FAYETTEVILLE — Fans won’t have to wait long to get their first glimpse of Connor Noland pitching for the Razorbacks.
The two-sport athlete from Greenwood, Ark., will likely be the first guy out of the bullpen in Arkansas’ first spring intrasquad scrimmage Saturday, following ace Isaiah Campbell, head coach Dave Van Horn said at the team’s annual media day Thursday.
Having already impressed new pitching coach Matt Hobbs, Noland will probably enter in about the fourth inning of the six- or seven-inning scrimmage that begins at 12:30 p.m.
“(Hobbs) really likes Connor, let’s just put it like that,” Van Horn said. “Connor’s got good stuff, very mature, strong. We think he’s going to be a really big part of our pitching staff.”
The Razorbacks have signed plenty of heralded pitchers through the years, but none have had quite the intrigue as Noland.
Also a three-star quarterback, he led Greenwood to Class 6A state titles in football and baseball as a senior. On the gridiron, he completed 67.6 percent of his passes for 2,801 yards and 34 touchdowns, while going 10-0 with a 0.42 ERA and 123 strikeouts in 66 2/3 innings on the mound.
When starter Ty Storey went down with a concussion, Noland became just the eight true freshman in Arkansas history to start a game at quarterback. He led the Razorbacks to a 23-0 win over Tulsa, but ended the year with just 255 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions on 21 of 42 passing while maintaining his redshirt status by appearing in only four games.
As the calendar flipped to 2019, Van Horn and football coach Chad Morris were tasked with coming up with a plan to divide up his time between the two sports.
They met about two weeks ago and Morris was very supportive about Noland playing baseball. He provided Van Horn with a schedule of football practices and workouts, enabling the quarterback-turned-pitcher to have a floating schedule this spring.
“We just have to make sure we don’t double up on anything where he’s lifting with them and lifting with us,” Van Horn said. “Connor has to manage it. He has to make sure he speaks up to either us or football.”
As a pitcher, Noland’s fastball is in the 90-91 miles per hour range - with the potential to add more velocity in time - and he has a really good breaking ball. What has earned praise from the coaching staff, though, has been his control.
“What (Hobbs is) asking him to do with his bullpen, he’s doing it,” Van Horn said. “You want the fastball in, he’s throwing the fastball in to a lefty. Want the breaking ball down, he’s throwing it down. He’s basically executing pitches and that’s what pitching is all about.”
Even though he spent all fall playing quarterback and hasn’t been with the baseball team very long, Noland has already done enough to impress teammates with his stuff.
“He’s missed a lot with football and he’s still missing a little bit in the spring because of spring football practice, but his stuff is electric,” Campbell said. “He’s got really good off-speed and his fastball is heavy. I think he’s really going to help this team a lot this year.”
What role that help will be in is still up in the air. Van Horn mentioned a few other names, but didn’t rule out Noland eventually emerging as one of the weekend starters behind Campbell.
If that is the case and one of his starts conflicts with a scrimmage, Morris has given the green light for him to miss football for baseball. That includes the Red-White spring game on April 6, which is the same day as the Razorbacks’ series finale at Auburn.
However, it’s still too early to tell if that kind of conflict will occur.
“That will have to be earned by Connor,” Van Horn said. “He’ll have to come in here and show us what he can do, but we’ve had freshmen pitch for us a lot.”
