Arkansas pitcher Kevin Kopps (8 innings, allowed 7 hits, struck out 9) started against North Carolina State and he wanted the start when offered.
Playing toughest schedule makes hill taller for Hogs’ improvement
Sam Pittman knew he was facing an uphill climb when he took over Arkansas’ lagging football fortunes.
Covid didn’t do him any favors and everybody has their own opinions on how that was handled.
Facing 10 SEC opponents allowed the sales pitch to Razorback fans to be it would have been a 6-6 season in a normal year. Hey, last season you could claim anything at the end and nobody was going to argue about it a lot.
This year will be different. But the schedule won’t be.
Brad Crawford of 247Sports.com said recently in a videocast with Chris Hummer the Hogs have the nation’s toughest schedule once again and it’s a pretty solid argument.
Most over-under projections for the Hogs are 4.5 wins this season. That’s about right for a team that has more questions than answers at this point.
“Getting there, they’re going to have to win the 50-50 games and then maybe getting to a bowl game they have to beat one of these nationally-ranked titans,” Crawford said.
He’s right. Getting two should be easy (Rice and UAPB). Georgia Southern may not be the pushover fans assume, but that should make it three wins looking at it in the summer.
For a team with the biggest question being the most important position on the field, it’s going to be how KJ Jefferson handles being the guy at quarterback for the Hogs.
It was Lou Holtz who told us in the preseason in 1978 to forget about the previous year’s 11-1 record and No. 3 national ranking after an Orange Bowl win over Oklahoma.
“Last year has nothing to do with this year,” he said.
Fans are pointing towards the Texas game because, well, it’s somehow a big deal and they think it’s a rivalry. It’s only a rivalry to Razorback fans, no matter how many times the talking heads in the media try to make a big deal.
They’ve read the history books. Of course those books usually don’t mention it’s never been a particularly big game for the Longhorns. They are STILL more interested in hating Texas A&M (a team they haven’t played since 2011 and have a 64.4% winning record against).
And Oklahoma has always been their biggest opponent. Texas has a 54.9% winning record against one of the winningest programs in college football history.
More importantly they just fired a dysfunctional coach that won 64% of his games, including a Sugar Bowl win over Georgia.
Steve Sarkisian inherited recruiting classes that averaged finishing in the top five in the 247Sports.com composite rankings and his first class was 15th.
Texas has better players than Arkansas. Unless they take it like the Horns did at the Texas Bowl in 2014 it could be a long evening.
That leaves eight SEC opponents for the Hogs to get three wins against to make it to a bowl game.
Don’t expect a prediction on how the season will go until sometime in August … and maybe not then. We don’t even know what we don’t know to ask about it yet.
Yes, Pittman has made strides in personnel and improving attitudes. So has Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss and Mike Leach at Mississippi State. Don’t expect things to fall apart in Baton Rouge or Tuscaloosa this year and Texas A&M is close to getting to that level.
Everybody in the SEC has made strides to get better and Alabama just picked up one of the best defensive players in the league in the transfer portal.
The improvements aren’t just at Arkansas.
But Pittman had to start farther behind than the others and the disparity is tough to overcome in the SEC.
Especially when you have to play the toughest schedule in the country every year.
The hill gets really large.
Before assuming trip to Omaha, remember Hogs started with 16-1 loss
After a whopping blowout win to open this weekend’s Super Regional a lot of Arkansas fans were already planning parties for clinching another trip to Omaha.
A lot of them forgot the Razorbacks started SEC play with a 16-1 loss to Alabama.
When Charlie Welch hit a two-run homer in the second inning for a 2-0 lead some may have been getting the ice ready for the party.
Dave Van Horn knew better.
“Just the way it works,” he said after a 6-5 loss to set up a game Sunday for that trip to Omaha. “Gotta go down to the last day to see who advances.”
North Carolina State wasn’t down in the dumps after getting kicked sideways Friday. They pretty much started waving the white flag early. Van Horn knew that, too.
“We kind of knew what was going on,” he said. “They were throwing pitchers that they weren’t really planning on using here. So we took advantage of them, got some hits, a lot of things went our way.”
Maybe most importantly, he knew they were putt that game in the rearview mirror long before the last out.
“I don’t think it was an embarrassing loss yesterday,” NC State coach Elliot Avent said Saturday. “Obviously the score was lopsided. When you are playing with 240 teams being sent home, I don’t think there’s anything embarrassing about that.”
The Wolfpack had a pretty good record after losses this season. A lot of folks weren’t wanting to hear about that Friday night. The general assumption was this was going to be over Saturday in time for some celebrating.
“They’ve done this all year and nothing needed to be said,” Avent said about Friday’s loss. “That’s all you can do about that.”
At this point, you’ve got what you’ve got and it’s about the only way any coach can deal with things at this time of the year.
“NC State did a great job coming back today,” he said. “We knew today was going to be tough.”
He knew what was coming because teams don’t get this far in baseball by being lucky. It’s not win and advance or winner-take-all in baseball. Van Horn’s seen his team do it all season.
“They usually respond and they play pretty well when it comes down to winning a series,” he said later. “It’s going to be a great ball game.”
That’s a confidence from being perfect through every SEC series in a season.
Welch said Van Horn’s message to the team after the loss was like it has been all year.
“We’ve been doing this all year,” he said later. “Just stay who we are. Do not try and do anything different. It’s all about winning the series.”
The players have confidence in the approach, too.
“We know what we have to do,” he said. “Nothing changes just because it’s super regionals. It’s just another game.”
A lot of Hogs’ fans aren’t looking at it that way.
And probably shouldn’t be.
Van Horn recapping Saturday’s loss to NC State to even Super Regional
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn talked about dropping the second game against the Wolfpack and looking ahead to Sunday’s matchup.
HOG REACTION: 6-5 loss NC State sets up winner-take-all Sunday
Tye and Mason react to the Game 2 loss that sets up a game Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m. and the winner gets a trip to Omaha.
Welch says Hogs ‘full of confidence,’ despite dropping Saturday’s game
Arkansas designated hitter Charlie Welch hit a two-run homer early in loss to Wolfpack on Saturday but said later team confident heading into Sunday matchup.
Wolfpack’s bouncing back from big loss due to players, says Avent
North Carolina State wasted little time after 21-2 loss Friday, said coach Elliott Avent after Wolfpack won Saturday’s game, 6-5.
NC State’s Highfill says 6-5 win ‘couldn’t have gone much better’
Wolfpack pitcher Sam Highfill (6.1 innings, 2 hits allowed) kept Arkansas shut down through early part of game Saturday afternoon.
Wolfpack ‘not going to dwell’ on big loss to Hogs on Friday, says Torres
North Carolina State shortstop Jose Torres (1 homer, 2 RBI) said Friday’s 21-2 loss was not going to delay them in Saturday’s matchup.
Van Horn glad to get win not ‘being on pins and needles’ in middle of game
Hogs coach Dave Van Horn got to use a surprisingly easy win over North Carolina State to get some guys extra innings of playing time.
Moore recapping whopping night in blowout win over North Carolina State
Robert Moore talked with the media after going 4-for-5 (2 homers, a double, 5 RBI) in 21-2 win to get Super Regional off to hot start.
