FAYETTEVILLE — Perhaps no team in the country has a quarterback room quite like the one at Arkansas.
Since the end of the season, the Razorbacks have seen their two primary starters transfer out, a third with a 2018 start split time another sport and another with ties to the coaching staff join the team as a graduate transfer. That doesn’t even include the four-star dual-threat quarterback who signed in December.
Considering the graduate transfer is Ben Hicks from SMU, Connor Noland is who’s playing baseball and signee K.J. Jefferson won’t join the team until the summer, some fans have expressed concern about the position heading info spring practice on Feb. 26. Head coach Chad Morris is not in that camp, though.
“Am I worried about quarterback? No,” Morris said. “We have to continue to develop guys. We’re going to have a competition and we have to continue to push. But no, I’m not worried about that. I think that’ll work itself out.”
Discussing the addition of Hicks with the media for the first time, Morris praised his former quarterback. With 9,081 career passing yards and 71 career touchdown passes, he is the all-time leading passer in SMU history.
A few weeks into the spring semester, Hicks is already getting adjusted and meshing with his new teammates.
“Excited to have his leadership, his competitiveness in our program,” Morris said. “He’s done a great job getting in and building those relationships.”
Aside from him making the jump from the American Athletic Conference to the SEC, one reason fans are uneasy about him being the presumed starter is because he actually got benched at one point early in 2018.
Morris credited his 2018 struggles to the coaching change that followed his departure for Arkansas.
“I’ve known Ben for a long time, and watching him and how he responded through adversity, coming in with a coaching change is always tough,” Morris said. “It’s tough on everybody, but to watch the way he responded and be able to come off the bench and win ball games for them was huge.
“That tells you (about) his resilience and his fight and his drive. And he knows our offense and he knows us and he knows what to expect. He’s been a great addition to our program.”
With the departure of Ty Storey and Cole Kelley, the only quarterback on Arkansas’ roster with SEC starting experience is Noland.
Unfortunately for the football team, though, his focus won’t solely be on the gridiron this spring because he’s also a top pitcher on the baseball team.
Both Dave Van Horn and Morris - who said Noland has a “chance to be a very special player here” - have supported his decision to play both sports and indicated that communication will be the key to him pulling off the feat successfully.
“There's got to be great communication between coach Van Horn and myself and we are; we’re constantly talking,” Morris said. “We'll talk a couple of times a week. As a matter of fact, I think I may go down and watch him pitch on Saturday.”
The biggest challenge has been making sure neither sport is putting too much stress on Noland’s body. The strength staffs must work in unison and so far it’s worked well.
Morris said Noland has been at workouts this week while still pitching and working out with baseball, albeit with a close eye on his workload.
“The No. 1 focus is Connor Noland,” Morris said. “He can't get lost in the shuffle, (so we’re) making sure he's taken care of as far as the wear and tear on himself.”
Arkansas made it through Wednesday’s traditional National Signing Day with three unused scholarships for the 2019 class, so there is a chance it could even add another transfer to the mix.
“We’re always in the quarterback market,” Morris said. “I’ve said that; I’ll continue to say that. You can never have enough of those guys. Got to have competition there.”
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