FAYETTEVILLE -- Public events will be held today in Fayetteville and Little Rock as the University of Arkansas will conduct its initial "One Hog Call" initiative in what officials are describing as the biggest Hog call ever.
The Fayetteville Town Center will host activities starting at 12:30 p.m., including free food and drawings for prize packs, and Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek will lead a group including UA spirit squads and the band in the Hog call there at 1 p.m.
Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz will lead an on-campus gathering at the Greek Theatre for the hog call.
In Little Rock, the festivities will also start at 12:30 p.m. at War Memorial Stadium with former Razorback David Bazzel serving as emcee. Baseball coach Dave Van Horn and basketball coaches Mike Anderson and Mike Neighbors are among the UA personnel scheduled to be on site.
"Calling the Hogs is one of the most unique and passionate traditions in all of college sports," Yurachek said in a statement. "It is not only our signature cheer, but a rallying cry for our state and the Razorback Nation. As we launch our "One Razorback" initiative to further unite Razorback fans throughout Arkansas and globally, there is no more fitting way than by joining together in one of our greatest traditions."
Being dad
Chad Morris will spend a few hours tonight traveling to Dallas to watch his son, Chandler, play for Highland Park High School against Rockwall.
Chandler Morris has replaced Arkansas freshman John Stephen Jones as Highland Park's starting quarterback.
Morris said he plans to attend all of his son's games and that the travel won't interfere with his coaching responsibilities.
"We'll go through practice and once we go inside and get ready to go to the team hotel, I'll take off and then I'll get back that evening," Morris said. "I think it's a great opportunity for these young men to see that's the dad side of me. I won't be missing any practices or any meetings."
Morris' trips to watch his son play also involve a recruiting component. Chandler Morris already has a scholarship offer from Clemson and figures to get an offer from Arkansas as well as many others.
Morris also will see other prospects at the high school games.
"Yeah, there'll be several Division I players that'll be out there," he said. "I'll get to go out and be a dad and be able to watch [Chander] play and then watch the other potential prospects. That's the benefit of being a dad and having a son that's playing ball."
It goes fast
Eastern Illinois Coach Kim Dameron was an option quarterback as a senior at Rogers High School in 1978.
"Can't believe 40 years ago I was in high school," Dameron said. "It goes by in a hurry."
Dameron signed a scholarship with Arkansas Tech, but ended up walking on at Arkansas after visiting with Monte Kiffin, the Razorbacks' defensive coordinator.
"Coach Kiffin even came to my house and sat down and said, 'Look, I think you can play,'" Dameron said. "He just invested a little time, which meant the world to me. Plus, I thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
"I walked on as a quarterback in 1979 and that lasted about half a practice. Then I went to receiver, and after about three games they moved me to defense."
Dameron became a starting cornerback late in his freshman season due to injuries and was placed on scholarship the next semester. He played cornerback and safety as a sophomore and junior and in three seasons on defense made 97 tackles with three interceptions.
Dameron moved to receiver as a senior and had 16 catches for 186 yards.
'Time of day'
Chad Morris joked on his radio show on Wednesday night about trying to recruit receiver Jared Cornelius and safety Santos Ramirez out of Shreveport Evangel Christian when he was the offensive coordinator at Clemson.
"I came out to recruit those guys and they didn't give me the time of day," Morris said, drawing laughter from the fans at the Catfish Hole restaurant in Fayetteville.
Cornelius and Ramirez were the player guests on the show.
Last Chance 2
The Eastern Illinois-Arkansas game will feature two of the top running backs from the most recent season of the Netflix series Last Chance U.
Arkansas tailback Rakeem Boyd, a Texas A&M signee before transferring to Independence (Kan.) Community College, was teammates last year wih Panthers tailback Jamal Scott.
Boyd rushed for 1,211 yards and 14 touchdowns to lead the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference. Scott rushed for 363 yards and seven touchdowns to rank second on the team behind Boyd.
Rules updates
College football fans will note several new rules with the season getting started in earnest this Labor Day weekend.
The most noticeable update will be the advent of fair catches on kickoffs inside the 20-yard line, which will give the offense the ball on the 25. After the ball started to be placed at the 25 following touchbacks beginning in 2013, the NCAA football rules committee noted a rise in deep sky kicks intended to land inside the 10 yard line and force returns. Because kickoff returns have been demonstrably shown to produce the highest risk of head injuries, the committee adopted the new rule to reduce them.
Also new this year, a team that scores on a field goal on a play with a defensive penalty can now choose to keep the three points and accept the enforcement of the penalty on the ensuing kickoff. Previously, the scoring team was forced to decline the penalty to take the points or have the points wiped off to accept the infraction.
Rules for blocking below the waist also have been modified, with the biggest change being that no blocking below the waist is legal beyond 5 yards from the line of scrimmage.
From a uniform standpoint, all pants must go beyond the knee and include knee pads.
In the pace-of-play category, a 40-second play clock will be used between a touchdown and an extra-point try, as well as a kickoff and the first play of a series.
Timeout clock
The SEC will use a timeout countdown clock at all 14 of its venues this season. The display will be set up on the field, which will allow both teams and patrons to see the remaining time during TV stoppages.
"The use of a visible timeout countdown clock will provide fans in particular an opportunity to know when a game will re-start after a television timeout and hopefully give some definition to the perceived delays in a game," SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement.
The clock will be the official time remaining in a timeout, and the ball will be made ready to play when it hits zero.
The clock will be used for three off-campus games, the Razorbacks' neutral-site contest against Texas A&M in Arlington, Texas, and the Hogs' home game vs. Ole Miss in Little Rock, and the annual Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville, Fla., as well as the SEC Championship Game.
It will not be used in neutral site game against non-conference opponents, such as games in Atlanta, Arlington, Houston and Orlando, Fla., this weekend.
Grad patches
The Razorbacks will have 10 players sporting the SEC "graduate" patch this season: Damani Carter, Jared Cornelius, Ryder Lucas, Deion Malone, Tyler Phillips, Santos Ramirez, Kevin Richardson III, Ty Storey, Brian Wallace and Armon Watts.
FCS fodder
The Razorbacks have won their last 15 games against FCS opponents since a 10-3 loss to The Citadel to open the 1992 season, leading to the firing of Coach Jack Crowe the following day.
The Razorbacks are 5-0 against teams from the Ohio Valley Conference.
Extra points
• Eastern Illinois will be playing its first-ever game against a member of the SEC. The Panthers lost 37-0 at Missouri of the Big 12 on Sept. 13, 2003, nine years before the Tigers joined the SEC.
• The Razorbacks and Panthers have members of the football program whose name is pronounced the same way. Arkansas defensive back Micahh Smith spells his first name with an extra "H," while Eastern Illinois inside receivers coach Micah Smith has the more traditional spelling.
• The SEC Network broadcast crew for Saturday will be DJ Shockley as analyst, Dave Neal on play by play and Dawn Davenport on the sidelines.
• The most prominent Eastern Illinois alumnus currently playing in the NFL is San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. New Orleans Coach Sean Payton also is an alumnus. Other ex-Panthers in the NFL are Philadelphia linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill and Chicago Bears General Manager Ryan Pace.
Sports on 08/31/2018