Noland making the transition from football to baseball.
FAYETTEVILLE - With his freshman football season ended after relieving junior starting quarterback Ty Storey during last Friday’s 38-0 loss at Missouri, Connor Noland joined fellow Arkansas baseball pitchers for a meeting with new pitching coach Matt Hobbs Tuesday.
Noland, who will be a Razorbacks football freshman in 2019 because he didn’t exceed the new four-game limit that still allows a football player to count it as a redshirt year, was recruited out of Greenwood as an AllState two-sport athlete by Arkansas football coach Chad Morris and Arkansas baseball coach Dave Van Horn, and a two-sport athlete he will be, quarterbacking football and pitching baseball, both coaches assert.
Morris and Van Horn have said they’ll meet soon once Morris comes in from the recruiting road to hash out the particulars of Noland’s baseball/football responsibilities for the spring.
Morris during the postgame press conference last Friday in Columbia, Mo., was asked about Noland playing baseball and replied, “Absolutely, you bet. He will play baseball. We love guys that want to compete.”
Van Horn during Wednesday’s press conference introducing Hobbs to Arkansas media said, “One reason Connor selected the University of Arkansas, obviously he loved it here and went to school in state, but he was recruited all over the country to do both. It was a big part of his decision that we work this out that he could play baseball.”
However, Noland attends Arkansas on a football scholarship, and Morris’ Razorbacks will conduct 15 spring practices.
“I mean, obviously if he’s in the mix to be the starting quarterback next season, he needs to be out there,” Van Horn said. “Our biggest concern is not with Connor and his work ethic, because it’s second to none. He’s very mature for his age, he’s very strong. The biggest concern that we have to get right is the physical part. What do they want him to do in the weight room and all that? We’re going to need to back off that upper body a little bit. We’ve got to keep him loose and healthy. The strength coaches have to get together, the pitching coach and we all have to be on the same page. I think football’s going to work with us.”
For now, baseball freshman Noland apparently is baseball devoted until final exams.
“Connor was here yesterday (Tuesday),” Van Horn said. “He was introduced to the team. Actually I made him introduce himself like all the other players do when they get here. So there’s a little stress involved there. You know, example, he’s got to stand up in front of everybody and say his name, his hometown, his year in school and what position he plays and he did a great job. Connor will be on a throwing program, maybe starting in the next day or so.”
Hobbs, who pitched for the University of Missouri and was a pitching coach at the University of San Francisco and then Missouri before becoming Wake Forest’s pitching coach four years ago, was asked about coaching a two-sport athlete.
“This will be my first one,” Hobbs said. “I think we have to work through what they need from him on the football field and what he needs to do on the baseball field and figure out what the best plan is for him.
“Like I said, this will be my first go-around with a football player, but I feel pretty confident in my ability to kind of work through those things.”