University of Arkansas Razorback fans thrive on all juicy insider tips about their favorite teams.
That's exactly what attendees at the Pine Bluff Rotary Club luncheon on Tuesday got with two in-the-know Razorbacks -- former quarterback Quinn Grovey and former assistant men's basketball coach Matt Zimmerman.
The pair, who host the podcast "The Razorback Daily," spun old tales and future projections about the football and basketball teams at the packed Pine Bluff Country Club ballroom. The Rotary Club worked with the Razorback Foundation to bring Grovey and Zimmerman to Pine Bluff.
The crowd was jazzed about the Razorbacks' big road win last weekend against the Auburn Tigers, 41-27. Grovey, though, was focused on the next game Saturday at home against the Liberty University Flames, an independent.
Previously unranked, the Flames (7-1) are now a ranked football team. They are No. 23 in this week's Associated Press Top 25. The Razorbacks (5-3) will tackle a team that hasn't played since Oct. 22 when the Flames won a 41-14 victory over Brigham Young University. Arkansas is not ranked.
While some fans may think the Flames will be an easy win Saturday, Grovey said think again.
"Liberty is not an opponent to take lightly," Grovey said. "Hugh Freeze [Liberty's coach] is a high-caliber coach. It won't be as easy of a game as you think.
The advantage for the Razorbacks is that they play in Fayetteville for the rest of the season.
Still, the Razorback football program under Coach Sam Pittman is better than it has been in years. Grovey and Zimmerman praised Pittman for turning around the football program. "Before Sam got here, I would take a thesaurus into the booth to look for words to say about how bad we were," Grovey said. "I couldn't say we sucked. I'd think about what words I could use. Sam Pittman gave pride back to the Razorbacks."
Zimmerman is laser-focused on Coach Eric Musselman's men's basketball team this season.
The team is young and loaded with freshmen. Zimmerman cited plenty of coaches who had come and gone because they didn't win championships. The Razorbacks like to win big so this year will be a test with Musselman.
Over the years, the Razorback men's basketball team has made it to six NCAA Final Fours and has a national championship (1994) to its credit. "This year, they are a very talented team, but they've got work to do," Zimmerman said. "They have players that haven't been in that kind of environment. The University of Arkansas is about championships. You better win."
Zimmerman thinks that this team, though, could be a championship team. "This team has a chance to do that," Zimmerman said.
After watching the Razorbacks lose in an exhibition game against the University of Texas Longhorns 90-60, Zimmerman said he is betting that the Razorbacks won't lose that badly again. "You won't see a Musselman team lose by 20," he said.
Sports wasn't the only topic on Grovey's mind Tuesday. He also talked about his documentary, "Growing up Grovey." The film chronicles his mother's battle with Alzheimer's disease. After the death of his father and older brother, Grovey became his mother's caregiver. The film was shown recently at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and was nominated for an Emmy but lost to a documentary about the Kansas City Chiefs.
Grovey has become an advocate for families battling Alzheimer's. "When you think about people's lives, if you haven't been touched by Alzheimer's, you will be," he said.
His mother fought the disease for 10 years before dying in 2015 at the age of 76. "She took her last breath in my arms," Grovey told the crowd. "I was so sad but I was so happy that she was no longer in shackles."
Grovey also talked about the hard hit he took in the head in 1988 in a key game against the Texas A&M Aggies. The Razorbacks were 6-0 going into the game against an arch-nemesis in the Southwest Conference that was 4-1. The Razorbacks played at home in front of 53,818 people, the largest crowd ever to watch a game in Fayetteville at that time. It was a sellout.
With less than 2 minutes left in the first quarter, Grovey, a sophomore, was slammed by an Aggie. "The A&M guys just smashed me," Grovey said.
Grovey said he knew he had a concussion as he lay on the field. He said he remembered a trainer for the team saying that was the first time he thought someone might be dead on the field. Grovey said the coaches started asking him questions about plays to see if he was able to keep playing. He knew all of the answers. "I had no business going back on that field," Grovey said.
When they asked him who the president was, he said Jesse Jackson.
That answer got him a trip to the hospital. During his MRI, they let him listen to the rest of the Razorback game. The Razorbacks put senior backup quarterback John Bland into the game and won 25-20. The doctors wanted Grovey to stay overnight for observation, but he had to go party with his team. "I had my arm in a sling but I had to go back to my team," he said. "I was there with a Long Island iced tea at Mardi Gras [a Fayetteville bar]. When you are young, you do things like that."
Leaving the lunch on a high note, Grovey and Zimmerman naturally led the crowd -- many dressed in red and white -- in calling the Hogs.
White Hall High School football coach Ryan Mallett, center, listens among a crowd of attendees at a Pine Bluff Rotary Club/Razorback Foundation luncheon Tuesday at the Pine Bluff Country Club. Mallett is a former Arkansas quarterback. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)