Yurachek should move Bud Walton improvements to front
Hunter Yurachek said Thursday at the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce that improvements to Bud Walton Arena were not going to happen immediately.
It probably should, though, because basketball is a sport Arkansas could be competing regularly for SEC and national championships along with baseball and some other spring sports.
Football is probably going to be stuck around 6-7 wins a year on a consistent basis, which is what the Razorbacks are. Sorry, fans, but you are what your record says you are.
The Hogs have won a national championship in men’s basketball. They’ve never won a football title. Don’t throw 1964 out there because that’s something that was a five-man committee of football writers the morning after officials didn’t think Joe Namath was in the end zone in the Orange Bowl against Texas.
Even that little committee was not unanimous choosing the Hogs.
The official ones were handed out before the bowl games were even played. Whether it is right or wrong doesn’t matter because it didn’t happen that way. Central Florida claims the 2017 title using an argument about as flimsy. Claiming a football title for the Hogs in 1964 is creating a myth to what was a mythical official championship.
But Arkansas won the 1994 national title in basketball with no disputes.
That also was the first year of operation for Bud Walton Arena and it has become seriously out-dated. The contrast is not as stark as when they moved out of Barnhill Arena, but there are fan-based things they are seriously behind a lot of other schools with for a home arena.
Yurachek said Thursday it may be three to five years before anything happens at Bud Walton. That’s probably accurate.
Most of it will be politics and that involves forming committees and paying for intensive studies to find out what is pretty obvious if you’ve been to some other arenas built in the last few years.
In basketball this past season, the Hogs finished the year going deeper into the NCAA Tournament than any other SEC team, playing in the Elite Eight.
Football’s best season in the last 40-plus years was a fifth-place national finish after the 2011 season … which was third among SEC West teams behind Alabama and LSU.
That’s probably not going to change.
Basketball has made giant leaps in both men’s and women’s areas and the total number of fans in attendance for the season is going to be higher than a football season.
Playing for championships should get a home fit for champions.
Holt on Wiggins thrown into mix for possible third day starter
In his press conference Thursday, Dave Van Horn mentioned freshman Jaxon Wiggins as a possible starter Sunday in Georgia series.
Van Horn keeping starter for third game against Georgia on TBA
Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn isn’t settled on who will be starting the third game of weekend series against the Bulldogs.
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Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast – Courtney Deifel joins us
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Mallett making another attempt to play with league in Houston
Tom Murphy of the Democrat-Gazette talked about Ryan Mallett’s wanting to prove he can play quarterback at the professional level.
NFL Draft why everybody battling for second place behind Alabama
It’s been obvious for a few years now the reason nobody in the SEC is going to catch Alabama anytime soon is not just recruiting or the X’s and O’s.
Nick Saban has figured out how to have his own NFL team at the college level in Tuscaloosa.
“It’s what he’s done behind the scenes,” ESPN’s Peter Burns said Wednesday afternoon on Ruscin & Zach on ESPN Arkansas.
Sure, part of it is recruiting. Another part is coming up with schemes and other stuff. The biggest part, though, is something most people watching college football have no idea about.
“The program he’s built that no one sees as far as compliance, strength and conditioning,” Burns said, “and the way he structures it like an NFL team behind closed doors is the reason for Saban’s success.”
While fans at other places say Alabama is doing something illegal to excuse the failure of their school of choice not winning it all, the fact is they haven’t gotten caught.
The biggest marketing and selling tool for Saban in Tuscaloosa was last Thursday’s NFL Draft when Crimson Tide players got $85 million in guaranteed money … just in the first round.
“That smile on Saban’s face is him knowing he never has to make another recruiting call if he doesn’t want to,” Burns said.
The problem for Sam Pittman and every other coach in the SEC is Saban doesn’t appear to view recruiting as a painful task that has to be done. It’s a part of college football life that’s caused a lot of Hall of Famers to quit younger than Saban.
A decade ago Saban was complaining about spread offenses that moved up and down the field in a hurry. He had his best athletes on the defensive side of the ball, which isn’t the case any longer.
“This is the future,” Burns said. “The best athletes are going to play the most athletic side of the football and I’m not sure anybody can catch (Alabama) from now on.”
Saban’s not the first to take an NFL-type approach. Ron Meyer did it at SMU in the late 1970’s into the 1980’s, but he was ahead of his time with their version of signing bonuses for new players.
Saban is ahead of the game and apparently staying there.
Not only is there no evidence anybody is close to catching up, there is the question if anybody else even has a clue how to put something together like Saban has done at Alabama.
For recruits, six national championships over 15 seasons is not the biggest sales pitch.
That 85 million is. As in dollars for his players in one night. It’s an average of over $14 million per player.
Oh, it involves work by the players. But also development in a plan by the coach. Saban calls it “The Process” and other places have tried copying that phrase.
But nobody else is even close to catching up.
ESPN’s Burns thinks Hogs have to settle on third-day starter
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