Answering your questions, weekend predictions

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Whole Hog Sports podcast. And now here's your host, Matt Jones. [00:00:07] Speaker B: Today on the show, we take your questions. Reader mailbag, Ethan Westerman in studio with me. We'll also give our weekend predictions. First, a word from Kendall King. [00:00:15] Speaker C: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King, Soapbox and Shopcart. Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by, by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are Design. [00:00:41] Speaker B: Kind of a weird feeling here on a Friday. There's no game tomorrow, so Ethan's been giving me culture lessons as we start the show. We'll leave that off the air. There is a basketball something tonight. I guess it's kind of like a new spin on Midnight Madness. That sound about right? Primetime at the palace. It's 8 o' clock at Bud Walton. [00:01:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, John Caliperi, whenever he met with us two days ago, he called it madness. He said, really, the whole, the whole reason I wanted to do this was because of madness. And so it's, I feel like he said, I want to do Midnight Madness. And then somebody else in the department said, came up with the name and all this and branding it and. But it's his view of madness. [00:01:21] Speaker B: Kentucky, they had big blue Madness when he was there, you know, used to, they changed the rules because in the old days, I think I've got this right, like, you couldn't start practice until. Let's just throw out an arbitrary date, October 15th. And so what would happen was teams would actually do a midnight practice because at midnight was literally the first minute that they could hold a practice. I think that somewhere along the lines people started saying, hey, you know, we don't really like going to the basketball arena at midnight. And so they started, I think they got some, some wording from the NCAA where they can move it up earlier into the night, say like an 8 o' clock type deal. So I think that's where this comes from. Did you, are you old enough to remember Midnight Madness? [00:02:08] Speaker A: I mean, I've watched several, like before in my life. I mean, a lot of high schools like to do things like that for both football and basketball. I've watched Kentucky's. I know. I think they put it on SEC Network a couple times. [00:02:21] Speaker B: They did. You know, Kentucky, they always figured out a way to get Their everything on tv. Even, like when they went to the Bahamas one year, the SEC network went with them and they televised their scrimmages. Here's what I remember about Midnight Madness. Being a kid, you come home from a high school football game, you get home at, you know, 10:30, 11:00'. [00:02:38] Speaker A: Clock. [00:02:38] Speaker B: If it's an away game a little bit further, maybe a little bit later, and then you, like, keep yourself awake. And then you turn on like 40, 29 or something, and they're in the arena with, you know, like maybe one or two cameras. And, you know, you. You'd watch it for 15 minutes and then you'd fall asleep. Like nobody would ever. Or at least I would never be able to stay with it the whole time. But it was always this. There was a real thrill about Midnight Madness and just the fact, hey, basketball is here. And it was always later in October, too. The way they've changed the schedule and the way they've changed some of the practice rules, where I think you've got more practice time now than you used to have in that run up to the season, it's just totally different than it used to be. It used to feel like they were actually kind of at basketball season. Now it doesn't quite feel like that because, again, they play games now before even election day in November. [00:03:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And I feel like things have, like, accelerated so much with how you can kind of promote your team through social media and through all these other avenues now that, like, there was like, kind of a charm to it back before. You know, you could really do all these different things to. To hype up your team in the preseason. It was kind of one, like, events were the way that you did that. I think that now there's just so many different strings that they can pull to kind of get the fans amped up and excited for a season that it's not as popular. I know a lot of programs, I think they like to do this because it's a good way to make your fan base and your players feel welcomed before a season, before the start. Because I think the biggest part of this is honestly the player introductions and stuff that they do. It's just like the first chance for a lot of these guys to kind of feel that. [00:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah, once you get up into the layup lines, people don't really want to stay and watch that the whole time. By the way, I've got a copy here of our latest Hogs Illustrated, I think. Can we see that? Can people see that? Okay, Carter Knox is on the COVID with the chickens. Ethan, I think you and Anthony talked about that when you were in here yesterday. If you want this, you can go call our office. 800-757-6277. I think shop.nwaonline.com you can buy copies of this issue as well. The. The Chickens with Carter Knox, the Chicken Man. This is. This is a pretty fun cover. [00:04:57] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a lot of fun to do. And, I mean, it was, like, very seamless. It was surprisingly seamless. How easy it was to get the chickens to cooperate with Carter. Like he truly is the chicken man. Like, they. They liked him. [00:05:10] Speaker B: It was more difficult getting people to cooperate with chickens coming into the basketball facility. I have a feeling, although they seem like they were really receptive of this kind of from the moment that it was pitched. [00:05:22] Speaker A: Yeah, it really was one of those deals where didn't know what the reception would be, but it was. I mean, Carter was excited to do it. He actually took a photo that he posted on his Instagram, too, where that. The black chicken on the front, the one that he's holding on the COVID he started holding it like a baby, like, kind of just like, whatever. This. I forget what that this is called. The swaddle started swaddling the chicken and posted on his social media with a song, I think, titled Chickens. [00:05:52] Speaker B: I'd like to have been in the room whenever they pitch to whoever gets this pitch. I don't know if it's Caliperi or if it's like a director of ops or something where you say, hey, we've got some reporters. They want to bring some chickens into the building. [00:06:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that it was one of those deals where we were kind of. At least. I was kind of wondering if Calipari or somebody was gonna stumble across this and be like, what the heck is going on? But it was just us, and it ended up just being us and Carter. Nobody else really saw it. Nobody had questions. So, you know, it went well. But excited about that copy just because I think that the basketball team right now in both programs, there's a lot of excitement around them, and it's just a. I don't think there's been a better time to kind of be an Arkansas basketball fan in a really long while. [00:06:40] Speaker B: Some other sports are. No football, obviously. Some other sports are scrimmaging this week. There should be some scrimmages at Bomb Walker Stadium. Baseball, they're winding down fall practice, getting ready for next week when Little Rock comes in here on Friday night and Dallas Baptist comes in on Saturday. Afternoon softball. They're in Stillwater. Is that right? This week? [00:06:58] Speaker A: I think that's this weekend. They. [00:07:00] Speaker B: This weekend. [00:07:00] Speaker A: Yeah. They don't. They do a lot of inner squad scrimmages throughout the fall. So it's like whenever they do play a game, it's a pretty big deal for them. But they most they only have that one trip to go play games. The other ones are all at home. They beat Harding a couple times over the past weekend. [00:07:19] Speaker B: I think it's in Stillwater tomorrow. I think they've got McLennan College in here on Sunday afternoon over at Bogle Park. Okay. So we ask people, our readers @wholehog sports.com on the message board if they had questions for the podcast today and they've delivered. So we'll read some of these questions to you and we'll give you our take. The first one comes from Scavenger Hogg. He says what differences should we see on both sides of the ball when Arkansas takes the field against Tennessee versus what we would likely have seen under Sam Pittman and the prior staff? To me, I think the first thing I'm looking for when they go to Tennessee next week is just is the effort better? Because that's the word that we've kept hearing is effort, effort, effort. Not so much from coaches. But Hunter Jureczyk, he used the word effort five times in his press conference the other day as he introduced Bobby Petrino. So I think that's where it starts with me, is this coaching staff, because it does feel like a different coaching staff now because it's not just a new head coach. You've got several different new assistant coaches that are or at least have an amplified voice now. Are they playing with better effort? That's certainly one thing that I'll be looking for. [00:08:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I think for me, it all starts with defensively. That's not a surprise of what happens on that side of the ball because I really do think the Arkansas offense, it's kind of like it's been brought up a lot their struggles in second half the past few weeks. I don't think the Notre Dame, Notre Dame game is necessarily that fair to lump in there with the other two because they were going for it on fourth down like they were not going to settle for field goals. They could have put up at least six points. But I mean, obviously they didn't perform well at all that entire game. The offense didn't. But I thought that that was just more of a culmination, that game of exhaustion of always, of all the Pressure to have to score always, because you knew from the start of the game that the defense wasn't going to be able to stop Notre Dame. So I think the offense, it was kind of like a little bit of wind was taken out of the sails after, like the first couple drives that they didn't score because they had been moving the ball pretty well, but they weren't scoring touchdowns like Notre Dame. I think for me, it starts to. I want to see the difference defensively if they can get off the field a couple times because they're able to stop the run. And I think that that'll translate to helping out the offense a ton, maybe alleviate some pressure. I think that this offense that you have right now, at least from what we see most games, if you just give it some support from the defense, it's. It just feels totally different. There's a ton of pressure on the offense. So it all starts defensively. I think that you got to see how they perform against the run. They're, I think, giving up 168 rushing yards per game right now. That's worse than the sec. They're worse than the SEC in a lot of stats, but it starts with the run. How they can do better against that notorious Pig. [00:10:06] Speaker B: The notorious Pig, also known as Adam. He asked, do you think Hunter Yuricheck will be making the pick for the head coach? Do you think? If so, do you think he learned anything from the prior search, which from the outside looking in seemed to be one in which was used for leverage and end up having to scramble to fill the position? He goes on and he says his nightmare scenario is waiting to be told no by Rhett Lashley and they lose someone like Summerall to Florida or Kentucky or they're left scrambling. Why don't you go first and then I'll throw in my two cents? [00:10:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's anybody's fears that you target the wrong or target one candidate for a long time and it makes you lose ground with some of your backup candidates. I do think that having a longer Runway like Hunter's mentioned. Well, I'll start. First of all, the question of, do you think he'll be making the pick? I think him with some help. I don't think one single person really. Does an entire coach be a search. [00:11:00] Speaker B: Firm involved, which I believe will be the first time that he's had a search firm involved in a football or a basketball pick here. [00:11:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Which. That's big. And I think that it's because of that longer one Runway that he mentioned. You can get a better idea with your candidates of who they are and maybe whenever you get close to the end of the season, because I don't think they're going to, I frankly don't think they're going to hire somebody who isn't coaching another team at the end of the season. I think that it'll take that long because I don't think any other type of hire right now is really. Unless, you know, and this is just completely, just out of left field, like unless they got like a Nick Saban or somebody out of left field that you don't have to wait. But I, I do think that it's one of those situations where because they have that extra time, they should be able to get it down to a good idea of who's going to give them a yes. [00:11:52] Speaker B: So do I think Hunter Yurichuk will be making the pick? I would just defer to what he said on Monday, which is that he thinks he will be making the pick. And I think. What do you say when I ask him? He said something like, I've not been given any information to the contrary. [00:12:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:08] Speaker B: So I'll say yes. You know, one of the things that I've been interested in is, is who he surrounds himself with when he's making picks. So when he hired Eric Musselman, John Fagg, who's no longer here, he was his right hand man on that hire. When he hired Sam Pittman, it was John Fagg. And then the Steve Cox from the UA board of Trustees who's a former football player at Arkansas. And then whenever he hired Caliperi, I don't know if there was, I think Matt Trantham, who's one of the, I don't know his exact title, but he's been in the athletic department for a long time. I think he was part of that. And then Ted Dickey, who was another member of the board of trustees, real smart, sharp businessman from the central Arkansas area, he was part of that. I remember Ted Dickey after Calipari was hired, excuse my voice, that he told the trustees as they were approving the contract just, just how much he, it was a, an eye opening experience. I think I'm paraphrasing, but basically, you know, just, just he was able to observe what people thought about Arkansas basketball as part of that process, what they thought about Hunter Yuricheck as part of that process. And the general feeling whenever he said that was a, like he came away with a positive impression about how the whole search was conducted. So who is with him this year. There's going to be people that are with him. And he even mentioned that on Sunday. You know, he said that it needs to be a smaller group so that there's not leaks. I don't know who that group is yet, but I think that he will be making the pick as long as something weird doesn't happen between now and then, you know, and I know people. There are some people. I don't know if it's people in positions of leadership or unhappy with some of the comments that he's made, but I know that there are people who like what he said to the Little Rock Touchdown Club. They didn't necessarily like how he doubled down on some of those comments to the board of trustees. They didn't like some of the things that he said Monday in his press conference. I know that, you know, one of the things that seemed to rub people the wrong way was that he admitted that he did not think Sam Pittman had the resources to be competitive in the sec. So I think he'll make the pick. I wouldn't put money on it, you know, because these things can change really quickly. You know, it just takes, you know, with Jeff Long, that changed really fast, it felt like with him. So I don't know that that's going to happen with, with Hunter Jurecyc. But, you know, I asked him the question the other day. I said, do you feel like your. I said, you know, the ad's job status is often tied to the success of the football program. So we'll see. I'm interested, like I said, to see who he surrounds himself with. And I just think that you learn from every coaching search. I think if you're a good leader, you learn from all of these big decisions that you make. And so what did he learn from the last time that he went out? I know there's a lot of people who think that it was all about money last time. I'm not convinced that was the case. I think Lane Kiffin, I think Eli Drinkowitz, both of them thought that they had a better chance to win at Ole Miss or they had a better chance to win at Missouri because. And I was thinking about this, Ethan. It's easy to forget how different it was in 2019. Like, Sam Pittman was brought here. And I will. I will argue this point, like, Till the cows come Home. I will say that what he was brought here to do and what he actually had the opportunity to do were two different things. He was brought here to build a program the old school way where you make relationships with high school recruits where you, you know, you, you bring an offensive lineman in and you sit them down for two years and then year three, year four, year five, those are your guys. Like, that is what college football looked like in December of 2019. And it looked like that for about the first two years. And the second year that he was here, he had a really good team. They were nine and four and they were a few plays away from maybe winning 10, 11 games. And then the whole thing just totally changed. Covid helped change it beforehand. But then if you look at the way that transfers went, there's a huge spike after the 2021 season versus anything that we had seen before then. And Pittman did not adapt well enough the last three or four years to be competitive. Maybe he didn't have the resources. Like there are a lot of different things that, you know, we have talked about and we continue to talk about down the road about what went into that. But going back to the last search, I just don't think Drinkowicz or Kiffin thought that Arkansas coming off of Back to back two and 10 seasons, there were four and eight in Belema's last season before Chad Morris got here. I think they looked at the roster at Arkansas and said, that's going to take longer to turn around than what I can do in Oxford or what I can do in Columbia. [00:17:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that the Pittman hire, like you said, things were completely different. I mean, he had no clue what, what was about to ensue over the next, you know, few years that would change what the job fundamentally looks like. [00:17:50] Speaker B: None of us did. [00:17:51] Speaker A: None of us did. And, but I think that his hire was more of like, can you get the program back in a healthy standpoint? And he did. I just think that it drug on so long in a stagnant phase. I thought that if anything, you know, Pittman should be thanked for what he did to get the program back on its feet. Obviously the regression, like I said, has been what's caused agitation with him. And I wouldn't, you know, necessarily, you know, whenever we hear Hunter, your check say that he didn't have the funds to compete in the sec, it's like, well, do we how much blame goes on Sam Pittman? Did they put him in a situation just set to fail? So I think that if anything, after that four and eight season, whenever you could tell things were clearly regressing some. I think really Arkansas might have just drug this one out too long. But I thought that, I thought he. [00:18:41] Speaker B: Was Gonna get fired two years ago. Yeah, I've said that a few times this week and I said it on the show in 2023. I was surprised that they brought him back after the way that season ended because it that just the way that season ended, that felt like the end of a coaching tenure. And maybe in the old days it would have been. [00:18:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Making coaching changes weren't popular at all that year because of all the, the preparations for. [00:19:05] Speaker B: It wasn't so much that year as it was last year, which I understand why they didn't make it a change last year. They won a bowl game. [00:19:11] Speaker A: They about to say, because that year was the one that Texas A and M is still paying Jimbo Fisher, I'm sure, a lot of money. [00:19:17] Speaker B: 23. [00:19:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:18] Speaker B: Yeah. That was the year where A and M beat Mississippi State 51 to 10 and then a and M fired their coach the next day and I guess Mississippi State woke up and said, well, if they beat us by 41, we probably ought to fire our coach too. And then they fired their coach like a day later. [00:19:32] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it was all this to say it's. There's been a lot of things come along the way that, you know, you would think traditionally that's where you cut it and that's where you, you go ahead and make a coaching change. And Arkansas just hadn't done that. And so now they're kind of, you know, I just think you would have been in a healthier standpoint moving forward with this maybe a few years prior. But, and I feel for Sam because that's, I mean, it's tough to ever be fired from a job and kind of it's not only just like, you know, the, like it changes all the staff's lives, but it also is just, I mean, it's a hit to your pride. [00:20:07] Speaker B: I probably didn't do a good job explaining this during my long winded answer a second ago. I think that they are in a better position to attract a better candidate this time around than they were in 2019 simply because if you can get the money right, it is easier to turn around a program now than it was six years ago. Like if you have a high quality candidate, they're not looking at this as a two to three year or two to three year rebuild. They're going to say we can go out, we can target the right players in the portal and maybe we can turn this thing around by the end of year one. [00:20:42] Speaker A: I think that most candidates that, like you said, the top quality candidates, they're looking at a job, and they're saying, what are my resources going to be? What is my timeline? Go, like, what. What's the timeline here? How many, like, do you have a year or two of grace to get it to where you know where it's going? Like. Like for women's basketball, for example, they just hired Kelsey Music. She knows she has, like, two years to basically just try and get them in a better direction before there's really any expectations. But football doesn't offer that. It's the biggest money driver in the sport or in the all departments. You got to have a pretty relatively quick, at least vision where people can see where it's going. I think that the candidates are asking, what are the resources? What is the fan base? Like, what are the expectations here? Those type of things. And Arkansas is in a much better spot right now than they were whenever Sam Pittman took over. From a lot of those standpoints, I don't know financially, but I would assume that you get the right candidate and that can improve. [00:21:41] Speaker B: It's weird to me to hear how many different people have called Arkansas a sleeping giant or some variation of that term. People. It seems like there are people who are waking up and kind of saying, hey, you know, northwest Arkansas is not. It's not the backwoods. Like, there's a lot of commerce, there's a lot of money in this area. And if they get the hire right there, there is a lot of potential there. [00:22:06] Speaker A: Every single coaching search. [00:22:07] Speaker B: But I think every college probably can say there's a lot of potential. [00:22:09] Speaker A: Yeah, but every. It's funny, every coaching search that's happened at Arkansas since really the introduction of nil and now revenue sharing and stuff. It's like, you see all the podcasts, like, of guys trying to. Guys or ladies trying to inform everybody, like, oh, did you know northwest Arkansas actually has, like, it happens. They actually have running water now. Like, it's like, they think it's like some grand revelation that they're sharing with the world that Arkansas actually has finest. I'm like, I think that at this point, a lot of people know that, like, it's not really a secret anymore that Walmart is headquartered here. So is J.B. hunt, so is Tyson. It's just funny because I'm seeing that a lot this week where, like, national people will be reminding the world that Arkansas actually has, you know, a lot of potential financially. [00:22:52] Speaker B: Yes. Walmart is actually 20 miles away, just like it's been for however long. Hog Doctor says. How much money per year do you think it'll take for us to field a roster hand coaches to keep a steady 8 and 4 season with an occasional 10 win season. And do you think Hunter Jurecheck can raise those funds? I would say part two to be determined. Part one. I've got some numbers here. This is from Matt Brown of the Extra Point newsletter and the Extra Points newsletter. And this came out a few weeks back where he looked at the money that was being spent on football in fiscal year 2024. Arkansas's top 20, at least in terms of public schools like Notre Dame for instance, would not be part of this. Arkansas spent $57 million in football in fiscal 24. That is the exact same amount that Ole Miss has spent. Now obviously Ole Miss is in a much better place than Arkansas is in. I don't know why that is. This does not take into consideration and Ole Miss certainly has a robust nil collective. But you know, you look at what Arkansas spending in football and it's, it's way behind some teams. I mean like for instance, Alabama spending $113 million in football. Now I think some of that has to do with the buyout that was in Kaylin DeBoer's contract at Washington that they're paying over however many years A And M spending 90 million. You look down here, Ohio State 78 million. Nebraska 84 million, Tennessee 75 million. So there's a gap there between, you know, some of the SEC teams that they're competing against, but they're not terribly behind others. And some of this too, I would caution after talking to some people this week. Everybody uses different accounting practices. And so what this school might put in its football budget and what this school might put in its football budget or maybe they think that it applies more to this than that. These are not, this is not an apples to apples comparison. But I would say that when you look at they are spending 57 million and Ole Miss is spending 57 million, it's two things jump out. Ole Miss has got a better coaching situation right now. Somebody who inspires and this probably plays into number two, somebody who inspires people to give money and helps them in player retention and acquisition. [00:25:13] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that it's really like you can't anybody who has been following Ole Miss for the past few years knows about how good their nil collective has been and in attracting players. And I think that that's where like you see numbers like this and it just that doesn't fit into the equation to where it makes it not as black and white as you Know, just the numbers itself, like you said, with the different accounting practices, too. I think you have to take something like that with kind of a grain of salt. And also you don't get the detailed budget breakdown of like, of that spending, how much is going toward recruiting, how much is going toward coaches salaries, all that stuff. But I do think that Arkansas is in a position where like. And I know Hunter, your checks kind of pointed to this as well during his news conference about John Caliper's hire and how that excited donors. I don't know if you can pull off a football level, you know, equivalent of John Caliperi. I think that would be very, very, very difficult. [00:26:13] Speaker B: Who would that be right now? [00:26:15] Speaker A: Like, Nick Saban? [00:26:17] Speaker B: Saban's out of the question. [00:26:18] Speaker A: I know. [00:26:19] Speaker B: Who else? Like, like somebody who you think could actually maybe be obtainable. [00:26:24] Speaker A: I mean, two or three years ago, I think you'd put Dabo in there. But I don't think that's exciting at all right now to a lot of people. [00:26:31] Speaker B: Would James Franklin excite people? I don't think he would. [00:26:35] Speaker A: I don't know. I think he. I think it definitely would excite people just seeing what he's done at Penn State, but I don't know how long that'll last, if that makes sense. It's not it. James Franklin in football doesn't carry the same aura. Aura. I can't say that word. [00:26:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:50] Speaker A: As John Caliperi to basketball. The people who do is like a Nick Saban or like a. I don't even know who else. There really isn't that much of a comparison. [00:26:59] Speaker B: Would you say the G word? [00:27:01] Speaker A: G. Gene Chisik. [00:27:04] Speaker B: Gruden. You know, he. He has said. [00:27:06] Speaker A: You didn't even. You didn't even laugh at my Gene Chisik joke. [00:27:08] Speaker B: I'm sorry. [00:27:09] Speaker A: It's all good. But no, Gruden. [00:27:11] Speaker B: I don't think I'll laugh at it later. [00:27:12] Speaker A: I don't think he would. [00:27:15] Speaker B: I don't know. I mean, you know, and I think that that's so far out there. But he has said what? Was he speaking to the Georgia players earlier this year where he said he wanted to try and coach in the sec? I don't know. [00:27:29] Speaker A: I think the call is at least probably made to him. He's on your candidate list, I would think, but I just don't know if that's the hire that would, you know, really just get. [00:27:40] Speaker B: People didn't do it for North Carolina, though, when they hired Belichick. [00:27:43] Speaker A: Did they care? Do they carry the same Belichick and. [00:27:46] Speaker B: Gruden, I mean, they're big names and. [00:27:49] Speaker A: Football big names, but one of them. How many super bowl rings are on his. [00:27:52] Speaker B: How many boxes has John Gruden unpacked? See, See, I think Gruden is so far out there that I feel weird even talking about it. But that's something. It's. [00:28:05] Speaker A: But the question was, who could compare to Cal Perry? [00:28:07] Speaker B: Monitoring, I guess, is. [00:28:09] Speaker A: I think the only football name that can compare to Caliperi with is Nick Saban. I really do at this juncture, as far as, like, the history and everybody's. Who else has been that much of a villain for everybody else? Who plays them? [00:28:21] Speaker B: Urban Meyer. [00:28:22] Speaker A: Urban Meyer. [00:28:24] Speaker B: You know, Kirby is in that conversation, but obviously he's pretty set where he is. [00:28:30] Speaker A: Sabin has been villainized the same way that Caliper was, though. He's on your side, so I don't know. I think that it's interesting to think about these type of things, but end of the day, they got to get a candidate who's going to, you know, awaken some of the boosters that get excited about it. [00:28:46] Speaker B: They may have it right now in their. In them. Coach, I. I tell you, I've got this weird feeling about this coaching search that we can talk about all these names, but the name that may end up being the guy is literally the one right underneath your nose. [00:29:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:02] Speaker B: In Bobby Petrino. [00:29:03] Speaker A: And it's. [00:29:04] Speaker B: And honestly, I think that there's a feeling among the fan base of almost like some relief in that. Hey, if they can't find a better candidate, they always have this guy who we know what his track record is with all the warts and everything, that they could fall back on him and that his floor would probably be higher than Sam Pittman's ceiling. [00:29:27] Speaker A: It feels to me like my equivalent of I got gifted something really nice that I'm not going to use. So I could give it to my mom for Christmas, but I can still go out and shop to try and get a better Christmas gift for my mom. But worst case scenario, this is sitting right here. I can just put it in a package and my mom will love it. Still, I think that's kind of my comparison right now. I was like, petrino Unless they just completely stink the rest of the year and they look competitive, like kind of how they have at least have in their last time they were on the field. I think unless that happens, people would be able to get excited about it still. It's just a matter of, like you said, is there somebody better out there, but it's not a bad fallback. [00:30:09] Speaker B: We got a couple more questions to get to. Also, we'll give you our weekend predictions. First, a word from Kindle King. [00:30:15] Speaker C: At Kindle King, we're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kindle King, Soapbox and Shoes Shopcart. Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are Design. [00:30:42] Speaker A: Hey, welcome back. [00:30:42] Speaker B: I want to tell you about our friends at Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. Committed, professional, versatile. If you're looking for a quality leader in northwest Arkansas or looking for skilled craftsmanship, look no further than Bentonville Glass for all your glass market needs with the highest quality products. You can come by and see them at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at bentonvilleglass.com Ethan and I were talking during the break about my kids elementary school. They have this fundraiser every year that they just completed today where those kids, they raised $50,000 in two weeks. Like, if the foundation and the collective really want something to happen, they need to go hire these guys. And, you know, I think maybe they'd have a little bit more success. It's hard to tell a little six year old. Will you give me $35? [00:31:27] Speaker A: No, just get them sitting at a lemonade stand. And it usually works. [00:31:32] Speaker B: I went through a lemonade stand this summer. This is a true story in a very ritzy, you know which neighborhood I'm talking about a very ritzy neighborhood in Fayetteville. And little girl sitting out on the side of the road and she's got her lemonade sign up and it's like, okay, we'll stop and we'll get lemonade from her. And it's like, can we get three cups of lemonade? And she tells my wife, that'll be $10. And Ashley goes, per cup? She goes, no, for three cups. $10 for three cups. It was some bad, bad lemonade too. [00:32:07] Speaker A: 333 per cup. [00:32:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:10] Speaker A: Plus a tiny bit more. [00:32:11] Speaker B: I thought, you know, this is a lemonade stand. We'll get out of here with like three cups of lemonade for a buck. $52. $3 maybe. Nope. 10 bucks. And it's hard that once you have made that stop and you've told this, like, there's no real buyer's remorse at that point. Yeah, you know, there's no. I think we're just going to go to the next lemonade stand. So. [00:32:33] Speaker A: Yeah, no, you need to come to my neighborhood if you want the cheap lemonade. It's a little different out. Out where I live. [00:32:40] Speaker B: Out in the mean streets. [00:32:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:43] Speaker B: All right, let's get back to the questions here. We from our readers@whole hogsports.com this question, it comes from crime analyst. He says there's been talk among fans about Arkansas's defensive failures and apparent lack of effort by players given the staff changes on the defensive side of the ball. What do we know about the newly promoted defensive coordinator, Chris Wilson, in terms of his style, his coaching philosophy, and how might we see his impact on Arkansas's defense going forward? First off, I'd go back to effort. Can he get the players to play with effort? You hear Bobby Petrino talk, and I don't feel like his comments make it sound like there's going to be some great defensive overhaul before the Tennessee game. My guess is that they find a handful of plays or concepts that they run better than the others and that becomes their base defense. And maybe they're able to do some different things off of those. But I almost feel like we're at a point where the playbook probably shrinks pretty significantly before they play Tennessee. And it's interesting, the timing. Remember last year when they played Tennessee and Travis Williams noticed something in their film study before they played Tennessee, something that OU had done a couple of weeks before, and they like, installed basically four plays that they ran for the bulk of that game against Tennessee. So it's kind of weird. It's. Obviously, it's different now, but maybe you've got the same thing that might be materializing before that game where you just become very set on your base defense before you play this Tennessee team. [00:34:24] Speaker A: Yeah. And I'm sure can. Tennessee is just thrilled that you're meeting an Arkansas team that you don't know what to expect. It's like, great at this point of the season. Everybody else you scout, it's pretty. [00:34:34] Speaker B: This is a much better Tennessee team this year, though. [00:34:36] Speaker A: Yeah, they can really move the ball. Their, Their, their defense has a lot of question marks this year, but that offense is really good. [00:34:42] Speaker B: Maybe I should say it's a better offensive team. [00:34:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd say defensive, they were, they. [00:34:45] Speaker B: Were really good last year. [00:34:46] Speaker A: Yeah, they're really good. And this year you can't say the same all the time. They. They're. They have some strengths. They have a high sacks, total team, I think, leading the SEC in sacks. But their passing defense gets torched a lot. So anyway, it is, you know, on their end, probably a little bit of unpredictability with Arkansas, what you're going to see. And I think Arkansas will probably focus, like you said, on those things that they can maybe do well, even if it's shrinking the, you know, in terms of what all concepts they actually do, what base defense are in, etc. The question asked what we know about Chris Wilson, and to be honest, not much at all. I mean there's, there's just not. But the one thing I do know, he has a professional background too. And then so does the new defensive line coach, Coach Hayes, that they, they brought in two guys with professional experience. So I think that off the bat, you do understand that, you know, coaches that come from those backgrounds are usually pretty demanding. They don't really have time for the, the nonsense. I think in a lot of, you know, in a lot of situations, they're what they ask, they want to get. They don't want to have to repeat, you know, multiple times. If they're demanding effort, you better give effort. So I would be curious to see how they do against the run. That's what I keep on coming back to. If they can get better against the run, it helps them out in so many different ways. I think that this past defense obviously hasn't been good either. But on a lot of, on a lot of their issues, I think it really starts with up front that there's not a lot of pressure getting home to where they don't have much. They. They're having to be in coverage for a long time. I think Julian Neal's pretty good at corner. I think that you have some guys that have shown some flashes, but they got to get better up front, getting to the quarterback a little bit more and they've got to stop the run and then see what you can do. And Petrino said it, as an offense, the first thing you're trying to do is establish the run. As a defense, you need to take away the run. If Arkansas can start there and maybe start to fare better in the run game, we'll see what they can do. [00:36:41] Speaker B: And you mentioned the professional background. I think you got to mention Travis Williams did have a pro background as a player, spent a year with the Falcons. But I think there's a difference between preparing as a player and preparing as a coach. That the, the part about Wilson having coached in the NFL that was Something I thought about too. Just there's a. There's a different level of preparation. I feel like that exists in, in pro football than existing college football. It feels like an attention to detail. [00:37:10] Speaker A: The shift that they've made in the mid season with the defensive staff firings and then who's now coaching them. It feels like they really wanted to kind of go old school a little bit with who's in the building, with how they're going to do things as far. As. I mean Petrino has some professional experience as well and just in general, I think Petrino's kind of got that professional mentality. So it seems like they across the board kind of are just going for like a very. It almost feels like the team's going to boot camp in a way. [00:37:37] Speaker B: I did not look and see what Chris Wilson's teams did in the ufl. I don't know that I would trust those numbers even if I look them up. I did look and see what happened at Colorado in 21 and 22, 21. They had an okay defense in that. There were some games that got away from them, but they also had some games where they played really well. That was the year, remember where A and M went up to. I think they played Colorado in Denver at, not Mile High but at the Broncos Stadium and it was like 10 to 7. Colorado totally shut them down defensively. 21. They had some good games defensively. Out of a 3, 4 scheme that off season they went to a 4, 3 and in 22 it was just an absolute disaster for them defensively. Every week felt like 40, 50, 60 points that they were given up. So that's his most recent time being a defensive coordinator in college football. I do remember his Mississippi State teams. Petrino brought this up on Monday trying to prepare for those Mississippi State teams. He mentioned Fletcher Cox as one of the players they had. That was right there. 2010, 2011, that was. I'm not going to say those were Dan Mullen's best years at Mississippi State, but those were some of his best years at Mississippi State. Those were good teams. And you know, I haven't gone back and looked at what his exact defensive numbers were, but I do remember them being a team that you looked at them on the defensive front, defensive line, linebacker, even into 2012 and thinking, wow, that that is a good looking front seven that they have. [00:39:11] Speaker A: Yeah. And the good thing for this Arkansas, the new staff, the bar isn't very high right now on improving. Like, I mean I don't know how. [00:39:20] Speaker B: Much he can do yeah, like, I mean, this is not the NFL where you can go cut six or seven guys and bring in free agents and see if they're going to work any better. You're stuck with the group that you have until the season's over. [00:39:32] Speaker A: And it's like improvement is like almost. It'd be hard almost not to improve from the last time that we saw them in the last, frankly, three times we've seen the defense. So it's. It's. Maybe it's not fixable and it's going to look the exact same. And that's. You just had different faces leading the same result. But at this point, I think that the main, you know, goal for them is just what is one area we can start at getting better and see if maybe you can get better against the run. Get. Get better blitzing or something like that, and then work from there. Get something that is a strength of your defense, because right now there is none. [00:40:08] Speaker B: Effort can go a long way. [00:40:10] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. [00:40:10] Speaker B: I think that's what they're looking for more than anything else. Last question. Ginger Razorback speaking our love language in October. How's our pitching look for next year? Do we have depth to sustain through the injury bug that's bound to hit? I think that I don't want to go too far out on a limb and say that pitching is going to be this or that, but I do feel like pitching is going to have to carry the team a little bit more this year than it did last year when they were so offensive. I like what I've seen from Steele Eaves. He's probably been one of the pitchers, one of the two or three pitchers that has stood out most. To me, he looks like he could be a really good pitcher in the bullpen. And Hunter Dietz, like what I've seen from Hunter Dietz, I think he's going to have a. He's going to have a year. I don't. I don't know exactly. I don't want to put any huge expectations on him, but he hadn't been able to pitch basically, since he's been at Arkansas. I think he's pitched in four games and the stuff right now, if he can stay healthy, it looks like what we were seeing from him are very comparable to what we were seeing from him in the fall of 23 when the thought was that he was the best pitcher out there. Now, I want to say that Hagen Smith was not pitching in the fall of 23, and obviously he was the best pitcher on that team. But in terms of fall practice, Dietz was the one who was really dominant two years ago and I think he's been pretty good this year. You know, he's still kind of in that buildup role and you know, will continue to be even I would think into the season in February. But it's looking better with him. We don't know what Gabe Gackel is going to look like, so there's a lot of question marks. But I was encouraged by how Gackle threw toward the end of last year. Cole Gibbler through at the end of last year. Still Eaves would be in that in the limited times that he was able to get an opportunity. I think they've got some pieces there with the pitching staff. It's just a matter of what they look like when the season rolls around. [00:42:11] Speaker A: Gentry Razorback didn't ask baseball or softball. So since I'm our softball guy I'll give like a three sentence response. [00:42:17] Speaker B: The softball also didn't say the Razorbacks. Maybe he's asking about the Braves. [00:42:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that needs to improve. Softball returns every all but I think one inning of pitches from last year and it was because Courtney Day, their designated hitter, she had pitched before in her life and she wanted to pitch an inning in a non conference game. They were blowing out and she, she had a 00 era so you know, it was great for her. But they return everybody. They're gonna be really good pitching I think. And they brought in a freshman whose name Saylor Timmerman who is like a five star. So Gentry Razorback. If you did care about how the softball pitching will look, I think it's going to be pretty good. I think it's going to be their strength. [00:42:58] Speaker B: All right, let's look ahead to this weekend college football games. Yeah, why not? We do this on Friday. Kentucky goes to Georgia 11am kickoff ABC Georgia is a 19 and a half point favorite over Kentucky. This feels like a game where Georgia's really mad and they're going to take it out on a team that probably is not going to offer a whole lot of resistance. [00:43:18] Speaker A: Yeah, Arkansas has gotten the 11am Sanford Stadium greeting before, albeit different Georgia. [00:43:25] Speaker B: College game day in town. [00:43:26] Speaker A: College game day in town. Georgia was a different Georgia than they are this year. But I do think that that's a stadium that knows how to get get up and get ready for an early game. You worry about that a lot of times whenever you're the 11am hosts. Kentucky doesn't give you much reason to pick them. I was silly enough to do so Against South Carolina last week. I think Georgia wins this one. The line's 19 and a half. I think they win it bigger than that. [00:43:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And I was going to say this. There's some lines this week where they're big lines and sometimes you say that's not big enough and sometimes you think that's too big. We'll talk about the other one here in just a second. 230 kickoff on ESPN. Texas goes to Florida. Texas was off last week and this is the first time that Texas has played a Power 4 opponent since that season opening game against Ohio State. Really kind of a theme this week is should college football have more of a central schedule maker to avoid instances like this where Texas does not go a month without playing any team that's any good. Also there's just not a lot of really good games this week. And you would think that, you know, the conferences would want to and I know the conferences are kind of competing with each other and the networks are competing against each other, but you don't have this kind of stuff in the NFL where you know you're going to have a quality, at least one quality game each week that's going to have a lot of storylines baked in. I don't know that we have that this week. Back to Texas though, a five and a half point favorite over a Florida team that maybe they're next in the head coach firing cycle. [00:45:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And I do think Florida at least has to their benefit right now that they've played some teams like they've had a tougher schedule. It's a tricky game for Texas. It really is. Because what leads you to think that that they couldn't lose this one even though Florida's down. I mean what is Texas done to really make you feel super confident about them? I'm going to pick them still just because I think that Florida is kind of in the same boat as Arkansas was last week. I think they are a few things going wrong away from completely letting go of the rope and it being just time. I think that they are and I think Texas could maybe have a Notre Dame like performance where you don't you think it might be them in for a close game and then really just capitalize on the other team kind of looking lifeless. [00:45:41] Speaker B: I don't think Florida's offense compares well with Texas defense at all. I really don't. Interesting game here. Arch Manning, Ben struggling does. If he doesn't get going in this game. They got Red river next week. And what is what should be a more winnable Red river game. If John Matier is not able to play for ou, do they maybe think about making a change? Because if the quarterback is the only thing that's holding them back, I don't know that you can hang on to him regardless of what his last name is. I think Texas wins in the swamp, though. 230 kickoff on ABC. This will be going head to head with that game. A couple of ranked teams is where college game day is this week. Vanderbilt is at Alabama, the Tide or a ten and a half point five favorite. Boy, it still just does not feel right to think about Vanderbilt being a team that's got so much attention on it. And there's, there's a little bit of a thought, Ethan, like, okay, is this going to be the old Vanderbilt that they get into a big situation or the down 42 to nothing at halftime or is this a, is this the game where they show, hey, we're for real and win or lose, they're competitive in what ought to be a really good environment? [00:46:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I think this is going to be a close game. I really do. I like Vanderbilt this year. I think Diego Pavia is an X factor. He's. I mean, he's in Heisman talks right now, which is crazy. I, I like Alabama though. I think that Alabama's figured out a lot of things, especially offensively. And I think, I just think that this is the type of game where it is a huge measuring stick for Vanderbilt of where they're at. But I don't think that I, I just don't think they're at a place yet where they can cross that, that hurdle. Because if they win this game, then you have to take them very, very seriously. [00:47:22] Speaker B: You have to start talking about them as a playoff contender. [00:47:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Which they win wild. But I just don't think they're ready for that yet. Their game against Utah State last week gave up 35 points. Gave up 21 to Georgia State last week or the week before that. I think that Alabama's gonna be able to score on them. And so I like, I like Alabama in a relatively high scoring game. [00:47:43] Speaker B: Yeah, Alabama, all of a sudden you start looking at Florida State and that loss in week one and like, they may have not been as bad as people thought they were. I think Alabama wins, but I don't know how much of that is based on just the Alabama brand versus the Vanderbilt brand. Look at efficiency ratings. It says Vanderbilt ought to win this game. Now some of that's going to be dependent on who they play. And I think Alabama's played better teams than Vanderbilt's played. [00:48:09] Speaker A: If this was in Nashville, I'd have a much easier time picking or I'd have an easier time making. [00:48:15] Speaker B: It would be more. Yeah. [00:48:16] Speaker A: But I think for right now it's until we see Vanderbilt going to Bryant Denny Stadium and beat Alabama and officially jump that hurdle. I'm not going to pick him in a game like this, but I mean, hats off to Clark Lee. He's got to be like, who's going to call him? I mean he. Is he going to say does he want to stay? Yeah. [00:48:35] Speaker B: Grew up in Nashville. [00:48:36] Speaker A: I mean he's got to at least be getting calls though at the end of this year. [00:48:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Maybe from a statue maker. If he continues to coach like this at Vandy. Going back to the central. If there should be a central schedule maker in the SEC this week, seven teams are off Arkansas, Tennessee, lsu, Missouri, South Carolina, Ole Miss and Auburn. None of them are playing. Oh use playing Kent state. Oklahoma's a 46 and a half point favorite in that game and that's without John Matiere in Norman. I hate seeing so many SEC teams off at the same time. Spread those off dates more throughout the season. And then one more SEC game. Mississippi State is at Texas A&M 6:30 kickoff. This is the line that surprised me. A and m is a 15 and a half point favorite and I don't know if I'd be surprised if they won by that much, but I would think that with the way Mississippi State just played Tennessee, with the way that A and M's offense has not really reverted back to how it looked against Notre Dame, that, that maybe you would think that this would be a closer game. [00:49:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that Mississippi State could like be that team that we look back at the end of the year and we're like, why did we just completely like disregard them? Really? I'm, I'm not going to lie. In the preseason I didn't know much about them because I didn't like, I just kind of reverted to oh, the last version of Mississippi State I saw. I watched them against Tennessee and that's a so much better of a team than they were. [00:50:01] Speaker B: They could have won that game. Some would say they might sort of want it. Tennessee scored two non offensive touchdowns in that game. [00:50:06] Speaker A: Yeah, they looked like the better team for most of that game. So I don't think that A and M is going to win. I don't think they're going to cover this line, but I think they're going to win. I think that having been to Kyle Field before on an A and M team. I went in 2020 whenever there wasn't. Wasn't supposed to be that many fans. [00:50:23] Speaker B: There were 25,000 people there. [00:50:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean it was way. It wasn't at its capacity then, but the atmosphere for even a reduced capacity, which was over what it should have been, that is a hard place to play. And I mean they had a really good team that year too. Similar to how they feel this year. I think that's going to be just too much for Mississippi State. [00:50:44] Speaker B: I like A and M's team. I think they're good. I think they're due for a letdown somewhere this season. I don't think it's this week necessarily, but would I be surprised? No, I wouldn't. I think they'll have a letdown somewhere along the way where they lose a game that everybody thinks that they should win. They're a 15 and a half point favorite. Okay, real quick, upset pick for the weekend. Who you got? [00:51:03] Speaker A: Matt? I. I browsed the schedule and I kept on trying to find an upset pick for this week and I don't have the guts to pick one. I really don't. There was. My heart wanted to pick Vanderbilt over Alabama, but I just can't do it. And I think if. If you're going to catch me right now giving one that I think could be the upset pick of the week. I think it's Houston at home versus Texas Tech. Just. But that's. I would still pick Texas Tech, but Texas tech is an 11 point, 11 and a half point favorite and I like Houston to cover that. I don't know if they can win, but that would be as close as I'll get to an upset pick this week. [00:51:38] Speaker B: First off, I think. Oh, you 46 and a half. Like, if you wanted to like put some money on it. I think giving them that big of a cushion. I know Kent State's not been good. That big of a cushion without Mater as their quarterback. Seems pretty big. I'm in the same boat where I don't really feel real confident about this. I'm going to go Florida State over Miami. I think Florida State showed a few weeks ago that they're a good home. Like they're a different team when they play at home. They've had an extra day to prepare for this, you know, because they played on Friday and they lost to Virginia last week. They've been told, oh, you know, here, here you go again. I think Miami's really good. I do think Miami's got some offensive limitations though. And I this, if Miami gets into a game where, you know, they turn it over, maybe, you know, they're minus one, minus two in turnovers. I feel like with their offensive limitations it could be trouble for them. I think Florida State beats them. I think Florida State takes them down this weekend. [00:52:39] Speaker A: The beautiful thing about all this too is like we always go into the, these are, this is the type of weekend that you look at and you snooze. I mean last year that's what happened. [00:52:48] Speaker B: With Arkansas, Tennessee, this was this weekend and it was Arkansas, Tennessee and Vanderbilt Alabama on the same. [00:52:53] Speaker A: That's the thing about this. I look at the schedule and since I don't have an upset pick in me, that's how I know chaos is going to probably rain how it always does on these type of weeks. There's going to be some, some teams in here who are double digit underdogs, who, who beat somebody that you don't see it coming. It's going to be a college football Saturday and I, I just think we're right where the schedule makers, although there's not the central one, the multiple schedule makers want you. [00:53:17] Speaker B: That's how they get you. It's the days that you look forward to, they don't ever live up or a lot of times they don't live up to the hype and then the days that you don't see coming. So you're saying it's not a good day for a Saturday nap. [00:53:29] Speaker A: It's not. [00:53:29] Speaker B: Okay. [00:53:30] Speaker A: I mean, but also if you need a nap, please take one. We've had a heck of a week around here. [00:53:35] Speaker B: I'll save my nap for Sunday. All right, Good stuff. [00:53:38] Speaker A: Falcons don't play this week, so I might be right there with you. [00:53:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. Good stuff. Thanks for being here. You can read more from Ethan at wholehogsports. Com. You can read all of our covers [email protected] we'll have content throughout the weekend. Hope that we see you Monday back on our show or at our website. Have a great weekend everybody.