LITTLE ROCK — Reduced to three-letter acronyms, Connor Noland’s competition in two sports this spring involves RPO, SMU and ERA.
Those TLAs refer to his skill in the run-pass option vs. the proficiency of Southern Methodist University graduate transfer Ben Hicks, and Noland’s earned run average will factor into whether he is one of the pitchers on the 27-man SEC roster for the nationally-ranked Razorbacks.
If he does travel with baseball, Noland will be busy. Beginning March 15, baseball has a three-game SEC series every weekend for two months, and some of those will overlap with the 15 football practices that usually include a couple of Saturday scrimmages, plus the Red-White game on April 6.