Ask Mike: The Alyssa and Courtney Version (Part Two)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ar. (KNWA/KFTA) – Mike Irwin is on vacation this week, so Courtney and Alyssa filled in for him on the show, you can see their answers to your questions below:

Q. Hogdogger- Can you explain how teams know who is in the portal? Does the school send out a list with the players name to NCAA or a website? Sounds like a lot of paperwork.

A. Alyssa – Every coach and school has access to the Transfer Portal, and when an athlete from another school goes into the portal, they get a notification. That’s why athletes say they hear from coaches within second/minutes of going into the portal. I can detail the process told to me by a coach at Arkansas. When an athlete at a school tells their coach they want to transfer, coaches end the conversation right there and send them to compliance. It’s the compliance office’s duty to go through an exit interview, have the athlete explain their decision and then the compliance office enters their name into the transfer portal.

Courtney – To add to this, the portal is all online. Athletes go to compliance to get entered into it. The way it’s set up is it’s a big list of names on that site, you can search by athlete name or school or conference etc. They can click on each athlete’s name and get information about that athlete as well, even questions like does the student wish to be contacted by other intuitions. Head coaches and assistant coaches all have a login for it. There is a bit of paperwork involved with it, but it’s mostly all done online.

Q. WVHogfan- Coach Cal is definitely benefitting from the large NIL donations. Are the same people donating similar money to the football program?

A. Alyssa – Right now NIL donations and sport break downs are not public, so the numbers out there are speculation or what’s being told to people. Cal is benefitting from a large NIL budget. It’s my understanding Cal was told Arkansas Edge NIL will be the ones fundraising the NIL money so he can focus on the recruiting and coaching. I did find this interesting, based on everything reported when Cal was hired about Johnny Tyson- In an interview with HOGS+, Tyson told Bo Mattingly: “Everyone out there we need NIL money ok. Let’s get this on the record I did not write a big check on NIL. But I did help put money in the Razorback Foundation, the Razorback Foundation is where a lot of salaries are managed, so the foundation is where they do the add-ons on top of the base salary. So I made a commitment to help Hunter in that context and how he will help allocate Funds for coach Cal and put his staff together. Through the Arkansas foundation.” He has helped in NIL- but with the sports no one else thinks about- Track and Golf are the examples he used.

So I think I am save to say, we don’t know specifics, but there will never be too much NIL money and donations, and for Arkansas to continue to compete to get athletes in the environment of college athletes right now, they will always need continued support and donations for all sports.

Q. Marty Byrde’s proxy- I, (like most Hog fans I’m sure) am a huge Peyton Holt fan. He seems like the type athlete Old Hugo Bezdek was talking about when he first mentioned his “Wild Band of Razorback Hogs.” What are his professional prospects after his career here at the U of A? He’s certainly a guy I’m giving a shot if I were a big league general manager.

A. I love Peyton Holt too… Salt of the earth kind of kid who has been through a lot during his baseball career and is finally seeing his hard work pay off. I knew when Peyton Stovall was injured before the start of the season, with the way Holt played last year when Stovall was out, it’s going to be hard to keep him out of the line-up. And we are seeing that now. He’s started 15 of the last 17 games, and it was the Alabama series when he became a permanent starter. he wasn’t in the lineup much when Peyton Stovall came back around the McNeese series. I went with Jacob Morris over the baseball when we sat down with Holt, and he is a kid who has the confidence you need to be successful, but not cocky. He’s grateful and really appreciative of where he is right now. As for his professional prospects. I don’t know. He’s not in the top 300 MLB prospects for this year’s draft. But he’s got tangibles to have someone take a chance. He does have the opportunity to take a COVID year if he wanted to, but he does plan on participating in Senior Day this weekend at Baum- according to Oliver Grigg, the SID for baseball. He’s 23 years old.

Q. jhogg- Would like to hear your thoughts on why Arkansas seems to struggle signing Defensive tackles in both the high school ranks and the portal?

A. I’m interested in your definitely of struggle? historically, I don’t think they have, and if you look at the guys drafted from Arkansas, most of them recently are guys on the defensive line- John Ridgeway, Jonathan Marshall, Sosa Agim, Armon Watts, Jeremiah Ledbetter, Deatrich Wise, Trey Flowers, Darius Philon, Chris Smith, since I’ve been here. Guys who could be draft picks this next NFL draft- Cam Ball, Landon Jackson, Anton Juncaj, Eric Gregory.

Now, I did reach out to our Football recruiting guy Otis Kirk to get his perspective on it and this is what he told me today “They are going to sign a good one soon in Danny Saili- a BYU transfer, 6-2, 360. Great Defensive Tackles are going for a million bucks in the portal Average ones going for big bucks too because everyone wants or needs them.” Basically- in the portal right now, It’s competitive.

Q. Pigsfeat- Who determines hit/errors in SEC baseball games? Hagen Smith was charged with a hit that lead to an earned run on a ball that hit Sprague-Lott right in the glove and he dropped. Is there any way to challenge the ruling?

A. Alyssa – The hits and errors at SEC Baseball games are determined by the home team SID (Sports Information Director). As for that play, All I can say is they don’t call 3rd base the “hot corner” for no reason. Also this is interesting too, college baseball is different than MLB- the MLB has a neutral party to review all scoring decisions. At the college level, like I said, It’s the Home team SID. I know SID’s do not try to pad stats for their own teams at home, they are required to be as unbiased as possible. But it’s still human discretion. And no, no challenging the ruling.

Q. razorbackhobbs- Here we go again. Let’s all freak out because we lost to the number 8 team in the country on the road which is first in the SEC in hitting btw. 7 straight seasons of 40 wins for Arkansas, but we need coaching changes? There are people on twitter tagging Dave Van Horn and Nate Thompson saying “it’s time to go”. Are you kidding me? We are going to be a top 8 National seed hosting with a chance to go to Omaha. Isn’t that all you can ask for?

A. Alyssa – Yes, Fans tend to overreact at times, and I think the Arkansas offensive is bringing out a lot of frustration for people. I can tell you, If you think you are frustrated, imagine how the players and coaches feel. Imagine being Kendall Diggs in the box trying to get himself out of a slump. These guys are well aware of the hitting struggles at the moment. That’s baseball. Hitting is going to go up and down, but unlike pitching, it’s a lot easier to get back to hitting. DVH talked about it after the game. they left at least 11 runners on base in game three, couldn’t get the big hit. They had the chances and did not get a big hit. He’s not worried. What you want is everyone to be healthy when it matters most in the next few weeks. Don’t put too much pressure on it and things will work themselves out.

Q. @Hogfan11 on Youtube: Question for Ask Mike: How did Cal and John Tyson become friends in the first place?

A. Alyssa – I don’t know the answer to this and I’ve asked a few people, who don’t really know the story either. My best guess, is when Frank tried to hire Calipari back in 2007 after he fired Stan Heath, Cal was at Memphis at the time and did not want to leave that team he had (that team had Derrick Rose and lost in the NCAA tournament championship game to Kansas in overtime) Perhaps when Frank was talking with Cal back then, John Tyson was one of the Boosters who talked to him and they struck up a friendship.

Q. Mousetown asks: Has Cal’s recruiting run out of steam? is he gonna play six guys next season? what does Courtney’s dad say about this?

A. Courtney – I assume you asked this before Adou Thiero committed this afternoon. So how about seven guys?? I’m gonna say the same thing about this as any other college coach or former player you ask. Let Cal work. He is hands down the best when it comes to recruiting so there is no doubt he’s gonna have one of the most talented rosters in the league next season. 247 Sports currently has it ranked overall as the No. 3 class, No. 1 transfer class and No. 6 composite. I don’t think he’s gonna have any trouble filling the rest of the roster. Patience is a virtue and Cal is working on it.

Q. Geoffsgough on Twitter asks: Now that the regular season is over, what’s been the impact of DJ Gasso on the softball staff as the hitting coach?

A. Courtney – So just taking a look at the stats, their batting average has improved from last year to this one. They were batting .277 to now .284, there’s still some season left to go, so that could go up even more. Also, there have been some individuals that have improved under him. One that comes to mind is Hannah Gammill, who was batting .200 last year in SEC play and this year she’s batting .230. Reagan Johnson was batting .333 in SEC play last year, this year she batting .350. Now, some batters have gone down when it comes to that stat, but it’s very circumstantial. If you ask the players, he’s made a huge impact on them. Bri Ellis said he’s improved her swing immensely. She was batting .275 last year at Auburn, .329 now at Arkansas.

Q. Hawgredneck on Hogville asks: Could you please ask Mousetown to say bad things about out baseball team? He was nice to them last week and look what happened.

A. Courtney – Wish we could tell him what to ask, but I think he might go back to saying bad things now after that series loss to Kentucky. We will see what we can do.