By Nate Allen
Special to News-Times
FAYETTEVILLE - Off the Arkansas Razorbacks’ injuries reported from their 37-33 SEC loss to Ole Miss last Saturday, Coach Chad Morris on Monday said running back Devwah Whaley is out. Quarterback Ty Storey is continually being reevaluated and running back Rakeem Boyd and defensive end McTelvin “Sosa” Agim should play in Saturday’s 11 a.m. SEC Network televised game against Tulsa of the American Athletic Conference.
Whaley, Morris said, was scheduled for Monday surgery on his injured ankle.
“We hope to get him back some time in November,” Morris said.
Arkansas gets its open date during the Saturday Nov. 3 weekend before finishing with SEC games against LSU, Nov. 10 in Fayetteville and Nov. 17 at Mississippi State in Starkville and Nov. 23 at Missouri in Columbia.
Boyd, 7 carries for 109 yards including a 69-yard touchdown against Ole Miss, aggravated an old back injury when removed from the game during the first half, but appears OK now, Morris and offensive coordinator Joe Craddock said Monday.
Sophomore Chase Hayden, finishing last Saturday’s game after first Boyd and then Whaley went down, and junior T.J. Hammonds now back Boyd at running back.
Agim appears sufficiently recovered from last Saturday’s knee injury to play against Tulsa, Morris said.
Storey left last Saturday’s game in the fourth quarter after taking a hard hit ending with his head hitting the War Memorial Stadium turf as he battled for 10 yards and a first down on second and 10.
“We’ll know more on Ty today and where we’re at with him,” Morris said. “And then from there we’ll just re-evaluate it and see how it goes from there.”
Craddock said the evaluation with Storey is “by the hour right now.”
“I talked to Dave (Polanski, the head football trainer) right before we came in here and he said Ty’s feeling a little bit better than he has been, so that’s good,” Craddock said. “But, you know, it’s football. It is what it is. You have to have the next guy ready to go.”
Last Saturday night’s “next guy” was third-year sophomore Cole Kelley, apparently confusing the SEC Network crew broadcasting under the impression that true freshman Connor Noland of Greenwood, had moved ahead of Kelley, a starter for four games last season and two games this season.
Kelley, 6-7, 250, played in Saturday’s first half in some goal-line/short-yardage packages designed for his size and threw a 39-yard second-quarter touchdown pass after Storey was shaken up for the first time on a hard hit.
Kelley finished Saturday’s game that Arkansas led, 33-24 going into the fourth quarter.
“Yeah, I’m not sure where they got that but they’ve been splitting reps,” Craddock said, explaining Noland has improved. “Connor has really understood the offense a little bit more than he has since we started. He’s learning and he’s getting more comfortable and I think that may be why he’s been doing maybe a little bit better during practice when he gets out there and gets some reps.”
However Craddock said last Saturday’s setting made Kelley the obvious choice since he already had played in the game and is far more experienced.
“Putting Connor in a SEC game in the fourth quarter I think that would be unfair to him,” Craddock said. “Cole obviously has played a lot of football. He’s played against Ole Miss before (starting Arkansas’ lone SEC victory of last season). We just felt like he gave us the best chance to finish it off.”
Because his game-ejecting unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in last Saturday’s waning seconds did not involve a fight, it appears the SEC office won’t suspend Arkansas cornerback Ryan Pulley from playing the first half against Tulsa.
However Morris, noting Pulley’s status from the ejection still hasn’t been officially clarified, implied he may have disciplinary plans of his own.
“I thought there were some things that we did that were not what we’re about,” Morris said. “I was disappointed.”
Morris and defensive coordinator John Chavis said redshirt freshman Montaric “Buster” Brown is next in line behind Pulley at corner.
Morris opened his Monday press conference extending “thoughts and prayers” to Rick Schaeffer, the former longtime Razorbacks sports information director and still involved in hosting the Razorbacks Radio Network’s pregame and providing statistics during the broadcast.
Schaeffer became ill before last Saturday’s game at Little Rock and was rushed to the University of Arkansas Medical Science Hospital.
Schaeffer was resting comfortably while undergoing further tests Monday at UAMS and reports anticipating being released today, Arkansas Associate Athletic Director Kevin Trainor said Monday.