Word began to trickle out behind the scenes late Tuesday morning that the hosts of "Andy & Ari" podcast on On3 would be coming out with a correction of a statement made by a guest on their show this past Monday.
Well, Tuesday went by and bled into Wednesday, but earlier this morning, the clarification on the idea that receivers went to the Arkansas coaching staff and demanded either starting quarterback Taylen Green no longer be the starting quarterback or they're going to bail on the program finally came to light. However, it's not quite the "correction" the Arkansas athletics administration might have hoped to hear.
Being journalists, Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman merely took a few minutes after their show introduction to present the official stance of Razorback athletics while also updating the official stance of Collin Wilson of Action Network, a sports gambling site.
"[Wilson] gave an anecdote about receivers meeting with coaches about quarterback Taylen Green," Staples said. "I've talked to somebody in Arkansas since then, they say that didn't happen. So I want to point that out, that the Arkansas response to that is that's not what happened."
He then went on to explain why the claim didn't get checked while on air during the live podcast originally and why it took a couple of days to follow up.
"So it's one of those situations where in the middle of an interview, it's hard to bring the interview to a screeching halt on that," Staples said. "If you're writing a story, you would call Arkansas and say, 'Okay, here's what this person said. Is that what happened?' And then in the story, you'd say, here's what this person said. Here's what Arkansas said. A little bit different in the show environment. So I did want to bring that up and explain that at Arkansas, they're saying that's not what the situation was. We'll see."
However, Arkansas isn't the only side of this disagreement which was contacted for further comment. Wilson was given a chance to stand by his statement or retract, and officials at Arkansas couldn't have been happy to hear what he had to say on the matter.
"I want you to know too that Colin [Wilson] texted me yesterday and said he double-checked with his source and he still feels comfortable with what he said," Wasserman said. "So we'll let you decide. You know I'm not saying, we're not here attacking Collin, we're just giving you the other side because that's our duty."
And with both sides of the story presented, the podcast duo decided that was where the discussion should be brought to an end so they could get back to talking about Penn State being at the top of Wasserman's preseason Top 25.
"I wanted to get, I want to give Arkansas a chance to respond to that and they have, so there you go," Staples said. "Now, we, let's move on to your Top 25, plus some news from yesterday."
So, while the Razorbacks may have been hopeful for a bit of exoneration in regard to this claim of a revolt against the team's quarterback, which all evidence known to the staffers of "Arkansas Razorbacks on Sports Illustrated" at this time doesn't appear to support, they instead got a stalemate.
Wilson stands by his source that the meeting took place. Arkansas, in a surprise to no one, firmly says it didn't happen.
In reality, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. However, unless more solid information comes out, fans will be left to spend the summer sorting through a he said, they said about something that has to direct bearing on the season at hand.
Everyone reportedly involved in complaining is either trying to keep a job in the NFL or playing somewhere else for reasons that initially didn't appear to involve Green in any way.
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