Arkansas Razorbacks week in review

[00:00:00] Speaker A: End of another busy week, we're inching closer to football season. Fifteen days before the Razorbacks take the field against North Alabama over at Razorback Stadium. You know, college football starts next week. That's when they have all the Week Zero games. Like there's a game in Dublin. Every year on week zero, there's always, you know, kind of a random sampling of games one day. Our podcast is brought to you by Eglin's Best in Arkansas. Greatness starts early, before the pads go on, before the crowd roars, the day begins at the breakfast table. Eglin's Best delivers superior nutrition with more vitamin D and less saturated fat than ordinary eggs. You can start strong with Eglins Best better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. For more information, visit eglinsbest.com we're also brought to you by Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. They're committed, professional and 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 now at 507 South Main and Bentonville or online at bentonvilleglass.com we appreciate you being with us. Put our podcasts on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, search Whole Hog Sports there. We've got an audio version on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Again, just search Whole Hog Sports. Ask that you would subscribe. We're still weekly. We're going to go back to a daily podcast beginning on August 31, the week of the first Razorback football game. We got some Razorback football news, some Razorback baseball news, some Razorback basketball news to get to. That's all happened this week. We'll start with football and we'll start with this, you know, news today that the fifth year players who thought they were going to be able to play for Arkansas since the last time that we did a show, Caleb Wooden, who was on last year's team, he has, you know, he's come back and then they've added is it Sean Williams from Dartmouth? You know, he's a fifth year player who I guess he was in the transfer portal and because he was in the transfer portal he was able to go and you know, you know, have a new school this fall. Federal court injunction in Colorado a few weeks back said that high school seniors in the class of 2022, they can now have this fifth year of eligibility. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals today said not so fast. And for the time being, they have put a stay on this injunction. So now you've got these players who, you know, they're in limbo. You've got a lot of teams who, I can't imagine there were a whole lot of teams anyway, Ethan, who were expecting, say Arkansas is not expecting Sean Williams to come in from Dartmouth and really star for them. But I think, you know, they, you, you add him, you add Wooden in the secondary because you, you need to add depth to that position. Arkansas soccer team, you know, they've added a couple of fifth year players, MacKenzie Malam and Daijona Anderson, who, you know, they've come back through this. They didn't play in the first game, they played in the last two. So these sports that are already in season or are gearing up for their season, this is really an interesting time for them. What I suspect is about to happen because the NCAA is under assault from all angles. You've got this federal court ruling that comes down today. I think what's probably going to happen is that the state court systems are about to get just totally flooded with, you know, injunction requests for, for lack of a better term, to, you know, try and get their eligibility through a state court. While all this gets figured out. It's, it's, it never ends. And this is really kind of fascinating and confusing all at the same time right now. [00:03:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a lot to keep up with. It's just, it feels like it changes every single day. If it's not the whole, like, you know, we've had some of the bigger days like today feels like one of the bigger ones with this, you know, the not so fast like you said, but like every day there's little new twists and turns that this is taking and you just wonder. I think we talked about it, you know, maybe start of August on a show how, you know, you're getting so close to school, starting, season starting, and how with the lack of clarity with all this, how it was going to get really confusing and put athletes in limbo land. And here we are on August 21st. Class started at least at Arkansas four days ago on Monday and now were in that situation where you just wonder what they do because, you know, you rush these athletes here to, you know, hopefully be a reinforcement on your team. And now are they going to get to play? [00:04:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. Yeah. I'm fascinated to see how you like, I mean, are you holding. Because if you practice these players right now, you've really, at least as far as I interpret the NCAA rules, you haven't broken any rules necessarily. But do you practice guys who might not be able to play for you in two weeks? I don't know how you handle that if you're a football staff. [00:05:08] Speaker B: Well, and also, you just got done signing these guys with all sorts of probably financial paperwork, agreements to make sure they get paid, where it's like, you know, you have an obligation to make sure that these guys who just moved here or moved back here with Caleb Wooden, unless he never left in the first place, but wouldn't shock me if he had to move back. You just, you know, probably sign into agreements that they're going to be able to get their education and stay here and no matter what happens. I just figure this is a whole lot of. It's going to be pretty messy as far as figuring out what these programs can do with these players if, you know, there are consequences for playing games with people that are in that limbo land. Like, it's just. It's like you said, NCBA is under attack from every angle. And I don't really know. We need a lot more clarity. And I get it. That's not just the NCAA here, that it's the whole, you know, court system that we need just clarity once and for all from. [00:06:03] Speaker A: Well, you know, and I mean, this. This, you know, this appeal or this appellate court today, their decision comes on the heels of. What was it two days ago that a Louisiana court said that, you know, 16 players could, you know, go back to college who had been in professional. Like, I think there was one guy who. He's now got his eligibility back, and he had two sacks in a preseason game for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the other day. So it's. It's just. It just kind of feels like grasping at straws for. For lack of a better term, because just I suspect that, you know, what one state court says, and maybe you. You find a friendly judge in, you know, this county that, you know, maybe go to Benton county if Washington county doesn't work out for you, or Sebastian County. It's just. It's a. It's very. It's just. It feels very wobbly, doesn't it? I mean, it's. You know, how. Where does this all end? Or does it end before the season begins? I don't know. [00:07:07] Speaker B: Yeah. And at what point do coaches just kind of say, this is more of a headache than it is a help. Let's just move forward with the team that we have and how we were kind of going about things. I. If you can get somebody who just Got done playing in an NFL preseason game. [00:07:20] Speaker A: Well, Sean Williams, who they just, you know, I mean, he was in a mini camp with the Titans this year. [00:07:25] Speaker B: It's. If you can get guys that can help you, they'll never stop trying to get guys that can help them, I don't think. But I do think there reaches a point where coaches, you know, they had a plan before all of this anyway, just with the teams that they had that you just wonder at what point, you know, it becomes like, honestly, there's a lot of athletes that are maybe eligible or at least trying to become eligible that kind of are like, you know, there's. There's not a place for them at the time because teams have already gotten into their seasons and moved forward. It's just, you wonder what happens to some of those athletes who are, you know, fighting these court battles and then, you know, do they. It's what happens with the transfer portal every year where you wonder if they're actually going to find a home, but you just wonder if kind of a similar thing happens in this situation. [00:08:11] Speaker A: So the. One of the big news items this week from football was Maddox Lasseter is out for the season. He was projected to be their starting tight end or, you know, certainly was going to get, you know, a lot of reps at that position. This is a. I don't know how big it is for Arkansas, I think, you know, I read Clay Henry's, you know, commentary on our site today. He said he really likes the look of the tight ends. They've got Jaden Platt back and he had a good year last year, the best year, you know, that he's had. But, you know, when you're, when you're the Razorbacks, depth is always, I feel like the, the biggest and staying healthy, like, those are the two biggest keys for this football team. Because I've always thought, you know, Arkansas, if you just line their ones up against the ones from the other team, they're probably going to be pretty competitive. Where I feel like Arkansas gets in trouble each year is when depth starts having to become a factor, which it always does in a sport, like football does in any sport. But, but especially, you know, a sport that's as physical as football is, that's where they start getting in trouble. So now you know, where you thought you had two really good frontline tight ends, you lose one of them and Maddox Lasser, that. That feels like a big loss for this team. [00:09:25] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, you still have your. For sure. Jaden Platz, the headliner of the Room has been, you know, honestly, since they got the roster finalized. He's just. He's definitely, you know, that kind of like you said, you feel like your ones can go against anybody. He's probably about as good as any returning tight end in the SEC. I know Tradez Green at LSU is really good too, but he's one of the SEC's, you know, top tight ends coming back. But then after that, like you said Maddox last year, it's. He's kind of an interesting case because he's not like your traditional tight end, per se. Like, I mean, he's kind of like your fullback slash tight end, where he's really important in those short yardage situations they like to put him in. Just, you know, have him bulldoze over somebody. Does a lot of the dirty work. But, you know, Arkansas still does have, like their headliner with Jaden Platt. And then Ty Lockwood, who, you know, he started his career at Alabama, was a highly recruited prospect. I think he's in fall camp, really done a good job solidifying that he's a great number two option. But you do have like those other, like Matt Adcock who came with them from Memphis, and then Maddox, Laster, they kind of fit into the same mold where it was just a different look of a tight end, like more of [00:10:32] Speaker A: a blocking tight end. Yeah, it was just got the, you know, he's got the fullback. [00:10:35] Speaker B: Exactly. And so now Matt Adcock is going to really need to, you know, for those type of packages, probably be your guy, which. But don't sleep on him also in the past game, I think he was second on Memphis's team last year with like three touchdowns or some three receiving touchdowns, so he can catch the ball. But you know, him and Maddox last year are known as being blockers. So, yeah, the Racebacks tight end room, it does feel like one of the thinner rooms. It already kind of did to me, but now it definitely does. But I do think you have three options right now that at least give some different types of looks. And Jaden Platt, you definitely feel good about him, but health is definitely a concern in the SEC and what you do whenever you need to turn to somebody else. [00:11:15] Speaker A: I do want to mention this before we move on. I want to give a plug here our Hogs Illustrated Sports Club. Ryan Silverfield is going to speak there on August 27th and. And then Hunter Jurecheck is going to come on September 10th. Kevin Trainor will also be there on September 3rd if you're interested in attending that. That's In Springdale at the Home2 Suites by Hilton. Those programs, they usually begin about noon every day and they last around an hour. You can go to Ozarks Tix O Z A r k s t I x.com and learn more information there. Also we got, you know, I told you this yesterday. I have stopped trying to even try to figure out readership behavior because I wrote this story yesterday and I didn't think that it just blows up and everybody's talking about they're playing Gardner Webb to start the 2027 season. Yeah, I didn't expect there to be that much interest in that game. Gardner Webb is an FCS opponent and this is going to be the first game that Arkansas is going to play after Razorback Stadium and is renamed and it's going to be played August 28th. We were talking about week zero earlier, Ethan. You know August 28th that in 2027, like if 2027 were were past years, that would be week zero. But the NCAA cabinet, they passed a rule earlier this year that basically standardizes the college football season because like sometimes you'll have seasons and people get confused by this, like well why is there one bye week this year but there were two the previous two years? Well, it's all because of the way the calendar works. Where college football season traditionally has started the weekend of Labor Day, Labor Day weekend, that Saturday and then the regular season ends the first Saturday of December. Well, because Labor Day moves the way it does every five to six years, there is created this time where you know, there's an extra weekend between Labor Day weekend and the first weekend of December. What this does is that this is trying to standardize that where every college football season is going to be a 14 week season. It's going to end on the first week of the first weekend of December, but it will start now well before Labor Day some years. So that's why it's August 28th, this game against Gardner Webb. So they're going to play some, I mean it's already hot when you play on September 5th against North Alabama most likely. But now you're going to be playing games like maybe potentially well into, you know, like, like, like earlier in August than we're usually used to. And so they're going to play Gardner Web next year on August 28th. Their non conference schedule is set for 2027. They're gonna play at Tulsa on September 4th. At Tulsa. Tulsa. And they're gonna play Oklahoma State here in Fayetteville on September 11th. One other note about Gardner Webb, their head coach is from Pine Bluff. His name's Chris McCullough and he was a pretty good head Coach at the D2 level. Won a couple of playoff games and this is his first year at Gardner Webb. So you get into the preseason, this point, and I just feel like the players want it over with and you know, they'll scrimmage this weekend and typically the end of that second scrimmage with two, you know, work weeks, so to speak, before the season starts, that's when the coach will come out and declare that camp is over. And so they're almost there. They're almost at that, that end point where they can really just kind of turn their focus toward now your game prepping for North Alabama probably a little bit for, for Utah and maybe an opponent after that too, Georgia. But I mean, do you get that feel that. That they're just kind of going through the motions is not the right word because that's not what they're doing. They're, they're, you know, they're certainly working hard and trying to make the most and maximize their time, but I mean, you get that feeling that, you know, they're just kind of ready for something different. [00:15:21] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, especially like, you know, the football never ends. They're going against each other back in the spring and especially, you know, with now there's only one transfer portal. Yeah. Period. Will officially won. There's this. They've been facing each other since the spring and you're just at that point, I think, where, you know, I think everybody would like to hit somebody else across the way from them. But yeah, I feel like you, especially this summer with how hot it's been here and these practices and just kind of the grueling nature of it, it's probably just like ready for the game day where you just go out there, face another team and yeah, I do think that they're doing a lot of stuff in this camp to prepare them at least schedule wise for what the start of the season will look like. Like the scrimmage this Saturday's at the same time the Utah game will be. They did their. [00:16:10] Speaker A: It's like a 9:15 start. [00:16:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And they did, I think an early morning one or I say early morning pretty late into the morning last Sunday. And that's maybe more like Georgia. And then I think they're going to do kind of like a walk through type of deal at the same time that they would do North Alabama. So I feel like hitting all the marks you're supposed to and at this point, it's almost like, you know, I'm sure no coach would ever like fully feel like, you know, Hayes in the barn or whatever, like before your season starts. Because there's still things that you just really need to know about your team. But I do think you're at a point where you have a pretty good idea of most things you know about this Razorback team, what it's going to look like as far as personnel wise. It's just you need to see another team to figure out your deficiencies. That's always how it works. Like you have an idea maybe what a team's deficiencies are. And then usually week two, because if you're playing FCS in week one, those don't always get exposed. But by week two or three, that's whenever you figure out what you were seeing in camp, whether it was real or not. [00:17:13] Speaker A: Sunday. Is that when Ryan Silverfield talks about the scrimmage? [00:17:16] Speaker B: Yeah. And so, you know, it wouldn't shock [00:17:19] Speaker A: me like Sunday afternoon. Not like at, you know, midnight Sunday, 4pm Sunday, after the script, after they walk off the field. [00:17:24] Speaker B: Yeah, if we had a midnight press [00:17:26] Speaker A: conference, we'll save that for Salt Lake. [00:17:28] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. But I. It wouldn't shock me if, I mean, maybe they drag it out a little bit further and just to, I guess, mess with teams that have to scout them. But I would think that after two scrimmages are under your belt, you have an idea who you want to move forward with at quarterback. So I'm kind of in the boat where I'm like, is he going to announce it on Sunday or are we going to have to wait really on until the game week of North Alabama. We'll see. [00:17:53] Speaker A: Early morning press conferences are so weird. And I'm talking about the ones that are like, you know, whenever it's. Everybody else is sleeping. Like, you know, the baseball regional is what I'm thinking about in 2017, the game that ends at 3:10. Well, everybody's like, well, you know, I'm going home at 3:10. Well, that's when the work begins for, you know, the people who are still there covering the game there weren't a whole lot. But I remember just thinking how surreal it was when I looked at my watch. And it's like 3:40 in the morning and you know, Keith Gutton is walking off the stage and Dave Van Horn's walking in to start talking, taking questions about this game. And they've got a game later that day. And it's just that that was surreal. [00:18:36] Speaker B: We know because, you know, whenever you're the last people in the facility, like the people whose job starts as soon as the game ends are reporters and the janitors and the usually the like, volunteer high school baseball cleanup crew or whatever. It's just there's always a few people who starts once everybody else is in. [00:18:55] Speaker A: Usually at baseball, I beat the janitors out of the building. I know I have been there too long. Whenever all the lights are off and all the vacuums are put up and I'm the last one out of there, that's when, let me tell you what, like any type of sports stadium, when they turn all the lights off, it gets awfully dark in there. [00:19:15] Speaker B: Eerie. I've been locked inside the Bentonville west football stadium and had to jump a fence. [00:19:21] Speaker A: That's the worst feeling when you get locked inside of a high school football stadium. Because, you know, I mean, like, if it's a Razorback, you know, venue that we're used to, you if it's like you've gone, you know, because I remember I got at Mountainburg one year, many years ago, I was covering a high school football game at Mountainburg, and I don't know how, but I got. I got locked in there and I had to jump events like that. [00:19:42] Speaker B: And I learned when I did high school reporting, kind of the best evacuation method for whenever you get locked into all these stadiums. [00:19:50] Speaker A: I got locked in ORU's baseball stadium one night, too. That was. [00:19:54] Speaker B: Well, all this to say, hopefully, whenever the Utah game ends at like, past midnight Central time, at least I'll probably get out of there, whatever. Is that Mountain time? Who knows what time we'll get out of there, but hopefully I'm not having to jump fences. And Is it Rice? Rice Eccles? I think, yeah, Hopefully I'm not jumping fences and Rice Echols, but that's why I'm glad that we are talking to Ryan Silverfield this Sunday and not, you know. Oh, actually, I guess either way it would be Sunday because we probably would start talking to him. [00:20:25] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's going to be. It's going to be at 112 and not the other. [00:20:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:29] Speaker A: Basketball news today, Virginia and Arkansas are going to play in D.C. it's going to be on November 8th. We had heard that this game was in the works, but had not been able to get any type of, you know, confirmation on it. It was announced today. Apparently it's Arkansas's first time they're ever going to play in D.C. which is kind of surprising to Me, I figured that they, you know, through NCAA tournament or something, they would have played there before. But Virginia, they were really good last year. Ryan Odom, their, their head Coach, they were 30 and 6. He's the son of Dave Odom, who used to be the head coach at Wake Forest in South Carolina. Seems like he's got Virginia, you know, back on that path that they were on under Tony Bennett and now they can score. You know, it's, it's a different looking Virginia team than I think what the perception of Virginia became for a lot of years for sure. [00:21:20] Speaker B: And I mean, I think that's a big time game for Arkansas. It's very early in the season, right? [00:21:25] Speaker A: Like November, I mean, that's going to be the first weekend of the season. I think the season can start maybe November 2, November 3. [00:21:34] Speaker B: So those are always interesting games. [00:21:37] Speaker A: It's the same weekend when they played Michigan State this last year. [00:21:40] Speaker B: Gotcha. [00:21:40] Speaker A: Yeah, up there. [00:21:41] Speaker B: Games like that so early in the season are so interesting because both teams are talented and they know they are, but they don't know what they're made of yet. And so for Arkansas with a young team, I don't even know Virginia, what they have coming back as far as the ages and stuff, but it'll be interesting if they have, you know, what, what age classification their players are if it's going to be Arkansas facing a veteran team or another, you know, young team. But I do think games like that early in the year are always interesting because they can say so much in the moment and then you look back in March and you're like, well, those teams took different paths. I mean, think about Arkansas two years ago and some of the losses they had non conference play and where they were at at the end of the year. Like, you certainly didn't think they were going to make the Sweet 16 after losing to Baylor that year or even Illinois. But you know, those, those early season games are important once the net rankings and stuff come out because they usually hold a lot of value and they continue to, even though it was, you know, such an early result. [00:22:40] Speaker A: Caliperi said this was going to happen. This isn't a surprise that all their marquee games are away from Fayetteville. Like their best non conference games in Fayetteville are exhibition games. Memphis and Gonzaga and everything else. They've got what are, you know, officially considered four neutral site games and one road game in the non conference. But you know, Virginia and D.C. that's not a neutral site game. Arizona and Phoenix is not a neutral Site game. Michigan State in Detroit on Thanksgiving. That is not a neutral site game. They'll also go to North Carolina as part of the ACC SEC challenge. And then I guess, you know, Indiana against Arkansas at Madison Square Garden in New York. That will be a true neutral site game. But those are their marquee games in this upcoming season. The schedule's almost finished. It may be finished and we just don't know, you know, the final two or three opponents. But, but it's, it's almost there. And you can read all of [email protected] Anthony Christensen, who covers basketball for us, has done a really good job of kind of breaking down who they're going to play. And he's got some more information about Virginia on our website. Before I move to baseball, I'll use softball as a segue here. Courtney Diefel hired her sister Amanda Scott this week to be on her staff. Kind of interesting. [00:24:01] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's one of the, this is, [00:24:02] Speaker A: this is a family who like in the softball circles is, you know, well respected beyond Courtney. [00:24:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's what's so funny about us because I think on surface value somebody might be like, oh, hiring your sister. If you look at what her sister's done, she's like overly qualified as far as she's has head coaching experience. [00:24:17] Speaker A: More of a support staff role that she's going to be in here, right? [00:24:20] Speaker B: Yeah, it's very much like a overseeing, you know, kind of the management of the team. And it's her. The job posting that was listed so that she would ensure the effective coordination of resources, personnel budgets and support services. So I'm like, what does that not touch? But yeah, she's overly qualified. She's regarded in the softball world is like on. I don't know if I want to call Mount Rushmore of like best pitchers to ever pitch in college football. Like she is up there. She's in those talks. You don't have ERAs of 0.24. [00:24:53] Speaker A: Did she go like 90 something innings without giving up a run? [00:24:56] Speaker B: 92⅓ to start her junior year. And she had a. She had 68 shutouts in college. I mean, these are ridiculous numbers. She's one of the best to ever do it. And it's one of those deals where, you know, Courtney, this is a just one more sign. She said it publicly like that she. This is where she wants to be. This is where she sees herself. They have moved the entire family from California. [00:25:22] Speaker A: I think my dad was a coaching like a juco coaching legend. [00:25:26] Speaker B: Yeah, Ron, Ron Scott. And I think, I think he's here. I think he's moved here. I know mom moved here. I know now sister moved here. It's like the entire Scott family has now adopted Arkansas. [00:25:37] Speaker A: Arkansas's baseball team. They recruited a player from Fresno City College, where he was. And I did, you know, I knew Courtney's maiden name was Scott, but I did not put two and two together. When I'm talking to this man, this man several years ago and you know, we're talking about this player who Arkansas signed and you know, he, after a little while he goes, he goes, you know, my daughter is the softball coach there at Arkansas, right? Courtney is your daughter. And it just, I don't know, it never clicked with me. And, but you see him all the time at, at Bogle. And I figure, you know, now that he's got multiple, you know, daughter's on staff, he'll probably be there some more. [00:26:17] Speaker B: And now the head, and this is random to be talking about Fresno City College, but their head softball coach, Linda Garza, was a assistant at Arkansas back in the day and her and Courtney are really good friends. It's just there's so many weird full circle moments happening with that Fresno City College. But yeah, her sister is, I mean, overly qualified to have a, to be in a role like that. And I know that I actually talked with her on the phone a few years ago for a story and like, you can tell she has just like Courtney, like that kind of competitive coaching mindset with the ability to kind of flip the switch and be a people person too, which I think is so important in today's college sports. Just you have to be able to manage a bunch of personalities and know how to navigate that. And it always helps when you have former players who know what it's like with, you know, those on the, those on the team. So I think Amanda will be good for the staff. And definitely it's a new role. They actually had Dan Bartoszyk who's been the, the director of ops. He's now kind of branching off and doing like director of technology and player operations. So they made two roles kind of, I guess probably free up a lot what he did. [00:27:25] Speaker A: So yeah, got a lot of baseball stories on our website too. Talk to Levi abrego. He's a 2028 who just committed to Arkansas recently. Big time prospect from down in Texas that's on our website at Whole Hog Sports. And I also had a lot of fun talking to Jake Ivey and his dad. Jake is a Left handed pitcher from the Dallas area who he got to play in the MLB All American Game at the Field of Dreams last week, the day before the big league game there between the Twins and the Phillies. And so that was a fun story. You can read those at our [email protected] had the crossover baseball softball event this week where this Diamond Sports alliance, which is a, you know, for, for I guess maybe just at its, at its core it is an event management company that has been formed to make, make revenue for nil for baseball and softball. And so they announced this week, this fall exhibition schedule. What they've done is, is basically they're going to lease out Bogle park, they're going to lease out Baum Walker Stadium and, and they are going to hold events there for softball events, four baseball events this fall. That's going to be kind of their launch pad. But I suspect there will be some other events, maybe not games, but other events where the, the DSA as they're called, they get involved and they're able to, you know, manage these events and pay the athletes through those. But what's going to happen this fall is that on September 18, October 3, October 17 and October 23, that's two Fridays and two Saturdays in the fall, there's going to be what equates to a baseball softball double header at Bogle and Baum. And some of those are going to be inter squad games where they're just facing each other. But there's going to be a lot of outside competition that comes in too. Softball's going to play Tulsa, they're going to play Oklahoma State. Those are. Oklahoma State obviously is a really great softball program. Tulsa's where DJ Gasso just went, the former Razorback assistant. Then Razorback baseball. They're going to host Little Rock, Dallas Baptist and uca. What's changing is that this year, you know, used to you could go to a fall exhibition game. You just walk in the gate, you can bring your, your Chick Fil a drink and your Sonic Burger and you know, whatever else you got and your dog and you know, you just sit there and it's, it's just, it's just a different feel. Well, it's gonna be different this year. Maybe you can still bring your dog, I don't know. But, but you got to buy a ticket. And they're going to take the ticket revenue and funnel that back to the players. They're going to. They've got a lot of sponsorships, I think like 17 sponsors. They're going to take sponsorship money, and they're going to funnel that back to the players, too. You know, when you're trying to stay at the top of the top, like Arkansas baseball and softball are trying to do, you've got to get creative with, you know, outside entities like this. And from what I can find, Ethan, there's nothing else like this that exists where you've got this baseball softball partnership that's going to go back and try to pay players nil funds through it. And honestly, you look at what both of these teams did in the portal this year. Softball had the number two ranked portal class by 64 analytics. Baseball had the number seven ranked portal class by 64 analytics. Baseball also has the MLB draft component where they were able to get 10 of their 11American high school players through the draft. I think that they were able to recruit to this DSA and, you know, be able to make themselves a little bit more appealing when they're out there trying to, you know, get all these players built for 20, 27. [00:31:10] Speaker B: I think what's so interesting about it, too, is, you know, what you're always, I think, worried about whenever you're. When you're the first, you're innovative and you come up with something as schools trying to be copycat, you know, because [00:31:21] Speaker A: you have a good idea if that can happen. [00:31:23] Speaker B: Exactly. I think they were so far ahead of this that they have a. I mean, and also you have to take into account which are there a whole lot of schools that baseball and softball really are doing as well as they do, and they have fan bases that are as loyal. I know there's a few out there. [00:31:37] Speaker A: A M comes to mind. Tennessee, there's a few out. But do they work as well together? Do those salves work as well together? I mean, we've heard Dave Van Horn and Courtney Deiffel talk very highly of one another over the years. And I actually asked Courtney that this week. I said, in your experience, she's been at other schools. I said, have you ever had a dynamic that exists here where the softball program and the baseball program seem to work so well together? And she said, no, it's unique to my experience. [00:32:10] Speaker B: And I just don't. Yeah, that's my whole thing. I'm not sure it would make sense to even try at a lot of schools. And if there's not that relationship to where this is something that I think can be a unique competitive advantage for both programs and be kind of a one of a kind deal, it'll be interesting to see how it evolves. Because I know anytime you ever form anything, the first year of it, you learn a lot of what could go better, what, you know, went right. And I'll be curious to see, you know, maybe a couple years from now how this all looks. But for them to be like, you know, I know a lot of times whenever something like this forms, you can tell it's the pilot version that runs out. There was a lot of, just from the announcement and stuff. This was not like a, hey, let's put something, something together real quick project. This was a, We've thought this through. [00:32:55] Speaker A: They're starting off January, so I mean [00:32:57] Speaker B: they've, it feels like they're rolling out their first, you know, Fall classic thing that could be in its fifth year with how the, they announced it and the sponsorships and all this stuff like this has definitely been in the works. I'll be curious to see if they can find more ways to, you know, tie the Diamond Sports alliance into, you know, revenue streams. What comes to mind for me with softball is they have the ausl. I don't know if this is even be possible, but they play, there's, they're expanding their market. They already did last year. You wonder if they add more teams and they've been trying to become location based and they play at college stadiums. And you wonder if things like that could be additional ways that you partner, you know, the DSA with a revenue stream. It's things like that that I think they're going to think outside the box on as far as trying to find ways to turn, you know, Bomb and Bogle into places where you can, you know, bring some extra money into the program that goes directly back to the athletes. And I think that, you know, anytime you change something like talking about like you used to be able to roll right into a fall exhibition baseball game just, you know, free of cost. I think there's always a little bit of resistance from some people just because it's, it's hard for that to change whenever it's something free and you've been doing it. But I think whenever you see the vision of how this will help, it's hard, honestly. It's like kind of like a donation that you want to do, I would think, as a fan. [00:34:16] Speaker A: And I've talked to some people who have gone to these in the past. Like I've talked to them this week who have gone to these in past years and they said, hey, for Dave, you can have my $34. I would gladly give $34 to come do that. I think that there is a real loyalty that exists, especially among Razorback baseball. But I think it exists too with softball that, you know, they just. They kind of go above and beyond to help out their programs. And, you know, they. They do a good job of it. Can you hear that horn? [00:34:49] Speaker B: I do hear that. [00:34:50] Speaker A: There's a. There's a car alarm going off or something outside of our studio right now. But it made it hard for me to focus there for a second. [00:34:56] Speaker B: I know you're good, but. Yeah, no, I agree. I think there's people that will be more than happy to pay the price of admission to go to these games knowing that it's also helping the athletes that they're watching. And it's not like, I think something that's cool about this idea what they're doing is it seems like they're not trying to make it be like a. Like a normal game where you pay your. Your money and you go watch these athletes play and then you leave. There's like a lot of stuff that's going to be interactive with the athletes. [00:35:20] Speaker A: Home run derby autograph sessions. [00:35:22] Speaker B: So it's gonna. I think it'd be a thing where you're not only directly funding the athletes with the price of admission, but then you're also getting to meet them and stuff. It just feels like a very. This is a really cool way to learn legit to earn legitimate nil for these athletes. Because I know that's. It seems like an outside the box way of thinking of doing nil the right way. [00:35:42] Speaker A: Let's talk to Matt Hobbs about this. He said, you know, I think that whenever you are connected to something, it makes it easier to give of your time, your money, your whatever. So we'll see how that works out. I got a story on Whole Hog this week about the Razorback baseball roster for the fall. They got 41 players on campus. As of right now. I say as of right now because who knows how this fifth year thing is going to work out. There's some thought that maybe Zach Stewart could. Could be part of it. Well, let me. Let me back up. I want to make sure that I'm. I say this correctly, he is the only player from last year's team who could potentially qualify for a fifth year under the injunction that we talked about earlier has now been kind of put on pause, so we'll say it that way. But 41 players, including Shogo Meuchi from Japan, who had quite the travel getting here because of that hurricane out in the Pacific Ocean. I think he had to have Like a maybe a day or two day stop in Hawaii. If all, if only all of us could be so lucky on our layovers that, hey, just go hang out at Waikiki for a couple of days. [00:36:54] Speaker B: And Hawaii, the Arkansas baseball, you know, fertile ground for Arkansas baseball. So he just got. [00:37:01] Speaker A: All roads lead to Hawaii, I must say. [00:37:02] Speaker B: I'm sure he got to come back and just tell some of the Hawaiian players on the team about his time in their state. But if he. How's his English? I think you've talked to him. [00:37:12] Speaker A: I've talked to him. His English is very broken. I think he can understand. Yeah, he can understand the language better than he can speak it. I think he's going to. I talked to Matt Hobbs about this. I think that. And this was what Matt said was, I think he's going to be, you know, he understands it well enough to where you're going to be able to coach him in the bullpen. And then obviously it's going to improve as he spends more time around native speakers. We'll get out of here on this. Dave Van Horn and Bobby Warner signed new contracts this week. Dave's 2.1 million is what it'll start at. It'll go through 2031. He's got built in raises every season to this. He's got some very interesting incentives built in there. A million dollars if he wins a national championship, half million dollar retention bonus if he stays for the duration of that five year contract. You know, nobody thought Dave Van Horn was going to leave Arkansas. If you thought Dave Van Horn was going to leave Arkansas, you are, you're, you're blind. But you know, it takes care of him. But I will tell you, and I said this earlier in the week to somebody and then I heard Dave say it on the radio Wednesday morning on, on Chuck and Bo. And he said, and what I said was, I think he wanted to get everybody else on his staff taken care of. And then on Wednesday morning he said, you know, we got everybody else. And then I came last and that's fine with me. That's the order that I want it to be. But so he's going to be a top five paid coach in the country. Now. The only ones who are paid more than him are Schlossnagle at Texas, Corbin at Vanderbilt. I shouldn't have done this off the top of my head because I'm going to miss somebody. And I got it. Brian o' Connor at Mississippi State and Jay Johnson at lsu. So, you know, they're making a big investment in baseball, they've. They've made. I mean, when they went to the World Series in 25 and they had that run to the semifinals, their assistant coaching staff of three coaches, Werness, Thompson and Hobbs, they're paid $700,000, and that's a good salary. But you look at what Tennessee was doing at that time, and they were paying not quite double, but close to it. And LSU was paying more and Texas was paying more. And so what Arkansas has really done in the last couple of years, you know, Wernus had an opportunity to leave this summer. He stayed, but he got a raise out of it. And what they've done is they have. They've increased their salary pool for their assistants by like 47%. They've added the GM position with DJ Baxendale. Now, obviously, you know, Van Horn gets the big pay raise. It's like a million dollars a year or close to it, in salaries that they've added. Well, you know what happens, that's eventually going to get passed on to the fans in some way. In fact, I mean, I know season tickets are, you know, the season ticket prices are going to go up next year. It's just the cost of doing business, though. I mean, like baseball, it's. It used to be you could. You could kind of break even with baseball. Like, you know, maybe you'd have a year where you were in the, you know, the red because there was bad weather for the LSU weekend or something, you know, but you were always going to come close to breaking even. Or if you had a year where you had good weather and you hosted a regional and you hosted a super regional, you could make some money off the sport. The gap between the profit and the expenses in that sport. Now, not just at Arkansas, at LSU, at A& M, Tennessee, Texas, these teams that really want to win at a high level. Mississippi State made a huge investment last year to bring o' Connor from Virginia. It's a huge gap now that, you know, they're having to fill. [00:40:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And like you said, it always ends. It has to come from somewhere. Yeah. Your supporters. [00:40:57] Speaker A: It has to be. [00:40:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it has to be. Yeah. [00:40:59] Speaker A: And so they're being pulled on both directions. You know, tickets over here, you know, nil over there. It's. It's tough. But that's the. If you want to have a competitive. Do you want to have a competitive team that. That I don't know of any other way you can have it other than that. [00:41:15] Speaker B: And this is also why in every sport, when ESPN and TV wants to do something, it gets done the revenue. Like it's just you got to do what you got to do. [00:41:27] Speaker A: Well, I mean, the three biggest sources of revenue in any given athletic program, I know it's this way at Arkansas are the conference payout, which that's where the TV money. TV money goes. It goes to the conference office and then they funnel it out to the schools and then ticket sales and donations. That's how it is everywhere. And, but, but typically that TV money, I feel like that's going more toward football, basketball, and everybody else is left to figure out how can we get creative to stay most competitive with, with whoever the team is that you're chasing in your sport. [00:42:00] Speaker B: Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see, you know, what they do to, to make it, to make it work. [00:42:06] Speaker A: All right, we're almost to football season. WholeHogsports.com this weekend we'll have coverage from Ryan Silverfield's press conference to talk about the scrimmage. Who knows what else might happen this week. I know Anthony Christensen had said he's got a story on Arkansas's basketball roster that he's got planned for the next few days. Going to talk to some coaches about that, so hope that we'll see you at our website for all of our content there or next week on the podcast. Have a great weekend, everybody. [00:42:33] Speaker C: LPGA Week in Northwest Arkansas returns this September as We celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Walmart Northwest Arkansas Championship presented by PNG. Join us September 21st through the 27th at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers to watch the world's best female golfers compete. Plus enjoy family friendly activities, food and entertainment all week long. Tickets start at just $10. Visit www.nwachampionship.com to learn more and purchase your tickets today.