Arkansas gets super rematch with Tennessee

[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the Hog Sports Network daily podcast. Now here's your host, Matt Jones. [00:00:08] Speaker B: It's Tuesday, June 3rd. Arkansas is going to play Tennessee at the Fayetteville Super Regional. It's going to begin Saturday. We'll talk about it on today's podcast. But first, a word from Kendall King. [00:00:17] Speaker A: 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. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shop Cart. We are Design. [00:00:50] Speaker B: It felt like it was always going to be Arkansas, Tennessee in the Super Regional. When you saw the matchups and the brackets set on Memorial Day, it looked like the regionals were set up to where those were going to be the favorites, obviously, to get through Tennessee, I thought they would have some trouble with Wake Forest and they did. But they went 11 to 5 last night in the decisive game of the Knoxville Regional and they will be coming to Fayetteville. It's going to be a Saturday start to the Super Regional. That was announced this morning. Arkansas and Tennessee, the first game is going to be played Saturday at 4, 4 o' clock. That's going to be on ESPN. The second game will be Sunday at 2 o' clock. That will also be on ESPN. And then they would play a third game if necessary, on Monday. No time scheduled as of right now for that if necessary game. So Arkansas, Tennessee, third time Arkansas has played an SEC team in a super regional here at baum Walker Stadium. South Carolina came in here in 2018. Ole Miss came in in 2019. Kind of interesting in all three of these instances. Ethan, the team that came here for the super regional also came here in the regular season in 18. South Carolina came here. Arkansas won two of three. They won two of three at the Super 19. Ole Miss came in here, they won two of three and Arkansas won two of three during the Super. And then obviously you got Tennessee coming in. One thing that's different between those years. Arkansas also played Ole Miss two times at the SEC tournament in 19, and they played South Carolina once at the sec tournament in 17. They didn't play Tennessee there this year. But you know, we saw Tennessee in here three weeks ago. I thought they were the best lineup that I've seen in person all season. They're the national champions. Somebody's going to have to Knock them off, obviously, for them not to repeat. And if you're Arkansas, you're wanting to win the championship, what better way to do it than to prove yourself against the team that despite their struggles this year, a lot of people still think is the most talented team in the country? [00:02:55] Speaker C: Yeah, it's interesting whenever you look at just how everything shake out this weekend, that Arkansas's path to get where they want to go is like, there's not many SEC teams left in the field, but it would be beating one of them. And then if LSU wins its regional over West Virginia, meeting another SEC team in Omaha, it's just like. It's like now's their time to show that you think, I mean, that you were the top dog in the SEC this year, as far as I know, regular season standings and whatnot. Arkansas was second or third in the sec. [00:03:24] Speaker B: Yeah, they were number two. [00:03:25] Speaker C: Number two, yeah. And so it's like, I mean, regular season, you can throw that out the window now. Now there's only a select few left, and it's your chance to show that you were kind of the most ready team for the postseason out of everybody. I think we've said it all year long how complete we think that Arkansas is for a postseason run. And now it's just kind of that time to show it. Looking at the matchups, though, this weekend, because I was watching lsu, Little Rock, you know, and at that point, you have an idea of all the super matchups, but that. That final one between West Virginia and lsu, and they were. They showed up the graphic of like, all the supers that were shaking out, and I was like, there's no doubt. Arkansas, Tennessee is like, I feel like the juiciest of all the matchups, I think. So I was like, that's why I wasn't shocked when I saw the ESPN's covering the first two games of that one, and it's starting on a Saturday. I just think that it, it the way that it shook out, I mean, it's by far, I think, kind of the most appealing matchup. I think Florida, Florida State, Oregon State. Obviously, that's intriguing, too, but it's just these are two big brands. There's the history of Vitello Van Horn. You have the defending national champs, you have the coach who's still going for his first. It's just. It's a really good matchup. [00:04:40] Speaker B: Kyle Peterson was on the call of the Tennessee Wake Forest game last night, and as Liam Doyle was coming back out, trying to. To close out the game for the Vols he said something about, here's Liam Doyle trying to send Tennessee to quote, what will not be a boring super at Baum Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I think anybody who's around college baseball, they've wanted to see this matchup in the postseason. And it's weird. It's like Omaha is not big enough for these two teams to make it there because, you know, the years that Arkansas has gone, Tennessee hasn't gone and the years that Tennessee has gone, Arkansas hasn't been there. And of course it'll be that way again this year. But you know, it is a, to me, it's a championship level matchup in a super regional. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that Tennessee, you know, struggled at the end of the regular season to win series. But do you think about it? They were number one for what, four weeks, five weeks, something like that during the regular season. Arkansas was number one for a time during the regular season. I mean, there's only been like five or six teams that have been number one this year. And you're not going to see this level of matchup anywhere else in the super regional. [00:05:48] Speaker C: Yeah. And I mean, it's just, it's funny how everything turned out this weekend where, you know, you had upsets galore and you're probably, I mean, all along thinking like, if you're Arkansas, just make it through your regional, who, like you're the higher seed for a reason. Who cares who's next? Like, not feeling like you. I don't know, it just feels like it was like a fine matchup. Like it's just kind of how it should shake out. But now you look at who all's left and you're like, okay, well, Tennessee is one of the top teams that's still in this thing. It's like because so many teams got upset that it's kind of like, yeah, if you're taking your top eight teams right now that are still alive and putting them in Omaha, just based on seed Tennessee is there. Right. I think that the, there's nine national seeds who made it and the lowest one is UCLA at 15. So if you're taking your top eight that are still left seed wise, these are two teams that would be in Omaha just as far as kind of the, the whole body of work they've had. I think it's, yeah, it's just a really good supers matchup, but between teams that probably both have not probably they both have championship aspirations and they have teams that they think can do it. [00:06:56] Speaker B: Well, and they have fan bases who think that if they don't win a championship, it's an unsuccessful season. I feel like at this point, let's. [00:07:02] Speaker C: Say, find me other super regionals where that's a thing this week. Do we think that ucla, UTSA feels that way? [00:07:09] Speaker B: I don't believe so. [00:07:10] Speaker C: Or Duke, Murray State? No, it's like. [00:07:13] Speaker B: I mean, it's basketball. [00:07:14] Speaker C: Yeah. I'd say there's a. I don't think there's more. There's a super regional with more collective, passionate fan base this week, just between these two teams. [00:07:24] Speaker B: I think you're right about that. Definitely think so. Tony Vitalo, obviously former Razorback assistant coach, Tennessee coach, turned them into one of the great programs in the country at this point. After they beat Wake Forest last night, he was asked about coming to Arkansas, and this is what he had to say. [00:07:42] Speaker D: You know, when you're in the backyard, at least the neighborhood I grew up in, it was still kind of the. Everybody meets out on the street and you play a bunch of games. And whenever I lost, maybe my dad did it to me. I was kind of a little punk, but I always wanted to. Let's run it back. Let's redo it. So at the very least, my first reaction is we want to be playing this time of year, as does anybody that's left. I don't know if any other games are still going on. I haven't followed much of that stuff. But it's a blessing to be playing, and this team has been confident going on the road, but at the very least, they get a chance to redo the thing. [00:08:18] Speaker B: Tennessee's 9 and 6 on the road this season. Arkansas 35 and 4 at home, 9 and 6. That's not a bad road record, and it shows a team that I think is capable. I said this after they won the Thursday night game in Fayetteville. I thought it was a championship effort from them because Arkansas didn't play. But I didn't think they played terribly either. And certainly from an offensive standpoint, they gave Tennessee a couple of punches and Tennessee punched right back. Saturday's game, Friday's game, game two of that regular season series, I thought that was probably the most entertaining game that I've seen at bomb this year. And Arkansas won an 8 to 6. And then on Sunday, I thought Arkansas was thoroughly in control and won that one on 8 to 4 in the finale to take the series. But with Tennessee, you know, I mean, those guys play with a chip on their shoulder. They play like everybody's out to get them. And now you give them some motivation that they lost a series here and they get a chance to maybe redo that. Boy, that's. I think. Not that. Not that Arkansas players or coaches or anybody should be scared of Tennessee, but I certainly think you have to respect the fact that when you have a team that talented with a little bit of motivation, it's certainly something worth keeping in mind. [00:09:39] Speaker C: Yeah. It's just weird, like, how recently this was. Like, you. I get it. You said in the past, whenever they've played these SEC teams again, how they play in the regular season, were any of them the finale? [00:09:49] Speaker B: No. [00:09:50] Speaker C: I must say, this is such a quick turnaround. [00:09:52] Speaker B: I remember South Carolina being in early April. I think Ole Miss was early to mid April in 19. [00:09:58] Speaker C: I was. Because I think I was following the series while at a regional at Bogle. Like, it was. That. This is. It's such a quick turnaround. Like, it's. I don't know. I don't know if that benefits it. Like, it. Who this benefits in that situation. If. Either. If it's kind of the same, but it's just very much like a. Yeah, you just did all your prep work on this team, and you just saw him. So it's probably just, you know, the scouting report probably didn't even have time to get any dust on it. Like, you just pull it right back out. [00:10:29] Speaker B: It's. And I also wonder how you know, because, like, Liam Doyle did not pitch well here, but Zach Root didn't pitch well when Tennessee was here, either. Gage Wood didn't pitch well when Tennessee was here. I wonder how much they're able to lean on the initial scouting reports that they had that weekend. Because Root looked really good in the regional, Wood looked phenomenal in the regional, and Liam Doyle looked really good for Tennessee both the times that he pitched. [00:10:53] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:10:54] Speaker C: And it's. It's just crazy how you can play a whole long season like this and you can win a series against Tennessee in the regular season and you can, I don't know, be the better team for so much of the year. But it all comes down to this one weekend to see if you get where you want to go. It's like you just throw it out the window. Once you get to this point, it's. If a team is left standing after regional weekend, you take them. Like. I don't care if it's UTSA or Murray State. Like, you take them dead serious because they've made it this far. [00:11:20] Speaker B: That's the frustrating thing about the postseason is that it doesn't, you know, what you do during the run up to the postseason, it gets you in a situation to potentially set yourself up, you know, for the best case scenario, like home field advantage. But it doesn't really matter, you know, I mean, if Tennessee comes in here and wins this series this weekend, nobody's going to care that Arkansas beat them in the regular season. And sometimes I hate that the fact that the regular season is so devalued in relation to what happens in the postseason. But, you know, that's. That's just how it is. [00:11:57] Speaker C: Yeah, no, for sure. And that's. I hate that part of it too. That it's like you can have a phenomenal year and then get bounced from your own regional and people just completely count off the entire season. [00:12:06] Speaker B: Like Vanderbilt. [00:12:07] Speaker C: Yeah, Vanderbilt or Ole Miss that just both made it to they were in the SEC championship, which. Let's get on that soapbox a little bit about the tournament and how it. [00:12:16] Speaker B: Affects you in the regional. [00:12:18] Speaker C: Exactly. [00:12:18] Speaker B: I mean, I've been saying this for years. [00:12:20] Speaker C: Give Missouri the golden pass to just let them just throw them some the softest fastballs of your life and let Missouri win the SEC tournament to get out of there and you don't have to play. But. No, I'm kidding. It's. But it really is like, you know, you can do so many good things in the regular season and then you have a bad weekend and people just, it's like they forget every other thing you did all season. I hate that aspect of it. But it is just, it's the nature of it. I mean, you look on the outfield wall of schools and you know, they. [00:12:52] Speaker B: Don'T have your regular season records on there. [00:12:54] Speaker C: They do put if you win the year champion like Texas will forever have that they won the SEC on their outfit wall. But hey, they won't have anything on their super regional years wall. [00:13:04] Speaker B: They have super regionals listed there. [00:13:07] Speaker C: I have no clue. [00:13:07] Speaker B: I don't think they do. [00:13:08] Speaker C: Arkansas does, right? [00:13:09] Speaker B: They don't have super regionals. They have college World Series years. They have. They have years that they made the tournament and years that they won the sec, not the swc, by the way, which is so dumb. The fact that they don't have their Southwest Conference championships listed on the wall at Baum Walker Stadium. Why we acknowledge that Arkansas got into the NCAA tournament these years and they got into the super or the got me off. But the World Series in these years. But they don't acknowledge the fact that they're Southwest Conference champion teams. I Don't understand that one. But anyway, tournament years, College World Series. [00:13:48] Speaker C: You can do the math with the walls usually and figure out what years they went to regional and they want to soup and how they did in the super. Based on the World Series wall. [00:13:56] Speaker B: Okay. So this totally out of left field. What do you think about haney hanging Sweet 16 banners at Bud Walton arena and Elite 8 banners? [00:14:07] Speaker C: I. I would be more. [00:14:11] Speaker B: Because they're hanging. [00:14:12] Speaker C: I would rather. I think it's better to have one banner that you put all your sweet 16 years on and maybe one banner with all your Elite eight years on. Well, that's how they have separate. [00:14:21] Speaker B: That's how they have it. [00:14:22] Speaker C: Okay. I think that's fine. [00:14:23] Speaker B: Do you? [00:14:23] Speaker C: Yeah, because I mean, it's like you. If you make it that far, I think it's fine. [00:14:28] Speaker B: I think it's. I think it's kind of weird because. [00:14:30] Speaker C: If, I mean, if we're saying no elite 8, I can get the sweet 16. If we're saying lead 8, then don't put College World Series years on your outfield wall. [00:14:37] Speaker B: But, but now hold on. The College World Series is the pinnacle event for college baseball. No different than the Final Four is. [00:14:45] Speaker C: Yeah, but it's the same number. [00:14:46] Speaker B: Nobody gets. Nobody gets an elite 8 ring in college basketball. [00:14:51] Speaker C: Yeah, I think you may, but it's the same number of teams. Yeah. A. The elite ate the World Series. That's my. [00:14:58] Speaker B: And it's actually, I think the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 banners at Bud Walton are very strange. And it was. And you know who it was Muscleman who brought him here. Yeah, they didn't have any of that until Muscleman took two teams to the Elite Eight. And it's like, let's acknowledge what those two teams did, but they didn't get to the Final Four. [00:15:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I think I'm not a hater of that just because I don't think. [00:15:17] Speaker B: I just think it's odd. [00:15:19] Speaker C: I think if you look at the landscape of the rest of, you know who you're playing in the SEC and stuff, and you have a lot more than everybody else, it makes they notice. [00:15:27] Speaker B: We need to incomplete this discussion and see what other teams have Elite 8 and Sweet 16 banners. Because I will tell you, the arenas that I have been in, which isn't a ton, but. But I've been in, you know, some around college basketball. The. I don't see that elsewhere. I haven't seen that elsewhere. Doesn't mean that they're not hanging there. And maybe it's a new thing that you Know, in the years since I've been. Say, I know I highly doubt they have this at Rupp arena, but, you know, say, in the years since I've been at Rupp arena, maybe they do this. I don't know, but I just have always thought that was weird. And I don't know how we've gone down this rabbit hole, but here we are. [00:16:02] Speaker C: Well, since we're down it. Speaking of banners, we doing these baseball regionals home. I mean, you're in the track center, and it's just, holy cow, every time I look up and see those banners, I'm like, so we, you know, like, we have the small banner over here that represents a national championship because we needed to have room for all the other small banners that say that they won a national championship. I mean, it's just, like, overwhelming when you actually sit there and think about it, because I think you can walk in and just take it for granted. But if you sit there and just think about every little piece of hardware that's in that trophy case in there and every banner that's hanging up, it really. It really, like, overwhelms you. [00:16:42] Speaker B: There is a wall that. I don't know how many feet this wall is, but it's literally a wall of national championship trophies that is several feet long. [00:16:50] Speaker C: Yeah. And then you. And the back wall is a lot of more SEC ones that's. [00:16:55] Speaker B: Is that. Well, it's not all there. Sec. It may be just, like, one that represents. Hey, we've got, like, 150 of these. [00:17:01] Speaker C: There's a lot of trophies and a lot of bands. [00:17:03] Speaker B: I've gone into the track offices before, and I have seen SEC trophies sitting on the floor of offices. Because there are so many. I don't think they know what to do with them. It's kind of like whenever they used to win the pin relays all the time and these giant pin relay wheels. And then you go over here to Jose's on Dixon street, they'd have pin relay wheels just hanging in the. In the. Or you go to rush running, and they've got a pin relay wheel. You know, you just kind of take your trophies to the different businesses around town that have helped you out. It's like, here you get to display this. [00:17:34] Speaker C: Like, you wonder if. Because the. The main track facility, the indoor one, has so many trophies in there. If, like, whenever they built this new track performance center, if they. I'm like, I hope you all just, like, set out a little portion of there to, like, maybe your secondary trophies that you just you, you like, but you don't have room for just a storage place. You know, it's crazy how many trophies they have. [00:17:56] Speaker B: If you were to add up all the conference and national trophies, just conference and national trophies that that program had, you would probably be over 150. [00:18:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:06] Speaker B: And, you know, where do you, where do you, where do you store all this stuff? I'd love to know who has the job of keeping inventory of where all the trophies are. [00:18:15] Speaker C: Yeah, that's. [00:18:17] Speaker B: That's a good summertime project. [00:18:18] Speaker C: But all of this to say with banners and trophies and all this stuff, it's really hard to make it all the way and win one of these things. And the fact that it's like. Yeah, I don't know, we're talking about like all these, these 16 teams are left in the baseball tournament that all have. At this point, if you make it this far, you have your eyes set on winning it, but it's so hard to actually get there, like even once you get down to this pool. So it's just. Yeah, I think that at this stage, though, it's like Arkansas can look at the field and say, why not, why not us? Type of deal. [00:18:48] Speaker B: So the way this works is that four supers are going to start on Friday, four going to start on Saturday. I don't know the rhyme or reason that they use to determine which start when, but I do know that if you are on one side of the bracket in Omaha, you're going to start on the same day of all the other teams that are on that side or vice versa. So on Friday, these are the supers that start Miami and Louisville. That's going to be at Louisville, Florida State at Oregon State, Arizona at North Carolina and Coastal Carolina at Auburn. And then Saturday, these are the teams on Arkansas side of the bracket. You, you've got Texas, San Antonio going to ucla, Murray State going to Duke. What a win they had last night over Ole Miss. Murray State, West Virginia going to lsu. LSU was able to survive. Little Rock, I think would be the way to put it. Little Rock gave them an incredible battle. The 10 to 6 score is not really reflective of how competitive that game was last night at the box. And then obviously Tennessee and Arkansas, I know there's a lot of people who are upset that Tennessee, Tennessee gets an extra day of rest. I don't think that it was some big conspiracy to give Tennessee an extra day of rest. I just think it was, you know, for whatever reason, that side of the bracket, they get a Saturday start time and, you know, the way I look at it is Arkansas gets an extra day of rest too. And this is now going to allow them to give Zach Root a game one start on a full week of rest. It's going to allow them to give Gage Wood a game to start on a full week of rest. And you know, can they go on six days? Sure, I know they can. I've seen them do it. But I think that if you were to ask people if they were, you know, perfectly honest with you, I think they would say they would prefer that extra day of rest as opposed to, you know, starting on six days. [00:20:38] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think that it's just like I get the people conspiracy, like, oh, you're just trying to make it a longer turnaround for Tennessee. But I also think that it probably has something to do with what TV matchups they want. Where to. Because I mean, you look on that day, none of the games on Friday are on espn. They're on ESPN too. And on Saturday they have a double header back to back of West Virginia, lsu, Tennessee, Arkansas. So I'm assuming that that was like the prime spot for TV could be. And those are probably those two super regionals. I mean, you look at them and it's probably the two ones that ESPN would be like, yeah, we want that. [00:21:14] Speaker B: Well, and you also think if lsu, Arkansas were to go to a game three, then you have a primetime spot on Monday to show showcase two of the premier stadiums in the country. It does help Tennessee from this standpoint. Liam Doyle threw last night like we mentioned earlier. I think he threw 31 pitches through 104 earlier in the week. And I, I'm going to be very interested to see does Tennessee start him game one? You know, they didn't start him game one when they came here earlier this year to keep him on a normal rest pattern. So do they start him game one or do they pitch off against Zach Root and then maybe do you have Gage Wood going against Liam Doyle? That wasn't the case when they played here earlier because Gage Wood was held. I think it was to give him a little bit of extra rest. So we'll see. We don't know yet. But one more thing. Tennessee is going to be without their catcher for game one. Cannon Peebles got ejected last night for apparently saying the magic word to the opposing catcher. And so the NCAA rules say that when you get ejected it's an automatic one game suspension. So that's, that's definitely. If they don't, if they don't pitch Doyle game one, it feels Like, I'm saying the exact same thing that I said when they were here in the regular season. But if they don't pitch Doyle in game one and they don't have their catcher in game one and you're throwing Zach Root in game one, that feels like a game you really need to win. [00:22:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I'd agree. And it's like, yeah, it's. That's the type of game that it makes it. If you don't win, it makes it all the much harder just to like, because, you know, they're going to be at full strength for the rest of the way. But I also think that you look at the weather, it might have to do with that, because Friday is looking like rain all day. And then I get it, things can change. But at least Saturday, Sunday, Monday are looking like maybe scattered storms. But who knows? [00:23:07] Speaker B: I think when people look at the weather, like, oh, it's going to rain. You can't play that day. Well, you know, I mean, sometimes it rains for like an hour. [00:23:13] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:13] Speaker B: You can move on. [00:23:15] Speaker C: You're in trouble on the three hours. You're only in trouble on the days where it's like, okay, it looks like it is going to be like all day. Like, maybe you'll get a drizzle instead of a thunderstorm. And I think that that Friday is looking like a rain all day type of deal. [00:23:27] Speaker B: But I got to get my yard mode before all this comes through. It's. It can't handle another heavy rain and heat. [00:23:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't know if I can either. I feel like every time that it comes that it rains, it does something to which I grew up hearing, like, then, you know, it would wash all the allergies away or something. Wash the pollen way. No, all it does, it kicks it back up. For me every time that we've gotten this rain, it's like the day after, whenever it heats back up, it's like I am sneezing up a storm right now and eyes are dying. I'm just like, can we please get over allergy season and rain? And I also have a conspiracy, since we're talking about conspiracies today, that we are like, our months have, like, somewhat shifted. [00:24:09] Speaker B: Seasons have shifted. [00:24:10] Speaker C: We are in old May right now. We are in June, but is what May used to be. [00:24:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:14] Speaker C: I believe this May this past year was what April used to be. [00:24:17] Speaker B: I believe that. I believe that. [00:24:19] Speaker C: Convinced. [00:24:19] Speaker B: And October is what, like, late August used to be. It's like we go into a drought now in the fall. [00:24:25] Speaker C: Yes. Yes. That's all my conspiracy is. [00:24:28] Speaker B: I believe that I have no Back it up. We're having a discussion out here in the newsroom yesterday about all this. [00:24:33] Speaker C: Oh well, look at me. I wasn't even here. [00:24:36] Speaker B: You bugged our conversation. [00:24:37] Speaker C: I was not here. [00:24:38] Speaker B: So all right, when we come back, it has not been a good week for the SEC in the post season. We'll talk about what happened there and more. But first word from Kendall King At. [00:24:48] Speaker A: 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 Shopkins. 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. [00:25:20] Speaker B: Hey, welcome back. Want to tell you about our friends of Bentonville Glass. They're committed, professional, versatile, been serving their community since 1971. 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 I want to tell you too that the new issue of Hogs Illustrated, this is our football Preview is available. I think we've got a picture of it that we're going to pull up and show you here. Taylor Greene is on the COVID We'll talk with Christina about this a little bit more when she's in studio tomorrow. But you can stay on top of all the Razorback sports with a subscription to the Hogs Illustrated app. We think it's most complete razorback coverage in one location subscription will give you 20 plus issues to Hogs Illustrated, plus complete access to our website at wholehogsports.com monthly subscriptions begin at $17. You can join now at hogsillustrated.com subscribe or you can call 800-757-6277 for Hogs Illustrated again, 800-757-6277 or hogsillustrated.com subscribe to learn more about our football Preview issue. Razorback Football I keep it kind of makes me mad, actually, when I hear it. All these people who say, you know, it's 90 days away. It's what? How do you how many days we are from it now? [00:26:43] Speaker C: We were 100 not long ago, so I know we're probably at like 90. [00:26:47] Speaker B: And this is a personal problem. It just. It's like, can we enjoy the summer without the countdown? Without the. Without the constant reminder that we're 87 days or 86 days or whatever the. [00:26:58] Speaker C: Case might be, just subtract however many days of fall camp happen before the season starts and that it's just. What people are doing is giving a countdown timer for how much time we have to breathe for a second. Because once fall camp starts, it's go, go, go. Till this time next year when baseball. [00:27:15] Speaker B: Season ends, I plan on just totally unplugging and just being ignorant to my surroundings for. That was a long time. [00:27:24] Speaker C: See, this is my plan with softball, because it takes a lot out of you. Whenever you go from football into basketball into softball, like, it's just nonstop. Baseball's hosting a regional here, so I'm over here just like, all right, I'm on fumes, guys, but tell me what to do. And I'm like, the moment that. The moment we're done, I mean, it's. We're going to be enjoying this summer and the weather, because I'm with you. I don't want to count down to football. [00:27:49] Speaker B: I like the work, and it's good to be busy. But I think about 2018, I was driving back from Omaha, and I had the realization somewhere, driving across Iowa, SEC football media day starts in 13 days. It's like, oh, my gosh. It's like the amount of downtime in the summer with the way they pushed up, you know, some of the preseason football stuff. And then obviously now Omaha didn't go that late into it, into June anymore. I think this year, the World series ends on June 24th, so that's nice. But, yeah, it's. I can live without the football countdown. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. [00:28:29] Speaker C: And I'm. I'm just in general, like. Because I wrote this cover story on Taylor Greene for this magazine, and it's like, I'm tired of all the. Like, we know that the story about Taylor Greene is what he needs to not have. [00:28:40] Speaker B: Limit turnovers. [00:28:41] Speaker C: Limit turnovers. I was like, I'm not writing that story again. I said, I'm going to talk to. I got to talk to Taylor Green for this. And just about, like, just him as a person and life and what it's been like in Fayetteville. And it was just nice to write a story on just a. On just a person, because that's how I am. Just with, like, football just feels very redundant. A lot of the stuff in this team. [00:29:01] Speaker B: This team is uninteresting. I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just. This team is uninteresting. There's not a lot of. I mean, there's. There's not a lot of star power there. We talked last year about, you know, ad nauseam about the Petrino angle coming back to Fayetteville. You know, it seems like Sam Pittman goes into. What's this, like, third straight year where he's gone into the season where you think he's on the hot seat. So I don't know. It's just. It's. I feel like a lot of what we talk about with football is just recycled material. Can they, you know, can they compete against the teams that have the nil? Can they do this? Can they. They got to do something on the field to spice things up a little bit. [00:29:38] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:39] Speaker B: Otherwise, it's. It's just a very stale product right now. [00:29:41] Speaker C: It's just football. I feel like every year it's just same song, different verse. Like, we're just. We're just getting ready for the same exact questions of. It's. When was the last time that we were like, oh, Arkansas doesn't have a hard football schedule. Like everybody. [00:29:56] Speaker B: Like. Like, when was the last time there was a level of excitement about Razorback football going into the season? I would say 2022. [00:30:02] Speaker C: Yeah. About to say the year after Outback Bowl. [00:30:04] Speaker B: And some of that has to do, I think, with the fact that, yes, they had a good season the year before, but they also had an appealing opponent in the first week. And so you were able to kind of look forward, you know, throughout the weeks leading up to the season of, okay, they're going to play Cincinnati, who was a playoff team the year before, and they've got a good coach, and that turned out to be a really good game that they played in Fayetteville. But I think some of this, you know, when you're. When you're playing Western Carolina and uapb, which was still the worst football game I've ever seen. [00:30:34] Speaker C: And as I buckle up for this. [00:30:36] Speaker B: Year'S one, Alabama A& M under a new coach this year, like, that just doesn't get people excited for the season. I'm a big believer, and this is not just an Arkansas problem, because other teams do it, too, that the conferences need to step in. And at some point, maybe the networks make them step in and say, look, we need to have better inventory week one, because I feel like college football is kind of kneecap in itself by not having marquee matchups that you're talking about leading up to the season. [00:31:06] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's like the SEC makes you play like a power team, right? Like you have to have one power conference game. It's like, why not make those need to be like week one? [00:31:15] Speaker B: Well, it's, there's one or two. There are so many things that go into football scheduling that makes it confusing. I mean, Arkansas's got their own set of, you know, problems when it comes to scheduling. Like, you know, up until this year, Arlington, maybe up until next year, Little Rock, but you know, when the schools get to control who they're going to play in non conference games and there's really, there's no set of rules about when you can schedule these games. It just, it makes a, it makes scheduling a real. Like there's no, there's no one person in charge or no one entity in charge. It's like the schools are kind of in charge, but then the conferences are kind of in charge. And then, you know, you throw the whole, you don't know what time the game is going to kick off until 12 days and sometimes six days before the season starts. It's, well, it's a, it's a weird deal. [00:32:08] Speaker C: And the best is whenever you have the early November, Alabama versus, you know, Charleston Southern or. [00:32:14] Speaker B: Well, a lot of teams do that the week before their rivalry games. Yeah, this is Urban Urban Meyer started this when he was at Florida. They would schedule a cupcake before they played Florida State and then everybody started getting their cupcakes scheduled. You know, even Arkansas's gotten in on the act the last couple of years. Last year they played Louisiana Tech. [00:32:31] Speaker C: Right before Texas, right? [00:32:33] Speaker B: No, they played Louisiana Tech the week before Missouri. [00:32:35] Speaker C: Right before Missouri. [00:32:37] Speaker B: That was the last regular season game. [00:32:39] Speaker C: Yeah, it's, it's. There's a lot of things that would make for a better product in college football and the getting rid of those games would be my favorite. [00:32:49] Speaker B: Fiu. Didn't they play them in November a couple of years ago? [00:32:51] Speaker C: Yeah, right before somebody. [00:32:54] Speaker B: I think it was before Missouri. [00:32:55] Speaker C: Yeah. So it hasn't really worked, but. [00:32:58] Speaker B: Oh yeah, that was part of the three week stretch at Fayetteville to end the season with Auburn. [00:33:03] Speaker C: That was, that's another thing that I think makes this year like, like last year going into football season, you talked about the excitement level. At least you looked at the home schedule and saw the list of teams. This year the home schedule is just not great other than Notre Dame is going to be. [00:33:18] Speaker B: That's the marquee game. [00:33:19] Speaker C: Yeah, but like, the SEC one is. [00:33:20] Speaker B: Like A and M. It's got to be A and M because they haven't been here so long. [00:33:25] Speaker C: But Auburn, Mississippi State, Mizzou, I guess. I mean, things always change and teams can be better. It's just like it's not. You're going on the road to lsu, to Knoxville, to wherever else, and they. [00:33:38] Speaker B: Don'T play their first home SEC game till what, like, mid October? [00:33:41] Speaker C: Yeah, it's. Yeah. So it's better get ready for that Notre Dame game because that's like the big. I mean, that's the big one in Fayetteville. [00:33:51] Speaker B: All right, I've had my fill of football talk. Let's move back to the baseball. Not a good weekend for the SEC and the. In the regionals, of course, Vanderbilt got eliminated, Texas got eliminated. We'll start there. I think anytime a conference has the 1 and the 2 overall seed, and like I said, they're both from the same conference, you know, it's not Greg Sankey's fault that they lost. I think some. I will say this. I think some of this has to do with the selection committee and the rankings that they assigned these teams. In no way did I think Vanderbilt should be the number one seed. But what the selection committee went off of was their RPI and their strength of schedule. They leaned heavy on rpi, strength of schedule in assigning these seeds this year, because in my opinion, the two best teams, and I'm just talking about the two teams that when you watch them and you say when they're really good, who else can be better than these guys, are Arkansas and lsu. And I thought that those two teams had probably the best resume. You can put Texas in there. Even though I think when you watch Texas and the way that they struggled offensively, it was going to be hard to justify at least giving them a number one overall seed. But I thought the number. The top three in some order, should have been Arkansas, LSU and Texas, and Vanderbilt should have probably been four or five or somewhere down the line. Auburn, like Auburn being number four. Hey, maybe they go and win the national championship this year, and I sound like a moron, but I didn't see anything from Auburn this year that made me think that they were a top four seed. The selection committee giving the SEC the top four, and what was it, like, six of the top seven? It's a reflection of, I think, the fact that they went really strong on RPI and strength of scheduling. They made regional health spots, but none of that changes the fact that it was a bad weekend for the sec. Ole Miss lost yesterday, Vanderbilt lost, Texas lost a number of two seeds that you thought might go into their two regionals. And when they didn't win, that was. [00:35:54] Speaker C: Equally as like, as the host that lost. Like, I just thought that Florida and Alabama, I was like, oh, give me those two seeds. And they just fell flat. [00:36:03] Speaker B: They got four teams advancing and they're not going to get more than three teams in Omaha because you have this all SEC matchup this weekend in Fayetteville. It would take. How about this? The last since 2021, Oklahoma was in the Big 12 when they played Ole Miss in the championship, but now they're in the SEC. So since 21, every national championship series in Omaha has been what is now an SEC school versus an SEC school. The only way that can happen this year is if Auburn gets to the championship series and one of these three teams, Arkansas, Tennessee or LSU coming through the other side of the bracket gets there too. So it's up to Auburn in some ways to keep this streak going. [00:36:45] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's. You just look at it and I'm very interested to see what the end looks like in Omaha as far as like your final maybe semifinal teams. It's like you could have some real interesting. How did they get their stories. [00:36:59] Speaker B: You could have some real Cinderella type teams get to Omaha this year. [00:37:03] Speaker C: I feel like, like Murray State playing Duke. I did you. We really want to like count out Murray State very much at all on that. Wasn't Duke the. [00:37:11] Speaker B: Duke's good team? [00:37:13] Speaker C: Duke's good. [00:37:13] Speaker B: But like I thought Duke was going to be a regional host up until maybe the last two to three weeks of the season. [00:37:19] Speaker C: All I know is Murray State. Watching them this weekend, I was like, I confused how y' all were a four. [00:37:24] Speaker B: But yeah, I mean, I mean you look at some of these supers, Louisville and Miami, one of those teams are going to get to Omaha. Nobody had. I don't think anybody had those two teams, especially not with, you know, Louisville having to go through the one. I don't think anybody had those two teams thought that they would go to Omaha. You do have a Florida State, Oregon State matchup, which I guess you would. That you would consider that a chalk matchup. Arizona, unc. I think UNC is really good. I think UNC could win a championship this year. Coastal and Auburn. One of those two teams is going to get to Omaha. Auburn. People don't give Auburn enough credit sometimes. And I know I'm what I just said a Few minutes ago. But I'm just talking about them as a program. If they got there this year, It'd be the third time that they've been to the World Series since 2019. And it sets up well for them to get there. Playing a home regional against a Coastal Carolina team that they played well over the weekend. But I think Auburn should be the favorite. [00:38:19] Speaker C: Yeah, I was actually. I'm wearing the 2022 World Series shirt in. Auburn's on there. [00:38:26] Speaker B: Yeah. There's six SEC logos on there. Texas is on there. OU's on there. Can I tell you a quick story about that? There's a. There's a sporting goods store in Omaha called Scheels, and I love Scheels. [00:38:35] Speaker C: They're. [00:38:36] Speaker B: They're in a lot of Midwest cities, and every time that I see one, I try to stop in because each one of them's got kind of their own little unique thing. And they have a Ferris wheel in the store, and my kids love riding the Ferris wheel. But at Shields in 22, I went in there and every Texas cup was turned upside down. And I was sitting there thinking, was that Arkansas fans or was it OU fans or was it Aggie fans who've done this? [00:39:01] Speaker C: Let's say there's a lot of culprits. [00:39:03] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a lot of. [00:39:04] Speaker C: Yeah. Actually, I don't know who you could rule off of here other than probably Stanford. [00:39:09] Speaker B: You don't think Stanford's doing that? [00:39:10] Speaker C: I don't think Stanford is, but, I mean, we can't even really just rule out Auburn, Ole Miss and Notre Dame like that. Yeah, I don't think they. I don't think anybody really likes Texas, do they? [00:39:20] Speaker B: I don't. It doesn't seem like they're. They're too likable. [00:39:23] Speaker C: But I don't think Stanford would do that. [00:39:24] Speaker B: Texas, San Antonio and ucla. [00:39:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:39:27] Speaker B: I mean, one of those teams can get to Omaha. [00:39:29] Speaker C: I'm all for the Roadrunners and the Racers meeting in Omaha. [00:39:33] Speaker B: That's what you did there. [00:39:34] Speaker C: The Roadrunners and the Roadrunners and the Racers. How amazing that actually would. [00:39:38] Speaker B: That would be a first round match. [00:39:39] Speaker C: Yeah. How amazing would that be? [00:39:41] Speaker B: Duke, UCLA would be a good matchup if they got together on hardwood. Yeah. So I think, and I said this before the tournament started, I think there's going to be some surprise teams to get to Omaha. I especially feel that now. I mean, how could you say there's not going to be? Because you've got Murray State, Duke, utsa, ucla, ucla, Some. I know they were a national seed, but I don't know how many people thought they would actually get to Omaha and then Louisville and Miami. So there gonna be some surprise teams in Omaha. Maybe. Maybe as many as three or four. [00:40:11] Speaker C: Yeah. And I'll. It's. It's crazy because you can kind of see who's gonna be the favorite already just in like what, like where it's gonna come from. Just because of Oregon State, Florida State being matched up, Arkansas, Tennessee being matched up in the little quadrant with lsu. Like, you can see where ultimately the favorites to win this thing will come from what portion of the bracket. But until you get there, it's like just anything can happen. [00:40:36] Speaker B: Okay. So going back to the SEC though, I don't think one bad weekend means that it was a bad season for the sec. I do think that it legitimizes some of the conversation that we had that there was a lack of consistency and it wasn't just in this conference. It was across college baseball this year, you know, and I think that kind of reared its ugly head a little bit in this regional, but it's kind of like the whole. The Big Tens won the last two football national championships. Ohio State and Michigan are really good football programs, but you're not going to put the entire Big Ten up against the entire SEC in football and convince me that they're, they're better. You know what I mean? I think the, I think the bottom of the sec, maybe not the bottom three or four, but the bottom half of the SEC is stronger collectively than the bottom half of the Big Ten. And I would say the same thing, you know, with baseball, obviously that, you know, the SEC is stronger. I know the ACC got more teams. [00:41:34] Speaker C: Into the super had a strong weekend, but do you really put the whole conference up against this? [00:41:39] Speaker B: I mean, it's just, that's just, that's just how it works. It's no different than if Auburn and Florida wouldn't have gotten to the Final Four this last year. I don't know that it delegitimizes any how strong the SEC was in basketball. It's just weird things seem to happen in the postseason and I think too many or I think too often people will try to take a one or two week snapshot and try to apply it to the entire season. And I don't think that's the right thing to do. [00:42:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I agree. And I think that, yeah, it's just chaos happens in postseason play all the time. I think that the sec, honestly, I think this is like a look yourself in the mirror type of deal about the tournament. I really do just. I know we mentioned it with, with Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, like, but like, I don't get how since they changed the format this year, I think that was definitely a step in the right direction. [00:42:33] Speaker B: But it's just like you're talking about the SEC tournament. [00:42:35] Speaker C: The SEC tournament, how teams look at themselves of like what they want to do there. I think we say this every year, but it's like, tell me that this isn't. That it didn't have something to do. [00:42:46] Speaker B: You know, I mean. But now on the other hand, I mean, look at what Little Rock did. Yeah, they got hot at their conference tournament and they kept going right into the regional. It works both ways. Teams, teams can get hot at the conference tournament and they run all the way to Omaha. LSU did it in 17. They won the national championship when they won the SEC tournament. But I do think that more often than not the teams, and especially in Ole Miss case where they had to play four games there, the teams that kind of have to extend themselves in Omaha, or. Excuse me, the teams that have to extend themselves in Hoover, I think those are the teams that the. Maybe the regional, the next week is a little bit more detrimental to them. I'm losing my voice here. [00:43:23] Speaker C: No, you're good. Didn't know if you were getting emotional about this. [00:43:27] Speaker B: I'm not emotional about Mike Bianco, I can promise you. [00:43:30] Speaker C: I thought it was Corbin. [00:43:31] Speaker B: I was talking about Ole Miss. [00:43:33] Speaker C: Oh, I thought you're just lumping them together. My bad. Yeah, no, I think that they. I don't know. There is two ways like it because like you said, like, Little Rock caught fire. They were hot. I mean, North Dakota State, for what? I know they didn't make the regional championship here, but you can't tell me that what happened at their conference tournament didn't lead to them playing better. [00:43:50] Speaker B: Murray State won the Missouri Valley. [00:43:52] Speaker C: Yeah. I think maybe for some of these smaller conference teams does that. I just, it's. It seems it happens just so often though with these high seated SEC teams that do well in conference tournament and exit earlier than you would think. [00:44:07] Speaker B: It does seem like the teams that go deeper into Hoover struggle more often than the teams that go deeper into Hoover win in the regional round. [00:44:17] Speaker C: So, you know, and I get like, we can't delegitimize. Like you'll forever have a SEC tournament championship trophy. Like you won that. [00:44:25] Speaker B: It's like, I hate the SEC championship, the tournament championship. To me, your champion should be the team that Was your best team during the regular season? Yeah, it ought to be. [00:44:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:44:36] Speaker B: I mean, it ought to be. [00:44:38] Speaker C: Yeah. I hate that two teams can be champions. [00:44:41] Speaker B: Why is it that North Dakota State can go 20 and 32 and get into the tournament over a team that had a much better record? Or like. Like take basketball, for example. Think about when Georgia beat Arkansas, the tornado weekend at the SEC tournament. That team was like 14 and 18 or something coming in. How does that team get to be the SEC considered to be the SEC champion when you've got Chris Lofton and Tennessee the same year? [00:45:10] Speaker C: And I think that, yeah, this is like the. Where you find the two different types of people. Some people love that. That can happen. And it's. They love. I'm over here. I think that you've helped me work through what I've come to my conclusion. Let's just abolish conference tournaments. That's my conclusion. Okay. [00:45:27] Speaker B: Too much money to do that. [00:45:28] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I don't care about money. [00:45:33] Speaker B: Greg Sankey cares about his money. [00:45:35] Speaker C: I promise you, we'll just abolish the conference tournament and do some sort of fundraiser that week instead. [00:45:41] Speaker B: I've said this. I think Hoover would be a good time to have the two teams that, number one, go back to divisions. Have a West and an east or a North and a South or a Sankey and a slide, whatever you want to call them, and have two divisions and have the winners meet in Hoover for a best of three series. And that's your SEC champion that year. [00:46:01] Speaker C: Hey, I think we should. [00:46:02] Speaker B: No, it's no different than what they do in football. [00:46:05] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I agree. And I just think we should send all the teams to Hoover and we're actually doing like the. The crazy sport Olympics, like, and we're televising it like we're actually doing slip and slides and actually, no, somebody might get hurt doing that. We're doing. We're doing water balloon fights and we're still getting our money somehow, but we're not. We're not risking throwing out our arms. [00:46:27] Speaker B: There's going to be a lot of talk this week about the sec, you know, is overrated. It's dead. It's whatever. Lsu, Arkansas, Tennessee. I think I would be willing to put down a small bet that one of those three teams is the national champion. [00:46:44] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I mean, if you. I don't know what the betting lines look like this morning, but I would assume that. I would think that the SEC is like, probably for the top five or six. [00:46:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's probably fair. I think North Carolina would be the would be the team outside the sec. [00:47:00] Speaker C: That would be maybe a Florida State, Oregon State would be over Tennessee right now. [00:47:05] Speaker B: I think Tennessee might be over those two teams. [00:47:07] Speaker C: It's just I think that people still have faith that the SEC is going to win. It was just a bad, terrible regional weekend though. Like nobody can can't put it any other way that it was a bad weekend for the sec. But hey, you still have four teams that probably are not probably people are going to think are, you know, your favorites to win it all. [00:47:26] Speaker B: Well, they're definitely have one in Omaha. They're not going to have more than three and we'll see how it works out moving forward again, Arkansas, Tennessee, they're going to play Saturday at 4:00 clock on ESPN, Sunday at 2:00 clock on ESPN. And the Monday, if necessary, game. No details yet on that one. We appreciate you being here on our podcast today. We'll be back with another one tomorrow and we'll have plenty of coverage at our website, wholehogsports.com throughout the day. Hope to see you there. Have a great day, everybody.