Ask Mike: Yurachek vs Bilas, Pittman’s Top Assistant & Why Play Arkansas St. in Little Rock?

Q. Our first question is from WizardofhOgZ who says: With MBake going down to injury, we still have several intriguing options in our WR room; albeit most of them without much time playing in a Division 1 football game. However, I have heard some say “at least it’s in a room where we are deep” and I disagree with that…..

…. We often have 2 or 3 WR in the game at a time, so over the course of a game they can become fatigued and ineffective if there is not enough to rotate frequently. Plus, over the course of the season, it’s likely 1 or 2 more may get banged up.

A. I think I counted nine receivers who caught a pass in the two scrimmages. Sam Pittman has already pretty much identified two of his three starters. Isaac Te’Slaa is not only turning heads at camp but the word has spread to the national media about this young man. He’s tall. He’s fast. He’s got size. He’s got great hands. You can pretty much say the same thing about Andrew Armstrong the transfer from A&M Commerce and it looks like Jaedon Wilson a redshirt freshman out of Desoto Texas will work out of the slot. Look who that leaves behind those three. The 6-7 transfer from Bowling Green, Tyrone Broden. He’s tall and fast. Isaiah Sategna. Everybody knows what that kid can do. There’s Bryce Stephens, the speedy receiver out of Oklahoma City, caught a TD pass last season. Sam Pitman said Saturday that he will start the season with a six-man rotation for the three receiver spots. That’s two deep but there are some freshmen would could get into the mix too including Davion Dozier who is a four-star out of Alabama. He’s made some big catches. So you ask for an opinion, I think they are really deep at receiver, in spite of the injury to Mbake.

Q. mousetown says: Some guy on Facebook was ripping Dan Enos last week saying Arkansas was 1-7 in SEC play his last season under Bielema. He asked why we would want him back, What would you say to this guy?

A. I wouldn’t say anything to him because people like that are no going to change their opinions no matter what you say. Even if Arkansas won 10 games this season this guy would sit back and wait until a problem developed later on and say, See I told you about him.

I will say that I have been impressed with what I’ve seen from Dan Enos so far. Here’s a good example. What’s the perceived strength of this offense? Running backs right? You’ve got Rocket, Rashad Dubinion, Dominique Johnson, A. J. Green and the true freshman Isaiah Augustave, who was rated the number 6 high school running back in the country last season. He’s looking really good right now. But running back is not a position where coaches rotate players in and out a lot. So what do you do with all those guys on the depth chart behind Rocket? Enos says, We’re going to make receivers out of them and let them make yards after the catch with their running ability. In the drills I’ve seen I think this this is going to work. I also like the way Enos is using his tight ends in both the running game and the passing game.

In Saturday’s scrimmage 12 different players caught passes, receivers, running backs & tight ends, for 360 total yards. All four quarterbacks had impressive completions. We are going to see a big change in Arkansas’ passing game this season.

Q. Kayne Liffin says: Coach Pitt confuses me. He keeps talking about how close his players are, always helping each other up after plays. But then he says there were several scuffles in the scrimmage. Which is it?

A. He stood by his original point after the scrimmage saying this is a team full of players who really care about each other. There was a play indoors I saw the other day. Chris Harris, a receiver out of Dumas, just got lit up by Jordan Crook the linebacker from Duncanville, Texas. Crook immediately bent over and helped the kid back on his feet. I’ve seen a lot of that over the last two weeks. Pittman said tempers flared in the scrimmage because of the heat and humidity. It was brutal out there on the game field. No breeze. The air was as thick as soup. So by all accounts it was a one time situation. Pittman didn’t seem concerned about it at all.

Q. Hotdogger wants to know: Which of the new coaching hires has impressed you most. For me it’s Ben Sowders the strength coach. Man, he’s got those young men beefed up and ready to bust a move.

A. Sowders is a good choice but I’d go with Travis Williams. I think he’s about to take the biggest weakness of this team last season, defense, and turn it into a strength. He met with the media last Friday and did something I’ve never seen before. He went around the room and personally introduced himself to every single member of the media.

I like his philosophy. He said, “We don’t cuss or scream at players. We teach them. We tell them there’s no way to completely avoid making mistakes if you play this game. All you can do is work harder every day to get better.” I like the way he handles himself on the practice field. The players rave about him. Now he has to do it when the season starts.

Q. Marty Byrde’s proxy says: I saw your positive comments regarding Coach Williams meeting with the press this past week. I’ve also been extremely impressed with Coach Jimmy Smith.

…..Both seem like excellent coaches who are very humble. Besides humility, what does Coach Pittman look for in his coaches?

A. Recruiting. Recruiting Recruiting. If you don’t deliver in recruiting you will be gone. I’ve never seen a Razorback head coach take that strong an approach. Most had three or four bird dog type recruiters and that was it. That doesn’t fly with Pittman. It’s the main reason why I think he will get this program in the top five or six in the SEC before he retires. It’s a huge challenge but I think he’s up to it.

Q. Eddy Lynn: This time of year everybody is making predictions. I predict that R-Dub will have more yards receiving than rushing. How about it?

A. It would not surprise me. In camp Enos has been dialing him up a lot out on the edge. He’s really good at finding a crease after catching the ball on the edge. Follows his blocking. The thing about these type plays, you can make one guy miss you and you might be gone. Dubinion is not the only one. All of the backs have had their moments on these air raid type plays.

Q. Jimmy Mitchell says: I heard you say several times that you watch games on TV with the sound down. Are you serious about that? it would drive me nuts. How do you know what’s going on?

A. How do you know what’s going on when you go to a game in person? You use your eyeballs. The thing is, watching at home you can tell if the refs are about to review a play. All you do is watch the replays and then see what comes of it. If the cameras are focusing on a player on the sidelines I turn the sound up just to see what they’re saying about that player. You follow the visual clues to see if you need to hear the announcers.

Q. BlakeTaylor1112 says: I always felt like playing a home and home series is good for both fanbases. Can you give me 5 teams in each of the 3 big sports that you would want to see Arkansas schedule in a home and home series?

A. I don’t think the average fan has a clue as to how hard it’s going to be to win at a high level in the expanded SEC and play tougher non conference games to boot. As an AD I would avoid home and home games. Schedule mid majors that need the money and make those teams come here. I believe games against mid major opponents serve a purpose and frankly I don’t care about what’s good for other teams, only Arkansas. However we are headed in the direction of more home and home opponents because, as I have explained, the TV executives are going to want more high profile matchup if they’re going to pay the big conferences more money. With that in mind, I would say, TCU would be a good home and home. Oklahoma State, Nebraska and Texas Tech. Schools with fans that will travel to games close enough to drive in a few hours.

Q. sgiles wants to know: Who won the back and forth NIL debate on the Internet between Hunter Yurachek and ERSPN’s Jay Bilas?

A. Hunter Yurachek is calling for a few basic guidelines on NIL which right now has virtually no structure at all. Jay Bilas is an ESPN pinhead who acts like college athletes are being victimized by the system because they don’t make millions of dollars playing college sports. Yurachek is right. Bilas can’t see the forest for the trees. If you turn college sports into professional sports you’re going to turn away millions of fans who love watching young men and women who are
getting an education while representing their schools by competing in sports.

How about we do this. Let all the schools that want unlimited NIL deals operate as a minor league version of the NFL. Break away from the universities they represent and take the minor league baseball route. The universities who want to continue to promote amateur athletics as a part of the educational experience will continue to operate the way they always have. Providing scholarships with strict rules on the academic progress of student athletes. See which product the fans support.

Go talk to former Razorbacks like I have who played when college scholarships weren’t close to what is provided these days. They loved those days. They’re not walking around saying, we got the shaft so change the system.

NIL is not going away and ADs like Yurachek don’t want that. But they do want some basic rules enforced because they have more common sense than an activist like Jay Bilas. ESPN is financial trouble because of pop off artists like Bilas who are out of touch with the very fans that make college sports what it is. Supposedly Disney is trying to unload both ESPN and ABC. I hope they are purchased by people who will get them back to covering the games instead of being involved in political issues.

Q. Larry Hamilton says: I think it is 2025 when we are supposed to play Arkansas State. Why is that game in Little Rock? Jonesboro is 60 miles closer to War Memorial Stadium than Fayetteville. If they want to play us so bad play us in our stadium.

A. I can only tell you what I’m hearing and it’s speculation. But a lot of people I talk to think Hunter Yuracheck is going to use that Arkansas State game as the final Arkansas game ever at War Memorial. The contract ends in 2025 and I just don’t see how Arkansas can keep playing there. The SEC is encouraging member institution to upgrade their non conference schedules. Would it make any sense to play Miami or some school like that in a 53,000 seat stadium when they could draw close to 80,000 in Fayetteville.

So again, some I’ve talked to think Yurachek is saying, We have to end the tradition of playing there but we’ll give you a great final game to remember.

Maybe that’s not it. Maybe he’ll sign a new contract and play Arkansas State there every other year. But I doubt it.

Q. Armon Abbe says: It seems each of my friends has a different reason for disliking Missouri. I didn’t really feel it until they hired this annoying coach they have now….

….. I saw this video where he landed some big shot recruit and he was running around squealing like a six year old at a birthday party. He’s my least favorite SEC coach.

A. I can’t imagine the Missouri people are happy about that kind of stuff since Eli Drinkwitz is not winning he way they want. He’s under pressure to win this year. He has to know that. Keep your fingers crossed. Maybe they’ve have a terrible season and he’ll be gone.

Q. PatBoat asks: Could you name 3 people or stories from the university that deserves a documentary?

A. There’s already been documentaries on Frank and Nolan. I did one on John McDonnell about 25 years ago. Courtney just did one on Lance Harter. All of those coaches won national championships here.

Norm DeBriyn would be at the top of my list. He had an incredible career considering what he started with, reviving the Razorback baseball program with almost no facilities and a peanut sized budget.

Dave Van Horn is another and if he keeps it up Eric Musselman would deserve a documentary.

Q. Hawgredneck says: So Courtney painted the eyelash on the Hog at War Memorial? Do Hogs have eyelashes? Wouldn’t it be more fun to paint the slobber on the slobbering Hog?

It wasn’t an eyelash it was an eyebrow. I never realized that the modern running Hog logo has an eyebrow but it does. As far as the Slobber Hog, to me that’s a basketball logo. I still wish Yurachek would put the Slobber Hog logo back where it belongs, midcourt at Bud Walton. Football can keep the modern Hog.