime around 6:30 or so on Sept. 9. The game against the Rattlers won’t provide many.
Yes, the Hogs will probably look really good. They better. It’s highly doubtful the competition will be as good as what they see in practice every day. At least it better not be.
Don’t be misled by the coaches, who talk about players “practicing hard” or “going faster” or “getting better.” Every team is saying the same things this time of the year.
This isn’t a prediction column by any stretch. That will come next week.
To be honest, there’s cases to be made for this team finishing anywhere from 5-7 to 9-3. It all depends on the answers to the questions.
For starters, everyone is putting quarterback Austin Allen into the running for the top quarterback in the SEC. He may be.
The problem is a quarterback in an offense like Arkansas has will only be as good as (A) his offensive line allows and, (B) his receivers make him.
Oh, everybody likes to talk about the Bret Bielema “identity” of a power running game. That’s ancient history, folks. Arkansas is now a power running program.
The only time they’ve resembled that is 2005-07. They had an offensive line full of future NFL prospects, Darren McFadden, Felix Jones and Peyton Hillis at running back and just enough receivers in the mix to keep things slightly honest.
In fairness, though, with those three keeping anybody honest was something you’d like to have, but didn’t worry about a whole lot.
No, the Hogs are a team that has success with an offense that has a gimmick or two. Like in the Bobby Petrino era, there were so many people out on routes if the quarterback could hang in there long enough SOMEBODY was going to be open.
And, when in doubt, the receivers were good enough to simply make a play.
Bielema is a smart guy. He’s aware the last coach in the league that was stubborn about sticking with trying to have an “identity” of power running got fired last year down in Baton Rouge.
Even Nick Saban at Alabama has admittedly opened things up. Reports out of Tuscaloosa are there won’t be a lot of change from the past three seasons in the offensive direction.
They will be more up-tempo, passing and letting quarterback Jalen Hurts make plays with his legs. They want to improve the downfield passing attack, which is what Saban has harped on constantly since losing to Clemson last year.
“That’s what the kids want to play so that’s what I figured we had to switch to,” Saban said during an interview on the SEC Network when he was asked about the offensive change. “I went with quarterbacks who could also make plays with their legs and not just their arm.”
It’s the way college football has evolved. All four teams last year in the playoff were spread teams with dual threat quarterbacks. Don’t even think about the Crimson Tide as being a pro-style offense anymore.
That doesn’t mean the running game goes away. It’s as important as ever.
It’s about creating space. Auburn will be a running team, but they aren’t going to just huddle up, line up and try to get four yards a play.
Nobody can do that anymore. Everybody in the SEC has a few good players, even Vanderbilt.
The guess here is the best anybody will ever be able to do running one of those ground-and-pound offenses in the SEC is seven or eight wins in a season … with a few good breaks and occasionally catching a team on a down week.
That is why I think the biggest question the Hogs will face is finding wide receivers and tight ends who can make plays.
They are going to have to score a lot of points to win games this year, in my opinion. Going to a 3-4 only puts more of the weakest players on the roster on the field at the same time.
That is, unless the answer to the next biggest question is different than I’m guessing.
Yep, the linebackers. In the SEC, the team with the best linebackers tends to win more games. It used to be the lines, but lately it’s been linebackers.
It’s how the game has changed.
Have there been some good things in fall camp? Absolutely.
The Hogs will be better this year. Of that, there is absolutely no doubt.
But the reason what last year’s record was makes zero difference in teams this year is because everybody got better.
Arkansas isn’t the only place with spring practice, scholarship players, a couple of talented walk-ons and a good strength coach.
So do 13 other teams in the league.
Which is why there really are more questions than answers everywhere.
Finding the answers is what makes the season fun.
Trevor Matich declares Drew Lock of the Missouri Tigers as the under-the-radar quarterback to watch for.
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