Previewing big weekend for multiple Razorback sports

[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the Hog Sports Network daily podcast. Now here's your host, Matt Jones. Today on the podcast, we'll talk about a couple of top 10 matchups this weekend for the Razorbacks. Arkansas baseball at Georgia, Big SEC series at Foley Field and here in Fayetteville, Arkansas softball going to host South Carolina over at Bogle Park. Ethan Westerman, our softball reporter in studio. He'll talk about that. Arkansas women's basketball has a new coach and Brad Johnson, an assistant on Kelsey Musick's staff. There's an Arkansas football scrimmage tomorrow at Razorback Stadium. Travis Williams, the Hogs defensive coordinator, spoke yesterday. Ethan was there. We'll discuss that as well. We'll give you our best of the week and much more. But first, a word from Kendall King. At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King, Soapbox and shopcart. Together these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are Design. Yesterday on the podcast Bubba Carpenter and I talked about it seems like every week we're saying we're going to learn something new about Razorback baseball this week and really feels like you're going to learn a lot about this as they go to Foley Field this weekend to take on Georgia. Arkansas ranked number one, Georgia number six. But the Bulldogs were number three in the coaches poll last week before they went to Austin and lost a couple of competitive games and one more non competitive game against Texas. Arkansas comes into this game 31 and 3, 11 and 1 in the SEC tonight. Georgia 30 and 5 overall, 8 and 4 in the SEC. Georgia 22 and 1 this year at its home fully field. Arkansas 5 and 1 on the road. Razorbacks, they've won a lot of games here of late and I mean when you got a 313 record, of course you won a lot of games but it just seems like they've, they've kind of hit a stride here the last couple of weeks. Whether it be Missouri and you can say what you want to about Missouri but but you have to go out and you have to to beat a bad team the way they did I think is still impressive because there are good teams that have played Missouri who have not beaten Missouri like that. And of course Marcus, I went to Vanderbilt a couple of weeks ago, got an impressive sweep there Ethan, I feel like there's always some hand wringing when it goes into each SEC baseball weekend about. Well, you know, this. This. This one makes me nervous. I feel like this is a really good Razorback baseball team, and I don't know if they'll win the series this weekend at Georgia, and I don't know that if they lose the series in Georgia this weekend, it means that they're not as good as we think they are. [00:02:57] Speaker B: Yeah. And, I mean, Georgia is one of the places that they've had trouble winning for a while now. And. But, you know, the same could be said about Vanderbilt, and look what they did there. But it is one of those series that I think, you know, it wouldn't be shocking at all if Arkansas did drop it. If I was reading your story, the power numbers for both teams is pretty crazy. It's one of those deals where you feel like you might be in just a shootout type of game, you know, maybe multiple times in the series. So I'll be interested to see, honestly, how. Which pitching is best, because that's what's gonna, I think, determine this series, because it seems like both teams offensively have what it. Have what it takes to put up a lot of runs, but which team's gonna have the better pitching performance and who's gonna be able to, you know, not have to stretch their arms thin? Because I think that's always important in a weekend with two good offenses of which starting pitchers can carry you the longest. [00:03:50] Speaker A: Arkansas's numbers are really good. Pitching and hitting in SEC play of that does have to do with the fact that they were able to play Missouri. Not everybody has been able to play Missouri yet, but there's. There's two. There's two series that stand out for Arkansas to this point in the season. Ole Miss, they went there. They won two of three since Arkansas left Oxford. Ole Miss is seven and two in SEC play. They went to Vanderbilt. They swept the Commodores. Vanderbilt goes to Florida last week. Say what you want about what's going on with Florida, still a talented team, still a tough team to beat on its home field. Vanderbilt swept Florida and its pitching was really good. Again, pitching didn't look so good against Arkansas, even though they had great numbers going in. I. To. To your point, I think Arkansas's got a really explosive lineup. I think Georgia does as well. And you look at these numbers that you were just mentioning, these are season stats. But if you break it down by SEC play, Arkansas's numbers are a little bit better. But, you know, it would Be hard to find two teams that look more alike statistically. With the exception of Arkansas's ERA is about 1.2 points lower than Georgia's. But here are the offensive stats. Scoring average they are scoring the exact same number of runs per game down to the decimal points. 10.03 runs per game for both of these teams. Batting average, Arkansas is 20 points higher at 335. Georgia at.315. Opposing batting average 1 point apart 226 225. Slugging percentage Georgia a bit higher.612 to 601. Those rank 1 and 4 in the country. And slugging on base percentage. These are the top two teams in the country. Georgia 453 Arkansas 449 OPS Georgia 1 or 1065. Arkansas 1050 Fielding Percentage Georgia 985. Arkansas 984. I mean these are, these look like mirror teams just based on the stats now I don't think Georgia play has played yet the non conference schedule that Arkansas has played. Georgia still has some really tough non con games left. They have Clemson, they have Georgia Tech. Both of those teams are really good this year. But again just statistically they look like mirror images. [00:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean and it's. I always am interested seeing like the, the ratings that just take into account your numbers to kind of see the teams. Like if you look at RPI right now, Georgia's number three in the nation. Arkansas is number one. Which indicates that yeah the, the RPI loves that loves their team. And I'm interested to see you know, you know if Arkansas can go on the road. And I think that road series are just character building in general. Like if you can go on the road and you can come out of there with the series win. It builds a lot of character or I mean a lot of times you see teams go on the road drop the first two games and I think you build character by not by avoiding the sweep and getting out of Sunday, you know salvaging one. I just. It's those road series always I feel like tell a lot to me but this is you know, on paper between you know Warren Nolan also loves Georgia. RPI loves Georgia like this on a lot of websites but you know data analytics that says like a top three series wouldn't surprise. [00:07:06] Speaker A: Both of these teams are national seeds and I mean top eight national seeds. When the regionals roll around. Certainly the expectation is that they'll both be hosting games in the regional. We'll see if they're hoping if they're hosting super regional Games too. [00:07:21] Speaker B: For all of the. Also just on the RPI with the SEC real quick. Like for all the love and attention that basketball got this year, the RPI baseball is insane. Insane how 8 of the top 9 are SEC, 9 of the top 11 are SEC. So baseball conference for sure. And it's funny because John Caliperi brought up baseball after the Michigan game of like, this is about to be like baseball where literally every single series you have no clue who's going to win. [00:07:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I think, I think there are at least five, maybe more really elite teams in the SEC this year. Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas obviously. And I would put LSU in Texas in that category. Ole Miss, I'm still in a little bit of wait and see mode about. [00:08:05] Speaker B: Them, but Vanderbilt too. [00:08:07] Speaker A: Vanderbilt. The thing that bothers me about Vanderbilt is they can't score. They're, they're hitting. They just don't have a lot of power in that lineup. [00:08:14] Speaker B: Alabama too. They're number seven in RPI right now. [00:08:18] Speaker A: We'll see about Alabama. I am annually pessimistic about Alabama. I feel like they're a team that really builds up a lot of chatter in the non conference and then once they get to the sec, it doesn't go so well. They lost Auburn last week. They've lost a series to Tennessee. Of course. No, you know, no shame in that. But Alabama, I think they're good. I think they're a team that will give you a headache for three games if you play them. But I don't think they're in that elite category. [00:08:51] Speaker B: Yeah, and it's just. Yeah, it's just the gauntlet of the SEC though. Like the fact that Texas A and M, which, I get it, they're having struggles, but they're second to last in RPI at number 56 and the SEC second to last. I, I think we all know who last is. [00:09:06] Speaker A: A and M. They beat South Carolina last night. I guess Kaden Sorrell had a walk off hit. Did you see this? [00:09:13] Speaker B: No, I saw the thing about the master cell. Is this what you thought? [00:09:16] Speaker A: This is it. [00:09:16] Speaker B: I saw the master Celebration. [00:09:17] Speaker A: Well, there's a celebration. And then he does the, he does the interview afterward with the SEC network and he's got the catapult unit on. You know what those look like. And so he's wearing that, which. And then he's got the. And it's only that. And then he's got the green jacket on over the top of it and he's holding like a gold putter over his shoulder during the interview. I don't know. A and M doesn't do itself any favors sometimes. [00:09:48] Speaker B: Not at all. [00:09:49] Speaker A: Dave Van Horn spoke yesterday about this Arkansas Georgia series, and he was asked a question and gave a really nice response. We'll play it here. But the question was, what is the mentality that you have to take into a road series? [00:10:05] Speaker C: Well, I think you just have to be confident and know that you can play with anybody in the country, and you never know how it's going to go anywhere, even at home. Just kind of do what we've been doing and show up and play hard. And if we, if we win, we win. If we don't, we don't. You know, we feel like that we've. We've been pretty consistent from day one. And, you know, we, we don't make a lot of mistakes. We throw the ball over the plate, and that's a good recipe for winning at any level of college or any level of baseball. Not just college baseball. You know, Georgia can really score, and they got 92 home runs somewhere in there. Lead the country. No lead, safe. You got to know that when you're playing them and just play, you know, it's different. They, they had a beautiful grass surface last time I was there, and many a times I was there, and I was kind of surprised that they went to. To turf just because of the, how nice it was. But I know they had to go underneath the, the outfield to bring in some power and different things to their, their new facility. But they play, they play on turf now, and we're used to that. We played there, you know, against Van D. It's, it's. But it's a different game when you play on turf a little bit. But yeah, it's, it's going to be. It'll be a good series. It'll be a real good series. [00:11:23] Speaker A: If we win, we win. If we don't, we don't. I love it. I love that. I feel like so many people play the game of baseball scared, and it's just go out there, play like, you know, you can. If you win, great. If not, if you play hard and you play right, chances are that you'll get them the next day. I love the mentality that he takes into, not just road series, but just every game in general. And he never makes one game too big. And he really looks at it, I think, with the right viewpoint, which is that they all count the same. [00:12:01] Speaker B: Yeah. And he really simplifies things. He says, we don't make a lot of mistakes. We throw the Ball over the plate. That's a good recipe for winning baseball games. I'm Like I said, just not any. Not just any level of baseball. All levels of baseball. I mean, it's true. And it's. It does come down to that. It's like, I feel like a lot of times on the road, like, whenever you walk away with a loss, it's a lot of times you gave too much. Just free passes and stuff. And he really simplified it. It's just like, well, we gotta. We gotta just be like, play clean. And. Yeah, he's. I don't know, he has a good. He has a way of really making you feel like the. Like simplifying the game for you. [00:12:36] Speaker A: It's hard to play on the road. It's hard to win on the road. But I would also argue, Ethan, that it's hard to win the big games at home. And what I mean by that is that you've got all of this pressure around you. You've got your fans in the seats, you've got your people asking you for tickets. You know, it's like. And there's this expectation of, oh, well, you're at home, you're going to win the game. [00:12:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:00] Speaker A: And I almost feel like teams that are on the road, good teams, great teams, when they go on the road, they're able to play with just a level of looseness that can maybe be more beneficial than being the home team. [00:13:14] Speaker B: Oh, for sure. I think that we're seeing that all over the place as to where, like, road trips are actually kind of, like, I don't know, maybe a relief. I mean, the softball team that I covers won 17 of their last 19 SEC road series. And I don't even know what their last 19 home series, what the record is, but I can tell you it's not that. I think there's something about being on the road and kind of having that pressure off you and just being able to go in there and just kind of play. I don't know. There's. I think that these road series have a way of, like, I don't know, just taking the team away from all the distraction that could be here. And that comes with, you know, playing in front of your home fans. And anyway, I mean, both the baseball team and softball team are good at home, but I just think that, like, I've not. Like, softball's pretty great on the road is the funny thing. And it's like, I don't see that all the time at home. There's something to that. [00:14:10] Speaker A: Different teams handle it differently. I've said this a number of times in 2022. If that Arkansas baseball team hosts a regional, I don't know that they get out of the regional, going on the road, playing at Oklahoma State, playing at North Carolina. I just think that there was a team building that occurred during that last month of the season that really helped them get on a run. And of course, they were a win away from, I think, winning the national championship. Had they been able to get through Ole Miss, I'm confident they would have beaten Oklahoma that year. [00:14:40] Speaker B: Yeah, and it's just like, there's so much, like all these players embrace pressure, I'd say, but it's like a different type of pressure. Like whenever you play at home, where it just feels like, I don't know, whenever you go on the road, I think there's a way to just get in a different mentality and a different, like, you're. It's a different rhythm of life, and it's like you're just waking up and like, let's go prove these other fans wrong kind of deal. I don't know. It's like, I feel like at home they're trying to prove their fans right, but I don't know. That's just. I. I'm confident whenever I see teams on the road, for some reason, like, I just am like, oh, they're going to play a lot looser. I don't know what it is about it. [00:15:16] Speaker A: Of course, Wes Johnson is the head coach at Georgia. Second season there, 73, 22 record he had. Georgia went away from going to the College World Series last year, lost Game 3 of a Super regional to North Carolina State. We talked about this on the podcast yesterday, the influence that he had on Arkansas in terms of integrating technology and analytics into the program. Arkansas looks different now than it looked 10 years ago before Wes Johnson got the job. And Dave Van Horn was asked about this yesterday, about that influence that Wes had in integrating these areas into the program. [00:15:52] Speaker C: Well, that was kind of the beginning of it, in my opinion. He. He brought it with him, you know, because that was what was going on, and we wanted that, you know. And so I would say that's probably where it got started on the pitching side. And obviously, I liked what I saw he leaves. I wanted to hire somebody that kind of the same way in Coach Hobbs. So, yeah, definitely brought, you know, the knowledge of technology and wanted to do it, and we started opening that up a lot. [00:16:27] Speaker A: Of course, Wes Johnson, he recommended Mad Hobbs whenever he got the job with the Minnesota Twins. Van Horn shared yesterday that it was a very emotional decision for Johnson to leave Arkansas to go to the Twins. But he also said he felt like he kind of had to take that job. I mean, it was the only time since 1979 in any level of college baseball, any major league program where a coach went from a college dugout to a major league baseball dugout right away. [00:16:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And I'm curious what drew him back to wanting to go coach college again? You might not. [00:17:03] Speaker A: I think it was the grind of the, of the major league season. Those are long, drawn out seasons. [00:17:10] Speaker B: I mean, and clearly he's college baseball. He's in like, he's proven himself. He's a really good college baseball pitching coach. So I just was curious about that because I know he went to LSU after the Twins, right? Yeah. And I was just like, I want. [00:17:25] Speaker A: To coach a guy named Paul Skeens. [00:17:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Never heard of him. I'm just like, I wonder what, what got him back to, to wanting to do that? Because it was, it came as a, you know, as me. I, I remember watching actually, I think it was like a weird. Why were they playing at like 10am or something crazy. [00:17:42] Speaker A: Who are we talking about? [00:17:43] Speaker B: Arkansas, LSU with Wes Johnson there. I watched a game that Arkansas won. [00:17:48] Speaker A: Maybe in weather related. [00:17:50] Speaker B: Anyway, they played at a, like it was a morning game. I was tuned. I was like, oh, West John sneeze at lsu. I mean it was like it snuck up on me and now there's no. I mean now you hear his name all the time. I don't know why I'm so stuck on this Arkansas, LSU game that I was like, why was I watching that at 11am on like a Friday? Like Reese Robinette or somebody hit like. [00:18:07] Speaker A: A, he had a home run in that game. [00:18:09] Speaker B: Okay. Anyway, but I just remember that's. That was the game. I was like, oh, Wes Johnson's back in the college game. [00:18:14] Speaker A: I don't know if I remember it. [00:18:15] Speaker B: Starting at 11, but it was too early for me. [00:18:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I do remember weather was a big consideration during that weekend. Wes is a real strong family man. Real strong. And I think the, I think the length and the just the overall, just experience of major league baseball did not maybe fit him like college baseball does. College baseball, it's a grind for, you know, five, six months of the year. But then you get outside of the season. You've got recruiting and you've got other responsibilities. But it's not, not quite like the major league season where if you're a pitching coach, you're going to show up at the spring training site early February and you're not going to be done until the season's done and that may be end of October. It's just, it's just a different kind of sport. Professional baseball against college. [00:19:07] Speaker B: I have to give Wes Johnson a shout out for being a University of Arkansas Monticello boll weevil. I'm a, I'm a boll weevil guy. My little brother played football there and I've worn a shirt with their logo on this podcast before. [00:19:21] Speaker A: So that makes you a fan, right? [00:19:23] Speaker B: Oh, 100%. I mean, it's the coolest. I will wear any boll weevil gear because you instantly get asked about it. It's awesome. But yeah, I know he's an Arkansas guy, so it's cool to see his success. [00:19:34] Speaker A: Justin Thomas going back to Georgia this weekend. He played there as a freshman two years ago. I think he got into a game as a defensive replacement, maybe a pinch runner. I'm not sure in that Arkansas series when Georgia swept in 2023. But obviously Thomas is, is, he's one of Arkansas's top players right now, center fielder, starting center fielder for much of this season and if you look at his numbers, he's getting better. I think a reflection of that is his overall season batting average is.286. His SEC only batting average and is.297. And you're just starting to see him have more of an impact offensively on games. And then obviously the ground that he can cover in center field is better than anybody else on the team. David Horn was asked yesterday about seeing Thomas at Georgia two years ago and how he's improved since then. [00:20:22] Speaker C: It was interesting. You know, we played them two years ago when he was a freshman. He didn't play against us, but we watched him hit. You know, we watch all, you know, the other teams, bp, especially on the road, and he just knew he was athletic. Obviously he went to junior college at Florida Junior College and one of our former players and you know, coaches was there as a first time coach, Cullen Smith and Cullen liked him. We asked Cullen about him. We knew we were going to need his center fielder. You know, it was just, he could do everything. We just needed to know he was going to hit a little bit and he, he got up to a really slow start in the, in the spring of his sophomore year there and then he really kicked it into gear and was good and he's been good here. So it's been fun to watch him develop. [00:21:10] Speaker A: SEC availability report came out last night. Gage Wood out for this series against Georgia. There was some thought that maybe he'd make the weekend roster and we'll hear what Van Horn had to say about that here in just a second. Of course, Parker Coyle out for the series. He's going to be out until at least May with that back injury. Rocco Pepe listed as doubtful for the series. Another back injury for the Raiders backs. He hasn't played in a few weeks for Georgia. One of their reserve infielders, Charlie Jones, is the only player on here. He's listed as out. He did play against Texas last week. Not sure what's going on there. Big news though for Georgia on an injury front. Trey Phelps, a preseason All America outfielder, was the first team all SEC outfielder from coaches before the season. He's back. He's been dealing with a hamstring injury the last couple of weeks and Wes Johnson told reporters yesterday that he had one more quote mini hurdle to clear before he was able to get back into the lineup. And based on the availability report, it would certainly appear that Trey Phelps is going to be available for Georgia this weekend. So a big shot in the arm there for the Bulldogs, I would have to believe going into this series. [00:22:18] Speaker B: Arkansas would hope that takes a little ramp up period. Yeah, you know, get him hopefully, you know, for them. [00:22:25] Speaker A: West did say, he said it's a mini hurdle, he said. But I've seen it trip up players before. Yeah, going back to Gage Wood. Van Horn mentioned on Monday at Swatters Club that he might be available for this weekend or next weekend. Certainly doesn't look like he's going to be there, but he is making the trip. He made the trip to Ole Miss, made the trip to Vanderbilt, but he's going to be a little bit more more involved because he's going to throw a bullpen this weekend. This is what Van Horn had to say about it. [00:22:50] Speaker C: Well, he's going on the trip. I don't know if he'll be on the 30 man. I would say I probably won't put him on the 30 man, but he's getting close. He's getting close. Bullpen's been good and he's going to throw another one this weekend. That's one reason he's going with us. He'd go anyway. But he is going to throw a bullpen while we're there and hey, maybe you'll be ready for the next weekend. [00:23:09] Speaker A: We'll see next weekend being Texas A and M here in Fayetteville. That's going to be a Thursday Friday, Saturday series next week due to the Easter holiday, most SEC teams, including Arkansas, when they're at home, do not play on Easter Sunday anymore. So Gage Wood, he feels like to me, Ethan, he is, he's one of the keys to the rest of this season. If they get the Gage Wood that was pitching at the beginning of the season back, that really, it really changes, I think, how you look at this Arkansas pitching staff because he can fill a lot of different roles. [00:23:42] Speaker B: Yeah, he's one of those versatile guys that I think just you get him back in it. I think there's always so much to be said about learning how to, like, you readjusting how you planned on doing things and stuff in wake of an injury and then be able to get a guy back. And it's like how now that we figured out how we're doing this, where's your role? And it's like, I don't know. It's just, I feel like it usually just helps a team, you know, of like, here's a new piece to plug in and we found out a lot of things without you. [00:24:09] Speaker A: Well, and as much as you don't want to mention it, there are probably going to be more injuries in the pitching staff. [00:24:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:13] Speaker A: And so this is just a piece that you potentially have back or. And he's going to be back. It's taking a little bit longer than I think most people thought it would, but he's going to be back and he's going to be certainly a piece they're going to rely on. It'll just be interesting to see if he's going to be able to pitch at the level that he was pitching before the injury. Once again, get the latest breaking news on all razorback [email protected] most in depth source for all Arkansas sports with analysis, latest in recruiting, unique stories on all your favorite teams. You can subscribe today@whole hogsports.com when we come back, we've got some football talk, some softball talk and much more. But first, a word from Kendall King. At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kindle, King, Soapbox and Shopcart. Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are Design. Hey, welcome back. I want to talk about our friends at Bentonville Glass They've been serving their community since 1971. Committed, professional, versatile. If you're looking for a quality leader in northwest Arkansas or looking for skilled craftsmanship, look no further than Bentonville Glass for all your glass market needs with the highest quality products you come by and see. I'm at 507 South Main in Bentonville or [email protected] It's Friday, so we'll talk about the best thing we saw this week. I think it's hard for Ethan to believe that the national championship game was Monday. Yeah, he asked me last night, he said, was that this week? [00:25:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it felt like. It feels like it was two weeks ago now to me, but I really don't. I lose track of the day right now. We're in that time of year where like, it's just day after day after day, new thing after new thing, and I'm like, oh, it's Friday. Cool. [00:26:10] Speaker A: I'm kind of in the football season and baseball season. I kind of. It's one of those deals where I know where I'm supposed to be, but I. A lot of times I don't know that I could tell you what day of the week it is. [00:26:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:24] Speaker A: And then as we get later into it, I legitimately don't know that I could tell you what day of the month it is. And then once we get to about June, I'm not even sure what season I'm in anymore. [00:26:33] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I. Straight up, you could have told me it's Tuesday and I'd say, sure. I just. It's. Yeah, I just know what's happening today. [00:26:40] Speaker A: The Apple Watch helps me a lot. It's Friday, April 11th. [00:26:43] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I'm about to say. You have to say it on the podcast every morning to start off the show, but it's. Yeah, no, I. It's the national championship. You could have told me it was 10 days ago and I believe you, but I guess it was like four or something, so. [00:26:59] Speaker A: All right, so what's the video clip we have? [00:27:01] Speaker B: Just go ahead and play it. I think that it's pretty self explanatory. This is after Houston loses the game. Walter Clayton of Florida. This is good stuff, y'all. [00:27:14] Speaker A: Just for people who are listening, we're seeing a Houston play player on the ground and Walter Clayton going over and talking with him. [00:27:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, that's good stuff. He just won the national championship and went to console the losing player. I mean, that's. We're a fan of good sportsmanship on this show. I'd Say, and that was a good sign of it. I like Walter Clayton. His career has been fun to follow. Starting off at Iona, doing what he did at Florida. Yeah, no, I'd say that's my best of the week. If it was this week, truly, it was all right. I know. I believe it. It's just. It's hard to. [00:27:51] Speaker A: Florida winning the national championship is still. I don't know. It's still a little surreal to me because I just. They came. Yeah. I didn't see that coming before the season. I know everybody said Florida had a really good roster, but. But their rise, I think, kind of took me aback a little bit how fast it happened. [00:28:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, they turned into the team that nobody wants to play, which, Whenever. Like, there. There were a lot of good season, but it was like. I feel like a lot of the season, like, all these teams are good. Is any of them gonna, like, establish himself as, like, elite? And I think Florida just, like, by the end of the year, nobody wanted to play them. You felt like they were elite. I didn't have video footage of it, but I'll give an honorable mention. Best thing that happened this week. John Caliperi. Yesterday, a local coffee establishment. I was there, and he was just out drinking a coffee. He was working the phones. But just a lot of people were going up, showing them their dog, taking pictures. And I was like, this is pretty cool that the coach is just, you know, a man of the people right now. I mean, this is just. You're in Fayetteville, just wanting to be out and around the people. So that, I guess that would be my other best of the week. It was kind of a what are you doing here? Type of deal. [00:28:59] Speaker A: And you told me this wasn't like, 10 minutes. This was. He was there for a long time. [00:29:02] Speaker B: Yeah, he was there for probably a good. Over. Definitely over a half an hour, maybe a whole hour. But, I mean, he was working the phones. He was up by himself for a little bit. But, I mean, a lot of the. Once he got done with that, a lot of people were bringing up their dog. This was like an outdoor patio place. They're bringing their dog, and he's petting them and taking pictures and talking to them. And, yeah, it was pretty cool to see. It's just you don't normally see the head coach just. He was like. He was just trying to be another person. But, you know, you saw whenever they went to Kentucky, went to Dunkin Donuts, I guess that's something that he did all the time when he was so maybe he's found a new. His Fayetteville place. But I go there all the time, and I'd never seen him before, so maybe this is new. [00:29:42] Speaker A: And it's got to be nice whenever you're still kind of in that honeymoon period. [00:29:45] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:29:45] Speaker A: You know, and it's like you had your first fight in January, but now it's like, now we're back. [00:29:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's. I mean, it was very nice outside yesterday. Great day to have, you know, to sit on a porch. And I think he is having a good time. You could just. There seems like a. Just a genuine, like, joy on his face. Like, it's like he's just getting to kind of get back to being out in the community. [00:30:08] Speaker A: He looked. He looks 10 years younger than he did his last year at Kentucky. I mean, this. Yeah, I mean, this. Like, you can see the stress. And it's not to say this isn't a stressful job, but I heard him say something in an Eddie Sutton documentary one time, and he was talking about coaching in Kentucky. He said, this is like wearing a coat, and it's 1,000 degrees at all times, and when you're the coach, you're wearing that coat. [00:30:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:30] Speaker A: And I don't know, it just feels like. Like there's just been, like, a weight that's been lifted from him. And I feel like you can see it in everything that he does, whether it be on the sideline and the press conferences and his interactions around town. It looks and feels a lot different than what we saw, which was only through media for us, but what we saw on TV and photos whenever he was at Kentucky his last year. [00:30:54] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. That coat, I feel like it's been ripped off. He's wearing shorts and is on the beach right now having a good time. But. Yeah, no, I thought that was cool. That's my honorable mention. Best of the week. [00:31:05] Speaker A: All right, so here's mine. And so I'm gonna set this up. This is a race, I believe, last weekend at Laurel Park. This is in Maryland. [00:31:15] Speaker B: And this is a. I've seen this. [00:31:17] Speaker A: This is good stuff. This is the track announcer Dave Rodman. And before we get into it, just to tell you, there are two horses in this race. One is named Cluck Cluck and one is named Quit Qui. And as luck would have it, Cluck Cluck and Quick end up being the two front runners in this race. Have a listen to this. This is great. Second, trying to make some headway now with the 3, 16 ball clock. Clock on the Outside Quee Kwai Kwee Qui clock, cluck. They meet again, coming to the final furlong. Queeque Clock. [00:31:44] Speaker B: Cluck, cluck, cluck. Queeque just holding. Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck. [00:31:48] Speaker A: Still charging. [00:31:49] Speaker B: Quick qui cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck. [00:31:51] Speaker A: On the outside. [00:31:52] Speaker B: Quick qui, Quick quack. Cluck. Quick qui cluck, cluck. Quick qui, quick, clock, clock. In a second. It's just the best. [00:32:07] Speaker A: I've always said, I feel like track announcers, horse track announcers and hockey announcers are the two. Like. Like, when you find a good one, you keep. They are as good as you will find. [00:32:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:20] Speaker A: You know, hockey announcers, they've got all these Eastern European names that they've got to learn and. But, you know, like, horse racing, the names. I mean, you got to know that this guy is sitting there at the beginning thinking, you just know these two are gonna be like, I'm gonna have to do this at the end. [00:32:34] Speaker B: And you start practicing, I'm sure of how to, like, get their names not overlapped. I mean, talk about the ultimate tongue twister. I mean, he's. He was just. He was just a chicken by the end. He was just clucking away. But, yeah, no, that was. That was good. So stuff. [00:32:51] Speaker A: I think Quit Choir won the race. I'm not 100%. [00:32:54] Speaker B: It might have been Cluck Cluck, I think, is his name. [00:32:58] Speaker A: That's good stuff right there. [00:33:00] Speaker B: That's. That's one of the best that. That could go on. The best of the year. We need to, you know, put some of these in the piggy bank and save them for best of the year later, because I think that's a good candidate. [00:33:10] Speaker A: They need to bring Dave Rodman in to cover or to call the Kentucky Derby for NBC. Remember last year when Mystic Dan won the Kentucky Derby and Larry Column totally miss. Missed him on the inside rail? [00:33:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I do remember that. [00:33:23] Speaker A: What happens, I think, a lot of times, and I can't speak for certain on this, but, you know, they're watching the race with their binoculars, and what happened from when I. From what I've read, Slash heard, Slash maybe observed, is that when a horse makes a move on the inside rail around that final turn, if you don't have your binoculars on that rail, it's very hard to miss him. And so. And of course, Mystic Dan was a long shot to win the race at the Kentucky Derby last year. And so I think what happened was that there's a natural tendency to maybe keep your eyes focused on the horses who are the favorites and you miss something like that. [00:34:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Poor Mystic Dan didn't get all the shine immediately. [00:34:12] Speaker A: He got some afterward. [00:34:13] Speaker B: He got some afterward. But. Yeah, no, I. Being a horse racing announcer, I'm sure is just. Yeah. You're preparing for the most bizarre names. [00:34:22] Speaker A: And you have to be. You almost have to be perfect because, you know, you can have a slip up like. Like when I call football or basketball games, it's two, three hours. You can have a slip up here and there and you just hope that it doesn't happen during like the big moment of the game. [00:34:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:37] Speaker A: If you have a slip up during a horse race, especially, you know, in the final 10, 20 seconds, I mean, it's very magnified. [00:34:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a. Not a. I mean, it's a quick race and it's like everybody sit. Half the broadcast, you know, for the derby and stuff, is just sitting around waiting for it to start and all the production, it's like, oh, it's here. And like every. So locked in on those. Whatever. I don't even know how long one takes. [00:34:59] Speaker A: About two minutes. [00:35:00] Speaker B: Yeah. But I mean, it's like that's what everybody's waiting for and you have two minutes to show what you got. And I mean, poor this guy. Just, of course, click, cluck, quick. Those guys were the. The ones that, you know, were. It would have been funny if there was another one creep up that was like, I don't even know. Clack, clack, clack. Yeah, clack, clock. [00:35:24] Speaker A: All right. [00:35:24] Speaker B: But anyway. [00:35:26] Speaker A: All right, moving on. Razorback football. Gonna have a scrimmage tomorrow. You listen to Travis Williams talk yesterday. What do you have to say? [00:35:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, right now, though, the main thing with the defense is, I mean, you go out to a practice, it's obvious they just don't have as many guys right now as offense does. And so they've been kind of trying different things, different fronts. Four man, three man. They've started playing with three linebackers with Brad Shaw, the rising sophomore. He's been out there with the first team some. It's like they're just right now just trying different things. It's like with the personnel they have available, it's like, what will this hurt? To just try different things that we could come back to, I think in the fall, if for nothing else. Right now just introducing a new look. And I think that the main thing that set out from his talk is he was just saying, like, hey, we could talk all day right now about how we don't have the numbers or the depth right now that we would want in the spring. But end of the day, like, our job is to coach, he said. So, like, this is who I got and this is who we're coaching. So we're coaching right now. That's what he kept on trying to get back around to. That was the main thing that stood out. Other things that stood out, just what you talked about, how teams are building their rosters now and with how it's starting to resemble more of just, you know, a pro look, of like you're trying to get a good quarterback, a good pass rusher. And you mentioned one other position. I'm blanking. It's like, you got it. You're trying to get those three and then build around it. It's just like whenever money comes in the picture, how it's changed, how they've had to really start resembling how NFL teams do it. He got off on that a little bit, but other than that, I mean, the main takeaway from Travis Williams is just that he's like, I think that he's enjoying that this is a spring where he's getting to see more of some guys that, you know, maybe you wouldn't in the past if they had more numbers. [00:37:07] Speaker A: They were going to scrimmage yesterday and that got called off. Now it's going to be Saturday. Is it. Is it because of the numbers on defense? Maybe players banged up? [00:37:16] Speaker B: I think so. I think that's what it was. I'm not actually sure. I wasn't. I was tuned into Travis Williams. I wasn't there in the news conference room. I was watching it a bit away. So I didn't actually hear the reason personally, but I think that it probably had to do with just who's available for whatever reason. But they. Yeah, they're scrimmaging Saturday morning, so it'll be. That's one week out from the spring game. So I'm assuming that it's going to kind of be like a. I would assume it's going to be similar to what the spring game will look like a week later, just without, obviously, fans. [00:37:48] Speaker A: So some news yesterday, women's basketball. Graham Thomas from the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette reporting and actually talking to and quoting Brad Johnson, the Farmington High School girls basketball coach. He's won three state championships or. I'm sorry, he's won the last three state championships for his team and he's won four overall. He's going to leave Farmington and go be an assistant coach for Kelsey Musick at Arkansas. [00:38:12] Speaker B: Yep. And this is something that I mean, I told you earlier in the week I was like, I'm hearing something about this a little bit. I didn't know, you know, just exactly when slash if it would be how soon was going to happen. But I had heard a little bit about it and this strikes me as a hire of like somebody who you have a great basketball mind because I mean, clearly, you know, he's been in high school for this long and there's probably some connections within the state that could help recruiting. But by and large, you know, his recruiting net probably isn't as wide as, you know, an established college assistant coming in on their staff. So it strikes me as this is a hire. Somebody like, you really know how to coach basketball and I want you to coach basketball. I mean, all assistants have to reduce some recruiting. And I'm sure that when it comes to. In state recruiting, he'll be a vital asset. But you know, you look at what his teams have done at Farmington and. [00:39:03] Speaker A: You'Ve 403 and 106 in the past. [00:39:07] Speaker B: Like four or five years. [00:39:09] Speaker A: In the last three, it's 105 and three. [00:39:11] Speaker B: Yeah. It's crazy. [00:39:12] Speaker A: So it's, it's somewhat small school basketball. [00:39:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:16] Speaker A: But they also, this last year they moved up A class from 4A to 5A and I mean they continued to. To roll. They went 30 and one. [00:39:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Didn't skip a beat. And to be honest, they could be. The teams that he's had could beat a lot of 6A. Like, I mean, they were that good. So I'm just curious to see, you know, I don't really know a whole lot about his coaching personality style, all that. I just know that they've been really good. And it strikes me, like I said, as a hire of like, this guy knows how to coach players and maybe he's a. It seems like he's probably a great developer of players too, which I know that excites music. She's brought up a lot how she wants coaches to develop players. So I'll be interested to see when it gets like. It's not been officially announced yet. This is just. He told his team yesterday and that's the understanding is he's gonna. It's because he's going to get on staff at Arkansas. So it's a bold move. I was actually kind of. I was wondering if they were going to go this route of hiring a high school guy. And I was like, him or Ricky? Ricky. Ricky Smith said I was like either one. I was like, are just. They're great high school girls coaches in the state. [00:40:22] Speaker A: So you got to start somewhere. [00:40:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:24] Speaker A: And there are a lot of coaches who are really great coaches who have got a high school background at some point in their career. Some it's very short year or two, some it's longer. There have been coaches that have made it when they got to college and there have been coaches that have flopped when they got to college. You just never know how it's going to go. [00:40:43] Speaker B: I think it's also worth noting with this hire too. Easton McCullough, she's like a sophomore at Farmington, is about to be. I don't know when those recruiting rankings come out, but she'll be on there big time. Big time. And so that could be a huge like, you know, having that familiarity could help out with that recruiting process. He's going to coach Jenna Lawrence again, who played for him at Farmington. There's some familiarity there. [00:41:06] Speaker A: He said quote to join Kelsey Music is a phenomenal opportunity. Coach is a visionary program builder. She's the type of person players want to play for and you want to work alongside her. The opportunity to work alongside her is phenomenal. TJ Cleveland, former Razorback coach and player hired at Texas A and M yesterday. That's someone you've know quite well. [00:41:27] Speaker B: Yeah, he's. He's long been considered like a good, like he's talking about a coach that knows how to develop players. He's like really good at that. He's a good recruiter. He's been considered just somebody that's like on the come up, I guess, for a while now. This is a cool opportunity for him to be with Bucky at A and M. It'll be weird seeing him Texas A and M colors and stuff. It's just, you know, just. Yeah, it'll just be weird. But you know, it's always cool whenever a former player gets a, you know, gets an opportunity, but especially whenever it's a former player who was on your staff at Arkansas too. I mean, he's one of those. I don't think anybody has any sort of like ill feelings toward. He just, he didn't. He's done nothing but like, I think good stuff for Arkansas. [00:42:11] Speaker A: So good, good person too. I believe in all the interactions that I've had with him. He spent the last couple of years up at Wichita State. All right, Softball this weekend at Bogle Park, South Carolina comes in. They're ranked all over the place. But their number, what are they in the poll that you use? [00:42:27] Speaker B: They're 11 and the one I use. They're mostly like top seven. So it's kind of an outlier with this poll. And actually the reason they dropped is because, like, at teams like Arkansas jumped on last week with winning at Florida. But they, they're good. They're. They're just solid all around is the thing with them. Like, their fielding percentage is good. They. Their batting average good. It's like, I don't know if they're. They're like great at anything right now. They're just good at all the categories that you need to be good at. I'd say their fielding percentage is pretty great. So. But it's going to be a tough series for them for sure. I mean, South Carolina has been. They're the team this year that, like you, no team is safe playing. I mean, they beat LSU in a series and I thought LSU looked like the, you know, the most unstoppable team in softball there for a little bit. Them in Texas, they took two or three from them not long ago. So big series for them. I'm expecting it to be pretty packed. [00:43:22] Speaker A: Arkansas 7 and 2 in its last nine SEC games with a couple of road wins over top 10 teams. Florida last week, Tennessee a few weeks back. They also swept Kentucky at Bogle park during that stretch. They started off the year or the SEC season kind of poorly with a couple of blowout losses to Ole Miss. Courtney Diefel, on a news or on a zoom yesterday with reporters was asked what is different about this team now than when they played Ole Miss? [00:43:49] Speaker B: There's not enough time. No, there's so many things, Eric, so many things. This team right now is just playing with a ton of confidence, a ton of competitive commitment to each other, wanting to be great. Not that that team didn't, but that team got punched in the face for the first time and just didn't really know what to do or what to make of it and just kind of sat in it a little bit until they kind of got that edge back. And this team right now is edgy. They're edgy. I think that they know we can beat anybody. We have to play our game, we have to control our side. But they just aren't going to count themselves out and they're going to throw as many punches as it takes, but they also aren't necessarily caught up in the outcome as much as what it's going to look like and who we are going to be and that commitment. [00:44:47] Speaker A: Game time tonight, 6:00 over at Bogle Park. It's going to be on SEC Network plus they'll play at 7 tomorrow on SEC Network Sunday afternoon at 1 o'clock against South Carolina. [00:44:57] Speaker B: Yep. And I'm, yeah, I think that she was spot on. Just saying like they had just had to get punched in the face in SEC for a little bit and now it's like they're, I don't know, they're the team that I'd say them. And honestly, it's funny, it's them in South Carolina that I'm like, I don't think anybody that's kind of at the top of the SEC right now, you know, Texas, OU, A and M are 1, 2, 3 in the poll. I don't think anybody wants any part of these two teams right now just because they're playing so well. And it reminds me so much of what happened to them to what happened to the men's basketball team as far as they started. Sec 1 and 5. They went to Tennessee on the road against probably the pitcher of the year, won the one game one against her and then won the series on Sunday. And it's like that's all they needed was to get something to prove themselves like that they, they can play with anybody. And now ever since they've been on a tear. So they're playing well right now. 8. Having an 87 record in the SEC this year is a lot different than 8 and 7 in past years. I mean it's like in my head if I, if a team is.500 right now, I'm like, wow, what an accomplishment. Because it is just brutal, the schedule. I mean they've played the top four teams in RPI or their final four series. [00:46:04] Speaker A: So and then they step out of SEC play after this week. Of course they've got a midweek against uca but because the way softball does its scheduling, they'll play Colorado State next week before getting back into SEC play for the last couple of weekends. [00:46:15] Speaker B: Yeah, every SEC team has like an awe a bye weekend, but it's just play play a different opponent. And they played I think UAB a couple years ago on that weekend and then they got Colorado State this year. That's a good weekend. I think for honestly just like it's always Cohen. It seems to always coincide for Arkansas with like the Red White game and it's just a good opportunity of getting fans out to their ballpark so they have a chance to I'm keep on being, I'm like curious if they're going to get to 40 wins because that's just in softball a real like wow, a 40 win season and they're 12 away right now, so. Or actually I think 11, 11, 29 and 8 overall. Yeah, they're 11 because they won on Monday. Yeah, they're. They're 11 games away from getting to that point, which I think would be Courtney Diefel's third or fourth 40 win season at Arkansas. [00:47:03] Speaker A: So when this series is weekend, I think they would be sitting pretty for potentially hosting a regional. [00:47:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:08] Speaker A: You know, so. So long as they don't get swept down the stretch. [00:47:11] Speaker B: Yeah, they're. Right now the big thing is can they host a, can they be a top national seed? Because a lot of people are putting them there because their RPI is number six. So it's more or less if they can start handling, if they can handle business this week and then do it again with UCA and Colorado State, they'll put themselves in a great position to get a top eight seed. [00:47:29] Speaker A: They're expecting a huge crowd at Bogle park tomorrow night. I think they said that there's less than 300 tickets remaining for that game and it's going to be Briella Snyte. [00:47:38] Speaker B: Yep. She's. It's funny because she is doing stuff right now that is going to make her have the best season that's ever been done in program history. Like that's just the point blank truth. It's like it's, she's having a season that people have only a few more opportunities to come to Bogle park and watch because it's like it's not only that she's doing stuff that haven't been done in Arkansas softball history. It's college softball. Like. [00:48:01] Speaker A: Well, that's what Diefel said yesterday. She said, you know, she's done a great job not only pushing our program forward, but the game forward. [00:48:07] Speaker B: Yeah, she's, it's, you know, for people who pay attention to women's basketball, I compare what she's doing right now to having like a, see like a, if you're doing, comparing softball players to women's basketball, she's like the Paige Becker's Caitlin Clark. She's. What she's doing. College softball is like she is the star right now. It's crazy. And there's not a lot of opportunities I think left to still see what she's doing at home. You know, they have a, they have an LSU series to end the year. Sec, they have that Colorado State series and they have the South Carolina one. But Saturday they're going to honor they. I don't know. I should have asked why they're doing it different this year but they aren't doing like a big senior day. They've been spreading it across weekends. I think to make it more just intentional to get like that player's family. It just makes it more about the specific player each time. And you know, last year they had their senior day. They got it ended up happening at like 10pm because it happened after like a big rain delay day and it was kind of a damper for that class. I think that this is this way it just kind of compensates for weird stuff happening. But yeah, it's our day tomorrow at Bogle. [00:49:11] Speaker A: Big weekend. Baseball, softball, obviously the football scrimmage tomorrow. You can read all about it at our website, wholehogsports.com this weekend. Back with another podcast on Monday and we'll recap all of it then with Bubba Carpenter on the podcast on Monday. Appreciate you being here, Ethan. We appreciate everyone being with us. Hope to see you Monday. Have a great weekend.