Plus looking for new defensive coordinator and how the whole name, image and likeness business mixed with the transfer portal.
HawgSport’s Danny West on busy time for Sam Pittman, Hogs’ recruiting
As the early signing date comes up fast in the windshield, what the Razorbacks are working with landing new players.
Bud Light Next Morning Rush Podcast: Morgan Turner
Tye, Tommy and Chuck on the TE coach hire, bowl season, Bradley game and more!
The Morning Rush is LIVE. Arkansas officially announces their new TE’s coach
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The Gimme the HAWGS Chuck Podcast E42: Heading to North Little Rock
Presented by Weichert Realtors – The Griffin Company
RECRUITING THURSDAY: Democrat-Gazette’s Richard Davenport on latest
With NIL and transfer portal, the world of college football recruiting is getting a lot more complicated for Sam Pittman.
Democrat-Gazette’s Tom Murphy as Hogs land new tight ends coach
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. —Veteran tight ends coach Morgan Turner has been tabbed by coach Sam Pittman to lead Arkansas’ tight ends.
Turner just finished his 10th season as the tight ends coach for the Stanford Cardinal after spending 13 seasons with the program. During his tenure in Palo Alto, Turner built Stanford into a national brand among tight ends by producing numerous NFL tight ends such as Dalton Schultz (Dallas), Austin Hooper (Tennessee), Coby Fleener, Levine Toilolo, Zach Ertz (Arizona), Kaden Smith and most recently Colby Parkinson (Seattle).
The latest in Turner’s long line of productive tight ends is junior Benjamin Yurosek, who caught 49 passes for 445 yards and a touchdown this past season to earn second-team All-Pac-12 honors.
Yurosek’s 49 receptions were second-most on the Cardinal roster and second-most among all tight ends in the Pac-12. Yurosek’s sophomore campaign in 2021 was even better, leading the Cardinal with 658 receiving yards to earn honorable mention All-Pac-12.
He averaged 15.3 yards per reception, recorded three games of 90+ yards receiving and hauled in 13 receptions of 20+ yards – all three ranked among the top three tight ends in the Power 5.
Parkinson is the latest of Turner’s tight ends to make an impact in the NFL as a fourth-round selection by Seattle in 2020.
He was a semifinalist for the Mackey Award – given annually to the nation’s top tight end – and earned second-team All-Pac-12 recognition in 2019 after catching 48 passes for 589 yards and a score.
Schultz was a fourth-round pick by the Dallas Cowboys in 2018 after earning All-Pac-12 First Team leading a talented group of tight ends for Stanford in 2017.
The unit snagged 12 of the team’s 23 touchdown passes that season. Hooper is Turner’s most recent All-American, having earned the distinction in 2015 after being named a finalist for the Mackey Award and first-team All-Pac-12 for catching 34 passes for 438 yards and six TDs. The Atlanta Falcons picked him in the third round of the 2016 draft.
In 2012, Turner assisted Ertz in becoming a unanimous All-American, Mackey Award finalist, first-team All-Pac-12 and a second-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Ertz led all FBS tight ends in 2012 in receiving yards (898) and catches (69) to go along with six touchdowns. Along with Toilolo, Stanford tight ends led the nation that season in productivity catching a combined 93 passes for 1,291 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Turner has also displayed the ability to land elite recruits while also developing tight ends. He recruited Parkinson and Schultz, who were four-star tight ends coming out of high school, and molded them into top NFL draft picks. He developed three-star recruits Hooper and Yurosek into All-Pac-12 performers for the Cardinal with Hooper eventually becoming a third-round NFL selection.
Before taking over the tight ends, Turner spent two seasons at Stanford as an offensive assistant and one as a sports performance intern.
Prior to Stanford, he coached quarterbacks at Indiana State for one season (2009) after getting his start in coaching at Central (Ill.) High School in 2008 as the team’s quarterbacks coach and scout team coordinator.
Turner graduated from Illinois in 2009, earning a bachelor’s degree in finance. The Champaign, Ill. native served as a student coach for the Illini football team in 2004 and is the son of longtime NFL and collegiate head coach Ron Turner.
Turner and his wife, Melissa, have two children, a son, Nicolas, and a daughter, Mia.
The Turner File
Birthdate: August 27, 1985
College: Illinois, 2009 B.S. Finance
Family: Wife – Melissa; Son – Nicolas; Daughter – Mia
Coaching Experience
2009 Indiana State (Quarterbacks)
2010 Stanford (Sports Performance Intern)
2011-12 Stanford (Offensive Assistant)
2013-22 Stanford (Tight Ends)
Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
Halftime Pod Presented By Eastside Liquor- December 15, 2022
New TE Coach; NCAA Names new Prez; Hogs in NLR Saturday; Bowl Pick ‘Em Begins; Granny Basketball Guests- Bob Holt, Neal Atkinson & Danny West
CLAY HENRY: Bobby Petrino joining Barry Odom at UNLV interesting
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Don’t completely dismiss the first glance at Missouri State coach Bobby Petrino as the new offensive coordinator at UNLV, per reports.
The story comes from a report by Chris Low of ESPN.
Some, mostly Arkansas fans still butt-hurt over the way he left the Razorbacks in the spring of 2012 will point out he’s not in the big time.
Hold that thought.
This may be one of these deals in reverse like new Rebels coach Barry Odom had at Arkansas where he essentially had complete control of the defense while coach Sam Pittman dealt with the media and all that other stuff.
If you don’t know it, a head football coach these days is more of a CEO and public relations person than doing a lot of drawing X’s and O’s on a legal pad or white board.
Plus UNLV’s home stadium is Allegiant Stadium, which is also home to the Las Vega Raiders. Having a guy that can light up scoreboards like a slot machine hitting jackpots on a regular basis will draw fans and, ultimately, television (which will also come to a really good show).
Odom is a fairly low-key guy. Petrino is, too, unless it’s game day and he’s on the sidelines. Then there’s a lot of running and yelling involved, but this time he only has to deal with half the team.
Petrino, who is probably a completely different person than the trauma that resulted from that motorcycle trip to Elkins on April’s Fool’s Day.
Speak for yourself, but that’ over and done with. It’s a family issue and if they have worked things out (and seem to have gotten past it), the time is now for everybody else to move along, too.
It’s doubtful Greg Sankey and the SEC office threw up any roadblocks on the reported deal of Petrino going to Texas A&M.
When you think about it, how long could he and Jimbo Fisher actually make it work? That’s two guys with big egos about offense and was just a train wreck waiting to arrive at the junction on the tracks.
In Las Vegas, Petrino will probably be the offensive coach, Odom the defense and if they can round up the players it could all work pretty well.
They are in the Mountain West conference but with a new round of teams going everywhere with possibly new conferences being created, an exciting team in Las Vegas can certainly attractive.
Petrino is coming off three seasons at the FCS level as head coach of Missouri State. He went 18–15 with the Bears, making the NCAA FCS football tournament in his first two years, but then going 5–6 in 1922.
What nobody mentions is he came back to Fayetteville and the Bears out-played the Hogs for three quarters before running out of gas.
Yeah, they can build a team that might not challenge today’s College Football Playoff with four teams, but the move to 12 opens a door that’s easier to slip inside.
Defensive coordinators might not want to face a Petrino offense in January.
Especially if he finds some key players.
Halftime is LIVE!!! Bobby Petrino to UNLV, Morgan Turner new TE Coach
11:15 – Bob Holt
12:15 – Danny West
1:15 – Neal Atkinson
New TE Coach; NCAA Names new Prez; Hogs in NLR Saturday; Bowl Pick ‘Em Begins; Granny Basketball
Call or text, 877-377-6963
Bud Light Next Morning Rush Podcast: Bobby Petrino heading to Vegas
Tye & Tommy on Coach Petrino as the UNLV OC, Muss on the NLR game and more!
