Arkansas wins Liberty Bowl in overtime, stuns The Hawg

Well, it’s official – the Arkansas Razorbacks beat the East Carolina Pirates 20-17 to win the Liberty Bowl in overtime.

Yes, there have been a slew of bowls over the past few days. Rumor has it you’ve even got a national championship game in a few days.

We in the Natural State only gave a damn about one game and that was the Liberty Bowl (I know that’s true of a lot of us, at least). We’re just happy that Arkansas managed to win.

Frankly, I’m more than a bit amazed.

“But, The Hawg,” you might say. “Why are you amazed? Arkansas should have won that game.”

The only answer I can say is that Arkansas, historically, has been terrible in bowl games. Sure, the Hogs had some success in the old Southwest Conference, but the Razorbacks have found all sorts of odd ways to lose bowl games since joining the Southeastern Conference.

Hell, the Razorbacks lost to UNLV in the Las Vegas Bowl back in 2000, of all things. That was the worst bowl game loss in recent memory, but the Hogs have been decidedly underwhelming in a lot of bowls over the years.

Besides, East Carolina is a very good team. The Pirates won the Conference USA title and has offensive and defensive linemen that are both quick and ridiculously large.

At any rate, Arkansas’ win in the Liberty Bowl boiled down to one thing – the Pirates’ kicker was worse than the Razorbacks’. Arkansas tried to give the game away quite a few times, in fact, and the Hogs’ offense was terrible (you can credit the solid defense for at least 10 points due to grabbing a couple of interceptions).

Neither team could brag much about their kicking games. The Pirates missed four field goals and Alex Tejada – the kicker for the Razorbacks – managed to mess one up, too.

That’s the thing about Tejada – that kid folds faster than Superman on laundry day when he’s under any pressure at all. He’s been underwhelming in a number of games over the past three years, in fact.

Fortunately, he came through when he was needed the most when he kicked the game winning field goal in the Liberty Bowl. Good for him.

So congratulations to the Razorbacks. They didn’t look great tonight, but at least that got that victory and they managed to beat a good team, to boot.

Razorbacks should never play in the morning

Yes, the Arkansas Razorbacks utterly failed against Ole Miss today to the tune of 30-17 on Saturday.

Sadly for the fans of the perinially underachieving Razorbacks, the game started at 11 a.m. Why’s that unfortunate?

Because most of us simply can’t start drinking so early in the day and watching that game sober was a true chore. Yes, it might be easy for a bunch of college kids and 20-somethings to tie on a healthy buzz that early in the day, but some of us have kids and responsibilities to worry about and can’t get good and liquored up to endure a Razorbacks game.

And this game was a horrible one, folks. Watching the Razorbacks lose to a team coached by Houston Nutt is humiliating. That man is about as sharp as a sack of dog poop, yet his team managed to make the Razorbacks look like straight-up fools.

Nutt coached here for a decade and you’d think we’d know better than anyone that he would run the ball constantly. Regardless, Dexter McCluster managed to rack up 332 rushing yards against the Hogs and the defense often looked shocked that a Nutt-coached team would run the damned ball most of the time.

Bobby Petrino was highly touted when he took the head coaching job before last season. He’s now been beaten twice by that moronic Nutt. Twice. The mind boggles. That’s rather like being consistently pranked by the retarded kid in high school.

Meanwhile, I do believe I’ll skip those morning games for the time being.

The Pirates set a record!

In case no one noticed, the Pittsburgh Pirates now have the longest consecutive losing streak of any team in the MLB, NBA, NFL or NHL.

On Monday, the Pirates earned their 82nd loss of the season in a game against the Cubs. With that loss, the Bucs clinched a dubious honor -- 17 consecutive losing seasons.

They came into the season tied with the Philadelphia Phillies -- a team that managed to lose 16 consecutive seasons from 1933-1949. Pittsburgh hasn't had a winning season since 1992 and seems doomed to consistent failure in the foreseeable future.

How bad is Pittsburgh? Read all about it right here. That article sums it all up better than I ever could. Besides, I'm too tired to give a damn. I've rooted for the Pirates for years and I'm about sick of caring how the team does.

In fact, the rotten Pirates are one of the reasons I don't follow baseball liked I did once upon a time. In fact, the last time I watched a full Pirates game was a few years ago. After hurling a few empty beer cans at the screen and cursing the team for being so clueless and awful, I pretty much quit watching Pittsburgh and haven't paid much attention to baseball since.

I've just about concluded that the way to get a team to turn rotten is to convince me to room for it. I've pulled for the Pirates since about 1977 and look what's happened to them. Around that same time I started rooting for the Denver Broncos and they've been getting worse since John Elway retired a decade ago.

Oh, don't get me started on Denver. They fired Mike Shanahan and alienated quarterback Jay Cutler until he made up his mind to leave. Shanahan was replaced by a punk, nothing kid of a coach named Josh McDaniels and Cutler was traded to Chicago for Kyle Orton -- a loser who is so anonymous that Denver might have been better off pulling a fan out of the stands and making him quarterback.

Denver will suck this year. Count on it. In fact, I'd be stunned if the Broncos did anything but stink up the field over the next few seasons.

As for Basketball, I followed the Bulls quite a bit. The Bulls, of course, ran off Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen and haven't done much since then. Even my beloved Arkansas Razorbacks -- once a force to be reckoned with in the 1960s through the 1980s -- have been reduced to a fair-to-middling team since joining the SEC.

Hell, even my beloved Benton Panthers are terrible at football these days.

My wife isn't a huge sports fan. I'm starting to think she's got a point.

7-5 for the Hogs this year…

Yes, football season is upon us once again and we Arkansans are hoping our beloved Razorbacks do something this year.

My dad tells me that he was in a restaurant last year when the Hogs were in the midst of their 5-7 season and two fellow (who had obviously been drinking a lot) boldly predicted the Razorbacks wouldn’t lose a game this season.

Most of us haven’t lost our heads and are hoping for the team to have a decent season. And we’ve got some reasons to be excited. First and foremost, there’s Ryan Mallett – the Batesville, Ark., native who went to Michigan and then came back home to Arkansas. He was a heavily recruited quarterback in 2006 and we’re hoping the fellow follows through on his promise this season at Arkansas.

Hey, we’re not used to having top-notch quarterbacks at the University of Arkansas, so seeing one on the field will be a bit of a novelty for us. Our former head coach, that damned Houston Nutt, didn’t go out of his way to recruit quarterbacks and managed to ruin some good ones when they fell in his lap. Let’s see what Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino can do with a talented passer, huh?

Let’s not forget that Michael Smith – the running back who was one of the few highlights on the offense last year – will be back this season. He’ll be joined by Dennis Johnson in the backfield and here’s hoping the running game will be solid.

Yes, Michael Smith was pretty much the running game last year and the offense was just plain dreadful. It appears that the passing game will be solid, too, provided Mallett can find some targets. Last year, those quarterbacking brothers Casey and Nathan Dick had trouble finding receivers. We’re not sure if the receivers were just terrible or if the Dick brothers were just lousy quarterbacks.

The receivers are improved this year and perhaps the most impressive of all is tight end D.J. Williams. Of course, the question remains – will the offensive line hold up long enough to protect Mallett so he can throw to a receiver or two? That was a problem last year as that offensive line folded faster than Superman on laundry day. Here’s hoping Petrino has beaten the line into shape.

The defense was terribly weak last year, but I always wondered – was it really just bad or were the players worn out because the pitiful offense never gave them a chance to rest? Again, that’s a question that will have to be answered throughout the season.

Having said all of that, here are my predictions for the season. These, I’m sure, will hold up pretty well.

Sept. 5 – Missouri State. Arkansas will whip the socks off of Missouri State. That’s why teams like Missouri State are on the schedule. That one will be an easy win.

Sept. 19 – Georgia. It’s rarely good when Georgia comes to town. They dominated the Hogs during the Nutt years and there’s no reason to think that will change this season. There’s a loss.

Sept. 26 – at Alabama. It’s no fluke that Alabama is ranked #5 in the preseason polls. Playing Alabama this season will be bad enough for almost anyone and you can double the misery when a team faces the Crimson Tide at home. There’s a loss.

Oct. 3 – at Texas A&M. Ah, the Aggies are rebuilding, too. Still, considering the weak showing by the Hogs last year in almost every game, I’ll have to call that one a loss.

Oct. 10 – Auburn. Yes, another team that’s rebuilding. Fortunately, they’re coming to Arkansas. Home field advantage will be a big factor here. And, we’ll have a win.

Oct. 17 – at Florida. Arkansas beat Florida once upon a time. Honest! The losing streak will continue this season against the preseason No. 1. That’s a loss.

Oct. 24 – at Ole Miss. Yes, the Rebels are ranked No. 8 in the country right now. However, that ranking doesn’t take the team’s biggest liability into account – head coach Houston “Boxcar” Nut. Nutt frustrated Arkansas fans for years while he goofed off in this state and he’ll annoy Ole Miss fans before long. There’s a win for the Hogs because that’s the kind of game that Nutt has fumbled with inept coaching for years. By the way, I chose the “Boxcar” nickname for Nutt around 2002 because the man is a straight up bum.

Oct. 31 – Eastern Michigan. Another rent-a-win.

Nov. 7 – South Carolina. Poor old South Carolina. That team never can get it together. The Hogs will win this one.

Nov. 14 – Troy. The third – and final – rent-a-win of the year.

Nov. 21 – Mississippi State. Remember when Mississippi State fielded great teams? I can’t recall when exactly that was, either. There’s nothing impressive about them this year, so the Hogs will win that one.

Nov. 29 – at LSU. The preseason No. 11 will clobber the Hogs unless half the team comes down with swine flu. There’s a loss for the Razorbacks.

So, we’re looking at a 7-5 season with three wins against nonconference opponents, meaning the Razorbacks should rack up a 4-5 SEC record this year. Ugly but true. Bank on it. Hey, they’ll get better.

How 'bout them Hogs?

It seems we have reason to rejoice here in Arkansas.

For one thing, that miserable football season is well behind us. Last season was the first one for head coach Bobby Petrino and the Razorbacks wound up with a miserable 5-7 record (2-6 in the SEC). We'll see what happens when Petrino has a chance to get some of his own recruits and the team has had a season to get used to his system.

The best news, of course, is that the basketball Razorbacks are off to a heck of a start. This is head coach John Pelphrey's second season and the Razorbacks are 12-1 thus far.

The Hogs have won their past 10 games, in fact, and we haven't seen that happen since 1995 -- a year in which the Razorbacks made it to the final round of the NCAA tournament and lost to UCLA. Of course, the Hogs won the NCAA championship in 1994 by beating Duke (it was fun to watch Duke lose, particularly since the "experts" predicted they'd slaughter Arkansas).

At any rate, Arkansas has also managed to knock off two top 10 teams in the past week. Last week, 4th ranked Oklahoma came to Fayetteville and the Hogs beat them 96-88. No. 7 Texas lost 67-61 in Fayetteville just the other night.

What was noteworthy about both of those games is that Arkansas is a young team (you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a freshman) and the Hogs went up against two teams that had more talent and experience. Regardless, the Hogs found a way to win both games and I haven't seen the Razorbacks scrap and fight that much since Nolan Richardson left in 2002.

The icing on the cake here is that Pelphrey showed up in a red sports coat the other night, thus showing off those school colors on national television. Good for him.

Hopefully, the Hogs will keep winning those games the team is supposed to lose and make it past the second round in the NCAA tournament this year. Pelphrey's turning out to be a heck of a coach and that's good news.

It's fun to watch another dysfunctional bunch of sports fans for a change

I hope you good people took a look at that YouTube video -- that was Auburn Athletic Director Jay Jacobs being heckled by Auburn fans.

Why was Jacobs being given such a hard time? Because the school went and hired Gene Chizik as the head football coach. Frankly, I'm not sure why they got rid of Tommy Tuberville -- a coach who went 85-40 (52-30 in the SEC) -- and replaced him with a coach who went 5-19 (2-12 in the Big 12) at Iowa State.

As I've mentioned time and time again, I'm an Arkansas Razorbacks fan. Because of that, I can't throw any stones at Auburn because we've made our share of idiotic coaching moves here in the Natural State.

The one that still makes me mad, of course, has to do with that idiot Houston Nutt, a head coach who managed to achieve a sparkling 4-7 record at Boise State before he wound up as the coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. It's fascinating to note that Tuberville was in the running for the job, but that sleazy Nutt wound up with the job somehow.

It's also worth mentioning that Boise State improved substantially after Nutt packed up his trailer, his insane wife and headed to Arkansas.

So, I feel your pain, Auburn. I just hope Chizik works out better than Nutt did here. If not, you're looking at several years of fans wearing black shirts to ball games and a coach who makes the state look bad every time he opens his mouth. Hopefully, Chizik won't be an embarrassment to Auburn.

A lot of us hated Nutt for the majority of his tenure here. Yes, he had a great first season and the program simply went to hell after that. In addition to his lack of coaching skill, his off-field shenanigans and delightfully odd behavior at press conferences during games and press conferences made fans simply loathe him. Here's hoping Chizik fares better at Auburn.

If he does turn out horribly, however, there's still hope -- Ole Miss will get sick of having Nutt around as head coach before too many more seasons and that school will apparently hire anyone.

By the way, some irate Auburn fan has already had some fun with Jacobs' entry at Wikipedia. I'll quote that here before it gets changed:

"Jay Jacobs is the current director of athletics for the Auburn Tigers athletic department.

He was named Auburn's 14th Director of Athletics on December 22, 2004, after working in almost every area of the Auburn Athletic Department for the previous 20 years. He has recently come under controversy for his hiring of Auburn's new football coach, Gene Chizik. Though Chizik had a 5-19 record as a head coach prior to the hiring, he is white and likes to drink whiskey with Pat Dye, making him the ideal candidate for continuing Auburn's historical approach of putting out marginally successful, probation-riddled football teams."

It's a nice of pace to see some SEC fans other than the ones here in Arkansas upset about a coaching hire. Still, good luck to Auburn.

Thanks, by the way, to fellow blogger Paul Eilers over at Paul's Health Blog for sending the YouTube video my way.

The Golden Boot

I was reading this post earlier today over at Paul's Health Blog.

Yes, it seems Paul was excited that his beloved East Carolina Pirates were playing in the Conference USA championship against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (yes, we know how fierce those hurricanes are in landlocked states like Oklahoma, don't we?) Paul must really be excited because his team won, 27-24, and is headed for the Liberty Bowl.

Good for them. There's an East Carolina connection in that Skip Holtz is the head coach. He's the son of Lou Holtz, a man who had some success here in Arkansas as the head coach of the Razorbacks and even more success at Notre Dame. There's an Arkansas connection at Tulsa, too -- Gus Malzahn was the offensive coordinator for a season before Houston Nutt and his flunkies ran him out of the state.

Malzahn, of course, is in his second year as an offensive coordinator over at Tulsa and has been doing relatively well. Apparently, we didn't send Nutt and his sideshow packing to Ole Miss early enough.

At any rate, there's not a whole lot we Razorbacks fans can do these days but follow teams with Arkansas connections and hope they do well. The Razorbacks, after a miserable 5-7 season (2-6 in the SEC), are going nowhere. We're also hoping the rumors that our head coach, Bobby Petrino, won't be heading off to Auburn to take the open job over there.

I won't dwell on the whole Auburn rumor as we seem to get pounded with such talk at the end of every season.

At any rate, at least Arkansas won the Golden Boot this year. What's the Golden Boot? It's the trophy awarded every year to the winner of the Arkansas-LSU game. The trophy was first awarded in 1996 in an attempt to manufacture a rivalry for Arkansas (I'll talk about that in a bit).

Arkansas and LSU play the day after Thanksgiving every year and, for the second year in a row, Arkansas won that game. So, the Golden Boot is something, I suppose. It's also worth mentioning that the team improved consistently throughout the year, so it appears everything will be fine with Bobby Petrino at the helm. This was his first year and Nutt didn't leave him with much to work with, sadly.

Now, I mentioned something about manufacturing a rivalry. Let me explain. In 1991, Arkansas left the old Southwest Conference and joined the SEC. Regardless of what anyone says, the SEC has been a terrible fit for Arkansas since the day the Hogs joined.

The main problem, of course, is that Arkansas isn't exactly in the Southeastern part of the country. Go ahead and take a look at a map and you'll find something fascinating -- every team in the SEC is east of the Mississippi River with the glaring exception of Arkansas.

Actually, this is Big 12 Conference territory and I don't care what anyone says. We've got more in common with Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas than we've ever had with the likes of Alabama, Georgia and Florida and ought to be competing for recruits in our region of the country.

Besides, Arkansas had a rivalry with Texas for years and a lot of fans still nurse a lingering hatred for the Longhorns (I'm odd in that I've always respected that team -- I've got a lot of kin in Texas, so perhaps that explains it).

Arkansas hasn't had a good rivalry since leaving the Southwest Conference and losing that guaranteed, annual game with Texas. It looks like the Hogs are in the SEC for better or worse, of course. Besides, we may be revamping a long-dormant rivalry with Ole Miss.

That is an historical rivalry that both schools kind of put an end to after too many fights were breaking out during the annual game between the two teams. Ole Miss has our old coach now, so perhaps our statewide hatred of Nutt will transfer to the team.

Meanwhile, I figure we'll still be playing for that Golden Boot annually.

One of the best weekends this season for the Arkansas Razorbacks

This weekend was a perfect one for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Why? Because the team didn't play. Yes, it's a bye week and the struggling Hogs (4-6 overall, 1-5 in the SEC West) got a much needed week off.

Now, I know it sounds cynical to think it's good when your favorite team doesn't have to play. Phooey on that. The Hawg is a pragmatist and there are plenty of practical reasons to see a week off for the Razorbacks as a good thing.

Yes, it's time for the Razorbacks to reflect on the season and figure out what to do next. Let's take a look at what a rotten season it's been. The team started out by barely beating a couple of scrubs -- Western Illinois and Louisiana Monroe. The third game of the season was supposed to be against the Texas Longhorns, but that was postponed due to hurricanes making a mess of the Lone Star State.

Arkansas got slaughtered at home by Alabama the week after that, got absolutely butchered by Texas the next game and then Florida came to town and murdered the Hogs. Thing looked up when the Razorbacks went to Auburn and beat a team that was ranked 20th in the nation at the time.

That victory was followed by a loss against Kentucky and then Ole Miss. The loss to Ole Miss was particularly painful as the Razorbacks had that game won and then blew it. Also, the Razorbacks lost to its former head coach, Houston Nutt -- a man that didn't exactly leave Arkansas under friendly circumstances (a lot of us can't stand him and we'll loathe him for many years to come).

Arkansas rebounded when Tulsa, a team ranked 19th at the time, came to town. That was a victory for the Razorbacks and it came against an offense coached by Gus Malzahn, the former offensive coordinator for Arkansas. Malzahn, by the way, is still thought of highly by a lot of people in this state.

That brings us to last week when Arkansas lost to South Carolina.

So, what's the season been like? The offensive line has been terrible, the defensive secondary is a wreck and the special teams have struggled. The only really bright spot has been running back Michael Smith and he got hurt in the South Carolina game.

Now, here's the deal with the Razorbacks -- if the team wins the next two games, it will be bowl eligible. The next two games are against Mississippi State and LSU. The one against Mississippi State is winnable, whereas the one against LSU will be very difficult.

However, if Arkansas can pull off two more victories and go to a minor bowl, the season will be considered a success. In spite of everything, a bowl appearance is considered to be a major deal in this state.

And, head coach Bobby Petrino could use a bit of success right now. He inherited a team from Nutt that is shy on talent, he caught hell from the national media when he left the Atlanta Falcons to come here and some sports writers out there still hate him.

It's also a fact that Arkansas fans are notoriously fickle. A bowl appearance translates into success and that will make the fact that the Hogs are currently dead last in the SEC West OK.

So, good luck to the Razorbacks in the next two games. Hopefully, this bye week will allow the young team to rest and keep their eye on an bowl appearance.

Arkansas' bowl hopes dim

For a good shot at a bowl game, the Arkansas Razorbacks really needed to beat the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday.

That didn't happen. Arkansas lost 21-34 to South Carolina, dropping their record to 4-6 (1-5 in the SEC). South Carolina wound up 7-3 (4-3 in the SEC) after the game.

Of course, the Hogs needed to reach that mystical 6 wins mark to make it to even a crummy bowl. To get there, they'll have to win against both Mississippi State (3-6, 1-4) and LSU (6-3, 3-3 in the SEC).

Arkansas has a shot next week on Nov. 22 when the Hogs travel to Miss State. Arkansas is sixth in the SEC West and Miss State is fifth -- neither team is that good, honestly.

However, LSU comes to Little Rock the day after Thanksgiving to take on the Hogs. Uh, that game is problematic. LSU ought to stomp Arkansas unless those Tigers are so full of turkey that they're slow and falling asleep. Well, Arkansas might pull off a miracle, but that seems unlikely this year. The season hasn't exactly been one filled with miracles, has it?

There was something that came out of the South Carolina game that gives us Hogs fans hope, however. The much maligned Casey Dick did manage to hit receiver Jarius Wright for a 70-yard play that ended in a touchdown. Arkansas hasn't done that yet this year.

There were some concerns, however. Once again, the offensive line was terrible and Dick got sacked six times. When he wasn't getting sack, poor Dick was running for his life. This is a young team so, hopefully, they'll learn a thing or two about pass protection by next season.

That will be too late for Dick, however, as he's a senior.

Also, Michael Smith got hurt. He's the running back that has been the only truly great player on the team this year. Arkansas has a bye week coming up, so let's hope those two weeks give Smith plenty of time to heal and he'll be effective against Miss State.

Now, I know a lot of my fellow Arkansans are complaining about new head coach Bobby Petrino. They need to shut the hell up. Houston Nutt, master recruiter that he is, left Petrino with nothing. Nutt's over in Ole Miss with a very talented team and Petrino is making do at Arkansas.

Give Petrino some time. He'll right the ship soon enough.

I have a feeling that Arkansas will wind up 5-7 and they'll miss out on bowl season. Anyone who knew anything about who would be left on the team this year and that a new coach would be coming in should have known things could wind up like this. You don't lose two outstanding running backs like Darren McFadden (he's playing for the Oakland Raiders now) and Felix Jones (who plays for the Dallas Cowboys) and bounce back quickly.

Meanwhile, here in Benton...

My beloved Benton Panthers took a beating on Thursday and are out of the playoff picture. Benton got stomped by Watson Chapel, 19-57. Watson Chapel isn't that great, currently ranked fifth in the 6A South with a conference record of 3-4 (4-5 overall).

I love high school football (it's a big deal here in Arkansas), but it's been hard to watch Benton this year. The team is just awful.

Now, the 6A South is an eight-team division and six of those teams are going to the playoffs. Benton finished seventh in the league with a conference record of 1-6 (2-8 overall). It's pretty pitiful when you can't even go to the playoffs when six teams in an eight-team division are going. You've got to be pretty rotten to to miss that very big boat, indeed.

Thank God for Little Rock's J.A. Fair. They came in dead last in the division by not winning a game all year. Benton beat them, and the Panthers beat Conway earlier this season.

My dad and I go to almost all of Benton's home games (we're both proud Benton graduates, so we like to see how our alma mater is doing). Neither one of us can remember a time when Benton looked so disorganized, undersized and just plain uncompetitive.

Well, there's always next year, right?

Arkansas loses -- again

Yes, it's true -- the Arkansas Razorbacks lost to the Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday by the score of 23-21.

That puts Arkansas' record at 3-5 (1-4 in the SEC) and Ole Miss at 4-4 (2-3 in the SEC). I won't even pretend to claim this was a monumental battle in the SEC West because the truth is that both teams suck this year and are going nowhere. If you want to read a detailed report of this game, you can find a good recap right here.

No, what' s more important is that this game marked the return of Arkansas' immediate head coach, Houston Nutt, to the Natural State. Nutt, by the way, is that charming figure in all his glory in the photo at the top of this post.

Nutt was here for 10 years and a lot of us in this state came to hate him. He was replaced by Bobby Petrino who is busily dealing with the mess Nutt left. Petrino has a young team with a shaky quarterback, a secondary that lacks confidence and an offensive line that is porous on a good day.

What irritated me last year when the buzzards were circling around Nutt and has bugged me over the past week is that there are still members of the press who feel bad for poor, picked on Houston. The worst of the lot remains Gregg Doyel, who's latest bit of ass-kissery can be found right here.

Comments from Doyel and his ilk reinforce my notion that people who are wholly unfamiliar with a situation ought to shut the hell up about it. Frankly, I'm glad we're rid of a coach who comes across as a subliterate hick every time he opens his fat mouth, manages to lose bowl games to scrubby teams such as UNLV (the Hogs completely folded in 2000 in the Las Vegas bowl against that team) and consistently kept Arkansas in the middle of the pack in the SEC.

Most of the Nutt apologists seem to hit on the issue that Arkansas kind of sucks, so we're fools to expect to do well at anything. In other words, Nutt might not be great, but he's the best we can do so we should have been nicer to him. Yes, we hear things such as "Nutt did less with more" from his defenders, and I'm sick of it.

I'm sick of it for a couple of reasons. First of all, Fayetteville isn't a backwater and is, in fact, a very nice, small Southern city. I'm certain it's as least as great a place to be as Lincoln, Neb., or Norman, Okla., but you didn't see the colleges in those towns settle for second best. No, the universities of Nebraska and Oklahoma built solid programs because they wanted solid programs and didn't give a damn about where those colleges were located. Top-notch players line up to go to Oklahoma and lined up at one time to go to Nebraska because they were winning programs that were nationally competitive.

There's no reason Arkansas can't establish a winning tradition, as well. The University of Arkansas simply wasn't going to get there with Nutt. He couldn't recruit worth a damn and he's a fair-to-middling coach at best.

Less with more? Let me explain that sentiment away like this. Arkansas had the best backfield in the nation last year with Darren McFadden and Felix Jones. The Hogs went nowhere with those two backs, who are rookies in the NFL and have turned heads this year.

Nutt replaced Ed Orgeron at Ole Miss, a coach who couldn't win games but could recruit extremely well. Ole Miss is loaded with more talent than that school has seen for years, yet the team is 2-3 in the SEC and just had trouble pulling off a win over the worst Razorbacks club in terms of talent and experience that has taken the field in over a decade.

And that, folks, is why Nutt was run out of the state. His teams will pull of an upset every now and again, but he'll never coach a consistent, upper-tier team in the SEC or any other major conference.

The national sports writers that are in love with the guy need to shut their damned mouths about Nutt's history at Arkansas. We're well rid of him, and we don't need anyone to tell us we made a mistake. We didn't. We're right, they're wrong and they need to keep their noses out of our business.

To read about one of the few Benton Panthers' victories this season, go right here!

Hogs lose a heartbreaker

Everyone but the most deluded Arkansas Razorbacks fans knew that the Hogs were going to have a terrible season.

That knowledge didn't make the Hogs' 21-20 loss to Kentucky on Saturday any easier. Why? The Razorbacks had that game won -- the team had a 13 point lead with 5 minutes left in the game and blew it.

That's right -- the team absolutely folded and Kentucky won. How the hell do you blow a 13-point lead in the last few minutes of a game?

Folks, it's almost too much for The Hawg to take. Arkansas has been rotten this year, but that Kentucky game hurt more than than the drubbings the Hogs have taken at the hands of Alabama, Florida and Texas combined. To make things worse, Arkansas looked decent against Auburn last week, so a lot of us were hoping the young Razorbacks were finally coming around and learning how to play a little football.

Simply put, the Razorbacks (3-4, 1-3 in the SEC) failed and gave the Kentucky Wildcats (5-2, 1-2 in the SEC) their first conference victory. It would appear, then, that the Wildcats were very wise in scheduling Arkansas for the homecoming game.

The most revealing thing about the game is just how much former head coach Houston Nutt emphasized the running game. Folks, running back Michael Smith is the Razorbacks' offense. How solid was Smith? He rushed for 192 yards and a touchdown and received for 33 yards and a touchdown. That's 225 total yards and 2 touchdowns -- not bad when you consider the rest of the offense contributed 105 yards and two field goals.

Now, here's the kicker. Smith is now listed as day-to-day due to a concussion he sustained while being run to death in the Kentucky game. There's a chance he might not be able to play on Saturday. Without Smith, the Hogs are done.

Anyway, back to the Kentucky game. Struggling quarterback Casey Dick threw for 94 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. Thanks to the dreadful offensive line, Dick was sacked three times and was hurried into at least one of those interceptions.

It was a hard game to watch. The offensive line seems adept at opening up holes for Smith, but can't protect Dick (yeah, I chuckled when writing that -- it's true in both a figurative and literal sense). Nutt went and recruited players for a running offense and it shows.

Did anything good come out of Saturday's game. Actually, yes. Petrino may have finally found a field goal kicker in Shay Haddock, who managed to boot a couple of balls through the uprights on Saturday. Perhaps Petrino has solved that problem.

Also, the team is improving. We've got a bunch of kids on that team who were playing high school ball this time last year, and that bunch almost beat Kentucky on Saturday and did manage to beat Auburn the previous week.

Here's hoping the team is very improved, indeed, when Houston Nutt and Ole Miss come to Fayetteville next week. Of course, we all hate Houston Nutt and, fortunately, Ole Miss plays like a Nutt-coached team. Ole Miss, having lost to Alabama on Saturday, is also 1-3 in the SEC. I hope Arkansas stomps Nutt into the ground.

I also hope Arkansas fans boo Nutt throughout the entire game and throw garbage at him. It's better than he deserves.

Next year the Hogs will be better. Still, watching this team struggle through the current season is difficult, indeed. I'm certain this season has increased liquor sales at package stores around the state.

My beloved Benton Panthers aren't holding up too well, either. Read all about it right here.

Of Hogs and Tigers

After a season of misery, the Arkansas Razorbacks finally did something right -- the Hogs went to Auburn and beat a ranked team.

Sure, the Auburn Tigers might have been beaten up and in the middle of turmoil (head coach Tommy Tubberville fired his offensive coordinator just a few days before the game), but I won't dwell on any of that too much. Auburn was the 20th ranked college football team in the country and my struggling Razorbacks beat them at home, 25-22.

Yes, Arkansas went on the road, beat a ranked team and got a much needed victory. That win over Auburn put the hogs at 1-2 in the SEC and 3-3 overall. Honestly, two of those victories don't really count as far as I'm concerned because they came against rotten, out-of-conference teams.

So, this was a quality win for Arkansas for a lot of reasons. For one thing, it's a confidence builder. Arkansas has been rotten this year and has been embarrassed in games against Alabama, Texas and Florida. Fortunately, the team has been improving all year long and there were actually some streaks of real talent on display last week against Florida.

Against Auburn, those streaks of talent were converted in to honest-to-goodness drives. Running back Michael Smith rushed for 176 yards and a touchdown while quarterback Casey "Shaky" Dick passed for 222 yards and even managed to catch a touchdown pass on one of those sneaky plays that head coach Bobby Petrino likes to throw in from time to time.

So Petrino got his first SEC wins as the head coach for the Razorbacks and it came at the expense of Auburn, the very team of which Petrino used to be the offensive coordinator. That was a sweet victory, indeed.

Were there some problems for Arkansas? Yes, there were plenty. The defense still looks less than confident and blown coverages are common -- Auburn's receivers were left wide open more than a few times. Also, there's a running bet in this state. Which will happen first -- will the Chicago Cubs win a World Series or will Arkansas actually manage to kick a field goal?

Still, this Hogs team is very young and the players are learning. That's a good sign.

By the way, we Arkansas fans are insane. My dad was telling me he heard two old fellows at a bar and grill the other day and they were ranting and raving about the Hogs.

"You just wait," they said. "Next year, this team will go undefeated! They'll win the SEC and a national championship!"

Dad suspects those two were stinking drunk. I think he may be right.

Honestly, I figure we've got at least one more season of bad football to sit through after this one. Former head coach Houston "Fat Bastard" Nutt did a lot of damage in his 10 filthy years here and it'll take some time for Petrino to clean up that mess.

By the way, Houston Nutt sucks. I can't emphasize that point enough.

Here in the Natural State, the Arkansas-Auburn game was a big deal. The biggest college game on Saturday, of course, was the Red River Shootout -- #1 Oklahoma vs. #5 Texas. Texas won that one, 45-35, and I was glad to see it. Yes, I'm weird for an Arkansan -- I've got too much kin in Texas to hate that state too much.

Our waiter at the Rib Crib today is a student at Benton High School. He and I were talking about the Texas-Oklahoma game because it was on in the restaurant during lunch. He's from Dallas and was telling me that he is a Texas fan and that's gotten him in trouble from time to time.

How much trouble? He was wearing a Texas Longhorns t-shirt at school and was given so much hell by the other students that he went to the school office and got a new shirt to wear. We Arkies are conditioned to hate Texas, see?

So he was glad to visit with someone who was rooting for Texas today. He wrote "Go, Longhorns!" on our bill. I tipped him well.

The Hogs are still struggling

Yes, it was another terrible day in Arkansas after the 12th-ranked Florida Gators (a team good and mad about a loss against Ole Miss last week) came to Fayetteville and smacked the Razorbacks all over the field.

We Razorbacks fans knew it was going to be a bad year, what with a new coach and a bunch of freshmen, but it's still hard to watch. In the end, the Hogs lost 38-7 and fell to 2-3 overall (0-2 in the SEC). Will we see some improvement next week against Auburn? That's hard to say, but the smart money is on Auburn, sadly.

Speaking of Auburn, they went to Vanderbilt today and lost 14-13 against a team that used to be an easy win. I'm not sure what the hell is going on with Vanderbilt, really, as that team now leads the SEC West and has gotten off to its first 5-0 start since World War II. Yes, Adolph Hitler was alive the last time Vanderbilt did this well. How's that for a bit of trivia?

At any rate -- Arkansas. I'm not so sure that the problem with the team is Casey Dick as I have assumed in the past. Dick is still not the greatest quarterback out there, but I couldn't help but notice that the offensive line for Arkansas is so awful that Dick spent most of the game simply running for his life. It's hard to find your receivers when you're dodging Gators all day long, seemingly.

How bad is Arkansas' offensive line? Florida sacked Dick once when they brought the dreaded three-man rush. If your offensive line can't turn back a three-man rush, you've got problems. Florida managed to hurry Dick into throwing an interception, to boot.

In spite of all that trouble, Dick was able to complete 19 of his 29 passes for 235 yards -- better statistically than Florida QB Tim Tebow's 17 completions for 215 yards on 26 attempts. Dick's got to struggle with some young receivers who tend to drop balls and make dumb decisions when they get them, too.

Like statistics? Here's another fascinating one. In the past three games, Arkansas has managed to score 31 points while holding their opponents to only 139 points. That sums everything up, doesn't it? Head Coach Bobby Petrino will probably burst a blood vessel in his head before the end of the season.

Indeed, you could see Petrino fuming here and there as Arkansas made one stupid penalty after another. And, let's not forget that the coach has absolutely no confidence in the kicking game. If it's fourth and long on the opponents 30 yard line, you can bet that Petrino will go for the first down rather than risk a field goal. That lack of confidence is disturbing, to say the least.

The only games Arkansas has won this year came against two scrub teams at the first of the season -- Western Illinois and Louisiana-Monroe. There's nothing to brag about there, of course, for two reasons -- Arkansas is supposed to beat teams like that and the Hogs barely managed to win those games.

Were there any bright spots? Actually, yes. First of all the aforementioned Casey Dick performed pretty well. And then there's running back Michael Smith who had 133 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. This season may be a wash, but no one has told Smith yet. That's fortunate.

Also, keep in mind that Petrino is having to play a lot of true freshmen. Yes, former head coach Houston Nutt's miserable attempts at recruiting have put the Hogs in a position where there just aren't a lot of good, experienced players on the field. All those freshmen that Petrino has been stuck with will improve and should be considerably better next year.

Oh, and speaking of Houston "Boxcar" Nutt, his Ole Miss Rebels were kind enough to give Steve Spurrier and the South Carolina Gamecocks their first win in the SEC today. It appears that the Ole Ball Coach pulled off a win over the Ole Nutt Sack with a 31-24 victory. That means Ole Miss is 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the SEC and I couldn't be happier as Nutt is a filthy goon who deserves to fail everywhere he goes. Nutt and his white trash coaching staff head to No. 2 Alabama next week and ought to be beaten to a pulp when they come to Arkansas the following week.

I do hope Arkansas fans will welcome the former Razorbacks head coach by showering him with garbage throughout the game. I started advocating giving the Ole Nutt Sack the tar and feather treatment around 2000, but watching him covered with egg shells, coffee grounds and other assorted bits of trash would be almost as good.

I should stress that I have absolutely nothing against Ole Miss. I just hate that team's coach with a white passion and love to see him fail. He screwed the Razorbacks, folks, and it's a shame that it's time for Ole Miss to be sold a bunch of crap and snake oil. They'll wise up and run him off soon enough. Maybe he'll find success coaching junior high ball one of these days.

Benton Panthers get mercy ruled!

In Arkansas high school football, the mercy rule is put in place when a team is ahead by 35 points. Under that rule, the clock simply isn't stopped unless you've got official time outs and things like that.

Friday night, my beloved Benton Panthers traveled to Lake Hamilton and the mercy rule was put in place sometime in the second half. That's one of the most humiliating thing that can happen to a high school team, by the way.

The Panthers, of course, lost 56-21 and fell to 1-4 on the season (the only victory so far came against Conway this year). Things probably won't get much better next week when the Texarkana Razorbacks come to town next week.

Two years ago, one of the funniest things I've heard in a high school football game happened when Texarkana came to Benton. There was this Texarkana coach who wore his baseball cap backward (I nicknamed him Hatty McBackward) and screamed at his team the entire game.

Dad and I always sit on the visitor's side, and Hatty kept screaming even as his team was rolling over Benton. In the fourth quarter, I heard someone (obviously a Benton fan) yell, "Settle down, coach! You're up 42 to 14!"

Here's hoping Benton has a better game against Texarkana on Friday.

Terrible weekend for football

I've been following football for a lot of years and I can't think of a weekend that has been as aggravating as this one.

Why? My three favorite teams from the NFL, college and high school all played like garbage and got beaten. That's right, the Benton Panthers, Arkansas Razorbacks and Denver Broncos all lost. To make matters worse, that rotten former head coach for the Razorbacks led Ole Miss to a victory over #4 Florida.

It's enough to make a man swear off football for the rest of the season.

Well, probably not. Actually, definitely not.

Still, the whole thing was a mess so I'll sort through my pain and disappointment, day by day.

Friday, Sept. 26 -- Panthers fail

My beloved Benton Panthers headed to Pine Bluff to take on the Zebras. Yes, the Panthers were coming off a victory against the Conway Wampus Cats the previous week and hopes were high they'd pull off a win in their first game of conference play this season.

So, they spent the week preparing themselves for the trip to Pine Bluff by practicing hard, adjusting to wearing bullet proof vests under their pads and taking daily penicillin shots. All of that preparation was for naught as the Panthers failed, 43-25.

Honestly, Pine Bluff has a very good team this year and Benton was expected to lose. Still, Benton's first three games of the season were against 7A teams and the fact that the Panthers pulled off a victory against one of those teams and played well against another inspired some hope.

Benton, see, is a 6A school and the Panthers were holding their own against teams in the larger 7A classification. Ah, but Pine Bluff proved to be too much for the Panthers, dropping the team's record to a lowly 1-3 for the season. That's no damn good at all.

Why does The Hawg follow a high school team? I live in Benton and graduated from that school, as did my parents and my brother. Friday night football is a big deal here in the South and I'm as guilty as anyone of being a bit obsessive about it. So there.

Saturday, Sept. 27 -- Hogs still awful

No one expected the Arkansas Razorbacks to do much against the Texas Longhorns. That's a good thing because the Hogs failed miserably. Back in the old South West Conference days, the Arkansas-Texas game was the biggest one of the year for us Arkansans, and watching the team head to Austin and take a 52-10 whipping was hard for us long time fans.

That stomping, by the way, was the worst one Arkansas has taken at the hands of Texas since 1916 when the Longhorns slaughtered the Hogs 52-0. This year's contest was supposed to take place a couple of weeks ago but was delayed because a hurricane was ravaging Texas. I'm sure Razorbacks fans agree with me that the game should have stayed delayed. Like, indefinitely.

Arkansas has shown some hope in it's running game over the past few games, but Michael Smith was shut down. Alex Tejada struggled in the kicking game and quarterback Casey Dick still looks like a newcomer trying to come to grips with that new-fangled forward pass.

The Hogs got whipped last week by Alabama and have only beaten two rotten, scrubby teams this year -- Western Illinois and Louisiana-Monroe. I doubt things will get much better when Florida comes to town next week.

Yes, Florida is mad because they lost to Ole Miss on Saturday and will be out for revenge. Ole Miss, by the way, is led by Houston Nutt, the dirty bastard that used to coach Arkansas and left the Hogs with very little for current Razorbacks coach Bobby Petrino to work with.

Nutt did his typical thing -- he lost to Vanderbilt one week and then beat a far superior Florida team the next. Of course, Florida helped things by turning the ball over to Ole Miss every chance they got. It is good to see Nutt engaging in his typical behavior -- raising hopes just to dash them -- at a school other than Arkansas, however.

Arkansas will be fine once Petrino can get some of his players in here and get his system in place. Regardless, Arkansas is 2-2 (0-1 in the SEC) and things may well get worse. After Saturday's game, I have yet another reason to regret my decision to get a law degree at the University of Arkansas rather than heading to Vanderbilt to get a master's in political science (yes, I could have gotten in there) and heading to the University of Texas to get a doctorate. Stupid, stupid, stupid The Hawg.

Buckle up, Hogs fans. This year's shaping up to be a miserable one.

Sunday, Sept. 28 -- first loss for Broncos

So, the Panthers lost on Friday and the Razorbacks failed miserably on Saturday, but certainly the Denver Broncos at 3-0 would whip the lowly, 0-3 Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, right? As it turns out, that was absolutely wrong.

While Kansas City was on a 12-game losing streak, they always play Denver tough at home and Mike Shanahan, Denver's head coach, entered Arrowhead Stadium with a 3-10 record there. Denver and Kansas City might not hate each other as much as, say, Denver and Oakland, but there's still a strong rivalry there and Kansas City played like it.

The Chiefs shut down the Broncos' running game and Denver quarterback Jay Cutler threw two interceptions, to boot. Oh, and the Broncos managed to fumble twice on Sunday, too.

In the end, Denver (AFC West) lost 19-33 and fell to 3-1 on the season. I can't help but think of that game as an anomaly as the Broncos came into Kansas City averaging 38 points per game and were leading the NFL in first downs. They'll be fine but they looked terrible on Sunday. The Broncos play Tampa Bay next week, so here's hoping they'll be back on track by then.

Denver has always had a hard time in Arrowhead and Sunday was no exception.

Hogs get slaughtered, no Arkansan should be surprised

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Of Hogs, cats and weasels

I got an e-mail earlier today from Jon over at OTRCat.com about a post I wrote not long ago about my love of Old Time Radio (OTR).

Jon asked me to mention his site, through which you can get a ton of old time radio shows through either audio or MP3 compact discs. Because SEO stuff is important as far as searh engines are concerned, I should probably mention that OTRCat is short for Old Time Radio Catalog.

Well, The Hawg doesn't plug any junk sites and I'm here to tell you that Jon has a great one that should be visited by anyone looking to satisfy that OTR fix. He's got everything from the Aldrich Family through Sam Spade over there and the prices are ridiculously low (a CD stuffed with MP3 files will cost you about $5).

The selection of shows over there is impressive and you even get a comprehensive description of the history and significance of each show. Jon's even gone so far as to put together some "best of" collections so you can grab the greatest Dragnet episodes ever made, find a dynamite selection of great Christmas shows, etc. Truth be told, I spent quite some time combing through shows I've never heard of and reading up on some old favorites.

Not sure about a show? You can listen to samples of what's available at the site, too. Download an episode or two while you're at it. The site is well organized and is a joy to simply browse and read. Jon, clearly, loves old time radio and has invested a lot of time and effort in making a top notch site.

Jon mentioned he put this project together in an attempt to preserve old time radio shows. I honestly believe that's his primary motivation as there's no way he's getting rich by selling such quality stuff for about $5 a disc. As I've mentioned before, I respect anyone who goes out of his way to preserve OTR as the Golden Age of Radio represents a fantastic period in American history that we are rapidly forgetting.

For those not familiar with old time radio, that's the medium where great shows like Dragnet and Gunsmoke started. That medium made stars of Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen and a host of other people. Even greats like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope were stars on radio and you can find some of their material over at OTRCat.com.

Get over there, OK? And thanks, Jon, for telling me about your great site!

Jon, by the way, has inspired me to do something I've thought about for some time -- creating a blog roll and list of sites I like. Look for that soon.

Calm down, Razorbacks fans

I've heard a lot of grumbling throughout the Natural State over the past couple of days. Why? Arkansas barely scraped by another cream puff team on Saturday by beating Louisiana-Monroe by one rotten point.

Yes, Arkansas has spent the past two weeks squeaking by teams we're used to watching the Hogs whip the socks off on a regular basis. The complaints, of course, have to do with the notion that Arkansas isn't whipping those teams badly enough -- there's a team the Hogs will get killed by the Texas Longhorns next week and will get crushed during the SEC regular season.

Anyone who expected the Razorbacks to have a stellar season is living in a fool's paradise. This is Bobby Petrino's first year as the coach and he inherited a mess from the Houston Nutt years. This season will probably be a long one, but anyone who watched the Houston Nutt saga unfold last year should know that Petrino has his work cut out for him. The man's got a young team, after all, and they've got a lot to learn.

Meanwhile, thank God Houston Nutt is out of this state. It seems Ole Miss dropped a game against Wake Forest yesterday.

It appeared, early on, that Ole Miss was going to win that one, but the famed Nutt factor struck and Wake Forest was able to capitalize on some bonehead mistakes. What's this? A Nutt team blowing a game because of some sloppy, undisciplined play? Who would have guessed that?

I feel sorry for Ole Miss fans. They'll learn before long why we got to the point where we absolutely hated Nutt here in Arkansas. At least it's better to have him frustrating fans in Mississippi rather than breaking hearts in Arkansas, I suppose. Still, it's incredible that Nutt -- a complete moron -- ever managed to wind up coaching a team in the SEC is beyond me.

Rumor has it the Benton Panthers were looking for a new coach not long ago and Nutt's name came up. Any discussion of hiring him was quickly killed, however -- we take our high school football seriously down here and look for coaches that are more qualified than Nutt. Heh, heh.

Super Weasel Lawyer Team update

Tim Swift sent me the rough draft of the soon to be famous Super Weasel Lawyer Team comic strip. It's awesome, folks. Tim's sitting in Nashville working on the final draft of the first strip as we speak and I'm very excited about this little project.

Tim and I have decided to create a whole new blog for the strip and I'll provide the details as soon as I have them. I hope everyone enjoys the strip and, as I've said, the project becomes the longest-running lawyer joke in history.

Hopefully, you folks will enjoy watching a couple of Southern boys tear into the legal system. Being a recovering lawyer, I'll enjoy it at least. Stay tuned!

A reminder

I doubt I'll be able to update my blog until Thursday, Sept. 11 (there's a creepy date, huh?) as I'll be dealing with the Arkansas Realtors Association convention from Monday through Wednesday. I'll be going through a bunch of 14 and 15-hour days and will probably be so irate that nothing I'd post would be worth reading anyway.

This time around, beating up on a pack of scrubs may actually mean something

At long last, game week is upon us and the mighty, mighty Arkansas Razorbacks take the field against...

Uh, wait a minute. Need to look that up. Hold on.

Oh, yes. Western Illinois. The Razorbacks open the season against Western Illinois in Fayetteville on Saturday.

Any college football fan knows that it's routine for teams from powerful conference to kick a bunch of patsies around the field several times a year. No disrespect to Western Illinois, but the team is simply no match for the Razorbacks. The Hogs compete in the SEC, while Western Illinois dukes it out in the Missouri Valley Football Conference with such premier teams as North Dakota State, South Dakota State and University of Northern Iowa.

Yes, the practice of bringing in a rent-a-win is shameful, but the reasons for it range from "everyone is doing it" to "college football is hard so they need some easy games." The end result is that such mismatches will probably continue for some time and major-conference teams will keep up the questionable practice of spanking minor-conference squads.

Generally, only one good thing comes out of those awful contests against scrubs -- if the home team loses, that's a sure sign that it's time to fire everyone from the coach down to the folks taking tickets at the gate. If your multimillion dollar program has slid so far downhill that a Western Illinois can beat it on it's own field, some major changes are in order.

This year, however, the ugly drubbing that typically serves as Arkansas' season opener could be quite valuable. Why? Because the Hogs have a new coach and everyone's curious to see what changes are in store for the team.

Yes, Bobby Petrino is now the coach and his team takes the field for the first time on Saturday. Will Western Illinois get slaughtered? Of course, but you'd better believe that all 72,000 seats in Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium will be filled as eager fans show up to see what the Hogs are capable of with the new coach on board.

For those not familiar with all things Razorback (shame on you!), a good chunk of last season was taken up by Hogs fans calling for the head of Houston "Rotten Bastard" Nutt. Before angry Arkies could get their pitchforks and torches out and take care of the Nutt problem by force, the rotten bastard fled over the river to Ole Miss -- an SEC West rival that must have spent a lot of time reading the nonsense that Nutt's media team was churning out on a full time basis.

So, this is the year when fans would really love Petrino to prove that we're better off without Nutt. That journey starts Saturday and my fellow Arkies are actually excited about a scrub game for a change. Also, we may actually see a coach in action who puts in a few pass plays rather than simply sending his running back up the middle for three downs in a row.

We can go back to ignoring those "gimme wins" after the Hogs whip the socks of an inferior Western Illinois team on Saturday.

Shameless (shameful?) plug

See that Fiesta MMORPG ad in the upper right-hand section of the screen? I usually don't talk much about ads, but that one leads to a game that's actually a heck of a lot of fun. It's free to register and play, so why not give it a shot?

It's only fair to warn you, though, that you're in for a huge download (around 680 megs, to be exact), but that's not too bad on a fast connection. I sat through it and the game was worth it as I tend to like those online, multiplayer things that involve swinging swords and running around looking like a kid who belongs on a Pokemon episode.

Just thought I'd mention it.

Razorbacks picked dead last in SEC West?

I really do need to stop reading preseason predictions for my beloved Arkansas Razorbacks.

Why? I usually get irritated. This year, however, I was irritated more than usual when I read that the Razorbacks have been picked to finish sixth -- dead last -- in the SEC West.

That's the type of thing, folks, that will just rile people in a state that almost worships football.

While it's true the team has lost its great backfield -- Darren McFadden and Felix Jones -- a sixth place finish just seems, well, wrong.

Why? Arkansas has finally gained a head coach in the highly-touted Bobby Petrino. Those familiar with the Natural State know well the talent-squandering ways of the former Razorback coach, Houston "Boxcar" Nutt (nicknamed boxcar by me because he's a bum). The one time Nutt showed a lick of sense in his time at Arkansas was when he fled to another school before he was chased out of the state by angry, torch-wielding fans.

Yes, Nutt will be chewing his nails, doing his scalded chicken dance and generally acting like the unrefined hick he is for Ole Miss -- a Razorback rival in the SEC West. While I do feel sorry for Ole Miss because the poor team has been saddled with a bum for a coach, the fact remains that Ole Miss finished 0-8 in the SEC last year and the team hasn't exactly had a history of rebounding from terrible seasons.

I can't help but think the good people of Mississippi don't know what kind of coach they're getting. Back in 2000, for example, Arkansas had a fair-to-middling year and wound up playing UNLV in the Las Vegas Bowl. The results were catastrophic and we Arkies had to live with the shame of seeing the Razorbacks wrecked in a minor bowl by a team that finished third in the Mountain West. Arkansas was the heavy favorite, of course, but the "Nutt factor" kicked in and the impossible happened that day -- an SEC club got schooled by a team that was widely regarded as inferior.

Back then, Nutt went to the same church in Fayetteville that we did -- University Baptist. Shortly after the Las Vegas Bowl mess, we saw Nutt in church. I told my wife I was going to go over and "talk to that man," but she told me to sit down. I did what I was told and my dear Marci, once again, kept me out of trouble. Ole Miss fans are in for some heartbreak, and that's a true shame.

There's a lot of excitement in Mississippi over quarterback Jevan Snead, but when has Nutt ever utilized a quarterback efficiently? Here's a hint -- one QB that wasn't "good" enough to start for the Razorbacks -- Tarvaris Jackson -- transferred to Alabama State, set some records and is now the starter for the Minnesota Vikings.

Nutt has never developed a quarterback in his life (ironic because he is a former college quarterback) and I rather doubt if moving east of the Mississippi River will magically enable him to figure out a passing game.

No, Nutt has worshiped at the ground game shrine during his career, and Ole Miss has running backs to watch -- Cordera Eason (who struggled last year) and Enrique Davis (a freshman). When Nutt doesn't have an outstanding running game, his offense folds faster than Superman on laundry day.

Will the running backs provide that running game? How good is Snead at scrambling for yardage?

There are a lot of questions, but I'll be one livid Razorbacks fan if Arkansas manages to place behind Ole Miss in the SEC West. Arkansas has its share of problems, to be sure, in that Arkansas is only returning nine starters this year and a lot of the offense rests on the shaky arm of QB Casey Dick.

If Dick benefits from the coaching that Nutt wasn't capable of giving him, perhaps the Hogs will finally have a passing game. There are a lot of questions, to be sure, but Petrino had darn well better find a way to make sure his team finishes ahead of Ole Miss. There's a lot of bad blood between Nutt and this state, and Petrino will catch hell if the Razorbacks actually manage to lose to Ole Miss this year.

We'll just have to see.

In other news, another Razorback was arrested the other day. WR Marques Wade is the fifth Razorback football player to be arrested this year, in fact. That's just pitiful and, even more pitiful, is what Wade told the cops after he was arrested.

It seems Wade almost ran over a police officer with his car and was picked up for driving under the influence. He denied drinking but -- get this -- said he had been smoking dope earlier in the day. Yes, kids, he claims to have refrained from that demon alcohol and, evidently, implied that hitting reefer madness was somehow preferable.

I'm reminded of my days as attorney in Fayetteville (the law sucks as a profession, folks -- avoid it). That was back in the 1990s and football and basketball Razorbacks were getting in trouble with the law regularly back then, and a client of mine dropped by my office with a joke:

Q: How can you tell if a Razorback has had sex recently?
A: He's being arraigned.

Things aren't quite that bad now, but I do hope we're done reading about Razorbacks getting arrested.