[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Whole Hog Sports Podcast.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: And now here's your host, Matt Jones.
[00:00:07] Speaker C: Hope you enjoyed your long weekend. Today on the show, we'll talk about Arkansas's win over Alabama A and M. We've also got Kara Richie from Jonesboro to talk about this weekend's game with Arkansas State in Little Rock. But first, a word from Kendall King.
[00:00:18] Speaker D: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design.
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[00:00:45] Speaker C: I don't know if there was any surprise about what happened with Arkansas over the weekend. Beating Alabama A&M 52. 7, Razorbacks 1&O gonna play Arkansas State Saturday afternoon at 4:00 clock at War Memorial Stadium. We'll talk to Kara Ritchie about that game a little bit later. Christina Long's in studio with me right now though.
You don't want to overreact to anything from week one, but I do think that when you're playing a team that should be as overmatched as Alabama A and M is that number one, you don't want to and this is going to sound bad, it's going to sound negative, but you really don't want to pay a whole lot of attention to the big numbers.
But maybe you do pay a little bit more attention to the things that didn't go right. And as I was watching this game and I want to talk about all the things that did go right here in a little bit. Taylor Green had a nice game. I thought the receivers were impressive.
Offensive line seemed to hold up pretty well.
As I was watching this, I was watching the defensive line closely and I got a little bit of a feeling that I got two years ago watching the Western Carolina game where the offensive line was having trouble pushing Western Carolina back average like two and a half yards per carry. And that was kind of a precursor to they're going to struggle when they get to SEC play. I thought one of the big takeaways from Saturday, maybe the biggest takeaway was that and maybe it was just a bad game. But they did not get the push up front from the defensive front against an offensive line from Alabama A and M that is nowhere near the caliber of offensive lines they're going to see when they play Ole Miss or Notre Dame or any of these other SEC teams are going to play this year. And that was a concern for this team was the defensive line or it was a concern the defensive front. You don't have any or many or any NFL prospects on the defensive line. And so I thought. And you heard Sam Pittman say this since the game. He said it's Saturday after the game. He said it again yesterday that the front seven should have had a better performance against Alabama A and M than it had. That was the big takeaway for me this weekend.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: I think you're right. And especially because we knew that was a concern going in and because of how this confirmed that. I feel like usually when you play an FCS team, the overreaction goes in the other way, the other direction, where you see, like, what was all that talk about the defensive line? They were great. You know, like that's kind of what you expect to see happen. And then instead it was like, whoa, like there might really be some issues here. And you know, we talk a lot about how that first drive, and they did recover after that first drive, but still it wasn't like it got back to, you know, just exactly what you wanted to see. And I think one of the other big takeaways is the linebackers didn't really offer what we thought they were maybe going to offer.
And that was something that Coach Pittman talked about yesterday was, you know, needing to get more from them. You know, I don't know. I think mileage may vary on PFF grades and how much to read into them, but I thought it was extremely pff. Hated xavian. Sorry. He was the lowest graded player on the entire defense. 35.4 defensive grade. They, they kind of color code these with like a blue being close to a hundred and. And red being the worst. His is quite red across the whole board. Basically. He got pretty good grade in pass rush, 69.3. The rest are, let's see, 30.9 run defense, 32 tackling and 43.2 coverage grade. So, you know, those are not perfect metrics. I don't think you can look at that and say, oh, he's just bad and we didn't know. I think, you know, he, he might have had a rough game, but I always think it's interesting to go back and look at those grades right after a game and kind of see if it confirms or, or doesn't what we saw, what we felt like we saw.
And I think, you know, Steven Dix had a good game. He had four Tackles, but they just. They want more production from their linebackers. And I think, especially if they're going to be as thin as they are on the defensive line right now, and if the defensive line is going to, you know, have some trouble getting, push against bigger opponents, then, yeah, they need the linebackers to be what they thought they could be. And that's kind of not what we saw.
[00:04:42] Speaker C: You would expect more sacks and tackles for loss in a game like this. They had two sacks for 14 lost yards. They had six tackles for loss in this game. And I thought that's indicative of just not getting the type of effort. Effort may not be the right word, the type of production up front, as I thought they were going to get.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:05:02] Speaker C: They probably thought they were going to get.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: Yeah, and that's. That's something that Coach Piven talked about yesterday. He was like, we have to get more from our linebackers. We have to get more just generally from the front seven. He said, we talked about it before the show. He said, respectfully, we should have gotten more against Alabama A and M. That's just, that's what you expect to see. And so I'm very interested what that's going to look like with Arkansas State. I haven't, you know, Dove haven't. Dove haven't dived into.
[00:05:26] Speaker C: We'll accept either one.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: I haven't looked into exactly what their, you know, offensive line is kind of bringing to the table and how, how that matchup might work, but I think, you know, you're certainly taking a step up from FCS to a Sunbelt opponent. And then after that surprise, you have Ole Miss. And so I think we're going to learn really fast and they're going to have to adjust really fast.
[00:05:46] Speaker C: I think Alabama A and M is a better team than UAPB last year, but that, that defensive line last year you had, obviously, Landon Jackson.
Did Eric Gregory get drafted? Yeah, I think, yeah, he did. So you had.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: I can't remember by who, but I think it was late.
[00:06:01] Speaker C: So you got two NFL defensive linemen on that.
On that line last year. And just to give a comparison, again, different teams, different circumstances.
UAPB, Arkansas had four sacks and 10 tackles for loss, and against Alabama A&M, two sacks and six tackles for loss. Take that. You know, take that with a grain of salt if you want to, but it's certainly something that stood out to me.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: I want to correct. Eric Gregory didn't get drafted, but he signed.
[00:06:29] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: He's with the Patriots. Just, just so everybody knows.
[00:06:33] Speaker C: But I mean, he's right.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:35] Speaker C: Defensive lineman. Are there any defensive linemen who played Saturday who you see as an NFL lineman? Camp ball. Does he get a, does he get a look?
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I think he could be a get a look.
[00:06:46] Speaker C: And then, you know, you might have some young players in there who they develop and we've got a different view.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: Of them as far as what we've seen right now.
[00:06:51] Speaker C: No, I don't think you do. No. Yeah. So I mean, again, they may develop and in a year were singing a different tune about them. I mean, Landon Jackson, I don't know that I thought Landon Jackson was going to be an NFL player.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: You were low on Landon Jackson.
[00:07:03] Speaker C: Yeah, but then he had the big game against Alabama and everybody said, well, if you can sack Alabama three and a half times, you can play in the NFL. And he turned into a pretty good player in college. I don't think he never had another Alabama game. I think that was maybe a little bit a byproduct of playing a freshman tackle. But, you know, he was an NFL player, he's made a roster.
I don't see that type of player on, on this year's defensive front.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: And I think something that's important to see that right. You really do, especially in the sec. I, I think something that's important to note is we've been talking about the lack of depth and we've been talking about, you know, how, how thin they are and they're going to get David Okey back, they think, in the next couple of weeks. But the thing about it is it's not like David Okey is like a game changing player. He's just a capable body. Like he's just a guy on the two deep that they don't have right now. And so it's not even necessarily like once you get him back, you know, it's not like if you had Landon Jackson out and then you get Landon Jackson. That's not what we're talking about here. We're just talking about somebody who has experience, somebody they think is good, somebody that was going to be on the too deep, who's not been available. We're not talking about somebody who's going to probably change the fabric of your defensive line. He just adds a little bit of.
[00:08:12] Speaker C: Depth and we're talking about defensive line. I think this defense is constructed in such a way to a point that you made earlier, that the linebackers are really the ones that are expected to make a lot of these plays.
And I think maybe that was the most disappointing element of the game Saturday because they think they've got a good linebacking.
They just didn't perform up to maybe the level that we thought they would.
[00:08:34] Speaker A: Right. I still think they do, too. I'm not ready to say actually, we were wrong about the linebackers, but. Yeah, I mean, they need and expect to get a lot more out of both of them.
[00:08:43] Speaker C: It's one game.
We'll see. Yeah, I think we'll have a lot better feel after this week. Against Arkansas State. They play Ole Miss. This is like. I think I've called this the Stairway to Heaven schedule that they're playing because, you know, it's like this week it's a little bit better than the next week is a little better. A little bit of a down, you know, from Ole Miss to Memphis, then you go back up to Notre Dame and then it's Tennessee. And kind of interesting how this works out. That was one of my big takeaways from the weekend, is how different it is for Arkansas and some other teams are doing this, too. They're not the only team that played an FCS team in Week one. But just how different it felt watching them versus watching what LSU was playing and Alabama was playing and Texas and just going down the list, Notre Dame, we're obviously paying a lot of attention to that because they come in here in a few weeks.
It's really interesting to me to see how coaches want to or don't want to challenge their teams right out of the block.
I really enjoyed watching Game Day the other day. I was one of the, whatever, 5 million people who tuned in or whatever it was. It was the most watched show they ever had.
But Nick Saban had a really interesting point that he made during the show.
He said he always wanted a big opponent right out of the blocks because he felt like you just got a different level of preparation from your team because they knew that they had to be at their best that first week.
Think about Arkansas. They played Cincinnati three years ago. That was a great season. Opening game.
Last few years has been FCS teams and it's just been a totally different feel. I feel like going through camp when you've got Western Carolina or UAPB or Alabama A&M versus playing Georgia like they had to in Pittman's first year or, you know, it's just a different feel. When you've got a team that's got some name appeal against a team that doesn't.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Do you think there's any value in doing that with like a group of five or six opponent because at Cincinnati at the time, they weren't in the Big 12 yet, were they?
[00:10:45] Speaker C: They were. It was the year before they got in the Big 12. They had accepted an invitation, but they hadn't made the transition.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: So would you see any value if, say, this year they hit.
[00:10:51] Speaker C: That was also the year that Cincinnati was coming off the playoff appearance.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Oh, that's true.
[00:10:54] Speaker C: So that's a little bit different.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I was going to say that is different than the hypothetical I was going to impose, which is what if this year they had opened the season against Arkansas State. Now, I know you're talking about, like, big kind of brand name type of stuff.
[00:11:06] Speaker C: I'd rather open the season against an Arkansas State than an Alabama A and M. Yeah. Because I just think it gets you. And especially with the Arkansas State game, with the. All of the novelty that surrounds that, I think it just gets you a different level of maybe preparation going into that game. I don't.
I would think it's tough as a player to go out and play Alabama A and M and just give it.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Everything you got because it feels like you're soft opening. You know, it's like, you know, you. You want to protect yourself. You're. You're maybe not. Your team is not necessarily showing everything offensively or on either side. And so, yeah, I would imagine that is pretty tough. It probably feels like kind of a bigger practice. I think it helps opening at home. I think opening in Fayetteville is better than opening in Little Rock, which they had been doing for.
[00:11:54] Speaker C: Are you calling Little Rock not home?
That's a can of worms we could open.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: I mean, yeah, it's not at home, but I mean. And that's how they feel about it. I mean, that's how they feel about it inside the program. Sam Pittman has been quite clear about that. But I mean, I think opening and Fable, because I, even, just as like an observer, felt like it always felt like it was harder to get excited about a season opener that was in Little Rock because it kind of felt anticlimactic. Whereas I think opening in your true home stadium with your bigger crowd, I think that's like a more fun and exciting thing. I would assume as a player, it's more exciting. Probably as a fan, I would guess so, yeah. I mean, I think I kind of am with you on the FCS thing. I understand why teams do it, but I. I get the other side of it, too. But I do think there's some teams now kind of in a sticky situation with, you know, I think you're more prone to overreaction when you play a big name team, you know, in your first week.
[00:12:51] Speaker C: Because Arch Manning is.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Exactly. Yes. And it's like, okay, it was one game, he was bad, but it was the one game. So you know, I think, which maybe that matters to a program, maybe it doesn't. You know, maybe they just don't care and they're going, okay, we can just prove it the rest of our schedule we'll just get past this week. But I think there's, there's a lot of different strategies you can take.
[00:13:11] Speaker C: I don't like playing FCS teams. I know I don't and I don't. I don't know why any self respecting SEC team would want to do that. Like they do it.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: They all play at least one though.
[00:13:20] Speaker C: They all do it. I don't know if everybody does.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: I think there are later.
[00:13:27] Speaker C: I think there are some teams that everybody plays it. I don't know that everybody plays it every year like Georgia. Did they have one of these games this year? I don't know. But I think there have been some years where Georgia hasn't had one of these type of games.
So I get why they do it. They do it because they want to get to six wins and they want to make sure they get to a bowl game at bare minimum.
But if that's your goal as an SEC program is just to get to six wins in a bowl game, you got some bigger, you got some bigger fish to fry there. I just, I hate this. It'd be like going out on a Friday night and saying, hey Greenland, this is Fayetteville High. You want to come up to Harmon and play a game. It's a mismatch. Nobody wants to watch that and nobody wants to watch this at the college level. Especially at the college level when you're having to pay so much money for tickets and potentially travel and you know, television, they don't want these games. They want to hide them on little obscure networks.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: It's so you will not be tuning into Georgia Austin P. This weekend.
[00:14:29] Speaker C: I don't believe I will because that.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: Is a game that's out. And last year they played, they opened against Tennessee Tech.
[00:14:33] Speaker C: I think, I think they've had some years though where they didn't.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: You're probably right. I just scrolled through the last couple of years, but yeah, you're probably right.
[00:14:39] Speaker C: Well tell you can get the latest breaking news on all razorback
[email protected] most end up source for all Arkansas sports analysis Latest in recruiting, unique stories on all your favorite teams. Subscribe today@whole hogsports.com this afternoon you'll be able to read about Razorback basketball. Anthony Christensen's in Memphis today where they have announced Arkansas is going to play a preseason exhibition game against Memphis. This is going to be part of a benefit with St. Jude Hospital. This is going to be at the FedEx forum on October 27th. That's a Monday night. It's actually going to be talking about high school. It's going to feel like a high school deal where they've got the girls play. Memphis and Vanderbilt are going to play first and then there's going to be a little bit of an intermission and then Arkansas and Memphis will play.
So you get Arkansas, Memphis, but you don't get it in a game that counts. Baby steps might get back to that series at some point in time. And then Dave Van Horn spoke this morning to reporters. Fall baseball practice begins today here in Fayetteville.
The first scrimmage will be Friday out at Baum Walker Stadium. It was also announced this morning that the baseball team is going to play fall exhibition games against Little Rock on October 10th at 6pm that's a Friday night. And Dallas Baptist on October 11th at 1pm that's on a Saturday afternoon. It might overlap with the Arkansas Tennessee football game, but the Razorback's going to play those two teams in fall exhibition games. They played Oklahoma State last year.
They're kind of fun to go out there. It's like, hey, you know, we're right in the middle of the World Series is four months ago and opening day is four months from now. And here's like a little two day oasis in the desert of college baseball.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you want to give me and the listeners the cliff notes on what Dave said today? I haven't looked at all. I haven't watched the video or read any of the transcript or anything.
[00:16:29] Speaker C: I would say the two, three biggest takeaways for me is I asked him, I said, are you going to run fall practice like you did last year when they didn't scrimmage as much and they put more time into instructional work and skill work? And he said yes. He thought that that pushed the team forward a couple of months last year when they did it that way. So they're going to do that. They're not going to scrimmage as much. Their scrimmages will probably only be on Friday and Saturday of the weekends. Probably going to be a little bit shorter fall period.
They're Starting today, which is the earliest that they can legally begin fall practice.
And then they're probably going to end a little bit sooner than they have to during this 45 day window they get. Gabe Gackel's not going to pitch this fall. They're going to put him on the Hagan Smith plan.
Kuhio Aloy is battling a hand injury so he may not be available for some of the scrimmages.
And Nolan Souza will be limited to just a little bit of defensive work if that in scrimmaging because he's coming back from the labrum tear.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: Interesting. I'm hoping to get out to bomb Walker a little bit this fall, but it's hard during football. But I know you'll be out there and you'll have reports for our readers.
[00:17:37] Speaker C: As much as I can, I'm gonna get out there. It's hard for me to get out there in the fall too.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: I feel like you can learn truly so much. It's not the same as going to football practice or even sometimes basketball practice. You actually learn so much about the team from going to those cause they.
[00:17:47] Speaker C: Don'T block you out. I mean you can go in there and you watch the whole thing. They don't have anything to hide.
I wish other programs might take some of that line of thinking. Taylor Green, I thought he played well. Six touchdown passes and the thing that stood out to me with him was the big gripe with him even in the UAPB game. I feel like last year was that he only looks for Andrew Armstrong and Omega Blake was his guy on Saturday. Eight targets, seven catches. But you look around and you had three players with three catches and you know, a couple other players with two catches and they spread the, they spread the ball around quite a bit. And you know, I thought it was a good first game from him. You saw the one sack where I don't, I don't even think it was really Taylor's fault. It was a missed assignment by a running back.
Now it seems like Taylor something about I don't know if it's his drop back. I don't know if it's him trying to maybe get outside the pocket and make something happen. When he gets sacked, he really gets sacked. I mean it's not like a six yard sack. I think that was a 10 yard sack.
I don't know that his RPO reads are as good as K.J. jefferson's were. I think K.J. that was one of the really underrated things that he did well was that he read the rpo. Well, there were a couple of times where it looked like Taylon might have missed a read on Saturday, but from a passing, just a pure passing perspective, I don't think you could find any fault with the way he played. Completed 77% of his passes through six touchdowns.
That was the type of performance that you would want an SEC quarterback to have against an FCS team. And they get to sit out the fourth quarter.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: Totally. And I think the wide receivers we had said before the season, you know, somebody's got to lead them in receiving. And it looked like Omega Blake was probably going to be, you know, the leader there. I still expect that to be the case, but you're absolutely right that they spread the ball around a lot more. I'll be interested if they get the tight ends more involved, specifically Rohan Jones in the future. That was something, you know, somebody asked him, asked Sam about that after the game, and he said, yeah, we. We would like to, like we want to. It just didn't happen. He was like there were a couple plays that were kind of for him, but it just, for whatever reason wasn't there, had to go elsewhere. So, I mean, I'm curious about that still, but I think, you know, like you said, you can't really complain about. About what they were able to do in the passing game. And I think, yeah, that first sack was not really on the offensive line. Not super on Tailin, although it was really long. And that's something that came up so much last season. And I think that kind of got lost. You know, when we talk about, like the field goal inconsistency, they had a lot of long field goals that did not need to be as long as they were. And I think that kind of got lost in the conversation about, you know, whether their field goal kicking was any good. And, you know, they still, they missed a lot. They missed a fair amount. But there were times when it was, you know, they were done no favors by Taylor and by the offense.
[00:20:32] Speaker C: I thought Mike Washington, look, I mean, take the pass protection away. I thought he had a pretty good game.
They were talking him up so much in the preseason that maybe I expected a little bit more from him.
[00:20:43] Speaker A: I did, too.
[00:20:44] Speaker C: But they didn't have to run the ball a whole lot because they were having so much success passing.
I'm interested to see moving forward.
They had. And this was like the Petrino special, the crossing routes. I mean, the middle of the field was wide open for this game. I'm interested to see when they move forward, when they play Maybe a State this weekend or certainly Ole Miss next week. If a defense takes away the middle of the field, can these smaller receivers win one on one battles on the outside? Yeah, like that. That's something to watch because you didn't, you didn't see anything like that during the season opener.
[00:21:17] Speaker B: Right.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: And they have several smaller receivers. They have a lot of options.
But yeah, I mean, I think with Mike Washington, I agree with you that I expected a little bit more, but I also think it was. Some of it was a little bit of what the defense was kind of giving them and they were having no trouble in the passing game. So it's not as if that was a major issue. But I'm curious what he's going to be able to do as they get into some, some tougher opponents. But I think you're right about the middle of the field, too.
[00:21:40] Speaker C: Nine carries for 79 yards for Washington. I mean, that's nine yards carry. Maybe we have unrealistic expectations.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: I can't remember how long it was.
[00:21:49] Speaker C: 27.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: K.J. jackson. So, yeah, that was in the fourth quarter. I'm unclear why he didn't play in the third quarter. I guess maybe they just wanted to get Braylon Russell some extra time. That's kind of what Sam made it sound like. They just wanted to get Braylon Russell some looks. I thought it was going to be the kind of thing where it was like, all right, we're just going to keep Mike Washington out for the second half because we want to save him. But then they put him back in in the fourth quarter, which I thought was kind of weird, but I don't really know.
[00:22:11] Speaker C: Looking around elsewhere, I thought there was a.
When you watch Arkansas and I didn't watch them on tv.
I've mentioned this before.
Back when Morris was the coach, there was a. When they played their spring football game in Little Rock, I was here in Fayetteville. There was a baseball game that night against Auburn. And so Arkansas's spring game was on first and then Auburn's spring game was on right after Arkansas.
And it was striking, the difference, the size difference between what I saw from Arkansas and then when they flipped over to the Auburn game. And this is when Gus Malzahn really had him rolling, maybe the year after they won the sec.
But.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: The.
[00:22:58] Speaker C: As I watched Arkansas in person, so I didn't watch them on tv, obviously, but as I watched them in person, and then you kind of compare that to what you see on TV with Ohio State, Texas, lsu, Clemson, Notre Dame and Miami. They don't look like those teams up.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: Front, but, I mean, when have they.
[00:23:18] Speaker C: Well, in the last several years, I don't know that they have. I don't know that they have, but they don't look like those teams. And I just feel like that's one of the big takeaways for me this weekend is like, looking at these elite teams, assuming that these six teams end up being really good teams. And I think they probably all will end up being playoff contenders. I would bet that probably half of those teams wouldn't surprise me if half those teams ended up in the playoff, maybe more.
But Arkansas doesn't look like those teams that we're thinking as playoff contenders right now along the offensive and the defensive lines. They look better on the offensive line, but they still don't look like those teams that are like the top of the top.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd be interested to see how you feel. And also just to look myself to see how they kind of stack up against the upper end of the sec. Not even. Not necessarily the playoff teams, but like, you know, kind of that upper middle that's kind of on the fringe, like a South Carolina and Ole Miss, you know, lsu, Alabama, maybe Alabama. They might be upper middle.
[00:24:12] Speaker C: I wish I could have seen more of Alabama's game because it was going on at the same time as Arkansas. I was just kind of glancing at the score. Every other play, same.
[00:24:20] Speaker A: I wanted to watch. That's the one thing about football Saturdays is we lose a lot of football watching time because we have to watch football.
That's the only thing.
[00:24:28] Speaker C: So I don't know how they compare to Alabama, but I didn't think they looked like what I saw from LSU and Texas, especially.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Which, I mean, makes sense. They are. They are not LSU and they are not Texas, and they have not been for a very long time.
[00:24:41] Speaker C: What's your big overreaction from the weekend?
[00:24:44] Speaker A: Big overreaction. The defense is going to be a problem.
[00:24:47] Speaker C: Not from Arkansas. Nationally.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Oh, nationally.
Ooh.
I feel like I'm overreacting to Alabama, probably. I think I'm, like, getting too low on them, like, lower on them than I need to be.
[00:25:00] Speaker C: Gus Malzon is Alabama's kryptonite, by the way.
[00:25:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:03] Speaker C: Like, he beat. Think about this. He beat Alabama as a coordinator at Arkansas, Beat him as a coordinator at Auburn three times, I think as a head coach at Auburn, and now he's beaten him with Florida State.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I think. I guess I'm more reacting to that game from an Alabama perspective than like, I'm not Ready to be like Florida State. They're so good. They're so back.
[00:25:20] Speaker C: But I wonder if that's the case because, you know, Florida State, they thought they had a playoff team and they probably did have a playoff team two years ago. I mean, they're undefeated and they get to play in the playoff. And you can debate whether or not you think that's right or wrong, but I wonder if it's like last year was just like this total blip on the radar for them and they really actually have a really good football team.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Did you watch North Carolina last night?
[00:25:43] Speaker C: I did. It was like an old Testament Ram sacrifice.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: I bailed early, like the most of my fan base. I was wondering, we were, you know, when they were showing like the North Carolina fans, like streaming toward the exit, I was like, do you think Michael Jordan's gonna stay? Do you think Michael Jordan still.
[00:25:55] Speaker C: I bet Michael Jordan was gone by halftime.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: I think you're right.
[00:25:58] Speaker C: I think Lawrence Taylor may have scared him out of his suite. Do you see when Lawrence Taylor hugged Michael Jordan?
[00:26:03] Speaker A: No, I missed it.
[00:26:03] Speaker C: Jordan didn't want any part of that. Oh, no, no, I don't think he wanted any part of that.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: That's so funny. But yeah, that, that game last night, I don't know if I'm like overreacting to it, but I do think that was like the funniest possible outcome.
[00:26:13] Speaker C: Think about all the all time greats that they had that game last night. I know, like, you got Jordan, probably the greatest basketball player. Mia Hamm, maybe the greatest women's.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: She's coming to Bentonville.
[00:26:21] Speaker C: Lawrence Taylor, probably the greatest linebacker in NFL history. It's just kind of. You had Randy Moss, who was there, one of the great receivers. It was, it was a real who's who. I thought that was kind of interesting how it's kind of similar to what Colorado did when they hired Deion.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:35] Speaker C: And you've got, you know this.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: And yet there's not discourse about it like there was with Dion. But no, it's, it's.
It was the funniest possible outcome for them to like, look as bad as it. It wasn't just that they were losing. Like, they looked really bad.
[00:26:49] Speaker C: TCU may be pretty good.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: That's okay. That's what. I'm not sure. I'm like, how is it. I'm not sure where the realize that.
[00:26:55] Speaker C: TCU ended last year on a four game winning streak.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: No.
[00:26:57] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think they got quite a bit of those players back.
[00:27:00] Speaker A: Interesting. I liked the way their quarterback was playing.
I am. I am on notice.
[00:27:04] Speaker C: I mean, we've seen with Kendall Briles, when it gets rolling with him, it can really roll now. It can also go the other way.
But, boy, I thought they looked awfully good last night.
Let's see. What would be my big takeaway? My overreaction.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: Where are you on Arch Manning? Are you ready to just like, no. Okay.
[00:27:23] Speaker C: No, I'm not ready to throw him away. I mean, I think Ohio State's defense is really good.
Big overreaction.
North Carolina may go 2 and 10.
They didn't look good.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: I have to. I overreacted. Here's what I did. I overreacted during the game. The first drive, I was like, oh.
[00:27:42] Speaker C: They'Re winning the Super Bowl.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: Yeah. I was like.
I was like, oh, my God.
[00:27:45] Speaker C: Yo. Belichick is seventh Lombardi Trophy.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: I counted him out. How could I doubt him? And then immediately after that, I was like, ah, wait, I need to go back and remember everything I thought before this game, because that was actually correct.
[00:27:55] Speaker C: It was a fun weekend. It was fun weekend. We'll have a fun weekend of football coming up, of course, Arkansas and Arkansas State on Saturday. We're going to bring Kara Richie in after we hear from Kendall King.
[00:28:08] Speaker D: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design.
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[00:28:34] Speaker C: Hey, welcome back. Want to tell you about our friends at Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. 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 in Bentonville or online at bentonvilleglass.com we're joined now by Kara Ritchie. She's with the Ticket in Jonesboro and the EAB Red Wolf Sports Network. To talk about this game upcoming this weekend, Kara, what's the feeling like over there in northeast Arkansas?
[00:29:05] Speaker B: I think there's a lot of excitement that it's finally here. It still honestly feels just a little bit surreal. It's been something that's been talked about for years and years and years and years. I was actually reading a newspaper article this morning, I think from 1976, where then a State head football coach, Bull Davidson, was. Was winning this game. And all of these years later, it's finally materializing. So obviously a lot of excitement, a lot of anticip.
A lot, A lot of people looking forward to getting in Little Rock on Saturday.
[00:29:36] Speaker C: They've won this game for so long. Is it about more than just being able to prove themselves against the big team in the state?
[00:29:46] Speaker B: I mean, it's just. It's just wanting the opportunity. Everybody else in the country does this. Why is it not done in Arkansas? I think that's been the question over and over and over. It's not necessarily about a chance to prove themselves against a big team or an SEC team or a power team, because a State has those on the schedule every single year. It's just.
There's just really, especially if you're an A State fan, never been a great reason to not do it. So now it's getting done. So again, just a lot to look forward to and a lot on the line for both of these teams.
[00:30:17] Speaker C: Sam Pittman was talking yesterday about there's not a lot of Arkansans on either of these rosters. I think there's fewer on A State's roster than there even is the Razorbacks. From a team perspective, do you think that they understand there at Arkansas State what this means to their fan base?
[00:30:33] Speaker B: You know, that is a good question. I do think it's not a situation where you necessarily have to worry about motivation because a lot of these guys are from. If they're not from the state of Arkansas, which again, you're right. I think there's only about a dozen or so in State players. There are plenty of guys on this roster that are from states with SEC schools. So they're in a situation where maybe they thought they should have gotten that offer out of high school from the big brand program in their state and they didn't get it. So there's still going to be that motivating factor. Even if they don't necessarily understand the history behind this, even if they don't necessarily understand what this means to so many people in Northeast Arkansas and what that means to so many former A State football alums. I do imagine they do have some alum, you know, alumni in their ear, letting them know about the importance of this, the anticipation of this. So. So I don't think it's going to be overlooked. But do they. Do they truly understand all the history about it? I Mean, probably not, but you're also talking about, you know, 18 to 22 year old kids. So sometimes just the perspective is going to be a little bit different than ours. But. But I know they understand that it's a big game and that there are again, a lot of people looking forward to this and have been talking about it for significantly longer than they've been alive.
[00:31:49] Speaker C: When the Razorbacks play at War Memorial, it's always a home game and there's going to be more Razorback fans in the stands, I'm sure on Saturday. But A State got 10,000 tickets to sell independently and then we've heard reports where, you know, people didn't want to pay the donation fee and so they've gone through the War Memorial box office or they've gone through the Razorback Ticket Center. What kind of turnout are you expecting from A State on Saturday?
[00:32:12] Speaker B: A really good one. You know, right now the only thing that's available on the A State website in terms of tickets for this, a resale ticket. So all of the allotment is gone. I think what's caught me a little bit off guard this week is, is the number of non die hard sports fans that seem like they're going to this one.
I don't know about you guys, but once the season kicks off, I'm just, I'm in a sports bubble, right? Like 90, 95% of the people that I talk to live, eat, sleep, breathe college athletics. So, so you kind of get a really narrowed worldview for a little bit. But the number of friends I've had reach out over the past week or so that, that I don't necessarily consider to be sports people. Definitely not die hard athletic college people.
The number of them that are going is, is kind of caught me off guard. It's, it's kind of transcending just the, the fan bases and gone to an Arkansas cultural impact kind of situation.
So there's going to be a lot of people there that just want to witness history.
The number of A State football alumni that are attending this is, is absolutely insane. I'm not going to tell you that every single player who played from 1975 to 2025 is going to be there on Saturday, but it almost feels like it. As well as a former coach or two, a former administrator or two. The, the interest is sky high and there will definitely be a lot of scarlet and black in the stands.
[00:33:31] Speaker C: I'm going to be talking to Hunter Jureczyk or later this week and I want to ask him the same Question. But you know, usually the SEC they mandate you only give so many tickets to a game and Arkansas gave significantly more two way state for this game. From what you've been able to gather over the several years since this has been scheduled, why do you think they got so many tickets allotted to them?
[00:33:52] Speaker B: To offset, you know, what would typically be a buy game. And actually I've never asked that question. I've never thought to, you know, this, this game was agreed to when Terry Mahajer was still around and that was three athletic directors ago for, for Arkansas State.
But I would assume to, to offset, you know, the, the buy money because typically in a buy game you're getting what, $1.5 million somewhere in that, that range and a state is only getting $900k. So I would assume the significant difference in tickets is to, to make up for, you know, what would be the amount of money that a state would normally be getting if they're facing a different SEC program.
[00:34:26] Speaker C: Was this Mahajir's biggest legacy getting this game scheduled?
[00:34:33] Speaker B: I don't know. No. Look, there's been, there were a lot of things that happened on the Arkansas State campus, I guess like facility wise when Mahadra was there, the Centennial Bank Stadium or then Red Wolf Stadium was a little, a little drab, I guess you could say the press box was old. So many of the things that you see now when you walk into Centennial Bank Stadium happened in the Mahajjar era and it just looks night and day better than it did when a state was playing there 10, 11 years ago. So that would probably be the big one for me. Just the significant growth, the significant change for the better from some of the spots around campus. But I mean this is big. I'm not going to pretend that it's not. But I don't know if it would be the legacy of Terry Mahajra's time as athletic director at a state.
[00:35:24] Speaker C: Where's a state right now in its progression, if you will, under Butch Jones?
[00:35:31] Speaker B: You know, I'm really interested to see what this year is going to unfold to be like. And of course opening game one with an FCS opponent doesn't tell you a ton because a state was better than Seamo. They were supposed to be better than cmo. It has been probably a slower build than maybe some of the fan base wanted because you're looking at five combined wins in years one and years two. And sports fans have high expectations.
They, you know, athletic departments ask for a lot from their fans. So fans want to see a lot in return. So I would guess that there were definitely some, some folks that weren't happy about how slowly it started at the end of the Blake Anderson era, which the cupboard was fairly bare when, when Jones got to Jonesboro.
But you go back to 2023, when this team was able to get back in a bowl game. You look back last year and the fact that this team was able to close the season with a bowl game win, it does feel like a State is on a really good trajectory at this point in time. Now there's been a complete and total roster overhaul, so it's really difficult to say if that. If that rebuild if or that that adding to the building process is going to be able to continue in 2025. It does feel like the talent is there, but it just depends on how quickly it comes together. So it's, it's been a steady growth process, but it needs to continue to grow.
[00:36:50] Speaker C: You're kind of in a situation there that we are here in that your first game was against an FCS opponent. You don't want to overreact to anything necessarily, you know, especially any type of big numbers from that game. But was there anything you learned about Arkansas State last weekend?
[00:37:07] Speaker B: You know, I had several questions coming in and it was just about who the playmakers would be, both offensively and defensively. On offense, you know, you get to start with a great trio, Jalen Rayner and Jaquez Cross and Cory Rucker, but you've got to have more than three that will be able to get it done. And throughout the course of the game, you know, Rayner found 10 different receivers.
We saw, you know, a handful of different running backs play that were all capable.
I was, I thought the offensive line did a steady job. And with that group having five new starters, that was a huge question going in. And then defensively, if I recall correctly, a State is replacing its top 10 tacklers and maybe 17 of the last 20 from last year's squad. So. So it, again, it felt like the talent was there watching this team in fall camp, but who was going to step up and make those clutch plays in those big situations where the team really needed to stop. And I had no idea who that was going to be going into Saturday. And I do feel like I left that game with, with some names in mind, with some players in mind that will be able to do that as the season progresses. You know, starting with. With Terry Kirksey and Cody Sigler at, at linebacker and at in defensive tackle, respectively. So, so I did get a couple of questions answered in terms of who would be the guys that a state could count on moving forward. But, but there's still several unanswered questions, mainly starting with just how the defense will fare overall for the rest of the season.
[00:38:29] Speaker C: I want to drill down on Rainer the quarterback for a minute. What makes him special?
[00:38:34] Speaker B: He's, he's just you flashback to Saturday and just the way he controlled and commanded that game. I think he is so comfortable this year, entering year three with, with Keith Heckendorf's offense, just so comfortable being in that leadership role. And I think he's done a lot in the offseason to just get smarter, get better and get more accurate. He is, he's a dual threat quarterback, but he's kind of a pass first dual threat.
So he's really good at, you know, has a pretty good touch on the deep ball of course, takes care of business on some of those short routes and just again the overall control and feel that he's got for the offense I think is what really made Saturday so special. He was also especially slippery on Saturday for some reason. Not that he can't make those plays with his feet and not that he hasn't before, but for, for he was like a regular Houdini. The, the couple of times he was kind of tested by the Semo defense, but again just kind of the, the total package that you want to see there in a leader. He's comfortable, he's composed and obviously he has the skill set to make big plays happen on the field.
[00:39:39] Speaker C: This is a one off game for right now and with the rules that the SEC has just put in place with, you know, adding a conference game, keeping the power four requirement, I would think it gets even maybe a little bit more difficult to schedule it in the future. What do you think has to happen Saturday for both sides to want to do this again?
[00:39:57] Speaker B: That's a good question. And I don't know if it will materialize again for a long, long time. I don't know if it necessarily needs to, you know, and for a state look financially moving forward, paychecks are going to be a big deal when you've got the money game.
So.
So I don't know how that would fit in in the future with Arkansas's plans. And you know, depending on the outcome, you might have a pair of teams that never want to do this again.
So that's honestly a question I haven't thought about and a question that I don't have a great answer for. I think it would just, I think we're going to wait another 10, 15, maybe even 20 years and have people from across the state clamoring for it again. And then it happens. I don't know if anything will or will not happen on Saturday that would fast forward that conversation any.
[00:40:48] Speaker C: Carrie, let's get you out of here on this. After Arkansas, a state's got Iowa State coming to Jonesboro, ranked Iowa State team, a pretty good team from everything we've seen the first couple of weeks. What would be a bigger win, beating the Razorbacks in Little Rock or beating a ranked Iowa State team on their own campus?
[00:41:04] Speaker B: Well, I mean, look locally and state it's going to be beating Arkansas, but nationally it's going to be beating Iowa State. That's going to be there's a good chance, you know, depending on how the next couple of weeks of polls shake out and, you know, this weekend's game shakeout, there's a good chance that that's going to be the highest ranked opponent ever to play at Centennial Bank Stadium. So just a huge opportunity there. And look, when you are a group of six program and you get that power brand win, I mean, that sparks conversations nationally and it can propel you to different things nationally.
So again, statewide, look, it's Arkansas, but nationally, the bigger win is Iowa State because of the success that they've had over the past couple of years.
[00:41:41] Speaker C: Kara, we appreciate your time. Looking forward to seeing you Saturday in Little Rock.
[00:41:45] Speaker B: Hey, thanks so much. We'll see you then.
[00:41:46] Speaker C: All right. Thank you. And we appreciate you being with us on our podcast today. Hope to see you again tomorrow or at our website, wholehogsports.com have a great day, everybody.
