Matt Jones and Ethan Westerman talk about the Razorbacks’ football game vs. Auburn and basketball exhibition game vs. Cincinnati in Fayetteville, plus a new report on Arkansas’ athletics finances. They also give their weekend predictions for every SEC game.
You’re listening to the whole hog sports podcast and now here’s your host Matt Jones. Busy weekend here in Fagville, Arkansas to play Auburn at Razerback Stadium tomorrow morning. Also Razerback basketball. We’ll get our first look at them in the preseason tonight with a game against Cincinnati. We’ll talk about all of that and more today on the show. But first, a word from Kendall King. Four decades of design. We’re continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kindle King, Soapbox, and Shopkart. 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 Kindle King. We are soapbox. We are shop cart. We are design. I’ve got the best feeling I’ve had about Razerback football going into a game uh at any point for several weeks. Probably Memphis was the last time I felt confident uh that they were going to win a game. Now, of course, they didn’t win against Memphis. They should have. They were a better team, I think, than Memphis. Maybe not a better team. They’re more talented than Memphis and they blew it in that game over there. But I feel like in terms of how they stack up with their competition, this is probably as good of a matchup since that Memphis game. I didn’t think they matched up well against Notre Dame. I didn’t think they matched up well against Tennessee. I didn’t think they matched up that well against Texas A&M, although they played those last two teams uh you know, pretty competitively in those games. Uh I think with Auburn, they match up well. does not look like a terrifying Auburn team. I know they’re capable. I know they’ve played close games against good teams, but I’ve watched that offense play and I know they’re having some trouble in their offensive line. They just lost their starting center to an ACL injury. As we said earlier this week, it is a strength versus strength and a weakness versus weakness matchup. And I don’t think either of these teams uh you know have a good feel necessarily for who they are. But as I’ve said a number of times, when you’ve got a game that kind of feels like a pick them game, and this one feels like a pick them game, I’m usually going to go with the team that has uh the better offense. Now, Auburn hadn’t got to play Arkansas’s defense, and that’s a big deal. But what I’ve seen from these two teams offensively to this point in the season, give me Arkansas in this game tomorrow. Yeah, no doubt about it. This is the game that I think everybody feels, you know, the best about you have in a while, just because, you know, it’s going to take a team with an offense that’s struggling for Arkansas to to to win. um unless this defense just drastically improves and starts doing some stuff against, you know, like we we saw them against Tennessee and&M and uh Miss these offenses that you knew could do some stuff. Um with the history of their coaches and just with just the production this year, um it was it’s going to take a team like Auburn coming in for I think the Arkansas defense to get enough stops to to give the offense a chance. And also, I think Auburn has some questions in the kicking department right now, too. So, it’s pretty um it’s going to be important for Arkansas, I think, to limit Auburn to field goal tries instead of touchdown drives. Um which obviously that was a a killer against&M is that they just couldn’t get those stops across midfield. It was uh I think&m kicked one field goal and other than that it was six of their seven scoring drives were touchdowns. So, I think this is just the type of game where you don’t expect Auburn’s offense to be able to put together the type of performance that um that that some of these other teams that faced Arkansas have. But I will say if there’s any team that the Auburn offense could, you know, break out of its shell with, it’s probably Arkansas. Yeah, Arkansas defense. It’s good medicine for an offense that’s, uh, not performing real well. Auburn’s kicker, I believe he’s dealing with an injury and he missed three field goals last week against Missouri. So, uh, you know, I think he’s playing, but I think he’s dealing with an injury that that’s maybe affecting him and, you know, what he’s able to do on the field. Well, he I think missed all of last year with some sort of illness. I mean, he was really good as a freshman. Um, and I think that that illness, um, I mean, it’s something that he just still battles with. I’m not sure the exact details on it, but I mean, he had kicked decently this season is the thing. Um, going into last week’s game against, uh, Missouri, and he misses three against them. I think one was a 38 yard. Another one was not terribly long, but a chance to, uh, win the game. Um it just he had a terrible performance last week and it’s the type of thing where you know Hugh Fes this week even decided to to kind of voice his support for his kicker. You do that thing to try and build their confidence up. But you know that if it gets in a critical situation on Saturday fresh off that game that he just had um where he struggled. You would think that the the advantage would go to Arkansas there because all the pressure will be on him to to bounce back from last week and you’re doing it on the road too. And I mean considering that it could be a pretty windy day in Fagetville, I would think that’s not not good for a struggling kicker. Ulcer of colitis is what Alex McFersonson is is dealing with um or has dealt with. Uh ESPN did a big feature if you want to go read that at some point or or watch that. I think it was on college game day earlier this year. Um you mentioned the wind. The weather’s not going to be great tomorrow. I think of two things with Auburn’s center being out. Connor Lou tore his ACL. He’s not going to play the rest of the season. And I think they’ve got a freshman who’s stepping in uh behind him to play. Two things come to mind. Number one is that Cam Ball’s not playing for Arkansas. I mean, you talk about bad luck for the Razerbacks potentially. The fact that you don’t have your your best guy there in the middle to go against a center who’s making his first start in an SEC road environment. And then number two, not just the wind, but the the rain that’s expected tomorrow. I mean, I think it’s going to rain more in this game. It didn’t rain in the game against&m last week. It just rained a lot before the game kicked off. It’s supposed to rain throughout this game. Periods of of pretty heavy rain, too. Now, we’re not going to have the severe thunderstorms, I don’t think, that caused last week’s game to get delayed. So, they’ll probably kick off at 11:45 and, you know, they’ll just play through the rain. Um, but you wonder about when you have a center who is making his first start with the wet football. We always talk about the quarterbacks and the receivers and the running backs. The center touches that ball too every play. And you you wonder how that might go for Auburn in the rain. Yeah, for sure. And I think that it’s for Arkansas, you wonder like if they even change kind of the alignment they’re in without Campbell cuz I mean they’ve had to rely on him heavily this year to play a lot of snaps. Um and they just don’t have, we said this before the season even kicked off, they don’t have depth at defensive tackle and they’re down uh multiple guys right now. They have Danny Sely who’s supposed to be back this week. Um he was probable on the on the availability report last week. So you have the same number of guys who were out as last week, but you’re losing your preseason all SEC guys, one of them this week. So Arkansas’s just thin there. You would think that this is the type of game with the the elements that would benefit a defense more often than not. Um but and you just wonder like what that means for the Auburn offense that’s already been struggling. like if Arkansas could put together a defensive performance that’s kind of, you know, surprising just because of the situation of the offense you’re facing and maybe the conditions with the freshman center, all that. Arkansas’s got to, I think, use the the weather and the struggling offense. They’ve got to they’ve got to generate some turnovers on them. I think that that’s been the one of the biggest downfalls this season um is their inability to kind of make some uh possessions uh out of nothing. Hog Sports daily podcast poll question. when we post this on our social media said Arkansas’s a 2 and a2 point favorite to beat Auburn. Will the Razerbacks get their first SEC win? 70.3% of the people say yes. Uh just under 30% say no. So, you know, I mean the the home crowd, they’re going to have a strong belief. I think, you know, if we pose this to Auburn fans, hey, there you’re a two and a half point road dog. Are you going to get your first win? You know, you might get 70% responses. I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know that they’re real happy with Hugh Freeze there. And that’s one of those deals we we can talk about the X’s and O’s and the matchups and everything. A lot of times winning and losing comes down to how you feel and you know how the team feels and how they want to uh you know fight for one another. And with Auburn, you do wonder that with them you know with with the Vulture circling around Hugh Freeze. They love themselves a coaching search there at Auburn probably more than any other fan base in the SEC uh because they’ve they’ve gone through it so many times. And you just wonder how much that noise infiltrates the locker room. You wonder uh how together the players are when they’re so close against Georgia, but then uh they fall apart and and they and they fell apart in that game. I mean, you watch the last uh two to three minutes of the first half from the twominute warning, two-minute timeout, whatever you want to call it in college football until halftime, it took 36 minutes in the Auburn, Georgia game between reviews and penalties. There was the play at the goal line obviously and it was like, and we talked to Adam Cole about this earlier this week on the show, who covers Auburn for the Montgomery Advertiser. It almost feels like you can go back and you can look at that play on the goal line and it just sucked Auburn’s soul right out of them. They haven’t looked like the same football team since. I know they were competitive against Missouri. They took them to overtime last week. Um but you just wonder how many times you can kind of keep going to the well and you could say some of the same things for Arkansas with all the close losses they’ve had. But there’s just a different feel here with Arkansas since Patrino took over. There is a rejuvenated feel I feel like uh within the team these last two close losses they feel a little bit different in that they played you know fairly inspired in the fourth quarter where that wasn’t necessarily the case uh in you know in the end of the game against Miss and certainly not against Memphis. What’s the feeling like at Auburn? Because we we we do feel like Arkansas those players are inspired and they’re and they’re going to give a good effort tomorrow. Can you say the same thing for Auburn? That’s something that goes beyond the box score. Yeah. And I think that there’s only so many just real emotional blows that you can take before it’s you get a little bit just um complacent with how you play. And I that fumble against Georgia that felt like the this is the moment type of thing to me watching it live. Just like Auburn’s already um been and they they have every right especially against Oklahoma to be upset with some of the officiating that they’ve gotten this season and that whole how that played out and Hugh Fes just the reaction and everything. It just felt to me I was like this is just they’re they’re in a place where they feel like everything’s against them and they’re not winning games and that can be really defeating. Freeze he even said that he let the stuff that happened at the end of the first half bleed over into halftime and affect him at halftime. And I think if you can see that as a player, you know, that affects how you’re going to play when you go back out on the field. And they were totally flat in the second half against Georgia. this has kind of been the knock on Hugh Fes as a as a head coach. You have to be able to deflect all of that stuff and you have to be able to, you know, take some ownership and to get your players refocused. And you know what I think about is last year, remember when Arkansas beat them and he goes on his radio show and he says, you know, no offense to Arkansas, but we play them again nine times. We beat them nine times. And uh baby cried in the background right as he said that, which I thought was very appropriate. But, uh, you know, he he has this tendency to hang on to things and I think that if you’re a head coach and you can’t move on, how do you expect your team to do it, whether it be after a game or in the game? Yeah. And it was even it was funnier to like think back on those comments at the end of Auburn season because of course that was an early season result and you’re kind of thinking, you know, maybe Auburn can can bounce back and have a good season and you’ll be agreeing with Hugh Freeze that they could beat him that many times, but no, they were they were not a good team. they were top of the SEC, near the top of the nation in turnover margins. So, no, it was not a fluke that Arkansas turned them over five times. Um, and it just felt like that was such a just allin-one of kind of Hugh Freeze the vibe around that program right now. It just feels like everything else there’s not a ton of accountability I feel like with much at Auburn as far as like all these results that complain about the refs, complain about this against Arkansas, complain about how that wouldn’t happen. Uh most times it’s just like at some point you got to look in the mirror and say, “Hey, we’re losing games over and over.” Um maybe it’s an US problem, but this is a big game for both him and Patrino to be honest because like Patrino we as much momentum as there is right now about him being the the full-time coach perhaps, uh I don’t think this is a game that you lose and people feel the same way. I really don’t because I think that um I think that this is the most winnable game they’ve had yet. you’ve seen improvement and this kind of feels like the game that people are penciling in as maybe a breakthrough for the team to to win a game for Patrino. I don’t think that if you lose this game, it says the momentum’s there. I really don’t. But I think that with Hugh Freeze, you lose this game and it might be the nail in the coffin. They may leave him at Drake Field. Yeah. So, I think that one of these two coaches um are going to have a game that defines what their future looks like. I think you’re right. Uh you can subscribe to our podcast. Search Hull Hog Sports on Spotify or Apple. Also, you can find our YouTube channel at Hullhog Sports. Uh, subscribe. It helps us uh keep this podcast uh going and free. And uh we appreciate you supporting us there. You can also find our podcast on our social media channels. Whole hawkports on uh Twitterx and Facebook. Do you call it X? I don’t know what I call it anymore. I think I still call it Twitter most of the time. I can’t ever make the change. Yeah, I’ll say Twitterx. I think I’m not, you know, like my uh my mom grew up in Fagatville and she still calls MLK Highway 62. There you get so used to saying something there there’s a there’s a uh a political philosophy that I learned in college and it said what’s learned first is learned best. And that’s you can you could go beyond politics with that I guess. Yeah. Ever since I moved up to Fagatville, I guess 7 years ago, um, of course, I learned things by just like the street name. And everybody that I’ve met here who lived in Fagatville before it developed to what it is today, I mean, they call everything the road numbers. And they’re giving me directions of like what numbers to and I’m like, yo, you’re going to have to tell me College Avenue or tell me MLK or tell me wedding. Like, I don’t know these numbers. It took me a long time to be able to to uh finally stop saying Sixth Street and start saying MLK because it was Sixth Street for so long whenever I lived here uh that it just that’s that’s how it goes. Uh Arkansas basketball, they’re in action tonight. They’re going to play Cincinnati over at Budw Walton Arena. 7:00 tip off. Uh this game is going to be streamed on SEC Network Plus. Pratt Dolan and Joe Klein are going to be on the call tonight. I think there’s still a lot of tickets available for this. You know, Arkansas, they have I talked about this some last year, too. They are on the cusp of being a blueblood basketball program. um they’re not there because you know you you put this game at Kentucky, you put this game at uh North Carolina, at Duke, at KU, uh these tickets are going to be gone in a heartbeat because whenever you open the doors at RUP or you open the doors at Fog Allen or Cameron Indoor or the Dean Dome, I mean, people just rush in. Uh they look forward to to basketball the same way that we look forward to football around here. And you know, so Arkansas’s still got a ways to go in that regard. I I I’m somewhat surprised. It is high school football season. You do have a a football game, but you do have a football game tomorrow. And I thought there would be a lot of people who would take the opportunity to come to Fagville and do the two for one special. And there probably are a lot of people who will do this, but go to basketball on Friday night and go to football on Saturday. Uh and I guess we’re just not seeing that. And it probably tells me that we’re probably going to have a November like we had last year where you’re going to have Arkansas winning their games and John Caliperry going on the radio and saying, “Hey, if you got tickets, give them to us. We’ll give them away. Don’t sit on your tickets.” Uh maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m looking too much into the Cincinnati game, but if you can’t get a lot of people in the arena for Cincinnati, which is a a fairly named program in college basketball, probably ain’t going to be too good when you start the season against Southern here in a week or so. Yeah. And I’m curious to see these are I feel like these exhibition games, especially for local people, is one of the like last second like, oh, how can I get a ticket type deal to see if that changes and we get to the arena tonight and it’s a little more full than we just got a totally different feel than when KU came in. And I know it was totally different when KU came in. They were number one. It was Cal’s first game, but it was the same Friday night. It was October 25th last year. It was October 24th this year. Yeah. And and that uh game against KU had a really good crowd. I remember because they had the the glow sticks and everything. It was really cool. Um and I just feel like this game today. I I I’ll be curious to see the crowd because I do think that there is enough there’s plenty of interest there right now. It’s just a matter of how much are people willing to to, you know, come up here on a Friday night that we’re going to go to the football game and do the two for one. But it would be cool to see them um maybe get to that level to where you can put on a preseason event and just expect that it’s going to be packed. Um and and you just asked the question why they can’t be like that because it’s always there’s so much excitement once football season does end and they get into SEC play. Like we weren’t talking about bad crowds ever again. It was just really non-conference play and you just wonder what it takes to get people sucked in a little bit earlier. Um, and I know that that’s probably one of John Caliperry’s biggest missions too with just everything that they’ve done between him going to fraternities and sororities try and get him to come to this the prime time at the palace thing going to hot springs and they tried to market it better this year and that wasn’t very full. No, it’s like you just wonder what it will take for people to start going to these things. Uh, and I think that’s pretty high on Caliperry’s list is trying to just kind of get the fan base at a level where, you know, basketball does feel like it’s, you know, kind of one of the chief things where you can just expect at a KU or at a Kentucky, like one of those schools that you’re going to get uh at a packed arena. Part of the problem, and I’ve said this a number of times, is basketball season just starts too dog on early. Um, I look back yesterday or uh this morning actually at the 9495 season and you know when they played their first exhibition game? I would guess like November something. November the 15th. So basically three weeks later. There’s something about being in October and again it’s a Friday night and a lot of the high school teams played up here last night to avoid the rain that’s in in the forecast tonight. But there’s something about it being in October. High school football’s still going. people just have not gotten to a basketball mindset. And you know the other thing, I mean, when Arkansas played whoever in 1994, the Converse Allstars or or whoever in a preseason game, uh, they didn’t have SEC Network Plus. You couldn’t sit at home and watch the game. There’s a lot of convenience in being able to just sit at home and say, “Hey, you know what? I’ll go, but I’m only going to pay for five games this year, and I’m going to watch the rest of them from the the comfort of home.” But basketball season, it just starts too early. I’ I’ve said this for a long time. They keep moving it forward. Now it’s before even election day in November. I mean, November 3rd is going to be the date of the game that they play Southern this year. Uh again, 25 years ago, you didn’t see a basketball game before Thanksgiving for the most part. And so it’s uh there there’s a a conditioning of the mind that has to to take place, too. But again, KU, UNCC, Kentucky, those type of teams, they show up whenever you open the doors. Yeah. And that’s the thing. I think that that’s it’s these other programs aren’t making that excuse. And Arkansas wants to be on the level as them. So, you got They’re saying move it earlier. Exactly. Let’s have September basketball. Yeah. So, I think if your goal is to get at that level and be on the same, you know, like blueb blood status, you got to start doing the same things and quit making excuses and show up. Do you think it matters who wins this game tonight? Cincinnati, they’re I don’t think they’re in the same class in terms of of projections or predictions, if you will, as Arkansas. Arkansas’s number 14. I don’t think Cincy got a vote in the AP poll in the preseason poll. Um you you’ve been in a basketball environment though before, college basketball with Mike Anderson. How much emphasis is put on uh winning the game versus just getting minutes like like what are they talking about do you think in the building? Anytime you play a game your goal is to win. Like I mean they’re going to want to win this game. Um but it is not like the same as you know you’re you’re looking to just see progress and be a better polished unit. I think Cincinnati has the advantage in my opinion going into this night because they’ve already played one. They beat Michigan in an exhibition. Played them tough. Yeah, a good Michigan team. They beat them in an exhibition. So, I think that Arkansas, you go into this and I don’t know what to expect if they lose it. I don’t think I think the biggest thing is don’t overreact from any exhibition. I’m not sure that it’s like um necessarily a matter of what should we question if Arkansas really cares about winning this because they will. Anybody who steps on a playing field, I don’t care if it’s fall baseball, uh football scrimmage, those players want to win when they step on the the court or the field. But I do think that this is the type of game that you could see a result that doesn’t indicate how the season’s going to go. And that’s where I was going with that. Maybe not the fact that, you know, they don’t want to win the game, but you you coach this, I think, a lot differently than you would coach a regular season game because you’re wanting to get different players in there and get them more minutes and just kind of see how they handle this. You know, this isn’t when they play Michigan State in a couple of weeks and you might shrink your your your lineup or your rotation down to seven or eight players. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, Cincinnati’s projected to be an NCAA tournament team by ESPN, so it’s a good team and it’s going to be a good gauge for Arkansas to to see how they stack up. Um, but it is one of those deals where you you’re working on specific things. I think a lot of the time, you know, John Caliper wants them to take more pressured shots. I know in Hot Springs that wasn’t even a big crowd down there, but you could see a little bit of jitters at times, especially like free throws. So, I think that the biggest benefit in games like these is honestly you are playing in front of fans and that that adds some pressure no matter what. I think that you work situationally on maybe you really want to work on your zone defense, maybe you want to work on your press break, maybe you really are looking to see how um you know one if you can play through one of your big men. I think that’s what these are more for is it’s just kind of figuring out more about your team than you can whenever you scrimmage against each other because you scrimmage against each other for a long enough time that you get a somewhat I think isolated idea of what you have in your team. And it’s whenever you put them against outside competition that you start to actually be able to to maybe see if you were right on some things and maybe some areas that you thought you’d be good and you’re not as good. Want to tease a story we got on our website. Finances of the Razerbacks leaders talk buyouts football and debt payoff. That’s the headline at wholehogports.com. I wrote this. I I’ve spent some time. I’ve been off and on working on it. Uh but Dr. Craig Tees, the CFO for the Razerbacks, uh went back and and went through the presentation that Hunter Urich gave the board of trustees last month uh during that meeting here in Fyville. Got a statement from Chancellor Robinson. Uh so put a lot of work into this and it’s a long story on our website. It’s like 2,300 words I think. Somebody asked me, they said, “Could you give me a cliffnotes version?” And I’m sitting here thinking, “How do you cliffnote 2,300 words and all these figures and everything uh quotes and whatnot, but uh I did.” And and so here’s what I would tell people. Some of the overarching themes I think I uh that come from this story. Number one, the Razer Banks are well behind some of the other SEC teams in revenue and football spending. I think that people probably knew that. Certainly that’s been a a point of conversation in terms of the uh football spending. But in revenue, I thought one thing that Urachek told the board of trustees uh that was really interesting, let me pull up this graphic while I’m I’m trying to reference this, is that they looked at the so the most the most com recent complete data set that you have is the 2023 24 school year in terms of revenue. NCAA mandates uh your reports every January. So in two months we’ll or a little over two months we’ll know what Arkansas’s 2425 numbers were. So we’re dealing with numbers here that are 2 years old. But based on those numbers that are two years old, Arkansas ranks 12th in the SEC in total revenue. But here’s the number that is really interesting to me and this is what Urich told the trustees. He said, “Draw a line at Oklahoma. Their revenue in 2324 was about $28 million departmental for the Sooners.” Uh, in front of them were LSU. Going backward here, Oklahoma, LSU, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Texas A&M, and then Texas is well ahead of everybody else in revenue. Six of those seven teams have been in the college football playoff in the last five years. The only team who has not is Texas A&M, which is probably positioned better than any team in the SEC right now to get to the playoff this year. But going back to Oklahoma at 28.8 million and and some change, that’s what Arkansas’s projected to be at in revenue in four years. So basically, Arkansas is six years behind or more at least seven of the other athletic programs in the country. And if you have and and and you can just stop right there and you want to say if you want to figure out why they are trying to turn over all these rocks and find money, why they’re uh offering $350,000 leather seats at Courtzside at Budw Walton Arena, why they’ve done the receing that’s, you know, garnered $1 million in new finances for the Razerback Foundation and and and they’re trying to find money under every couch cushion. This is why. This is why because they are that far behind the top of the SEC in terms of department revenue. Yeah. And I mean, you look at that revenue, the list of those teams and you can even throw Oklahoma in in there because they have a decent path to playoff this year. Yeah. Um and you have teams that are if they haven’t been to the playoff already, they’re right dang there in conversation. Well, again, I mean, out of those teams, Oklahoma, LSU, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Texas have all been in the playoff in the last 5 years the only one that has not. And it’s just like if it and they’re staying up there too is the thing like you aren’t seeing much drop off. I think that that’s what’s the evidence is there and and it does make sense that they’re doing everything they can to try and find new sources of revenue and it’s and then the confusing piece of this too is that third everybody hates that 100 year check so they compete for a national championship with the third lane but that that third lane does exist and this doesn’t even take into consideration. I mean this this is just talking about departmental finances. NIL is a whole separate confusing piece that uh I don’t even know how you report on NIL because those numbers just really number one I think people inflate their numbers and I don’t think anybody like remember whenever NIL kind of kicked off and everybody said my god Texas&M spending what like hund00 million a year in NIL well&M had no reason to come out and say no it’s only eight you know what I mean u so it’s it’s just a recent report Kentucky that was similar with their basketball. $22 million in NIL. It’s like nobody’s going to refute that. Yeah. If if that’s out there and it makes you look good, no, you’re not. You’re going to not, you know, if you’re Kentucky, why would you say, “No, you know, we’re only spending 15.” Yeah. Okay. Because if you do that, then all of a sudden your competitors Arkansas and Louisville and all these teams that you’re against, you know, they’re going to have to go out and potentially, you know, it just there’s and what happens is that you have a totally crazy marketplace where nobody really understands what the market is at all. Yeah. But you combine these two things as far as like the the departments that have the most revenue and then the ones that you hear like we said you can’t you know really prove it with any of this NIL stuff but you hear about strong NIL programs a lot of these schools and you combine the two together and I think that that’s where um like you know miss is on this list well below Arkansas in revenue um but you hear about their NIL collective and I think that that can help you overcome some of that with competitive competitive in football. But, um, yeah, it’s a it’s wild out there just trying to see how teams like Arkansas can get in that upper echelon and the the things that they’re doing to try and get in that bracket. I mean, people are going to notice it probably on the broadcast tonight, definitely if you’re in the arena, how basketball games are different this year with what all they’ve done on the court. I mean, it is it is like they completely reinvented how they want things to look for courtside and um these premium seats that are on the like next to the benches. I mean, it is they redid the whole like downstairs of Budw Walton Arena. It’s now like um like fake wooden floor. Uh and the new paint job on the in the walls down there. It’s like they they tried to make it have this new look down there that’s like for um you know these premium seat people and it’s going to be very much different this year how operations are too um with getting people even where they’re supposed to be as far as operations and these courtside season ticket holders. I mean they’re trying to separate it as much as possible. Both basketball teams will run out of this the tunnel that Arkansas’s been running out of um at different times obviously. that tunnel that it’s pretty much off limits to everybody unless you are a courtside person. That is what that tunnel is for. It’s like this is serving this population that is generating this new revenue for us. And it’s it’s just it just goes to show the links that these departments will go right now, I think, to try and get money where they can because this is something that Hunter Uchek’s very proud of how much money that they’ve um been able to to to raise close to 11 million. Yeah. And so, uh, something if if you’re getting that big chunk added to your to what you have, you’re going to try and please those people. And they definitely are. Yeah. I mean, the floors have been optimized to sound good for expensive shoes as they walk down them. Uh, the $20 million actually is what they raised for basketball because it was about 11 million in recurring funds and then 9 million in one-time donations that came apart or as came came as a part of that foot or the uh the basketball receding. Uh, a couple other cliff notes from this. Uh, Arkansas’s dependence on the Razback Foundation should go down in future years. They don’t think they’re going to have to use as much of their annual uh, bringin for the foundation, which will allow the foundation uh, to potentially build up its reserves. Uh, the reserves are key right now because that’s what’s being used to pay Sam Pitman. That’s what’s being used to pay uh, the other football coaches who have gotten uh, fired this season. and the reserves are being used a little bit more this year just because of the the big expense uh from the house settlement that you know the the the budget this year is a lot bigger than it was last year the reserves are being used a little bit more this year is kind of a plug next year and in future years they don’t think they’re going to have to use that uh nearly as much other things Arkansas’s got a balanced budget and I think that’s key right now and you know some people they don’t care about balanced budgets some people they care a lot about that um you look at Missouri, Missouri operated at a $15 million loss in the last reporting period. They had to have a $25 million loan from their university just to cover their losses and then to give them a cushion going into the the next fiscal year. Miss is operating at a deficit. South Carolina is operating at a deficit. They just uh implemented student fees, student athletic fees at South Carolina. Mississippi State’s at a deficit. Alabama was at a deficit in 2324, a really big deficit. I think something like $28 million. That is largely due to the coaching change. The big buyout for Kalin Dbor. There was also some deferred compensation that was due to Nick Sabin whenever he retired. Uh so, but for Arkansas, they do have a balanced budget, which I know they feel good about. Um and that’s something that can’t be said everywhere else in the SEC. if you’re operating at a loss, eventually that’s going to come around and and affect you somewhere down uh the road. And then the final one is that uh they’re still paying off a lot of CO debt. Uh they’re still paying off a couple of facilities. All of that should fall off the books within the next four to five years. And somewhere around 2030 is what’s been described to me as a quote unquote sweet spot for the Budwalton Arena renovation. could be a couple of years before, could be a couple of years after. And of course in college athletics, if we’ve seen anything in the last five years, whether it be COVID or the house settlement, uh you never know what’s right around the corner that could totally throw you for a loop financially. So, as we talk about all of this stuff, just keep in mind that it’s based on the status quo and the status quo rarely ever stays the same in college sports. Exactly. That’s what I was thinking about reading this entire story that you wrote is just how you know you have two variables in there with uh the house settlement and then with COVID and recent history that like I would have loved to see kind of projections for the four-year plan in 20 uh maybe 2017 2018 and how that’s just had to be completely different. Things change so fast. Exactly. It’s like you just start over again. It is interesting looking at that the the the net uh report that you mentioned because like there’s some like Georgia’s at a 47 million seven 47.5 million. They got some onetime gifts in there and Texas&M’s at like a 22 point. It’s just but it is interesting that it’s these big programs that have success and they have these just huge net and it’s like the it feels like sometimes in SEC with these these departments it’s like the rich just keep getting richer. Oh, no doubt about it. And one thing that was explained to me as you look at these numbers and you compare them, it’s not a great apples to apples comparison because everybody has different accounting practices, but it is probably the best comparative tool that is out there, these numbers that are given uh to the NCAA. And I think that’s why it’s so like you hear about Arkansas can be at this number in a few years that like you know Oklahoma’s at that, but then it’s like what are those programs going to be looking like? Then it’s just it just changes so much because everybody’s trying to everybody’s doing the same thing right now trying to raise uh more revenue and cut down their expenses where they can and it’s just you never know how this is going to shape up and what can change what you know big- time gifts Arkansas could maybe give to help out. And spending money that’s not that’s not a a a predictor of winning necessarily, but the teams that spend the most money are are typically the teams that get the best uh return. Uh, and you can say that about departmental wide. You can say that about different sports. I mean, look at what Arkansas’s getting for basketball with the big investment that it put into John Caliperry. When we come back, uh, we’ll talk about our weekend predictions. 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Want to tell you too that Arkansas’s baseball coaches, their assistant coaches, Nate Thompson, Matt Hobs, and Bobby Wores are coming to the Hogs Illustrated Sports Club. That’s going to be Thursday of next week at home to suit in Springdale. Going to start at noon. The doors will open right around 11:40 uh for that event. You can still get your tickets ozarksick.com. oz a r k i s t iix.com for Matt Hobs, Nate Thompson, and Bobby Wores at the Hogs Illustrated Sports Club. I am looking forward to this like you would not believe being able to sit down and just kind of have a roundt discussion with these assistant coaches. I talked to them, you know, quite a bit throughout the year, but I I’ve never had anything like this where I’ve had all of them sitting there and, you know, kind of they’re interacting with each other. I’ve seen them interact with each other where it’d be, you know, on the field or, you know, maybe a lot of times you’ll do an interview in the baseball building and you’re sitting upstairs at kind of this, you know, big open area and maybe you’re sitting there with one coach and another one will come through and they’ll start giving each other some, you know, some crap or something and you and you can get a feel of the interaction that they have. Um, but it’s uh it’s it’s another thing to be able to have this roundt discussion. So, I’m looking forward to talking to them about their team with fall just wrapping up. Yeah, it’ll be really cool. And I think that that’s it’s so unique to get the perspective of assistant coaches always because phenomenal a head coach is so, you know, a lot of their feet are kind of in a lot of places with the program. It’s such a big time just kind of like overseeing job and obviously they’re in depth with the coaching and whatnot too, but these assistant coaches are like they can hone in on really specific stuff. they’re the ones who see like very niche developments with their players. So, that’ll be cool. Yeah, assistant coaches, that’s always where you go to get the best uh information. So, again, looking forward to having those three coaches at the Hogs Illustrated Sports Club on Thursday of next week. World Series starts tonight. There’s a story uh on our site right now that I wrote uh published this morning. Craig Perry, who was an assistant coach here at Arkansas. He was the volunteer coach when they went to the World Series and finished national runnerup in 2018. He is the hitting coordinator for the Toronto Blue Jays. So, I talked to him about his perspective of uh you know, watching this rise for the Blue Jays. Talked to him about uh you know, there’s a number of players on the roster on the World Series roster for Toronto who he and his team have worked with as they’ve advanced through the Blue Jays system. You can read that on our website, the headline as hitting coordinator, former Arkansas baseball assistant Craig Perry as an inside view of the Blue Jays run to the World Series. And we haven’t had a chance to say anything here on the show yet about Tony Vitello getting the job with the San Francisco Giants. We talked about it earlier in the week. Uh but man, this is like like it’s one thing to be considered for that job. It is a totally different thing for Buster Posey and the Giants management to actually take that step and take that risk and hire a college head coach. And you know, I said this earlier in the week, this has got the opportunity to be really interesting because when it comes to college head coaches and their movement, typically you just worry about, hey, what are the other colleges? like like you know if if if this guy’s going to leave like if you’re if you were Tennessee, you were infinitely more worried about Texas coming and getting Tony Vitello as the head coach than you were the San Francisco Giants up until the last couple of weeks. And so now this has got the potential to really kind of change that dynamic. And there there have always been professional jobs like Matt Hobbs, he he interviewed for the Giants and the Yankees pitching coordinator positions several years back. There have always been professional jobs that are available to college coaches. That part is is not different. It’s the fact that now it’s the big jobs. Now it’s the manager. Now it’s the pitching coach position. In the case of Wes Johnson several years ago, leaving Arkansas, uh this is like like a lot of times the word unprecedented gets thrown around uh when it shouldn’t. This is a totally unprecedented deal for Tony Vitello to go get that job with the Giants. And I think there’s a lot of people both on the professional side and the college side who want to see how this works and whether or not this can create something in the future for future coaches. Yeah, there’s always got to be the first domino and if it doesn’t work out, there might not be many more. But if it does, if it is a real splashy thing that does end up working, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it continue. Also want to tell you about a baseball story on our website. I feel like I’m just teasing stories on our site right now, but uh talked to Cole Flashnik and Jake Ivy, a couple of Razerback baseball commits recently and put a story up on our site. It says Arkansas baseball commits first played together when they were 12 years old. Kind of a fun story for these kids from North Texas who have both committed to play for the Razer Banks. All right, SEC now weekend. There are some interesting games this weekend. It’s I I don’t know that this weekend’s games are as good as last weekend’s games, but it’s we’re finally that part in the year where we’re getting better games on a more consistent basis in the conference. Yeah. And I’m about to say it’s not necessarily a ton of just heavy hitters this week, but I feel like every single one of these there’s a you’re at the point of the season where you’re going to get impactful games. Like they just have a lot at stake in them. There’s a lot of games I feel like are, you know, maybe elimination games for the playoff or could prove to be that. Um, so it’s it’s going to be an exciting weekend. Um, I mean, even Arkansas Auburn, like we talked about, there’s storylines there between a pair of teams that are combined 0 and seven in SEC. Uh there’s storylines with Texas and Mississippi State because Mississippi State honestly they’re playing a lot better and it seems to be a type of game that maybe they could be, you know, a trendy upset pick. They haven’t won an SEC game since I believe coming to Arkansas in 2023. Dan Enos was the offensive coordinator at Arkansas. That was the last time Mississippi State won an SEC game. But they they have a chance this weekend against a Texas team that’s I mean Texas should not take them lightly. There’s a lot of intrigue this weekend even if it’s not really the heavy hitters. All right, let’s get going. 11:00 kickoff on ABC tomorrow. Eighth ranked Miss and number 13 Oklahoma. The Sooners, this line has moved more in OU’s favor as the week has gone on. U’s a five and a half point favorite in this game, but our ratings like Old Miss by a point. Yeah, I’m I’m going to pick Oklahoma. I I think whenever it’s kind of a a toss-up game like this, in my head, I always go with the home team. And especially um with the defense that Oklahoma has, I just feel I just I don’t know. I I feel good in close games with a good defense a lot of times. If you haven’t watched Oklahoma’s defensive line, watch them and just be envious if you’re a Razerback fan. Like, man, boy, that would be nice to have. Uh that of that the the U defensive front, I think, is maybe the best defensive line in college football. Every time I watch them, even in the Texas game, their defensive front played fine. Uh you know, they just didn’t get any offensive help in that game. And there was a I think there was a defensive touchdown or a special teams touchdown that that helped turn that game too. U defensively, this is a salty salty group. I I took OU. Uh I think they win. Uh I think Matier and his hand, it’s starting to get a little bit better. I also think Miss got exposed a little bit by Georgia last week. Georgia’s defense is not very good, but they still shut him down toward the end of the game. I think they may have given Brent Venibles and that staff a little bit of a blueprint on on how to do the same. I’d even go a week prior. I think they got exposed by Washington State. That’s a good point. Um I think that it’s I I just don’t like how they’re trending right now. Fourth ranked Alabama goes to South Carolina. 2:30 kickoff on ABC. The Tide are an 11 and a half point favorite. Our ratings like them by seven. Yeah. And I think this is going to be I think they’re going to cover quite a bit. I think Alabama’s playing better than just about anybody right now. The quarterback play is phenomenal. Simpson is the real deal. He he is just a great passer. You look at his stats. He’s got 18 touchdowns to one interception. That’s crazy. Um that that’s that’s really good. I think that South Carolina is in a tough spot right now. Uh you’ve already got the Shane Beamer. I mean, of course, you’re going to have Shane Beamer meltdowns, but I feel like they’re kind of picking up a little bit more recently. I just don’t think that this is a good game for them. Uh one of my favorite I shouldn’t say favorite, one of the things I like to do on the weekend is see what kind of uh emotional reaction Shane Beamer is going to have after the game because it it’s inevitable. after every loss, there’s something in the postgame where he blows up on somebody. It happened last week when they lost to OU. I think Alabama’s too good. I think they go in and they beat South Carolina. And if you’re Alabama, they played the toughest strength of schedule, I think, in the country right now where they played four teams in the last four weeks uh who were all ranked. And I don’t think you’d look at either any of those teams and say, well, they shouldn’t have been ranked. I mean, you’re not going to say Vanderbilt shouldn’t be ranked, right? I mean, you’re not going to say that Missouri shouldn’t be ranked. They’ve beaten some good teams here. beat Tennessee. And I think now it’s like, okay, now you not not to overlook South Carolina, but that ain’t the same team that they played the last month. Yeah. And I think that also Alabama, of course, everybody’s going to, you know, kind of count them out after losing to Florida State the way that they did. They figured something out since then. They’re I think that the SEC this year and Arkansas can definitely vouch for this. It feels like you either have a really good offense. You You don’t have both. Complimentary football is hard to find. You either have a good offense and a bad defense or a good defense and a bad offense. Alabama I feel like is for the SEC this year about as close as it gets to I think I’m feeling good about both sides. I know their defensive efficiency in the ratings that you do isn’t great. They can’t stop the run, but they also have they’ve played a lot of really good teams. I think too kind of a part of that. And I think that I mean they’re fifth in the SEC in scoring defense. And I care about your scoring defense especially if you’ve played the opponents that Alabama’s played. So, I’m I’m just looking at them right now as a team that I think is maybe the most solid in offense and defense when you combine them together. BAM is a weird team. They can’t run the ball and they can’t stop the run. Yet, they continue to win. Logic would tell you eventually that’s going to get them, but it other than Florida State, it hasn’t gotten them yet. Game day is going to be in Nashville for Missouri at Vanderbilt. Tigers are number 15. Commodores are number 10. This is going to be a 2:30 kickoff on ESPN. Vanderbilt is a favorite by three and a half. That’s uh our ratings like him by three. Yeah. And as I just mentioned Alabama being maybe the best complimentary football. Vanderbilt you could make a case too. I think you could make a case for both of these teams being two of the best complimentary teams. Yeah. And that’s it’s just everybody’s Arkansas takes it to a whole another level with how bad the defense is. Like it’s like you would take you give Arkansas one of these struggling defenses in the SEC and it’s like a new shiny Corvette or something like because of how bad Arkansas’s has been. than this year. But for these teams, like I think you’re at a place with college football with how you’re having to choose to invest in your roster where you you end up just kind of making one of the units stronger than the other. And it’s I think that these two teams between Vanderbilt and Alabama have kind of struck a good balance with that. Missouri’s also um they’ve been pretty complimentary compliment. I can’t say this word. Complimentary. We ran into this last with an E. And I don’t like saying this word because I cannot pronounce it. Would you like it better if it had an I in it? No, I could not pronounce it either way. Complimentary. Hey, are you believing in Diego Pavia as a Heisman candidate? I am too. And I’ll tell you why. Because with you, you take him off that team and that team is not the same team. Not that they’re a bad team, but he is just so like like he is so much baked into the identity of that team and they’re a good team and he’s he’s really effective player and I think that he you always look for Heisman moments is what they call them and I think last week against LSU he had some of those that like that fourth down play the plays that make you start believing. Um and Vanderbilt started campaigning for him this week with different avenues of how they’re marketing Diego Pavia for Heisman. Uh, I just think that I’m gonna pick Vanderbilt in this game because I think that they’re right now kind of they’ve caught that lightning in a bottle, per se, just as they’re they’re playing really well. They’ve got a quarterback who inspires the team. Um, they’ve got an identity. I mean, they’re they’re just one of the teams right now that I feel like I have the fewest questions about, which is crazy to say that about a Vanderbilt. And they they’ve been pretty good at home. Yeah. And Missouri, I I still will I said this going into the Alabama game that I thought they’d lose that because they hadn’t played a tough schedule yet. I think that they’re kind of right now starting to take their licks a little bit. Um, and this is not a this is a tough game to try and like, you know, stop that. And they I mean, they even beat Auburn last week, but it almost felt like a loss to me. And if it’s if it makes any difference, and sometimes it does make a difference with teams. This is Missouri’s second consecutive road trip. Sometimes you don’t get the same uh level of sharpness the second time. I think Vanderbilt wins this. I also like their quarterback play. I think Pavia is better than Perbula. Uh, let’s see here. 3:15. Number 22 Texas goes to Mississippi State. The Horns are a 7 and 12 point favorite in this game. Our ratings only like them by two though. And that’s probably because their offense has been so bad. Yeah, it’s got to be pretty offensive if you’re Mississippi State that um that you lose a game and your the opposing coach gets fired. And that’s happened to them now twice, right? Because Jimbo Fischer beat him bad and then he got fired and then Billy Napier beat him. And it’s like Mississippi State has to feel pretty disrespected right now. and they’re coming back home. I think this is going to be a really interesting game. Um I think that this is the type of game that um if Texas doesn’t bring its agame offensively, they could very well lose this. Um but I I just have a hard time picking Mississippi State right now to break that losing streak in SEC play. I don’t even know what the numbers up to right now, but it’s got to be getting close to Chad Morris Arkansas SEC losing streak number. Uh it’s not quite there. It’s got to be getting close though. I’ll say this. This was the game. Remember Quinn Yurs was out last year and Arch played Mississippi State. Now it’s a totally different Mississippi State defense, but I think he went like 26 of 31 in that game. Had a couple of touchdown passes and so he has had success against that defense. You wonder whether or not that plays a factor this weekend. I thought about taking Mississippi State at home, but I ended up taking Texas. I think they’re te the Texas defense is really good. It’s it’s really good. And you know, they’re kind of like Arkansas in term like in in a weird way where it’s like, hey, if we just had a little bit more offense, think about what we could be because we’ve got this one uh unit that’s really good. I think Texas wins, but I’m not going to be surprised at all if they go in and lose a road game. Here’s my thing, too. Mississippi State for their defense this year struggles against the run. Um, that’s where their struggles are. But their secondary, like it’s it’s hard to believe because of how bad they were defensively last year. This their secondary is really good. They they’ve I don’t know their interception totals right now, but it’s high. Their passing yardage allowed is is a at a great number. That’s a good secondary where if Arch Manning, if it gets in his head down there, I could see that being the type of game like you think about Jackson Dart at Florida last year where a quarterback just it’s clear like things are in their head. Um losing a game that you aren’t supposed to. So, I’m just intrigued by this one. Uh 645 17th ranked Tennessee goes to Kentucky. The Volunteers are an eight and a half point favorite. Our ratings like them by four. Yeah. And I like them uh I like them to cover the the eight and a half point spread. To be honest, I I just not a believer in Kentucky at all. And I think Tennessee’s got that offense right now that that’s going to put up numbers against whoever they play. I feel similar about the Tennessee offense as I do Arkansas’s where I don’t have questions about that. And and Kentucky doesn’t have the the type of offense that Arkansas had to make me feel like they can hang in this one. The only thing is that Tennessee, if it weren’t for Arkansas, Tennessee would have the worst defense in the SEC right now. Yeah. And Kentucky played Texas. They played the they game was spirited fight last week. Uh they’re in Lexington. I think Tennessee wins. Uh but maybe it is a little bit closer than than people might think uh that Tennessee would go in and beat Kentucky. Yeah, this is the narrative around that game is literally the exact same as Arkansas Auburn this week just with with a ranked team in there in the mix. What happens to Mark Zups if he loses? And you’ve got a a bad Tennessee offense against a bad uh or a good Tennessee offense against a good defense and a bad Kentucky offense against a bad Tennessee defense. Yeah. So, if you want to watch that twice, tune in to SEC Network at 6:45 on Saturday night. Uh 6:30 on ABC. Third ranked Texas A&M at number 20 LSU. A&M is a 2 and a half point favorite in this game. Our ratings like A&M by five. This is a really intriguing game. It feels like the type of game, this is going to be the game that legitimizes&m potentially because if they go into Death Valley and they win and they move to 8 and0, then people are going to say, “Okay, this team is for real.” Irregardless of how good LSU is this year, and I’m not sure how good LSU is, if&m can go in there and win in that environment, it it’s going to do wonders for their reputation nationally. Yeah, for sure. And I I think that this is talk about coaches with pressure. Brian Kelly needs to win this one, I think, because if you don’t win this one, you’re now on the you’re going to drop to below 500 in SEC play this year for a team that a lot of people thought could win the SEC this year with a fan base that doesn’t want to you might I don’t think you fall out of the top 25 for losing to&m, but you’ll be down there pretty low. I just think that it’s the type of game that if if Brian Kelly doesn’t win that. Um I mean the heat’s already on there, I think, but it I think it’ll really ratchet up some. And I think for&m they’ve gotten themselves in a position where they they can afford another loss or probably two in SEC play. Um but these are the type of games that if you win, I think it just does make it makes you not only like a front runner to make the playoff. I I kind of would put them near unless just barring a total meltdown lock territory um because they’d have just a nice collection of wins already and I think that LSU is the type of team that if you beat them regardless of if you know they’re having a down year for LSU standards they have the talent on that team that lets you know that&m would be legit. Uh LSU’s got a really good defense, one of the best in the SEC, probably right behind OU and Texas. What gives them trouble is mobile quarterbacks. Pavia did it last week. Now he kept Marcel Reed coming in. Remember how much he carved them up last year after Connor Wiggman got knocked out early in that game and he came in and the the game just totally turned at halftime and Reed came in. I think he ran for three touchdowns and they beat LSU in that game. Uh he’s the X-factor in this game certainly. But if you’re LSU offensively, you got to be able to run the ball against Texas A&M and they have not been able to run the ball very well all year long. um if they become one-dimensional then I think that&m defense can can you know particularly be pretty good. I’m interested to see though can&m take good defensive play on the road because when they went to Notre Dame and when they came here that great defense that they’ve had at Kyle Field it totally disappeared and so like like what&m defense shows up Saturday night that’s a that’s going to go a long way toward determining who wins this. Yeah. And I think that it’s a struggling LSU offense still that um this could be a good game for&m to have a breakthrough. I mean, I’m picking them to win. Yeah, I’m picking&m, too. But I think that it could be the type of game that um really defines the season for both teams. All right. Finally, Arkansas and Auburn 11:45 on SEC Network. The Razerbacks, like we said, the line has actually moved since we’ve been talking. It’s going to it’s gone to three and a half now, at least on uh ESPN. Uh our ratings like Auburn by four. I’ll just go ahead and tell you our ratings are not going to pick Arkansas to win a game again this year. Uh barring some sort of crazy like if they were to beat Auburn 56 to nothing tomorrow, which I don’t think is going to happen, but if they were, maybe that shifts the Mississippi State, you know, it it it tilts the scales a little bit. Uh but otherwise, this defense is so bad that they’re not going to be able they’re not going to be picked to win a game uh by our ratings. Like I said at the outset, I think Arkansas has got a good chance to win this game. I’m going to pick them at home just based on a feeling more than anything else. I mean, I could certainly see them losing this big if Auburn’s offense can get on a roll, but uh I just like the feeling of Arkansas’s team with Patrino the last couple of weeks more than I like the feeling of Auburn’s with Hugh Fes. And I think if you look at these teams across the board, uh you would say that they’re probably pretty evenly matched and their records would suggest that. Yeah, I’m gonna pick Arkansas as well. I just think that they’ve got um oh yeah, like you said, a little bit more rejuvenation right now under Patrino than I think Auburn’s playing with under Hugh Freeze. And the thing is Auburn’s been close so many times. The same story as Arkansas aside from the Notre Dame game. Um that adds up overtime and I think especially when it’s with the same coach. Um because I think honestly with the narrative around Sam Pitman was losing the close games and you’re still losing a couple close games with Bobby Vrino, but it’s not it’s not brought up as much. I don’t think and it’s because of the nature of the way Arkansas’s fighting in those games. They’re overcoming their defense and the offense is playing inspired still. It’s it feels like these are close losses that Arkansas’s had that they had kind of no business even being close losses with how the defense played. Um I just think that there’s surprisingly for a two and five team. We saw it in the stadium last week. There’s a level of still excitement among fans to watch them which is not always the case. I think Auburn fans are on the verge of giving up on this team. You mentioned the the close losses aren’t as magnified anymore. Part of that is because that was the the that was the track record for Pitman, right? I mean, the fact that they just could not close out close games with Patrino. If I don’t think anybody is going to look at him this year and say, “Hey, he can’t win close games because he didn’t recruit that defense.” Bitman did. And I think it’s as simple as that. Uh so yeah, I mean, I think Arkansas wins. Uh the the line play, I think, is going to go a long way in toward this. Auburn’s defensive front really good. Arkansas’s offensive line has been good. And then what happens there in the middle of Auburn’s offensive line against the middle of Arkansas’s defensive line with key players being out this week. Yeah. And it’s uh it’s one of those deals where Arkansas I just think you have to have to win a game like this where you’re kind of looking at it pretty evenly matched. You’ve got to capitalize on just opportunities. If if you can get Auburn to settle for a field goal with a struggling kicker, if you can get, god forbid, they get a turnover, um, you’ve got to find some things like that to to to tilt the scale, I think, in this one because it’s just you’re playing the possession game, it feels like, every single game this year. And Arkansas just has to find some ways against a struggling Auburn offense to to give the Arkansas offense more possessions because right now they just can’t keep up with uh trying to go blow forblow even with the production. I just think this is the type of game that if Arkansas can capitalize on the opportunities that Auburn will give them because this is not a great Auburn team um especially offensively then Arkansas should win this game. Hey, if you’re still here, appreciate you hanging with us. Fridays always go longer. We had a lot of stuff to talk about today. Really enjoyed it. Appreciate you being with us. Hope that you’ll join us at our website wholehogsports.com throughout the weekend as we recap the basketball game tonight, the Ridgeback football game against Auburn on Saturday. We’ll be back here in studio to talk about it Monday. Have a great weekend everybody.
