My Two Cents
By Ron Sitton

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark., July 24 - I rehashed my routine this morning: e-mail, networking, sports, news, work.

I've read where people who start reading the sports section in their daily newspaper are likelier to die young than people who start with the comics. I'm sure there's a test that will indicate I'll die sooner because of my routine, but today I don't really care. I need coffee. I finished another stage in a long-overdue project last night, so today I'm catching up with my SEC sports addiction.

I start reading about the Razorbacks ... scratch that, restart. I go to a "Razorback" site, Razorback Central, and they're talking about the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. I could care less about Gus Malzahn and what he's installing at Tulsa (although I did find it intriguing yesterday while reading GoVolsXtra.com that Slick Shelley left Tennessee to transfer to Tulsa). Malzahn is last year's news. What about the Hogs?

OK, NBA player Mike Miller says John Pelphrey's going to win big. And Patrick Beverly has apparently made the world his oyster with his play as a member of Team USA’s Under-19 silver-medal winning basketball team. Great. Basketball. Why should I care about basketball in the middle of summer?

Oh, a few nuggets from the Hill. Thankfully, Dennis Nutt's brain is not currently bleeding. I'm sure his replacement, Tim Horton, is thankful for his guaranteed $165K over two years. That's it on the football front. So I go to SI and ESPN. I read about D. Nutt in the college section, but it's not sexy enough to compete with "Hound Dog" Vick on the front page.

Next, I check on my alma mater to find they've banned smoking in Neyland Stadium. Why should that interest me as much as anything about the Hogs or Vols? So I read every available John Adams column at GoVolsXtra. Adams seems to be into praising the SEC this year, e.g. in one column he says SEC quarterbacks must be pretty good when one backup quarterback is a Heisman Trophy candidate. By the way, that would be Darren McFadden, who occasionally quarterbacks in the "Wildcat" formation.

Another column notes that Houston Nutt will probably jet from the criticism to a surprisingly attentive open market. I'm sure Nutt could get another job, but I don't believe he wants another job. Arkansas is his dream job. The criticisms and soap operas may be a sad part of that, but if he wins another 10 without Mustain and Malzahn, the Razorback Nation will shut up for awhile.

I decide to read every Paul Finebaum column available to find the 'Bama faithful believe Nick Saban will deliver in year one. On the other hand, Tommy Tuberville won't hand him the Iron Bowl. Since LSU's Les Miles plans to beat up everybody in red, I guess 'Bama and the Hogs just got bulletin-board material for the summer.

Everybody's giving kudos to Urban Meyer for winning a national title with Ron Zook's recruits. I wonder if he'll get slammed if he doesn't win with his own to the degree Miles gets slammed for not winning enough with Saban's recruits. I even read about Terry Bowden's imminent return to coaching and the ACC's horrible track record against major conferences.

I realize this is the major down-time for sports as we're heading into the "dog-days of summer" -- not an intentional reference to Vick - but now's the time for conjecture. Who's going to be the next Boise State? Can the SEC West beat the SEC East? I know. I know. Everyone's happy because their team remains undefeated through August.

But I'm sick of this lovefest. I've spent the whole day reading and I'm ready for football. Now if it'd only get started.