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Despite reports, Broyles at home, not at hospice facility

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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A report Wednesday morning that Frank Broyles was in hospice care after suffering a stroke proved to be incorrect.

With a twist that the report was, in all probability, a case of hearing what one wanted to hear.

The report was the legendary former coach and athletics director at Arkansas was AT a hospice care facility. In reality, he is IN hospice care at home.

Broyles’ granddaughter, Molly Arnold, told SECCountry.com:

“The family had been inundated with phone calls and messages since a Reddit thread and a Twitter post indicated the 92-year old had been placed in a hospice facility.”

The difference in what was reported and the truth is a seemingly minor one, but one that is starkly different.

“That little word makes a big difference,” Arnold said. “When you go into hospice, you’re talking very little life expectancy left. You’re in a facility. That is end of life.

“But you can sign up for hospice and they can come to your house for six months. Sometimes people will graduate off of hospice. This is more quality of life management.”

People have been visiting Broyles, according to Arnold, including Barry Switzer, Houston Nutt and other friends and former players.

“He’s really happy,” Arnold said. “Really enjoying talking about football and all those things. He’s really happy and enjoying life.”

Broyles is 92 years old.

Tuberville joins ESPN’s college football broadcast team

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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ESPN has added to its decorated college football game analyst roster with the signing of former college football head coach Tommy Tuberville.

Tuberville is a native of Camden and played in college at Southern Arkansas University.

With 159 victories in more than 20 seasons, including an undefeated season, five SEC Championship game appearances, multiple Coach of the Year awards and an American Athletic Conference Championship, Tuberville brings an experienced coach’s viewpoint to the booth. Tuberville will call games each week across ESPN or ABC with his broadcast partners to be named soon.

The former Cincinnati, Texas Tech, Ole Miss and Auburn head coach is enjoying this summer from his Florida beach home. As he says in the video above, Tuberville reluctantly is putting his golf clubs away in anticipation of college football season.

Allen candidate for pair of national QB awards

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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FORT WORTH, Texas — Austin Allen added to his list of preseason honors on Wednesday.

The Arkansas senior quarterback was among 30 of the nation’s top college quarterbacks, including six from the Southeastern Conference, named to the preseason watch list for the Davey O’Brien Award. The award is presented annually to the nation’s best quarterback by the Davey O’Brien Foundation.

Allen was also one of 47 standout quarterbacks from different divisions and conferences across the nation tabbed to the watch list for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, which is presented at the end of each football season with the winner selected based on his accomplishments both on and off the field. Candidates must be a college senior or fourth-year junior on schedule to graduate with their class.

Ready for his second season at the helm of the Razorbacks’ offense, Allen enters 2017 after an impressive junior campaign that saw him top the SEC in both total passing yardage (3,430) and passing yardage in conference play (2,291). He also threw 25 touchdown passes, which ranked second in the conference, completed 61.1 percent of his passes (245 of 401) and boasted a 146.04 passer rating.

His 3,430 passing yards and 25 touchdown passes each ranked fifth in single-season school history. Of his 25 touchdown passes, 19 came inside the red zone, which led the SEC and tied for 10th in the FBS. The Fayetteville product threw multiple touchdown passes in nine games and became the first quarterback in school history and one of just four in the SEC since 2000 to throw multiple touchdown passes in each of the first seven games of a season.

Allen was previously honored by the Davey O’Brien Foundation last September as one of the “Great 8” quarterbacks in Week 2 for his performance in the Razorbacks’ 41-38 double-overtime win at No. 15 TCU. He led the Razorbacks to the tying score in the final two minutes of regulation, going 4-for-4 with a touchdown pass and then catching the tying 2-point conversion with 1:03 remaining. He later ran 5 yards for the winning score in the second overtime to lift Arkansas to victory, snapping TCU’s 14-game home winning streak. He finished 17-of-29 passing for 223 yards and three touchdowns.

Allen was also named to the preseason watch list for the Maxwell Award on July 10, and earned third-team All-SEC honors last Friday from the league’s media.

Fan Day scheduled for Aug. 12 for Razorbacks

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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FAYETTEVILLE — With the 2017 season approaching, Arkansas football coach Bret Bielema and players will host the Razorbacks’ annual Fan Day presented by Pepsi on Saturday, Aug. 12.

The event will be open to the public and free for fans of all ages.

The team will hold an open practice inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Players and coaches will be available for autographs later that afternoon inside Walker Indoor Pavilion.

In addition, a kids zone will feature inflatables plus other fan activities throughout the indoor pavilion.

More details, including a full schedule, will be released leading up to the event.

Ragnow named to ‘Wuerffel’ watch list

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. — Arkansas senior center Frank Ragnow was named to the preseason watch list for the Wuerffel Trophy on Tuesday.

The Wuerffel Trophy is “College Football’s Premier Award for Community Service,” presented annually by the All Sports Association of Fort Walton Beach to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) player who best combines exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement.

One of a record 109 nominees for the prestigious award, Ragnow has participated in a variety of community service projects atArkansas and is three credit hours away from graduating with a degree in recreation and sport management.

Ragnow is also a candidate for the Rimington Trophy, Outland Trophy and Allstate AFCA Good Works Team.

He boasts spots on several preseason All-America teams, including earning first-team honors from Athlon Sports and Lindy’s Sports as well as second-team status from Sporting News.

Last Friday, he earned preseason first-team All-SEC honors, as voted on by the media at SEC Football Media Days.

Ragnow’s Community Service Projects

• Made visits to elementary schools in Northwest Arkansas throughout the Spring 2017 semester.

• Participated in Razorback Relief: Operation Baton Rouge, which benefited those impacted by floods in Louisiana last August.

• Participated in the Book Hogs — Read to Win Kickoff at Root Elementary School in Fayetteville, Arkansas, last March, an initiative that encourages students at the elementary school level to enjoy reading, has been one of the Razorbacks’ most successful programs over the years.

• Helped host Special Olympics Arkansas at football practices this past spring.

• Volunteered with Hogs for Hope, a registered student organization at the University of Arkansas whose goal is to fundraise and support the Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

• Volunteered with and made regular visits over the last three years to the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter, a private, non-profit organization that provides 24-hour emergency residential care to children who are victims of family violence, neglect and physical and sexual abuse.

Greenlaw named to ‘Butkus’ watch list

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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CHICAGO — Arkansas junior Dre Greenlaw was named to the preseason watch list for the Butkus Award, an honor presented annually to the nation’s best linebacker by the Butkus Foundation, it was announced Monday.

Greenlaw is one of 51 candidates for this year’s award.

Greenlaw saw limited action in 2016 due to a foot injury. He started all seven games played and finished with 42 tackles and one interception.

He led Arkansas with 35 tackles through the first five games before sustaining the injury in the first quarter against No. 1 Alabama, and posted team highs in tackles twice over the first four games.

A freshman All-American in 2015, Greenlaw led all SEC freshmen with 95 tackles, good for fifth nationally among rookies.

He played in all 13 games and recorded four double-digit tackle games in his 11 starts, three of which were against SEC opponents.

The Fayetteville product was the only player to win SEC Freshman of the Week twice.

Cornelius named to watch list for ‘Hornung’

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Following a career-best season in 2016, Arkansas senior wide receiver Jared Cornelius was named to the preseason watch list for the Paul Hornung Award presented by Texas Roadhouse, the Louisville Sports Commission announced Monday.

The award is presented to the most versatile player in college football.

Highlighted by three 100-plus yard receiving performances, Cornelius recorded 32 receptions for 515 yards and four touchdown catches, while adding a rushing score, in 2016.

After racking up 100-plus yards through the air in Weeks 4, 5 and 6, Cornelius matched a 20-year old school record of three straight 100-yard receiving efforts, joining Anthony Lucas (1996) and Mike Reppond (1971) as the only three players in school history to accomplish that feat.

Of his 32 catches, 22 resulted in either a first down or touchdown. He led the team in receptions of 30-plus yards (5), 25-plus yards (7) and 20-plus yards (11), including touchdown grabs of 35 and 29 yards. With 14 catches for 309 yards and two TDs in Weeks 5-8, no Southeastern Conference receiver was more productive in the month of October than Cornelius, as his 309 yards receiving were tops in the league during that span.

Cornelius’ rushing score came against No. 12 Ole Miss when he lifted the Razorbacks to a 34-30 victory with a 6-yard TD run late in the fourth quarter.

The Shreveport, Louisiana, product was previously named to the watch list for the Paul Hornung Award a year ago, following a sophomore campaign that saw him catch 24 passes for 393 yards and three touchdowns and turn seven rushes into 112 yards and two scores.

He was the only player in the SEC and one of three players in the nation with a 40-yard punt return, 40-yard run and 40-yard reception during the 2015 season.

Long follows Morning Rush into rules discussion

Andy Hodges
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Arkansas athletics director Jeff Long just can’t resist sometimes.

During Tuesday’s statewide Morning Rush radio show, host Derek Ruscin threw out that he was ready for Arkansas to stop worrying about the rules and get in the game to win now.

“Why do we have to be the moral authority on all this crap?” Ruscin asked live on the air. “Why can’t we get in the mud with everybody else? If everybody else is cheating, then it’s not cheating if you do it.”

That will pretty much take care of wondering what people will call about for a couple of days, I’ll bet.

“Why is this the only school on God’s green earth that won’t cheat?” Ruscin asked. “START HANDING OUT SOME CASH!”

» Listen to the podcast of the show.

Long, who listens to the Morning Rush apparently was listening Tuesday morning.

Long apparently feels in football not coming close to competing for a conference championship during his 10-plus years on the job is okay as long as “doing things the right way is who we are.”

Don’t throw out 2010 and 2011 … the Hogs ended up finishing FOURTH in the SEC West in the final rankings in 2010 and THIRD in the West, despite a No. 5 overall finish.

 

History tells us Ruscin may have a valid point.

In the winningest three years in Razorback history (1964-66), the football program was on NCAA probation for recruiting violations.

There were no sanctions. The penalty was handed down in 1963. Yes, the violations were more than what we call “minor” in this day and age.

In that time, if you had the political pull and clout with the NCAA there were no sanctions. They didn’t run around handing down much more than a bowl ban.

The television ban came as a means to get Oklahoma off TV in the early 1970’s. Darrell Royal down at Texas had more pull with the NCAA and he needed anything he could get to slow down Barry Switzer’s annual haul of players in Texas.

Yes, during a time when the Hogs won over 90 percent of their games (29-3 over those three years), they were on probation for two of the years for recruitment of some of the players on those teams.

In case you’re wondering, Royal’s Longhorns were also on probation following their national championship year of 1963.

Now that doesn’t mean you follow Ruscin’s method of just blatantly handing out cash as the players come out of the football facility.

Nah, there are other ways.

But Long needs to understand — and the guess here is he better get it sooner rather than later — that the football team winning is important to the fans in this state.

After all, he likes being in the SEC. He’s stated the advantages of being there over and over when people start speculating about a move.

And in the SEC, one school over a period of three years fired the coach, the athletic director and the president of the university … all because the football team wasn’t winning enough games, despite a 72.2 percent winning margin all three years.

Yeah, that was Alabama.

 

Translating the media’s voting for finish at SEC Media Days

Andy Hodges
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The voting is in and, as usual, Alabama is the favorite to win the SEC this year.

No surprise, right?

Arkansas finished right in the middle of the West. That’s because most have absolutely no idea what to think of this Razorback team right now.

The people I’ve talked to aren’t ready to put the Hogs up in the rankings but, based on prior history, don’t want to put them at the bottom.

So they simply put them in the middle.

Before we get to the final picks, here’s how I picked it (and, yes, since 1992 I have picked at the top Florida in the East and Alabama in the West … EVERY year):

East: 1. Florida, 2. Kentucky, 3. South Carolina, 4. Georgia, 5. Tennessee, 6. Vanderbilt, 7. Missouri.

West: 1. Alabama, 2t. Auburn-LSU, 4. Arkansas-Ole Miss-Mississippi State-Texas A&M.

Explanations of my preseason picks will come later. Don’t sweat it, that’s just how I think it’s going to end up.

Here’s the official breakdown of the media voting last week:

East
1. Georgia – 1,572 points (138 first-place votes)
2. Florida – 1,526 (96)
3. Tennessee – 998 (3)
4. South Carolina – 897 (5)
5. Kentucky – 869
6. Vanderbilt – 554
7. Missouri – 388

West
1. Alabama – 1,683 (225)
2. Auburn – 1,329 (13)
3. LSU – 1,262 (4)
4. Arkansas – 796 (1)
5. Texas A&M – 722
6. Mississippi State – 633
7. Ole Miss – 379

SEC Champion
1. Alabama – 217 votes
2. Auburn – 11
3. Georgia – 6
t-4. Florida – 3
t-4. LSU – 3
t-6. Arkansas – 1
t-6. South Carolina – 1
t-6. Vanderbilt – 1

Now let’s translate that.

In the East, it’s traditional thinking to continue the belief that Kirby Smart is a good coach because he was with Nick Saban for so long.

Funny thing about traditional thinking is not a single former Saban assistant has ever beaten the boss. In other words, Saban probably taught these assistants everything THEY know, but not everything HE knows.

In the East, literally you could put Georgia, Florida and Tennessee on one tier, South Carolina, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Missouri on another.

Figure out injuries, goofy bounces, weird officials’ calls and everything else that factors into how a season plays out and you get a result in both of those scenarios.

Alabama still rules the West. Until someone can knock them off, then not fold down the stretch (see Ole Miss in 2015), the Crimson Tide are out in front.

Right behind are Auburn and LSU, who have opened some space from everyone else. Now they have to avoid a collapse if they stumble early, which has been the death knell in the past.

Remember, Les Miles was not fired because he didn’t beat Alabama. He got fired because he lost too many others after losing interest after losing to the Tide.

Auburn has lived with the growing pains of Gus Malzahn learning about being a head coach. He only had one year of college head coaching experience at Arkansas State before getting the Auburn job, replacing another first-time head coach.

Tigers football would also likely benefit if athletics director Jay Jacobs would take away Pat Dye’s office and tell him to go away. Most schools would do that with a former coach that handed them a massive NCAA problem like Dye did.

After those three, the order of finish in the West depends on far too many factors. I don’t care what they say publicly, nobody knows what is going to happen with Arkansas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Texas A&M.

You can make a case for any of them to win 10 games … or finish below .500.

Which, of course, is why they play out the schedule every year.

Nutt files lawsuit against Ole Miss at perfect time

Andy Hodges
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When Houston Nutt left Ole Miss in 2011, it was a negotiated divorce.

Nutt is now claiming in a lawsuit filed that Ole Miss breached the terms of his termination with the mess surrounding the Rebels’ football program and the NCAA investigation.

Interestingly enough, that investigation has lasted longer than Nutt’s tenure in Oxford and alleges a campaign by Ole Miss officials, including coach Hugh Freeze and athletics director Ross Bjork to place the blame on Nutt.

Which is true. That’s coming from someone who was in Oxford as Nutt’s time was coming to a shattering end and there for the past year around all of the NCAA investigations.

The lawsuit, obtained by Yahoo! Sports can be found in full here. This is among the more interesting parts:

“Coach Freeze had knowingly lied to the journalists and recruiting prospects by saying that the NCAA’s investigation had little, if anything, to do with him or his coaching staff and was instead focused on alleged rules violations by Coach Nutt’s staff,” the complaint says. “Coach Freeze falsely stated that most, if not all, of the NCAA’s allegations involved ‘Houston Nutt’ and his staff. At the time Coach Freeze made these statements, he was fully aware that they were patently false, yet he continued to make such statements, severely damaging Coach Nutt’s reputation. … The protection of Coach Freeze became the University’s Number One priority in dealing with the NCAA investigation.”

Being in Oxford for the past year, that was the spin those connected with the football program were trying to spin. I know. I heard it firsthand for a year.

With the Rebels appearing at SEC Media Days on Thursday, the timing of the lawsuit’s public release will make things interesting on the last day.

The guess here is a lot of the crowd that normally would halfway home by the time Hugh Freeze got to the biggest room will be hanging around.

Especially with his best friend in the SEC, Auburn’s Gus Malzahn, coming on right after him. Remember, it was at Media Days in 2014 that Malzahn and then-Florida coach Will Muschamp ducked into the back of a small bar-restaurant off radio row.

That may have been the groundwork for Muschamp becoming the Tigers’ defensive coordinator the next year.

Interestingly enough, South Carolina — and Muschamp — will also be at Media Days tomorrow.

Get ready for an interesting day.

And Houston knew EXACTLY when to drop this grenade into Ole Miss’ lap.

 

Ragnow named to ‘Rimington’ watch list

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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NEW YORK — A day after representing Arkansas at SEC Football Media Days, senior center Frank Ragnow was named to the fall watch list for the 2017 Rimington Trophy on Tuesday.

The award is presented annually to the Most Outstanding Center in NCAA Division I-A College Football.

Ragnow had previously appeared on the award’s spring watch list in May. He is the seventh different Razorback to be named to the Rimington Trophy Watch List over the award’s 16-year history.

The seven different Arkansas centers have combined for 12 appearances on the watch list with Jonathan Luigs winning the award in 2007.

Ragnow was named the nation’s best offensive lineman and best run blocker and a first-team All-American by Pro Football Focus (PFF) for the 2016 season.

He helped pave the way for running back Rawleigh Williams III to capture the SEC regular-season rushing title with 1,326 yards and provided time for quarterback Austin Allen to throw for an SEC-best 3,430 yards.

Williams topped the century mark seven times on the ground, while Allen tallied four 300-plus yard passing games.

The Razorbacks manufactured 428.4 yards of total offense per game, highlighted by five games with both 200 yards rushing and passing.

A native of Victoria, Minnesota, Ragnow graded out as the top center in the nation by PFF twice in 2016 after his performances during wins over then-No. 11 Florida and at Mississippi State.

He graded out as a top three center in five of 12 regular-season games and earned an 80 percent grade or higher from PFF seven times.

According to PFF, Ragnow didn’t allow a sack for the second straight season and decreased his total number of pressures allowed from 19 in 2015 to just 12.

Ragnow also was named SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week on Sept. 18, 2016, for his efforts in his start at right guard against Texas State.

He graded out at a career-best 92 percent and helped Arkansas rush for 226 yards and three scores in the 42-3 win.

Ragnow has made 26 straight starts heading into his senior campaign with 14 starts at right guard and 12 at center.

The Rimington Trophy committee uses the following three teams to determine a winner:

• Walter Camp Foundation (WCF)
• Sporting News (SN)
• Football Writers Association of America (FWAA)

Since its inception, the Rimington Trophy has raised over $2.9 million for the cystic fibrosis community.

The award is overseen by the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which is committed to finding a cure for cystic fibrosis and has raised over $130 million for the fight against cystic fibrosis.

Arkansas’ All-Time Rimington Trophy Watch List Members
Frank Ragnow — 2016, 2017
Mitch Smothers — 2015
Travis Swanson — 2011, 2012, 2013
Jonathan Luigs — 2006, 2007*, 2008
Kyle Roper — 2005
Dan Doughy — 2003
Josh Melton — 2001

*-2007 Rimington Trophy Recipient

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