The Southerner Journal

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Sept. 1) - Hope your Labor Day passes with less labor and more fun than I’m about to encounter. However, I’ve got enough time for thought fodder after watching the Bobby Petrino-led Arkansas Razorbacks make dilemma-nade Saturday night.

Citizens of the state of Arkansas will never see the Hogs play Arkansas State or Central Arkansas, not in my lifetime; perhaps never.

I once wanted such a match-up, believing that it was possible to watch good football and still invest in the state of Arkansas. After all, LSU plays every Louisiana school they can schedule. They beat ‘em up, pay ‘em well and the full house serves to fill the coffers with money of fans wanting to see David vs. Goliath.

That’s a financial windfall IF people come out to the games. I saw empty seats at Petrino’s first game; do you think they’re going to fill when most folks are more worried how they’re going to fill the gas tank? The $45 spent per ticket barely dents the gas tank in my four-cylinder S-10 pickup.

Sure, more Arkansans would want to see the Hogs play Central Arkansas from the Football Championship Subdivision than fellow FCS-member Western Illinois. If Arkansas were somehow to lose, it could be chalked up to the revenge factor from all of the former Razorbacks playing for the Bears.

Most Arkansans would rather see Arkansas give “home games” to Arkansas State instead of Louisiana-Monroe. Don’t you imagine the extra revenue from that game alone would force Central Arkansas businesses to kick in the money to make War Memorial seat as many as Reynolds’ Razorback Stadium (perhaps even more)? The novelty factor alone would fill the stands for years.

But let’s not forget the “embarrassment” factor.

Petrino prays the Razorbacks learned from the adversity of the ugly win. Maybe he didn’t hear the boos from the crowd, which I admit were few and far between. But I know more than a few people sitting in the stands had nightmares of The Citadel creeping through their heads. This kind of loss might have sent him packing even though he plans to be around awhile … oh, I forgot, Frank’s no longer in charge. Maybe we would keep him.

The Hog Nation should be thankful. Instead of taking depression meds like fans of Clemson (ain’t ya glad we didn’t get Bowden?), Virginia Tech (oh the irony of special teams play) or North Carolina State, enjoy the fact Arkansas plays in the SEC instead of the ACC. Sure, there’s no actual correlation, but who wouldn’t want to be in the SEC?

You see, this way you can enjoy athletics all over the state and not be concerned about the flagship university losing its luster. Didn’t you get a kick out of watching ESPN’s score ticker and seeing UA-Monticello (D-II) step up to beat FCS-division’s UA-Pine Bluff? And even bigger than that, seeing ASU knock off Texas A&M in their first game playing as the Red Wolves?

A&M coach Mike Sherman told sportswriters the loss disappointed him. But he looked to the positives.

“Well, you know I’ve been in situations like this before, and I told the guys you can learn more about yourself from adversity than you even can from winning a football game,” Sherman said.

You’re right, Mike. Though we’re happy the Hogs won anyway, it looks like a long season ahead. Thankfully, it won’t be longer from having to hear East Arkansans crow about the Red Wolves devouring the Razorbacks.

by Ronald Sitton

I watched a lot of college football Saturday while listening to Arkansas getting extra practice in its 63-7 thrashing of Southeast Missouri State. I’ll get to that later. I present the Top 10 things that interested me during my procrastination Saturday:

1) Where’s the brotherly love in the Southeastern Conference? Week after week, the unbeatens fall in a league full of bullies. With the Bowl Championship Series rankings released Sunday, No. 4 Auburn (AP-8, Harris-7, USA Today-7, CPUs-5) seems to be in the conference driver seat with No. 6 Florida (AP-9, Harris-9, USA Today-10, CPUs-4) nipping at their heels. Auburn gets a non-conference match-up against Tulane and Florida gets to take the week off to think about its championship aspirations. To get to the National Championship, the SEC needs some other conferences to start practicing the same brotherly love or we’ll never know if the SEC reigns as the supreme conference until we get a playoff … maybe in my grandkid’s lifetime.

2) No. 11 Tennessee (AP-7, Harris-8, USA Today-9, CPUs-12) looks forward to playing at home on CBS against an Alabama team seemingly not as tough as they used to be. My alma mater roughed up Georgia last week in the second half before taking this week to heal some wounds. Alabama won its first overtime game in the Mike Shula era and celebrated as such. I don’t think they’ll be celebrating as much next weekend. Since David Cutcliffe returned to Tennessee, the Volunteers think their offense will win any given Saturday. I look for the Vols passing game to fly by the Bama ground game.

3) This week’s Lincoln Financial Game of the Week between No. 13 Arkansas and Ole Miss looks a lot feistier than it did prior to this weekend. After Auburn took out its misery on Florida, Arkansas (AP-15, Harris-17, USA Today-18, CPUs-8) remained as the only team unbeaten in league play (having given up the non-conference opener with five turnovers to Southern California, which also looked beatable yesterday). The Rebels gave Alabama fits until falling in overtime. Most likely Brent Schaeffer will try to exploit Arkansas’ secondary. Even so, I don’t see the Rebels slowing down the Hogs’ running backs, a position that’s become so crowded maybe Houston Nutt will see the logic of moving Peyton Hillis to linebacker to build depth. Maybe … not likely.
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