Brandon Mitchell QB Arkansas Immed elig in fall

[bull-71]

im listning to  Arkansaw Sports radio interview   Brandon Mitchell says he is taliking to USF coaches   live now

 

 http://sportstalkwithbo.com/site/index.php

Edited May 10, 2013 by bull-71

[Rizman]

im listning to  Arkansaw Sports radio interview   Brandon Mitchell says he is taliking to USF coaches   live now

 

 http://sportstalkwithbo.com/site/index.php

We are out

[bull-71]

 

im listning to  Arkansaw Sports radio interview   Brandon Mitchell says he is taliking to USF coaches   live now

 

 http://sportstalkwithbo.com/site/index.php

We are out

 

Ok i listened to the sports talk  Brandon Mitchell says he is talikg to USF coaches...this is the Horse's mouth what am I missing????

[bull-71]

 

im listning to  Arkansaw Sports radio interview   Brandon Mitchell says he is taliking to USF coaches   live now

 

 http://sportstalkwithbo.com/site/index.php

We are out

 

This interview was done at 3:07 pm may 9, 2013 per twitter..

https://twitter.com/SportsTalkwBo

[ckparrothead]

Listening to the interview.

 

1.  This radio host is really needling him. He's trying to get him to say that he felt the competition was rigged or something. This is borderline...like if I were Brandon, I'm thinking, I'm not interviewing with you again after this.

 

2.  On what happened that led to this transfer. His understanding was that the coaches were going to name a starter heading INTO the summer. But Coach Bielema wanted to extend the competition through the Fall. Brandon has been in this position before with Tyler Wilson under Coach Petrino. Coach Bielema asked him, if things don't go as planned in the competition, would you be open to playing another position? According to Brandon, coach just didn't want him to be sitting on the sidelines doing nothing if the competition didn't work out for him because he wanted him on the field. Brandon said that when Bielema felt him out on that, he felt it was kind of a tip off for what he was really thinking...having both he and Brandon Allen on the field at the same time. Mitchell just is not interested in that at all.

 

3.  Brandon tried to be very politic about it and say as many of the right things as he could, but you can tell he didn't feel the competition was fair. Not surprising. Nobody likes to admit they got beat. Mitchell's high school coach was on with this radio host a while ago and that coach suggested that things were geared toward Allen because he was a local guy. Biggest gripe he had is that he feels like in order to prepare for the future, they had Brandon Allen working with the 1's most of the time trying to get them all to get their chemistry right. Mitchell had been operating with the understanding that a starter would be announced soon but instead they extended it and announced that Mitchell would continue running with the 2's through the summer.

 

4.  Asked if there were any problems off the field that led to this, he said no that he's always prided himself on being a good player off the field, a guy that's the first one in and the last one out, never in trouble, that sort of thing. When followed up with the point about the 4 game suspension last year, the host asked if he can shed some light on that now that he's transferring. Brandon said the suspension last year was NCAA related. The NCAA had some questions about how he got home during the bye week when his grandfather was having surgery to remove cancer. Didn't share more detail than that. That's ridiculous if true.

 

5.  This weekend he will be taking a visit to NC State, talking to Coach Doeren.

 

6.  Right now he has no other visits planned. He's talked to the coaches at Michigan, South Florida, Louisiana Tech and UAB "with Coach McGee". Just trying to see which place would be the best fit for him.

 

7.  He graduates June 28th.

 

8.  Asked what the differences are with this new staff, what perspective he can give as the quarterback, he praised Bielema a lot. He said that he's trying to establish more physicality. With Petrino it was always a big aerial attack but with Bielema he wants to play physical defense and complement with a really good offense, emphasizing all three phases instead of just the offense. This is interesting to me. I know it comes off more fan service for Razorbacks fans but he really seems to respect what Bielema is doing even if he's got some nits about not having taken many reps with the 1's. He also seems to disagree with how before Petrino just emphasized the offense. Taggart's philosophy is a lot like Bielema's, btw. Said he really likes the offensive changes.

 

9.  He has not spoken with either Paul or Bobby Petrino since his decision to transfer. Didn't sound like he intended to, either.

 

10.  Has no regrets about agreeing to move to wide receiver. Everything happens for a reason.

 

11.  Does he think he can play QB at the next level? Says that's the plan, he's trying to do everything in his power to get there. Says he's done with basketball, especially this being his final year and then hopefully next off season getting ready for the NFL Combine and hopefully being on someone's draft board. It's tough to give up basketball but you face reality and recognize what your skills are. He says at 6'4" and 239 lbs, you don't see too many two-guards at the NBA level at that size.

 

12.  What does he want Arkansas fans to know as he leaves? That he loved being there, that he thinks anyone coming into college to play football should consider Arkansas football because it's a great program and the fans are great and he likes the direction they're going. Was he treated fairly? He said very much so. He learned a lot there. He was talking to his brother and it was crazy to think that he's been through 5 different coaches between football and basketball, and he learned a lot of things from them all.

 

I listened to the interview with his coach Alden Foster. Really emphasized how Brandon went all the way to the end in the competition with Tyler Wilson and how he's given everything he had for Arkansas, even moving to receiver just to help the team out, but that with them getting through spring ball and still not ready to name a starter, he just had to make a decision and he supports it. You can tell Alden doesn't think it's fair that after everything he's done for the program and all the dues he's paid, he's not being declared the starter after spring ball. Brandon told him that he really felt like he was the best quarterback during spring ball. Alden couldn't verify because he'd not seen any tape or anything but that's what Brandon told him. Asked if Brandon has talked to Garrick McGee, he said that he doesn't know for sure but Garrick and he had a close relationship and they talk all the time anyway, so he wouldn't be surprised. Paul Petrino spoke really highly of Brandon when Alden Foster was up at Idaho last spring so he wouldn't be surprised if he's interested. Said he doesn't think agreeing to move to receiver was a mistake because as an athlete you want to do whatever you can to help the team and get on the field, but at the same time looking back it may have played a factor in all this. Asked if he felt race played into any of this he refused to play the race card. But he did bring up that he thinks Brandon Allen being a local kid may have played a factor.

 

Wow this is interesting. Coach Burton Burns at Alabama was just at Amite with Alden Foster actually on the day that Brandon called Foster to tell him about the meeting with Bielema, and Burns said "We should have taken him at Alabama". Burns said the only plays that Arkansas even made against Alabama during that debacle this year were Brandon's plays. He said that the Arkansas recruiter (the D coordinator) was interested in him as a linebacker back when he was recruiting but that he took one look at him throwing on tape and said oh no, Coach Petrino isn't going to let this guy get out of his sight, look at how he spins the ball. Then Garrick McGee came and they were really excited about Brandon.

 

Asked what he think ended up happening, why he wasn't winning, he said he doesn't know. But he looks at the fact that Brandon Allen is just a sophomore and there's a chance to have the guy starting for the next three years, and he also looks at the fact that Brandon Allen's brother is also being recruited to Arkansas, and it kind of raises an eyebrow.

[Flowers4Heisman]

Thanks for doing all the work and sharing the info with us on here everyone! You Bulls are awesome.

 

Maybe, just maybe, we fans will be rewarded with a transfer QB this month. Fingers crossed.

 

(If we get into June and no new QB, it's time to start buying hard liquor for football season.)

[ckparrothead]

For what its worth I asked Joe Schad if he intentionally meant to leave USF off his latest list of potential landing spots for Brandon Mitchell and he said yes.

 

However, I would surely like to know his source on that because as bull-71 said, at about 3pm yesterday Brandon himself was on radio talking about Michigan, USF, La Tech and UAB being the schools he's looking at in addition to NC State.

[Hem]

Well that sucks.

[ckparrothead]

On the other hand Greg Auman (who may choose to clarify on here since he visits) just told me that he spoke to Brandon's mother earlier this week (but not Brandon yet) and his mother said that Brandon is "very interested" in USF. Greg is the one that put quotations on "very interested" just FYI.

So, who knows. I'd probably go with the fact that Brandon himself as well as his mother named USF among his interests. However it is possible that what Joe Schad was getting at is that the interest is not that mutual. That's always a possibility.

[Who'sYourData?]

And why do we consider Joe Schaad such an exceptional source?  I have more faith in Greg.