Introducing Andrew Hutchinson, Best of Arkansas Sports’ New Managing Editor

Andrew Hutchinson was named the 2020 Arkansas Sportswriter of the Year by the NSMA.

I’m thrilled to welcome Andrew Hutchinson as our first managing editor here at Best of Arkansas Sports. Over the last few years, we’ve grown into the largest independent Arkansas sports website and Hutchinson’s elite bona fides make him perfectly poised to help take us to an even higher level. 

A native of Springdale, Hutchinson has grown up around the Razorbacks, including the last decade as one of the top sportswriters in the state.

Most recently, he served as the managing editor of HawgBeat.com, the Arkansas site in the Rivals network. While at HawgBeat, Hutchinson was named the 2020 Arkansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association for his coverage of the Razorbacks. He was a finalist for the award in 2019, as well.

Hutchinson graduated from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. In addition to HawgBeat, he’s also had stops at The Traveler, WholeHogSports, HawgsIllustrated and 247Sports, primarily covering the three main sports at Arkansas — football, men’s basketball and baseball — with occasional stories on the lesser publicized sports.

A self-described “stats nerd” who also minored in mathematics at the UA, one of Hutchinson’s strengths is analyzing statistics and other numbers with a historical perspective that predates his 10 years on the beat.

We are bringing him on board at BoAS to provide that analysis and award-winning journalism here — without a paywall — complementing the provocative and in-depth content you’ve already come to expect on our site.

With the football team coming off a top-25 finish under Sam Pittman, the basketball team reaching back-to-back Elite Eights under Eric Musselman, the baseball team still an annual contender in Omaha under Dave Van Horn and several other programs enjoying historic success, we couldn’t imagine a better time to bring on someone of Hutchinson’s caliber to provide you — the fans — with coverage worthy of the programs you root for every day.

Hutchinson and his wife, Marley, have a very opinionated 2-year-old daughter, Holland. He played football — warmed the bench, as he likes to say — at Springdale High, where he graduated in 2012, before attending and graduating from the UA in 2016.

-Evin Demirel, Publisher of Best of Arkansas Sports

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Best of Andrew Hutchinson’s Arkansas Sports Stories (So Far)

“Meet Grant Harmon, the fan who caught a raccoon at Baum-Walker Stadium”

May 14, 2022

Born and raised in Fayetteville, Friday night’s top-25 showdown between Arkansas and Vanderbilt was no different than any other big-time game Grant Harmon has attended at Baum-Walker Stadium through the years.

That changed in the seventh inning, when — with the two teams locked in a tie — the 24-year-old and his mother had their attention taken away from the action on the field.

“We were just sitting there watching the game and then we could hear some commotion, I guess a few rows above us,” Harmon told HawgBeat. “People were just kind of oohing and ahhing and standing up. We got to looking around and finally we saw a raccoon running in some rows in front of us and behind us.” CONTINUE READING

“Call the Kopps: Beet juice and college baseball’s most dominant pitcher”

May 14, 2021

Late in a tight game against Auburn last month, Matt Hobbs left his perch on the top step of the dugout and walked down Arkansas’ bench in search of Kevin Kopps.

The Razorbacks were batting and their pitching coach needed to talk his star pitcher before he went back out to the mound, but when he found him, he was taken aback by what he saw.

“He had just taken a big drink of beet juice and I went to start talking to him,” Hobbs said. “Beet juice is really, really dark red, obviously, so it looked like Kevin had blood in his mouth. I was talking to him and I was like, ‘What is going on?’”

Nothing about the encounter was strange to Kopps, who was just going through his normal routine in the midst of yet another scoreless outing. CONTINUE READING

“Starkel’s transfer to San Jose State adds chapter to Hogs’ wild run at QB”

Jan. 12, 2020

Chad Morris is gone, but the book on his quarterback room at Arkansas isn’t quite closed and the latest chapter might be the wildest.

After a tumultuous season with the Razorbacks, Nick Starkel is in the process of applying for a “specific waiver” that would give him immediate eligibility at San Jose State, a UA spokesperson told HawgBeat.

Yes, the same Mountain West school that intercepted him five times en route to a shocking upset in Fayetteville will, if all goes to plan, be his new home for his final season of college football. CONTINUE READING

Column: Arkansas, Morris have quietly botched the new redshirt rule

Nov. 4, 2019

Lost amid the cries for KJ Jefferson, Arkansas and Chad Morris have quietly bungled the redshirt situation for two other true freshmen.

Offensive lineman Brady Latham and safety Jalen Catalon have each appeared in three games this season, meaning they can play in only one of the Razorbacks’ final three games and still maintain the year of eligibility.

What separates them from Arkansas’ other true freshmen who have already burned their redshirts is that their playing time blatantly contradicts what Morris is on record saying about how he wants to handle the second-year NCAA rule that allows players to redshirt even if they play in up to four games. CONTINUE READING

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