Ask Mike: Revenue Sharing Money Woes, A Look Back at the ’69 Shootout & Kozeal Outdoors Debuts

Q. Our first question is from Jhogg who wants to know: With the start of the football season right around the corner what are your thoughts on the defense?

A. Let’s start with the good and what is known about that. Xavian Sorey, maybe the top player on defense, is a hard tackling linebacker with excellent speed. How they plan on using him is interesting. He will move around a lot, trying to make use of his ability to disrupt and sack opposing quarterbacks while making tackles on or behind the line of scrimmage, so called thrown for loss plays.

Let’s go to Cam Ball, a redshirt senior defensive tackle. He started all 13 games last season and registered a career high 47 tackles including four for loss and 1.5 sacks. He was credited with five tackles and a quarterback hurry during a Liberty Bowl win over Texas Tech. He also managed a career-high seven tackles, including one for loss at Missouri.

Quincy Rhodes Jr. is a defensive end who came on strong in the last few games of 2024 and there’s the big guy, Ian Geffrard, at the other tackle spot. He’s a redshirt sophomore who is 6-5 and around 380. They keep talking about getting his weight down but he moves really well even at that size.

The secondary features safety Larry Worth III. He’s a senior who transferred in last season and really came on strong. But there’s no question that this is the most unsettled part of the defense. There’s talent there but not a lot of experience playing for Arkansas. Sam Pittman wants more guys like the much maligned Hudson Clark who moved all over the secondary in his time at Arkansas, stepping in for injured players. With that in mind the head coach brought in four guys out of the portal, each a cornerback but each with the versatility to play different positions.

That secondary IMO is the key to the season. If they can avoid getting burned often by opposing SEC QBs I think Arkansas has a chance to have a very good season.

Q. Edwardclutch says: That press conference with the new GM…woof. Talk about brutal. Didn’t do anything to inspire confidence that they are serious about being more competitive in this new era.

PorkyPie01 has a similar question: How bad was that interview was with the new GM? As a comms guy for a large organization, I’m puzzled by how bad it was. His recruiting pitch was to come here and they’ll figure it out? Sounded like his wife didn’t want to come here? Where was the media prep? Talking points? Think that bad interview is being overlooked.

A. There were questions that Remy Cofield could not answer for specific reasons and it was frustrating at times. For instance we wanted to know how much of the $20.5 million in revenue sharing would be distributed to each sport. Cofield explained that the athletic department does not what that made public because they don’t want other schools to know how much is allocated for each sport. It might give them a recruiting edge for an athlete in a particular sport if that school knew how much total money was available at Arkansas for that sport.

He was also asked about hiring a GM for each specific sport, someone with specific expertise in that sport. He said, at this time, those hires have not been made but will be announced when it happens. Personally I don’t think they want to be adding more administrative positions at a time when they’re having to layoff current employees.

There problem here is that many fans seem to think that Cofield is going to scout players, tell the coaches which ones to offer and how much money they can offer. He explained that his job is to look at the total budget and help coaches get the most for their money. If they offer a certain amount to a specific player how will that affect their ability to land other players? This may have happened last week when a 4-star receiver out of the Lubbock area, who was committed to Arkansas went public with the news that Arkansas had dropped him. A few days later a 3-star receiver out of Texas, with very similar numbers, announced that he was committed to Arkansas. People who follow recruiting say that the 4-star receiver wanted more money than Arkansas coaches wanted to give him. So they went with a player just as good in their minds who will cost them less which leaves more money to offer other players. This is a band new concept but I believe we will see more and more of it across the country. Cofield will negotiate with players, parents and agents but always with what the coaches want, in mind.

As for the, “they’ll get here and figure it out” comment, he was referring to something I hear over and over. Recruits come to NW Arkansas, find it’s totally different from what they envisioned so they quickly figure out that this is the place for them.

He also mentioned that when he and his wife arrived at the XNA airport and started driving down that winding country road to I-49 she was concerned that University of Arkansas was completely rural. Once on the Interstate and on to the school she was like, wow, I like this place.

Q. Hogwild says : JJ Bush a coveted LB from Alabama committed to Pittman at the beginning of the month. I’ve read on a couple of sites it was a bidding war between the Hogs and LSU Tigers, with Auburn not having a competitive bid. Although he announced on July 2nd was his deal done prior to the July House rules? If so how much more did recruits get before the House rules went into effect than those that sign in the fall?

A. Arkansas is not going to release the dollar numbers on any recruit but if they did indeed outbid Alabama, LSU and Auburn it was probably an NIL deal. Big dollar amounts will supposedly be reduced under revenue sharing which started just a few days ago. You can spend whatever you want on each player but there is an overall cap on what each school can spend. That cap is what will supposedly keep the dollar amounts lower.

Q. Marty Byrde’s proxy says: There was some gnashing of teeth this past week over some recruiting misses, and one that we allegedly “turned down.” Sam’s strong suit early on here and previously was perceived to be recruiting. Has he lost his touch, or is the emphasis overwhelmingly on portal acquisitions now?

A. The gnashing of teeth was over a legacy recruit who had been committed to Arkansas for a while. His dad was a Razorback. His mom played here. He announced early last week that Arkansas had withdrawn its scholarship offer to him. He is 4-start receiver from Frenship High, a large classification school on the edge of Lubbock. Fans who where already mad at Pittman went bonkers. However, a few days later Arkansas got a commitment from another receiver out of Texas with very similar numbers. The difference was, he’s a 3-star.

So why did this happen? People who follow recruiting are speculating that the legacy player wanted more revenue sharing money than Sam Pittman wanted to give. When the negotiations stalled Arkansas went with the 3-star for less money, so they could spend more money for other players. If this is true, and it looks like it is, fans need to start waking up and understand how revenue sharing is going to work.

It’s about getting the most out of the money you have. You may have to give up a player who wants too much to better address your overall needs.

Q. AwholeHog says: Someone in the media once said that Gruden expressed interest in the Arkansas job at one point. Nothing more, just an interest as I’m sure he has done with a number of other jobs. Ring any bells?

A. The Gruden to Arkansas rumors go all the way back to the time before Bret Bielema was hired. Those rumors resurfaced again before the hirings of Chad Morris and Sam Pittman. There was never any real substance to it. Fans generated it. There were all these rumors about sightings of Gruden at places like Herman’s or the Catfish Hole. Every time he wore a red shirt in public rumors filled the Internet. Gruden spoke at the LR touchdown club a few years back and joked about all of this, claiming that all Arkansas had to do was make and offer and he’d come running. He was kidding.

The rumors have popped up again after a video Gruden posted on his own website turned into an Arkansas lovefest. He said he got a big box of Razorback gear from Sam Pittman which included hats, helmets, a full sized autographed photo of him with John Daly and autograph footballs. He rattled off a long list of Razorback coaches he’s known going all the way back to Frank Broyles. He mentioned some of the top Razorback players he remembers, admitting that his favorite was running back Gary Anderson of the Hatfield era.

I’m told that Gruden has done this same routine with other schools. He is 61 years old and as far as I know he has no interest in getting back into coaching

Axle asks: Will there be a name change for our football Stadium this year or will it remain DWR? I was thinking the name sponsorship expired last year.

A. The name sponsor was added in 1999 to help pay for the renovation and expansion of the stadium. As I recall, the sponsorship was for 25 years so 2024 would have been the last year of the deal. I know of no definite plans to rename the stadium in order to make more improvements. Until the annual cost of revenue sharing gets worked out there is speculation that the explosion of facilities improvements around the SEC that began with increased TV money about 20 years ago, will end for a while.

Q. sgiles wants to know: What’s your take on Bert Bielema? He seems to have revived his career but he’s starting to pop off a lot again. I saw where he got into it with Finebaum over some nonsense. Seems like he should stick to coaching his team.

A. No question, at Arkansas Bielema was his own worst enemy. He ran his mouth too much after he started winning. That first year, when QB Brandon Allen had to play the entire season with a separated shoulder and Arkansas won just 4 games, Bielema was easy going and quite humble. But the next year when Arkansas beat Texas at the AvoCare Bowl it went to his head. Bielema made some statement at a convention of high school coaches in Texas about how he could take his Big 10 power running game and beat all their fancy 5 receiver, empty backfield passing attacks. It made some of them mad. These are coaches he needed in recruiting Texas high school players. Also Bielema got into a spat with his offensive coordinator over how many passing plays he was calling in a typical game. The guy left for another job. That happens but Bielema publicly criticized him. The offensive coordinator had friends still on the staff who got really mad at Bielema for doing this. One of them was Sam Pittman.

The following year Arkansas beat Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl. ESPN aired a multi part series called “Being Brett Bielema” and I was was told I went to his head even more. That’s when Pittman left for Georgia and Bielema lost a defensive coach as well. He did not replace them with quality assistant coaches and his program started going downhill. He was eventually fired.

I give Bielema credit for rebuilding his career. After starting out doing volunteer work for the NE Patriots he was hired he as a D-Line coach there and then went to the Giants as a linebackers coach which led to him getting the head coaching job at Illinois. Bielema has rebuilt that program. He deserves a lot of credit. But some are starting to notice that he’s reverting back to some of his old habits. In last year’s Citrus Bowl Bielema got into a war of words with South Carolina coach Shane Beamer. Bielema appeared to taunt him after signaling to Beamer with a substitution gesture used by game officials.

We’ll see how it goes this season. I like the guy. He’s easy to deal with from a media standpoint. He just has this bad habit that he needs to eliminate. Maybe he should see a psychologist who could get to the bottom of his need to create controversy when success comes his way.

Q. Hawgredneck says: Over on Hogville they’re saying that Texas Tech just got a 5-star offensive tackle over Texas, Florida, Michigan and Ohio State. Supposedly they’re giving him $1.7 million a year in revenue sharing. That’s a lot when the estimated budget for most schools is around 14-15 million for football. If true there’s something suspicious about this deal.

A. A reporter covering Texas Tech claims that the number is much lower that that, 775 million a year. Still that’s a lot of money for one player.

Compare this situation to the one we just talked about with the Razorback legacy player who’s scholarship offer was withdrawn. This suggest to me that Remy Cofield is going is job. Advising Arkansas coach not to put too many eggs one one basket. Be smart about the way you spend your money.

Q. hoglady says: Never seen the Arkansas sports media as united as they are regarding the layoff of Kevin Trainor. Almost to a person its viewed as a short sighted decision and a major mistake by HY.

A. Trainor has been dealing with some of us for 30 years. He’s good at this job. He gives us straight talk but he has a way of explaining complex situations and making us see some things in ways we didn’t see before. On the other hand I’m told that Hunter Yurachek is scrambling for ways to come up with the $20 million dollars plus in extra money that has just been added to the athletic department budget. Imagine running a company and suddenly your cost to do business goes up 30%. Can you increase sales by that much overnight? How?

This is a real problem at not just Arkansas but at most schools.

Q. Lanny asks: What are your thoughts on expanding the NCAA basketball tournament to 76 teams? The NCAA president says he wants to see it done by this coming season.

A. I like it. I’ve said many times, the playoffs are the best part of the season. The more fans you can include in this, the bigger the overall interest in the NCAA Tournament. I feel this way about all sports. A tournament bid is a reward at the end of the season. Everything a team does in the regular season is working toward that goal. However I fully understand that a lot of fans hate this idea and believe that adding more playoff teams amounts to a participation trophy for teams that were mostly unsuccessful.

Q. HillCountryHog says: Cam Kozael is playing in the Cape Cod League this summer. I guess he plans on getting in a lot of fishing in his off time. In an interview he said he’s starting his own outdoors website? How can I watch this? I love this kid’s energy.

A. If you saw the interview, he gave the name and where to look for it. Youtube, Cam Kozeal Outdoors. The first episode is already up and features Kozeal going fishing with his Razorback teammates.

Q. EddyLynn says: A good shortstop is the anchor of any infield. A few weeks ago Van Horn landed a top shortstop out of Ball State. This week he got another one from Texas Tech who is very good. Does this mean the Ball State kid may be going pro?

A. Dylan Grego is his name and yes, he’s draft eligible but from what I understand they’re pretty confident that he’s coming to Arkansas. The Texas Tech player can play 2nd, short or 3rd base and did all three at Tech. Speculation is that he will take Bret Iredale’s place at 3rd. Like Grego, TJ Pompey had some big numbers at the plate last year before he got hurt. He batted .348 with 5 home runs, 4 doubles, and 15 RBI in just 18 games. That’s incredible.