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To relief of most, football season is finally starting

Football is upon us, the Hogs’ recruiting is going full steam ahead and at least one coach went from the high school ranks to creating a large majority of what we see in the game today.

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Arkansas fans haven’t had much of a summer to kick back, relax and just enjoy some downtime before another season.

The magical run of the Razorbacks in the College World Series brought fans to July, SEC Media Days in the middle of the month kicked things off and now, about two weeks later, football practice is starting.

Along with it more of a semblance of what I consider football weather. Maybe it’s remembering two-a-days in the sweltering heat and humidity of Southeast Arkansas high school football, but THAT is football weather.

If you were lucky you needed long sleeves by the end of the season.

Razorback fans had a June filled with emotional swings, going from the height of excitement to the depths of despair in the length of time it took a high foul ball in Omaha to fall harmlessly to the ground in the middle of three players.

That is emotionally draining.

Add to that the fourth football coach in 10 years and folks are just now starting to ramp up some enthusiasm for the season that will now accelerate to the Sept. 1 opening against Eastern Illinois.

It will be a month of predictions, guesses, hopes and fears all wrapped into about 27 days.

The truth is none of knows. We may think we know, but we don’t really even know what we don’t know at this point.

But that’s part of the fun, right?

A record recruiting year

As of this writing, the Hogs are ranked No. 21 in the country in the 247Sports.com composite recruiting rankings.

The number of top 500 players Arkansas has committed is the second highest in school history and those who were questioning Chad Morris and his staff’s ability to recruit are having to re-think that now.

Now they aren’t all signed, sealed and delivered just yet, but this staff is doing it differently.

“This staff is more aggressive in recruiting,” tight ends coach Barry Lunney said this week.

If you’ve paid attention to Razorback football, that is as clear of a statement as anything that’s ever been said. No one ever accused Bobby Petrino of being a great or aggressive recruiting, John L. Smith was insignificant and Bret Bielema started off dazed and confused, which turned to bewilderment as the entire landscape of the recruiting game was changing as he was coming to a league he knew nothing about.

Morris goes hard and fast at everything.

And it’s paying off with just a few months to go before the first signing date.

High school coaches have done pretty well moving up

Since Morris’ hiring in December, there have been a few in the national media taking shots at his comments about being a high school coach.

Well, there have been a few, including one who took his high school system all the way into coaching immortality.

In 1931, a high school turned to one of their own and 24-year-old Paul Brown did things his way, creating a lot of what is now considered standard practice in football.

That was where the coach calling offensive plays by shuttling players in with the new play started. He emphasized quickness over strength and over, recruiting players from within the school and he invented something many considered baffling — a playbook.

His last six years, they lost one game, took six state titles and outscored opponents 2,393-168.

He left for Ohio State, where he took a playbook, focused on quickness and even adopted the 40-yard dash as a means of measuring speed of football players.

They improved the first year, going 8-1-1 and won the national title their second year, then World War II interrupted everying, Brown ended up in professional football and pretty much created the foundation of the game played today from junior high to the NFL.

High school coaches can move up the ladder, but only special ones are successful. Art Briles and Gus Malzahn may be the two most recent ones to do it successfully.

We’ll find out if Morris gets added to the list.

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2024 Razorbacks Football

Thu, Aug 29vs UAPB (Little Rock)W, 70-0
Sat, Sep 7@ Oklahoma StateL, 31-39 2OT
Sat, Sep 14vs UABW, 37-27
Sat, Sep 21@ AuburnW, 24-14
Sat, Sep 28vs Texas A&M (Arl)L, 21-17
Sat, Oct 5vs TennesseeW, 19-14
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2024 High School Rankings

Following is the Arkansas Sports Media High School Football Poll including the Overall Top 10, the top five in Classes 7A, 6A, 5A, 4A, 3A and 2A, plus the top three in the 8-man division, as voted by a panel of sports media from around the state for the week ending August 24. Ranking is given with first-place votes received, records, total points and ranking from last week's poll:
OVERALLRecordPtsPrv
1.Bryant (25)10-02681
2.Greenwood (2)10-02343
30Conway9-12022
4.Little Rock Parkview9-11714
5.Bentonville7-31625
6.Benton9-11486
7.Fayetteville8-21117
8.Pulaski Academy8-2898
9.Rogers7-3439
10.Joe T. Robinson9-122
Others receiving votes: Valley View 8, Mountain Home 7, Cabot 6, Little Rock Catholic 6, Shiloh Christian 6, Elkins 1, Farmington 1.
CLASS 7A
1.Bryant (27)10-01351
2.Conway9-11022
3.Bentonville7-3813
4.Fayetteville8-2454
5.Pulaski Academy8-2395
Others receiving votes: Rogers 3.
CLASS 6A
1.Greenwood (27)10-01351
2.Benton9-11082
3.Mountain Home8-2623
4.Shiloh Christian7-3494
5.Little Rock Catholic9-1345
Others receiving votes: Marion 6.
CLASS 5A
1.Little Rock Parkview (27)9-11351
2.Joe T. Robinson9-11062
3.Valley View10-0793
4.Farmington9-1484
5.Hot Springs Lakeside8-2205
Others receiving votes: Camden Fairview 7, Harding Academy 7, Morrilton 3.
CLASS 4A
1.Elkins (20)10-01261
3.Arkadelphia (5)8-2913
2.Little Rock Mills (1)10-0682
4.Warren8-2554
5.Dardanell (1)9-123
Southside Batesville10-023
Others receiving votes: Malvern 12, Gravette 5, Highland 2.
CLASS 3A
1.Bismarck (12)10-01051t
2.Fordyce (10)10-0961t
3.Prescott (1)9-1704
4.Osceola (2)8-1543
5.Booneville (1)9-1395
Others receiving votes: Mansfield (1) 23, Rivercrest 10, Rison 4, Salem 4.
CLASS 2A
1.Carlisle (20)10-01271
2.Conway Christian (7)10-01152
3.Des Arc8-2595
4.East Poinsett Co.7-352
5.Bigelow6-4183
Murfreesboro7-3184
Others receiving votes: Mount Ida 6, Junction City 4, Cross County 3, Poyen 3.
8-MAN SANCTIONED
1.Strong-Huttig (27)5-0811
2.Midland9-0532
3.Cedar Ridge8-1253
Others receiving votes: Woodlawn 3.

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ESPN ARKANSAS 99.5 IN FAYETTEVILLE, 95.3 IN THE RIVER VALLEY, 96.3 IN HOT SPRINGS, 104.3 IN HARRISON-MOUNTAIN HOME.