SEC Network announcer Kyle Peterson is ready to cast his vote for Hogs’ Kevin Kopps for top pitcher in the league when season ends.
ESPN putting Arkansas-Texas game in prime time Sept. 11
The lights will be on in Razorback Stadium for Arkansas’ long-awaited matchup with Texas on Sept. 11 with ESPN announcing Tuesday it would be at 6 p.m.
Being on the primary ESPN channel will give the Razorbacks many more homes than any other channel and generally delivers high viewership numbers.
That is important from a recruiting standpoint as it will be Sam Pittman’s first high-profile game in his second season.
It will be the first meeting between the schools since the Texas Bowl in 2014 when a pair of 6-6 teams faced off in a bowl game that pretty much only had the fans of the Hogs interested in the outcome.
The last regular-season meeting was 2008 and Texas’ first visit to Razorback Stadium since that 2004 game when the Longhorns pulled out a late win.
Their first meeting was 1894.
Both teams will have warmup home openers the week before. Arkansas will host Rice on Sept. 4 while Texas will play the first time under new coach Steve Sarkisian against Louisiana in Texas Memorial Stadium.
The Hogs will wrap up the three-game home stand to open the season against Georgia Southern on Sept. 18. The Razorbacks will also host Auburn (Oct. 16) for Homecoming, UAPB at War Memorial Stadium (Oct. 23), Mississippi State (Nov. 6) and Missouri (Nov. 26).
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast – Patrick Wicklander joins
Tye and Tommy on pressure mounting with the baseball team, Razorback Roadshow, and Patrick Wicklander!
‘Induced vertical break’ just part of new technology for Wicklander, Hogs
Arkansas pitcher Patrick Wicklander talked with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft on The Morning Rush about the new technology and things like “induced vertical break.”
Nobody but Wicklander really had a clue what he was talking about.
But it’s all just part of what the new technology around baseball that the Razorbacks are using to help develop pitchers.
Neighbors on Lacewire’s return plus picking up another five-star player
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Mike Neighbors as he finalized bringing Lacey Goldwire back as an assistant, landing Maryam Dauda.
O’Gara on no surprises at teams in college football playoff every season
SDS’s Connor O’Gara doesn’t find it really that surprising the same teams are in the playoff every year considering their consistency winning.
Goldwire returns to join Neighbors’ staff with Razorbacks
Mike Neighbors filled Arkansas’ assistant coach vacancy with a familiar face, as Lacey Goldwire was named to the position on Monday.
It will be Goldwire’s second stint on the Hill, as she also served on Neighbors’ staff for the first two seasons of his tenure as the head coach at Arkansas (2017-19).
“Lacey Goldwire’s fingerprints are all over everything successful we’ve done with this program,” Neighbors said. “She impacted our roster, our locker room, and our community for two years, and it started from day one.
“Having her back reunites our original crew that put our blueprint into action. She will seamlessly return and help us knock down the next domino that’s in front of us.
“Lacey will assist me on the defensive side and in opponent scouting. She will team with recruiting coordinator Pauline Love to make sure our story is shared with future prospects. Lacey has touched virtually every aspect inside an SEC program and will be huge in helping us remain relevant among the game’s elite.”
For Goldwire, the 2020-21 campaign marked her ninth season full-time and her 13th year overall in the coaching profession, including stops at Oklahoma State, Morehead State, Iowa, Arkansas and most recently, Tennessee.
She has been part of programs that have earned postseason berths in 10 of those 13 seasons, and would have an 11th if the 2020 NCAA Tournament hadn’t been canceled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
During Goldwire’s two seasons on Rocky Top, Tennessee forged a combined 38-18 overall mark and 19-10 record in SEC play, notching a pair of third-place league finishes and advancing to the SEC Tournament semifinals in 2021 for the first time since 2016.
The Lady Vols defeated four ranked opponents in 2020-21, including No. 2/3 South Carolina, and earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Lady Vols finished 17-8 overall and 9-4 in SEC games, ending the year ranked No. 14 in the AP Poll and 16th in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll.
As previously mentioned, Goldwire came to Knoxville via Fayetteville after two seasons of coaching the Hogs.
She played an important role in the Razorback rebuild, as the Hogs went from 13-18 in Neighbors’ first season (2017-18) to 22-15 in 2018-19, including a trip to the SEC Tournament championship game and the WNIT’s third round.
Prior to joining Neighbors in Fayetteville, Goldwire contributed to four postseason appearances in as many years at the University of Iowa.
She worked with the wing players and served as the recruiting coordinator for the Hawkeyes, helping set the table for a run to the 2019 NCAA Elite Eight.
Her initial season in Iowa City was the first of back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament. A 27-win season included a second-round appearance in the Big Dance in 2013-14.
Iowa returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2014-15 and defeated 14th-seeded American (75-67) in the first round and 11th-seeded Miami (88-70) in the second round. The victory secured a Sweet Sixteen berth at home on Mediacom Court in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Goldwire spent the 2012-13 season as an assistant coach at Morehead State. Prior to joining the Eagles’ staff, Goldwire served on the Oklahoma State staff for four seasons — two as a student assistant (2008-10) and two as a graduate assistant (2010-12).
Following Oklahoma State’s tragic loss of its head and assistant coach during a plane crash in November of 2011, Goldwire was elevated to interim assistant coach, where she took on added recruiting duties.
During her time with the program, the Cowgirls won 80 games and advanced to the postseason all four years, winning the 2012 WNIT championship.
A native of Oklahoma City, Goldwire played collegiately at East Central (Okla.) University, where she ranks fifth in career scoring with 1,340 points.
She averaged 21.1 points and 5.9 rebounds as a senior and was tabbed Lone Star Conference North Co-Player of the Year and Second-Team All-South Central Region. She also earned ECU’s Athlete of the Year honor in 2007-08. She was named honorable mention All-LSC following her sophomore and junior campaigns.
Goldwire, an all-state and all-city player at Del City (Okla.) High School, graduated from Oklahoma State with a bachelor of science in education and a master’s degree in teaching, learning and leadership in 2010.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast: Who’s your daddy?
Tye and Tommy on the win over Tennessee, Dave Van Horn and Tony Vitello sharing their conversation, hitting a house while golfing and more!
Winning West nice, but Van Horn has bigger goal in mind
Dave Van Horn probably won’t say it publicly, but he might send Missouri a thank-you text after downing Tennessee on Sunday to win another series.
The Tigers went to Starkville, took two of three games from Mississippi State and now the Razorbacks have a two-game lead in the SEC West with a series against Florida at Baum-Walker all that’s left before the tournaments.
“I want to win the West,” Van Horn said after a 3-2 pitchers’ duel in Knoxville to stay perfect on every series the Hogs have played this season. “We play everybody in the West and went 15-3 against the West.”
Arkansas has a one-game lead over the Vols now for the SEC overall title, but that doesn’t mean much to Van Horn.
“If we win the overall that’s awesome,” he said. “Let’s win the West, let’s win Thursday.”
That’s how championship coaches talk. Van Horn’s goal every year is to win in Omaha, which has been agonizingly close. He has built the Hogs’ baseball program into something similar to what Nick Saban has done at Alabama.
He just needs to hang a couple of national championship banners in a sport that is very difficult to win a title doing.
“I haven’t talked to the team one time about winning a championship,” Van Horn said. “They know where we’re at and they want to win.”
But he does acknowledge the obvious — the Hogs are in the best position.
“We’re in a good position,” Van Horn said. “We’re right where we want to be. We’re at the top of the standings going into the last week.”
People that follow baseball a lot closer than me have said in the past few days the Hogs probably could drop the series against Florida and still be No. 1. The SEC Tournament is for lower-seeded teams to haggle over their spot in the pecking order.
Arkansas will be right in one of the top spots around June no matter what happens over the next couple of weeks.
It might be a good bet the Hogs are already putting some thought into a couple of weeks down the road in terms of lining up pitching and things like that.
Don’t get that wrong. Van Horn wants to win every game but he’s not going to jeopardize anything for what matters, which is the NCAA.
He knows the fans would like to win down in Hoover at the league tournament and he wouldn’t mind adding that trophy, either, but it’s not the ultimate goal.
Winning in Omaha is.
