Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome in, everybody, and a very happy Wednesday. I'm your host, Christina Long, here with Tom Murphy to talk a little bit about Arkansas football's matchup against Tulsa this weekend. Before we get started, I want to tell you about our friends at Eglins Best in Arkansas. Greatness starts early, before the pads go on, before the crowd roars, the day begins at the breakfast table. Eglins Best delivers superior nutrition with more vitamin D and less saturated fat than ordinary eggs. Start strong with Eglin's Best. Better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. Also want to thank our friends at Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971 and they are committed, profess, versatile. If you're looking for a quality leader in northwest Arkansas or looking for skilled craftsmanship, you can look no further than Bentonville Glass. For all of your glass market needs with the highest quality products, you can Visit them at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at Bentonville glass.com Thank you so much to Eglin's Best and Bentonville Glass for supporting our show. Tom this has been a busy week, as y'. All. As usual, we're fully in the in the flow now of football, I think.
And I, I want to real quick before we kind of fully turn to Tulsa, go back a little bit to Saturday after the game Sunday. I think you were a little more optimistic coming out of the Georgia game than some people were. I don't disagree with you on it. I think, you know, Ethan and I were in here on Monday talking about some of the improvements they made and how maybe it didn't look as bad as we thought it was going to look against a team like Georgia.
You picked Arkansas to win against Tulsa this weekend. I also did. I'm expecting them to win. But what is your feeling about the team here in the middle of week four after you felt like maybe they made some strides last weekend?
[00:01:31] Speaker B: I think they're at a real it's a real crucible this week because they are favored and when you look at the rest of the schedule, it looks very daunting and they won't be favored probably in any of the remaining games after this.
But in a weird way, even though they lost by 28 to Georgia, strangely, I thought Georgia was a pretty decent team for them to play because Georgia plays a lot more of read and react defense, keep things in front of you more zone and on the other side of the ball, they're a little bit more methodical and I know they they've been explosive in the first couple of games they were, but I think in some ways because they made Georgia really work for that first drive. And Arkansas got the ball first, kept the ball for a while and got right on the fringe of field goal range and missed a fourth down.
So you know, that hurt them obviously, but then they made Georgia drive and so now we're in the second quarter and it's seven to nothing.
And so in a strange way, I think it was confidence building for Arkansas that they completed a nice percentage of passes against a very good Georgia team, that they showed some sparks in the passing game. Chris Marshall was a good highlight.
And even though Georgia really imposed itself 7 of 11 on third downs, I think they converted the only fourth down.
There were some things defensively where they kept the two main running backs, Frazier and Bowens, not bottled up, but they really had to work, I mean maybe average 4 point something yards per game.
So I say all of those things to say I think you saw the makings of what Ryan Silverfield wants Arkansas to look like and how tough he wants them to be.
And I think that would bode well for them against Tulsa if they execute better. And I'm going to bring up one wild thing out of the blue. Georgia didn't blitz often, but when they did it was amazing how they got man free on KJ so many times.
Tim Cramsey said this week we want to invite teams to blitz. So in other words, if they can pick it up, he knows where his hot reads are, that could bode well for them. Tulsa hasn't been a big blitz team yet either, but they're going to see what Georgia did and I think they're going to dial up some so interesting matchup that's at home.
And for those reasons, that's why I'm thinking Arkansas will prevail in this game.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: I am too. And I think I, I also left the Georgia game feeling more that way. And maybe, I think also contributing is the fact that Tulsa went to Sam Houston State in week two and didn't look amazing.
They didn't look like world beaters like they did maybe against Oklahoma State. But that win still looks really good. Obviously that Oklahoma State win that adds a layer to this game.
Do you think?
I'm, I'm trying to decide if this game, I mean it is a must win, but at the same time a game against a group of six school is kind of always going to be a must win because if you lose it, it's really bad. You know, like you're, you're talking about it the rest of the year as a blemish on your record. So at the same time, but I think everybody knows what I mean when I say must win. I think this is, this game has maybe different stakes than you might have expected when you looked at it on the schedule before the year. In large part because of that Oklahoma State win that Tulsa got. But I think I'm, I'm trying to decide if, how much, what will we be talking about with Arkansas if they beat Tulsa? Do we feel much better about them? Obviously, depends what happens, how it happens. If they have to squeak by and, and make a comeback late or something like that, then we're probably not speaking very highly of a win like that. But what is it that I feel like there's a lot more that they have to lose than they have to gain, which is kind of what always happens with these group of six games.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: Yeah, they do have a lot more to lose than they do to gain because you really need to win the game. You got to keep the fan base on your side as long as you can this season so attendance doesn't slack off. And because we all understand there's a lot of animosity, a lot of angst amongst the fan base. I think it's interesting from a few levels. One, Tulsa, they're three. And oh, they got their first shutout in 24 years last week. There's so much like positivity building over there that, hey, we can beat another Power 4 team. You know, Arkansas might be down, but let's, let's, let's keep them down.
And Trey Lamb seems to kind of have a good idea of how he wants to build his roster. They've done a decent job, but from the Arkansas perspective, I felt better after week three against Georgia than I did after week one when it just didn't seem like they, they were very smooth. They had a lot of penalties.
They had a three to one turnover differential, which they haven't got that figured out yet either.
So in this game I think they really need to win the turnover battle and things like that, but just how they look, how fans view the team.
And K.J. jackson did not look comfortable at Utah. He looked out of sorts of the pressures had him thrown off.
I don't think he was reading things very well, but in one week that improved vastly against Georgia. So if they can block things up and look their, their fronts ought to be able to win a lot more one on one battles against Tulsa than they did against Georgia. If they can do that, KJ Jackson can be comfortable, they'll look better and we're going to come away from the game talking about what we always would after every game, our impressions of that game and it's going to be, do they look cleaner? Did they have fewer penalties? Did they win one more one on one battles? Can they be a little bit more explosive in the run game? We're going to be focusing very heavily on whether or not they can establish a run game against Tulsa.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: I want to talk about the quarterbacks some more. They won't say what they're doing. If they're going to kind of keep doing that back and forth thing with KJ and AJ Hill like they did against Georgia, I'm not surprised they're not wanting to reveal that they don't want to give the game up. It is kind of funny though that on the flip side, Trey Lamb was like, yeah, Baylor Hayes, our quarterback, doubtful, like, said that on Monday. I was like, oh, this is so refreshing. Nobody does this anymore. Nobody will just tell you, yeah, he's probably not going to play.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: No.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: So it was kind of refreshing to know that Tulsa is likely going to be playing its backup quarterback. But as far as Arkansas goes, we're both expecting them to start kj. We both see still think that that's the best option. I think most people agree, but how much do you think we'll see A.J. hill and what do you think is, is there a benefit to if they kind of do that again like they did against Georgia?
[00:08:20] Speaker B: Well, I thought AJ Played well enough. Like if you take away the drops from last week and one of them was very egregious and I hate to point it out, but Matt Adcock had one that it looked like he was beyond a defender on the second level and if he caught it, he could have run for a while and someone would have caught him, but he would have run for a while and the poor kid, you could tell how bad he felt. But AJ Had a fairly decent game. He's got to get better at the blitz stuff because Utah came at him twice right at the end and both got home when Georgia came at him with the blitzes. I don't think he was quite prepared to get his hot reads and things like that. So he's got to improve there. I fully expect KJ to start, I fully expect him to go at least the first two series and look, if they score a couple times, they might ride the hot hand for a while. I think it's okay for A.J. hill to get a series because you never know when you might need him.
I don't know if it's going to be. Let's say they have 10 possessions like they did last week. I don't think it would be 6 to 4. I think it would be more 7 to 3 or 8 to 2. We'll see how it plays out. Secondly, on Tulsa, I don't know if Trey Lamb is playing some deep bait and switch thing where Baylor Hayes is more healthy. It gets Arkansas thinking.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: The conspiracy angle.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: Well, it gets Arkansas thinking we're going to be facing Washington and be prepared for what he does. Now look, Baylor Hayes brained a knee, so it's not like he's going to be the same type runner even if he's available to play.
Having said all that, Washington is a real interesting study in my book. He's been around for a long, long time. He's faced, he's been in big games.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Williams, right?
[00:09:55] Speaker B: Mr. Williams. They have so many Williams on their team and I don't know why I
[00:10:00] Speaker A: said Arkansas does too.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: Yes, they do. They have so many Williams on defense. It's crazy.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: Three or four and like all mostly in the secondary, right? It's crazy, right?
[00:10:09] Speaker B: It's right. And I'm sorry, Mr. Washington, it's Williams, but he's got a great background at Indiana. He's got a bunch of starts under his belt. Now his completion percentage this year, you look at it, you're like, ah, 52% against East Texas A and M mostly gives you a little bit of a pause.
So Arkansas needs to do some stuff to rattle him. How much they run him. If Baylor Hayes is really sidelined and won't be able to play, how much they run him will be a question because it's a part of their offense. But you also don't want him to get hurt.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: Exactly. Ron Roberts touched on that yesterday when he spoke about how he is a good runner and they need to contain that. But they're also not thinking they're going to see a whole lot of design quarterback run because of the injury to Baylor Hayes and you don't want to have that at risk because I don't know what Tulsa's third quarterback looks like, but I don't know if that's a direction they want to have to go, especially against a Power 4 team. But with Arkansas and the run game, that's going to be the thing. I feel like last year it was turnovers. This year it's going to be a real run game, like just the thing that we're checking in on every week. The thing that every week we're saying not to state the obvious, but they have to be better at this. And, and it's discontinuing and I think how much easier said than done is fixing it because we kind of keep asking. They obviously know it's a problem. There's a variety of factors. It's not really just one thing you can point to. It has something to do with the fact that they don't have much of a deep passing game. It also has a lot to do with the offensive line. But at a certain point is the offensive line just what it is? Like how, how much better do you think the run game can get?
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Well, that's a fascinating question, but when you're averaging 73.33 through three games, it is really hard to get that average back up to respectability. Basically. Here's the thing. Individually, Sutton Smith, playmaker Braylon Russell, he can, he can break tackles, but something's going on. I don't guess they like his pass protection, so he's not getting the same amount of reps. And it looks to me like Cam Settles is starting to come on.
But those guys can all run the ball. You just have to find a way to crease somebody. And since game one, what you've seen is safety's coming down, cheating into the box, basically run blitzing, and they haven't been able to break that initial surge.
It comes down to winning a lot more one on one blocks. It comes down to the receivers blocking well on the edges. It comes down to K.J. jackson or A.J. hill making the proper read to get into the right run checks and the right blocking scheme. So there's so much that goes into it. It's an intricate thing being a really good running team. I don't think there's enough time left in the season for us to think, oh wow, they're a good running team. Now there's enough time left in the season maybe for them to be a decent running team.
They can't abandon it because when you can't, it compounds the issues just mount for how, how the safeties are playing you.
And they've got to be able to burn people. And they did a little bit last week with Georgia with Chris Marshall. But they've got to get other options in the pass game.
And if they, and if Tulsa, for instance, just really clogs the box and challenges them, they have to take advantage with their hot routes.
KJ was better at the hot routes last week, but one of them wound up being the strip Sack and man, he was so close to having his knee down. He's got to secure that.
But yeah, fixing the run game is easier said than done. But a lot of times it just comes down to enforcing your physicality and winning one on one blocks up front and we'll just see if they can improve at that.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: And I think they, they've talked about that on both sides of the ball. They've talked about that with the defense too, the defense needing to win more one on one battles. But they seemed to do that a little bit better against Georgia. That was something, I think it was Silverfield highlighted after the game that, you know, some of the sacks they were able to get, some of the pressure they were able to get came down to just winning those battles. So that was a sign of improvement on the defense. But I don't feel like we've seen a whole lot of progress there from the offensive line.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: We haven't. And on the defense, I, I think this is an intriguing deal because Tulsa's running backs, demari Austin is a really good running back and Ron Roberts testified to that yesterday. That guy could be in the sec. He belongs in the sec. That's how good he is. But Trequan Jones, I think from Old Dominion, he's got a kickoff return touchdown this year. He's got a nice per carry average. They've got a nice stable of running backs. So Mr.
Williams, the quarterback, Dexter Williams is going to have some accompaniment and they've shown. I know they rebuilt their O line as well, but they've gotten themselves into a groove. Now I'm not Oklahoma State, I'm not sure the strength of their D line. I watched some of the Oregon game and I thought their D line did a pretty good job against Oregon at home.
This game was at Tulsa that they beat Oklahoma State. So I think Tulsa is going to have a pretty solid defensive front. They're going to have to dent to give Austin some room to run.
That's going to be one of the more intriguing matchups because I think if you force Williams into the air, you will have done a, you will have succeeded in, in what you want to do. Making them throw the ball.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: They've been decent against the run and I think that's what's going to make this maybe a good opportunity for the Arkansas offensive line to not, I don't want to say get right because that's not, you know, like we just said, we think they have a pretty decent defensive line. So it's not a. I don't want to call it a get right game, but an opportunity for them to have enough of a test that they can maybe learn some things and grow a. But not so hard that you're just slamming into a wall and there's nothing you can do. And it kind of keeps setting you back, if that makes sense.
[00:15:58] Speaker B: Yeah. This is a big game in so many different ways. Building confidence, winning at home, getting some more fans over to your side.
I liked what I heard from Ryan Silverfield in the course of the last week.
I have faith that this team's going to build.
We're going to start turning it around. I don't know how many SEC wins that will lead to, but a win here makes you start thinking, okay, you know, Missouri, South Carolina at home, Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt on the road, Auburn on the road. There's some games where I wouldn't call them exactly toss ups, but if you execute well and win turnover battles, you have a chance. And that was their game plan all along.
I view this game in one way.
It's like relative momentum. Tulsa's coming in with a lot of it.
Who's going to play more loose and free in this game? Because Arkansas cannot afford to be tight and can't make mistakes. They just have to play looser and freer, which they didn't do against North Alabama.
And they have to make Tulsa think twice about some of the trick plays they want to run and things like that.
It's just an esoteric concept, but playing loose and free would be a lot bigger deal for Arkansas this week rather than playing tight and we can't afford to lose.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: But at the same time, they, they enter with so much more to lose than, than Tulsa has. You know, like by all accounts just going off of the, the sort of narrative about the game or, or the vibe of each team going into the game. Arkansas.
I would be surprised if they aren't. You know, this is, this is a time everybody's, everyone's very uptight right now and I understand why and I don't know if that's reflected inside the program, but everybody outside, you know, the way we're talking about it, the way fans are talking about it, there's a lot of pressure on Arkansas to win a game like this. And so for Tulsa, they're riding high, like you said. They're, they're having, they're, they're hitting these milestones, things they haven't done since X year and it's been a long time. And they're, they're a program that's kind of feels like they're kind of on the up while Arkansas is, is down, is staying down kind of where they've been. And so I think it's, it's a real challenge to kind of play free when you have all this pressure and you feel like this is our most winnable remaining game and we have to have it. It's really hard to feel loose when you have to have it.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: It's all about can you get off to a good start, can you score the first time you have the ball, hold them down, maybe get a turnover along the way. I agree it's hard. It's harder to, quote, play loose when all the things that are on the line, but somehow the other, they've got to get that across to them. We are the better team. We're at home. We should win now. Let's play loose and free now.
Execution is a big part of that. I think this.
You brought up the Tulsa milestones and all. It's so interesting how these teams kind of weave together. They've played so many. Trey Lamb even expressed amazement, like, whoa, I didn't really realize until they're on the schedule. I see a lot of Razorback cats around here and license plates and stuff like that two hours away. They played a million times or they played a bunch of times in the past. In fact, Mac Jones had a story yesterday that mentioned beyond Texas and Texas A and M series, that Tulsa is the next most played series.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: Is it really?
[00:19:18] Speaker B: Well, that's what he wrote. And Steve Cox transferred from Tulsa to Arkansas and he was a part of that team. The last Tulsa win 50 years ago. We're talking about a board of trustee member, Steve Cox, who was, you know, great punter here.
But Arkansas has won all the games in the last 50 years. The 2008 Tulsa team is the last one that started three. And oh, and they came in here rolling and hot and they lost to Arkansas.
Maybe they got a little bit uptight. I want to say they went for a two point conversion sometime late in the game or somewhere that didn't go their way and Arkansas won it. Even the 2012 team came in here. Arkansas was struggling under John L. Smith. They found a way to win. The Chad Morris team shut Tulsa out.
So, you know, there's a lot of incentive for Tulsa to get this huge breakthrough win.
I don't doubt that they're going to play a little bit carefree, but it's up to Arkansas to enforce themselves in this game and be the more physical team and that because so often the more physical Team wins. They gotta tackle the ball hard and they gotta get more turnovers out of this game.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: Tulsa has been low for a while. They've been kind of down for a long time, I think. Tell me if you remember this at all. And I. I don't remember if this was stuff that. If this was just people speculating that this could be the case or if this was actually happening. Barry Odom, I believe, is a Tulsa alum, and I think when that job came open, people were maybe making a Bar Odom, like, head coaching connection. I can't remember if they actually talked or there was reports that they had talked, but I know it was like, you know, people make their lists of who could be a candidate for the Tulsa job. You look at who went there, and people were kind of looking at Barry Odom, I think, but I think he was at. He would have been UNLV at the time, or maybe it was before he went to unlv. I can't remember how the timing went on it.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: It may have been for the most current hire, and this is Trey Lamb's
[00:21:11] Speaker A: second year, so he would have still been. He would have been at UNLV going to Tulsa.
So, like, going from UNLV to Tulsa wouldn't have probably made sense.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: But, no, because he had UNLV up pretty good.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: He did.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: When you're in line for a Big Ten job, even though it's, you know, on par with where Arkansas is right now. Yeah, down and trying to build back up, that's a big lure for Barry Odom. So I'm not sure if I read a ton about whether his name was connected to Tulsa, but it does make sense. But I also see how the Purdue job would have been more attractive.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: Just another little bit of connective tissue between those programs with, you know, the Barry Odom kind of connection. And I think it is interesting that, you know, in Tulsa, there's a decent amount of, like, Arkansas alums. And I'm curious how many Tulsa people will be at this game? I mean, last weekend we saw, obviously, a ton of Georgia fans travel, because this isn't a place they come very often. Tulsa, it's such an easy trip.
I know. How are you thinking the. The crowd might look this weekend? Do you think it'll. I asked Ethan this on Monday. Do you think it'll be better or not? As good as it was against Georgia? I would think better.
I. I hope for a night game. Better weather a game you think they're probably going to win.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: These are all good points. I mean, I guess it depends on what percentage of fans are just so mad that they don't want to go to games. The whole tickets, possibly, but I think the Official attendance was 6,000 less than capacity.
[00:22:34] Speaker A: That's only tickets sold. Like that number just like doesn't even.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: Right. The 66 wasn't reflective of how many were really there, but I don't know. To me, new laser lights and laser shows doesn't carry a lot.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: No, I don't think it does for most people. When you're. When you're losing like this, when the vibe of your team is so low, I don't think anyone's buying a ticket to see the red lights.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: I don't think so either. But it is a night game. The weather will be cooler.
I don't know what ticket prices will look like. I know that they descended last week for Georgia.
I haven't looked what they would do this week, but just like last week, it was a chance for average, everyday fans who feel like they're priced out of the stadium to walk up and get a ticket. I don't know what, what they'll be again, but possibly in the same range. 66,000 official or tickets sold.
What it will look like in the stands.
I can't imagine it being packed out, but hopefully for Arkansas sake, it'll be somewhat similar to what the. The Georgia attendance look like. What do you think?
[00:23:43] Speaker A: I think it'll be better than the Georgia attendance. Again, I don't think it's going to be packed, but I do think it'll be better because I think a night game, you know, Arkansas just, it's. It's been kind of a talking point. They don't get to have a lot of night games. This is the one game this year that they get to control when it kicks off because it's on SEC Network plus.
So they chose a night game because they rarely have them, particularly at home. So I think that does something for you. I think if anybody is thinking, okay, I. If I'm gonna see a home win, this is your best chance at one. Um, so I think I am expecting it to be better than Georgia. There will be, I think, fewer visiting fans. There were so many Georgia fans here, it looked like to me, and even just walking around town, there were so many. Um, I don't expect the same amount of visiting fans sort of boosting the, the attendance there, but I do think Razorback fans will turn up a little bit better than they did the weekend before.
[00:24:32] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, you can be mad at the spending in football and various things in the athletic department that have you frustrated.
But if you are a fan of the football team, you got three games under your belt with Ryan Silverfield and a 80, 80% new roster. Basically give them a shot. If you have a chance to go to the game, maybe this is your time and I think it's a real proving ground. If they look similar to the way they did against North Texas and they lose the turnover margin. North Alabama, North Alabama and they lose the game, then they will, a lot of fans will peel off and so yep, there's pressure. But if you're going to be, if you say we're going to start turning this around, I have great faith. Then you come into this game with a game plan to slow Williams in that running game. You win more physical battles and you prevail at home. It's that simple. For Ron Silverfield and company, I think
[00:25:35] Speaker A: that's a pretty good note to end on. This is a game that has more stakes than we would have thought and I honestly, I'll take it. I think I would rather. Even though it means that the season, the early part of the season has not gone how people wanted it to go.
It's easy for some of these games, these early season non conference against non Power 4 teams to be kind of snoozers. Not a lot to say, not a lot to talk about, not a lot to preview do and at least there's interest. You know, at least we've, we've got some stuff to talk about and we've got some things to watch. I think there's going to be a lot, like you said, kind of a proving ground. There's a lot that they have a chance to show growth in on both sides of the ball in this game. It's not a guarantee that they will because this is not a Tulsa team that is, is going to go easy. And so I think that this one sets up as something that is more intriguing than we would have thought. Which for a, for a 7 o' clock kickoff week four before SEC play really gets going, I'll take it. Something to watch.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: You have to go win this game. Tulsa is not going to give it away. I don't think you got to go win it. And if you're saying we are going to improve, we are improving, then this is the game. You go do it. Look, if Arkansas was rolling, they were middle of the pack, sec, whatever. This would be much more of a snoozer game. But there's a lot riding on this one and it's proving time for Ryan Silverfield.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: Tom, thanks so much for being here. Thank you everybody, so much for listening today. We hope you'll subscribe to our podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and find all of our work covering our Saw Football @wholehog sports.com and we hope you'll join us tomorrow when we'll have a Q and A from our Hogs Illustrated Sports Club with Brandon Marcelo. So looking forward to having him with us tomorrow and having that on our podcast as well. Thanks so much.
