If you grew up with a grandfather, like mine, who liked to watch Hee-Haw, you might be able to recall the poor farmers on the show singing how if they didn't have bad luck, they would have no luck at all. I can still recall the lyrics of "Gloom, despair, and agony on me." I've been thinking about those Hee-Haw farmers lately in regard to the Hogs. Players kicked off the team or transferring, head coach kicked off the team, players suspended for alleged thievery - likely to be kicked off the team, and we all hold our breath every time Knile Davis takes a walk down a flight of stairs. What next? Right? This all in the year that people thought the Hogs could contend for a national championship, what with both Alabama and LSU coming to Fayetteville, and Tyler Wilson back and ready to set more passing records.

FEEL GOOD MOVIE SCENARIO: In this scenario the Hogs overcome all their obstacles as mentioned above, including a few new ones most likely, to reach Miami and the national championship game - where they win it. All the news would be about how this program picked itself up, didn't ever give up, believed in one another, and in the end won it all, even having upset the 1980 Russian hockey team along the way in the form of the Crimson Tide. There's probably a scene before the credits of Tyler Wilson proposing to his girlfriend while holding the crystal ball trophy. Are the football gods setting us up for this type of scenario? OR

MAYAN DOOM SCENARIO: If the planet wants to survive, in this scenario it needs to root against the Hogs throughout the season. For a 13-0 Razorback team going into December 21st, what with our luck, "Gloom, despair, and agony on me," seems to only invite the possibility of the world ending in doom before the national championship game even takes place. Say a giant tsunami wipes out southern Florida entirely. Fayetteville and the Ozarks are flattened in some fashion. The poles shift and the states of the Southeastern Conference somehow end up in Bangor, Maine! But, the one positive is at least the Hogs would still be SEC Champions and likely to reign as such forever. For the last dog has died, and college football in the aftermath is played only in the memories of a few unfortunate survivors. OR

THE MORE LIKELY SCENARIO: The Hogs' defense isn't able to carry the magic and intensity of what it showed in the Cotton Bowl all season long. Paul Petrino doesn't do any better against Nick Saban's defense than his brother did. The Tide leave Fayetteville with a win on their way to another national championship game victory. Without the comfort of Jerry World, the Hogs drop a winnable game down in College Station. National Championship hopes are crushed. Hogs take another loss on the SEC road, but finish the season with a win over LSU. December 21st turns out to be just another shopping day before Christmas. At 9-3, the Hogs get to visit Arlington again for the Cotton Bowl or one of the Florida bowls, which are all well above water. They might even win the bowl game.

The future, as it always is, remains to be seen. But that doesn't stop us from pondering it here in May. Who could have foreseen at the end of the Cotton Bowl that Bobby Petrino would never coach another Razorback football game? One thing that is rather steady with Razorback football, and that is the fact that it is rarely boring, right? If you have some predictions for the upcoming year, please share them with us in the comment section. Hee Haw and Woo Pig Sooie!

Admittedly, we are a football and basketball fan blog, with some attention paid to baseball. If we weren't such a bunch of masochists, I suppose, we would pay more attention to the track team, which has produced trophy cases full of championships, and over the weekend secured another by winning its 13th SEC triple crown since Arkansas joined the conference. This article on Arkansassports360.com has the details. From all of us here at Arkansasexpats to the track and field team, congratulations and thanks for representing the university in such fine fashion. Woo Pig Sooie!

I am looking forward to kicking off the summer of Razorback trivia in earnest once the baseball season comes to an end, which I hope is after a long stop in Omaha. But I had a good trivia question come to mind the other day, so I thought I wouldn't sit on it and go ahead and share it. Our former coach's misbehavior made headlines each week in April. But bad behavior in Razorback history has not been limited to players and coaches. Our own mascot has a history of acting, well, like a pig. Here's a list of bad behavior. Can you pick out which one our live mascot didn't do? Vote and then find the answer in the comment section.

This past week I was in John L. Smith's Arkansas for the first time to visit family and was on the lookout for signs that the state was living in a post-Petrino world. As was seen when the scandal was relatively new, I didn't see guys with blowup blonde dolls on the back of their motorcycles. I also didn't see any Hog fans sitting in ashes and screaming to the heavens, why us? Could imagine it, but didn't see it. However, I did see one truck between Pine Bluff and Little Rock that had a Razorback license plate with the running Hog turned upside down. Like an upside down American flag, was this a sign of distress for Razorback Nation? I checked to see if there were any LSU or Ole Miss stickers anywhere. But, no. Just an unhappy Hog fan, I believe, expressing his discontent by turning his front plate upside down.

Between Little Rock and Fort Smith there has been a billboard celebrating the past king's rule. But I didn't do a good job looking for it, so I can't say if the huge billboard praising Bobby Petrino still stands or not. Maybe one of you who regularly goes down that piece of interstate can fill us in if that monument to the Petrino era still stands or not.

The sports broadcasts on the local Little Rock channels had some John L. Smith material about what a different personality John L. is from Bobby Petrino. The radio stations were running with the same theme. I am not saying that the new coach is already at the Houston Nutt level of colorful, but it does seem like as a program lately we have swung back and forth between Mr. Cold Fish (Petrino & Ford) and Mr. Excitement (Smith & Nutt). Suffice to say, the new head Hog was getting plenty of media attention, which is what you expect at the beginning of a new reign, short though it may be.

War Memorial is still standing. I know that is either good news or bad depending upon which fan you are talking to. The huge "Go Hogs Go" sign above the interstate outside of Atkins is still running high over the road. Though I didn't go to Fayetteville, I have assurances that all our structures there survived Petrino's downfall.

Bobby Petrino, just not too many weeks ago, was a rock solid part of the Razorback football program, and look how quickly that all crumbled. Before I left the state, I came across two other reminders of how you can go from adored to ignored in the world of Razorback sports. I spotted an old Lou Holtz doll, rather beat up, and looking unwanted amongst other clutter in an off ramp antique mall. A more recent example, I came across a Matt Jones doll, still in the package, in a Forth Smith junk store. Yeah, I didn't know such a thing existed. He was in his Jacksonville uniform, and the dealer was wanting over thirty bucks for him. I don't think Matt has rehabilitated his statewide image after the cocaine arrest and the undistinguished NFL career yet to the point of thirty bucks for his plastic image.

After the jump you'll find a very apropos poem by that follower of all things SEC football, haha, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 19th century British poet and insightful analyst of the plight of emperors, dictators, and college football coaches.

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So it has been settled. John L. Smith is the man for the fall campaign of 2012. We here at Arkansasexpats are curious to know if this hire has changed your expectations of how the season will unfold. Yes, it is time for yet another poll. Personally, I haven't lowered or raised my expectations for 2012 with this hire. As for my expectations, before this sudden coaching change occurred I had the Hogs in the SEC West race when LSU comes to Fayetteville at the end of the season. And I still have them in the thick of things in November after April proved to be the cruelest month for Razorback fans.

From an Arkansas fan's perspective, I count myself amongst those who see the positives more than any negatives in the hiring of John L. Smith to be the head coach in 2012. As others have pointed out, he brings experience with our players, experience with our staff, and head coaching experience. Experience, all around! And the prevailing opinion is that he knows the importance of not getting in the way of the assistants and the players and will let them do their jobs. To boot, he is something of a character, but hopefully not as much of a character as was the head coach before Petrino.

With that said, I think we would be in the wrong if he we didn't acknowledge here that there are also some young men in Utah who are experiencing the exact opposite of Knile Davis' best day of his life upon hearing the news that John L. Smith is leaving Weber State after just just four months on the job. If you want to see who they are, I put the roster after the jump.

It is a cut-throat business, college football. But it is also one where people doing the cutting like to pretend and have you believe that this is all about the players and raising young boys into young men, yadda, yadda, yadda. But money and ego are really the true shoes upon which coaches do most of their walking, when it comes right down to it. When Petrino left the millionaire players on the Falcons with three games left in the season (not middle of the season, ESPN), that was easier to explain away, that being a pro sport where there is little pretense of loyalty. But John L. Smith left players who were counting on him to be their coach in the fall. And none of them have millionaire salaries to fall back on either. Just think for a moment how we would all feel if a coach did the same thing to an Arkansas team at this time of year.

Think about this scenario as well. What if Jeff Long had said this to John L. Smith when he volunteered to come back to Arkansas: "Coach, I appreciate your offer. I really do. I am really in a fix at the moment. But I just can't in good conscience take a head coach from another team, no matter what level, at this time of year. Those young men at Weber State are counting on you. You best attend to them. I'll promote somebody from within or get somebody not in coaching at the moment. Thanks for the offer." Didn't happen. And in this dog-eat-dog business of coaching, it probably would not have happened at most other schools either.

So where does that leave us? I certainly wish Weber State the best in finding a new coach at this time of year. I hope that person fits in with the current players there. You know, I don't expect to ever get much help if my car, with Razorback stickers on it, should ever breakdown in Ogden, Utah, that's for sure. On second thought, I probably should just forever avoid passing through there. But am I not going to purchase tickets after making my donation to the foundation as a way of protesting the treatment of the Weber State players? No. For I also love and support our own players. The least I think we can do, however, is remember that this initially is not a win-win for everybody involved. We've poached a coach. And as football karma likes to strike in Fayetteville like nowhere else it seems, we probably should batten down the hatches for what will come next.

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I am sure you have probably read or heard by now that Jessica Dorrell and the University of Arkansas came to an agreement that she would resign her position and be paid $14,000 dollars in severance pay. She also agreed not to profit off the recent scandal, which is a big coup for the university in this day and age of tell all books and interviews. A Woo Pig Sooie! to the UofA's legal team, possibly already the true MVPs of the upcoming season.

Something that I wanted to know from early on is just where in Arkansas was Jessica Dorrell from? Which town in the state would forever be known as the hometown of the woman who did her part to bring about Bobby Petrino's downfall and possibly cost the Razorbacks a legit chance at a national title? Well, the answer is no Arkansas town has the shame of being Ms. Dorrell's hometown. It turns out, she is from TEXAS! Well, of course, it had to be Texas! haha.

I say this only in jest, for I am not truly a believer in grand conspiracies. Maybe it came from having just finished reading a John Le Carre spy novel, but I got a good laugh at my imagination's creation of a grand Texas conspiracy to send Jessica Dorrell to the University of Arkansas to play on the volleyball team, fake a potential marriage, seduce the head coach, have him hire her, and then cause Bobby Petrino to somehow have a motorcycle accident and manage not to get hurt herself. Jessica Dorrell, a secret agent, backed by the Longhorns or possibly even the Aggies.

But where the theory certainly falls apart is assuming either Austin or College Station would be smart enough to pull something off this grand, haha. They would probably respond by saying, 'As if we cared about you Pigs enough to send such an agent to Fayetteville." If there are any creative writing types out there needing a ridiculous plot for a college football novel that for once the fiction would be stranger than the reality, here's your title - "The Spy Who Came In From Fayetteville."

Razorbacks can Survive.wmv (via herefordguy91)

I come from the Southern Arkansas pines, and I am here to say that the Razorbacks can and WILL survive. Let me spit some pretend beech nut here and go on and say that I think recent events have only increased the will and desire amongst fans, assistant coaches, and the players to win it all in 2012. Enjoy the video. WPS! - PS: Ignore the sign at the 1:35 mark.

Like you I am sure, I've been moving around the different college football websites, blogs, and message boards trying to get a sense of where everybody thinks Jeff Long will go with his next hire and what rumors that exist about such a hire. Earlier I did a poll here where the majority voted that they would be happy if Long brought back Garrick McGee. Today's poll takes a different approach, for this seems to be the more fundamental question at hand - Do you hire somebody on a permanent basis, or do you go with an interim head coach from the staff that is already at hand? I think if John L. Smith were still here, it would be easier for Long to point to Smith as interim, what with his previous head coaching experiences at Louisville and Michigan State. Though I like the interim approach myself, for it would keep the staff at hand in place and working together, I just don't know which member of the current staff you select. Maybe they could vote amongst themselves? Hmm? Some democracy, possibly, in the autocratic world of college football. But certainly some democracy right here. Vox Populi, make yourself heard. Place your vote below.

I heard the news last night when my brother, who lives in the state, called to tell this expat that Bobby Petrino had been fired and it was being announced by Jeff Long in a press conference. Though I had thought it could go either way, sorta 50/50, I still found myself stunned by the reality of it. In retrospect, I think it could have only gone the way it did. On the very afternoon when Petrino was taking the ill fated motorcycle ride outside of Fayetteville, I was on this blog writing absurd headlines for an Aprils' Fools Day post. How I wish now that all this was just some prolonged Aprils' Fools Day joke and that Bobby Petrino had always acted like a good employee and a good husband and not lied to us all.

For those of you who are not presidential trivia buffs like myself, today's headline is a reference to Richard Nixon who left the White House in disgrace on a helicopter that was one leg in his journey to exile in San Clemente, California. I had this visual image last night of Bobby Petrino getting on a helicopter out on the lawn in front of Old Main, doing one last wave of the hand, and flying off like Nixon. Maybe to Montana in his case? Like Nixon, he left us wondering why somebody so intelligent could be in essence so stupid to self-destruct in the way he did. In a Greek tragedy way of looking at things, you could say that part of his greatness, taking calculated risks on the football field, was part of his down fall, taking such risks off the field. As we all can see, the play he called with Jessica Dorrell was an interception, fumble, sack, and un-sportsman like conduct penalty all rolled into one.

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Like you and Razorback fans everywhere, I went through the weekend wondering what is going through the mind of one, Jeff Long. The Chancellor, members of the Board of Trust, the big money boosters, the lawyers at the UofA, I've been wondering about all of them as well, but I think it is Jeff Long's impulse to fire or retain that is where everything starts or ends for Bobby Petrino as head coach, post motorcycle ride. I like it that Long is taking his time. There is no rush needed here for such a big decision. The missiles are not 15 minutes out from impacting in Fayetteville.

For whatever happens, here is my modest proposal. It is a proposal for some semblance of modesty. The next time the Hogs run through the "A," have the PA announcer say either pronoun ("your" or "our") instead of "Bobby Petrino's Arkansas Razorbacks" or whoever the coach is when they next run out on the field. The trouble with Nutt is that he thought he was bigger than the Razorbacks. And this seems to be the case with Petrino as well. The Razorbacks have been playing football since 1894 and have at the end of the day always belonged to the state of Arkansas, not the numerous coaches that came and went through the years . Coaches come, and coaches go. The players keep playing. The fans keep cheering. And the towers of Old Main watch over it all. These are not Bobby Petrino's Arkansas Razorbacks.

I have a theory, half baked, I admit, that one of the reasons you don't see strongmen rise up in this country and threaten to takeover like you see in other countries is that we as a nation do a good job of channeling that impulse through Hollywood directors and football coaches, haha. Both professions invite a certain ego type that expects you to say "how high?" when asked to jump. This invites them to think they can treat people however they wish and get away with whatever they want, just so long as they win games / sell tickets and make money. The literally multi-million dollar question is will Petrino be told that he has gone too far in the form of a firing or another set of punishments short of a firing? Oh, to be a modest fly on certain walls in Fayetteville right now!

Hog fans, this has been some week, to say the least. We went from the fear that Bobby Petrino might have lost his life from a motorcycle accident, to the comfort of knowing that he was going to be okay, to disgust and amazement that he would cheat on his wife ("inappropriate relationship") and lie to his boss and the state of Arkansas about an instance that was going to be made public in a police report. Lots of conflicted thoughts right now for me. The fire Bobby Petrino and keep him sides of the argument both have good points. I would hate to be in Jeff Long's shoes at the moment, for the making of that decision. He is going to be damned either way by somebody. And that somebody is going to have a good point.

But if Jeff Long could pull the hire Garrick McGee card out of his pocket and play it, I wonder if he would? Garrick left last fall for UAB and his first head coaching job, so I don't think he is readily available to come back and replace Petrino. But if I had to trust somebody to take over the program right now and have a good chance of keeping the wins coming and restoring a very damaged reputation, it would be Garrick McGee.

No, Bobby Petrino didn't get the wild notion to take a walk down some peach named street in Atlanta, which might have resulted in the same outcome. Instead, this is how he appeared after surviving a motorcycle accident on Sunday evening. That he is in the condition to even hold a press conference, I am sure he is grateful for, as we all are. And we here at Arkansasexpats wish him a speedy recovery. I have to say that I grimaced when I read in some publication just after he arrived here that one of his hobbies was riding motorcycles. I was hoping for chess or checkers! I am pretty sure he'll get back on a bike in the future, but I hope at least he wears a helmet when he does, something which the state of Arkansas actually does not require, but good sense does. One final observation, Sugar Bowl hat? I hope the accident didn't knock him back to the 2010 season! Bobby, tell me you remember last year.

After yesterday's post, I assure you that this is not some sick attempt at an Aprils' Fools Day joke on my part. KARK Channel 4 and KATV Channel 7 out of Little Rock both have reports on their websites stating that Arkansas State Troopers have confirmed that Bobby Petrino was in a motorcycle accident last night around 6:45 PM. No reports yet on his status other than that he was in an accident. Let's all hope that it is nothing too serious. Personally, I have never been a fan of the motorcycle. They bring the old fart out in me. Just too dangerous, helmet or no helmet. I'll update this post as I get information.

UPDATE: ESPN's Joe Schad via Twitter has stated that the injuries were not life threatening, but Petrino is "pretty banged up." Schad says Petrino is focused on getting back to practice, but it could take some time to recover. Nothing "Official" yet has been released from the university or the Petrino family about the accident or Bobby Petrino's condition. But the Schad report is comforting.

UPDATE II: Arkansas Democrat Gazette's Tom Murphy has posted on twitter that "Source close to situation said Bobby Petrino had multiple broken ribs 'all kinds of cuts and bruises,' neck sprain, but going to be ok."

For about a week now I've been trying to come up with a shocking headline and story that would make the tusks fall out of Tusk if he were to read it. April Fools' Day comes around only once a year, so only one chance to make you go "Do What?" until you realize it is only an April Fools' Day joke of a post. In the end, I couldn't decide which headline to go with that would send Razorback nation into a red and white tizzy and hopefully a chuckle after they realized it was only a joke. I am reminded of a prank that did go too far some years ago when a group on the Vanderbilt campus put out a fake paper that said Chancellor Gordon Gee had passed away. A graduate student there at the time, I fell for that one myself and didn't think it all that funny. Those students got into deserved trouble for that one. So my headlines don't include any deaths. Just poking fun of life as a Razorback fan.

HOUSTON NUTT INVITED BACK TO JOIN RAZORBACK COACHING STAFF - Haha, I don't think that one would have been believed for a second!

UofA PHYSICISTS SAY, " ALTERNATE UNIVERSE EXISTS WHERE HOGS WON THE 1969 SHOOTOUT" - That is maybe more wishful thinking than an April Fools' Day joke. But wouldn't we all like to see that headline for real? Or would we just all feel more depressed that we are stuck in this %@#$^ universe where the Hogs lost to Texas?

TYLER WILSON DECLARES FOR SUPPLEMENTAL NFL DRAFT - Now, this one might have resulted in a few heart attacks across the state, right?

JOE ADAMS DECLARED INELIGIBLE BY NCAA FOR ENTIRE TIME AT UofA - I imagined a nice little story about how the NCAA had discovered that Joe was really a cyborg sent from the future to play for the Hogs. It was discovered during the NFL combine that he is made of titanium, steel, and powered by a small nuclear reactor. Hogs have to vacate the wins from the record book, for though Cam Newton found a loophole, there is a clearly stated no cyborg from the future clause in the NCAA rulebook. Further digging into the story, it is uncovered that Frank Broyles from 2147 sent Joe back in time. Yeah, Frank is still alive then! haha.

TEXAS A&M AND MISSOURI CHANGE THEIR MINDS, HEADED BACK TO BIG 12 - I would have written about how their athletic directors had both woken up to a cold sweat one night last week after having a nightmare vision of the future, one where they get their butts handed to them season after season in their new league. I am sure this would have gone over pretty well with Hog fans, not so well with any passing Aggie or Columbia Tiger.

OXFORD UNION INVITES NORTHWEST ARKANSAS & CENTRAL ARKANSAS FANS TO HOLD "GREAT STADIUM DEBATE." - Could you not see a whole bunch of Hog fans, all dressed in gear and doing Hog calls, walking around the centuries old Oxford campus and then entering some ancient hall to hear the pros and cons of moving all the games to Fayetteville hashed out in front of bewildered Brits? haha.

UofA ANNOUNCES FOOTBALL SERIES WITH ASU COME 2016 - This one would have turned heads, would it not? It could someday really happen. But I hope it doesn't. I like it that you don't see "Divided Family" license plates in Arkansas like I see here in Oklahoma. Let ASU exist in one universe and the Hogs in another, I say. That way all Arkansans can pull for both teams.

HOGS GET NEW NAME, "THE BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON RAZORBACKS." - Haha, yeah, that would have created a firestorm! But if you fly into Little Rock now, you will land at the "Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport." What happened to waiting until somebody is dead before you named something after them? Well, don't ask Mike Huckabee, of the Governor Mike Huckabee Delta Rivers Nature Center! haha.

UofA TO CHARGE FOR HOG CALLS AT FUTURE GAMES - We laugh now.

I invite you to add your own April Fools' Day headlines in the comment section. I by no means mined all the material, that's for sure! Pranked or not pranked today, I hope you are having a good Sunday. Unfortunately, from what I last read, our baseball team has had a miserable weekend down in Baton Rouge. No joke.

This time next month we will know which Razorback went first in this year's NFL draft. Though it feels like the end of April right now with the weather, we still have about a month to go before we see some former Razorbacks turned into members of, if not the one percent, then members of at least the top ten percent of wage earners in the country. Jake Bequette, Joe Adams, Greg Childs, and Jarius Wright were all invited to the NFL combine, so I am using them for the poll question. Put on some jewelry, get out the hair spray, do your best Mel Kiper impersonation, and pick which player you think will go first in this year's draft. My inner Kiper is saying that some team is going to take Joe Adams off the board first.

Yesterday was International Women's Day, so ideally this post would have been made yesterday. But the thought didn't occur to me to connect that with recognizing the importance of the Razorbacks' many female fans until last night right before bed. A better late than never thought I decided. Not only do Razorback women go to the games or watch them on television with us, as mothers they might have bought us that first Razorback t-shirt or jersey for Christmas when we thought it was Santa Claus doing all the work. As daughters, they clearly out-cute the rest of the SEC's little girls in their cheerleading uniforms. As wives or girlfriends, they recognize the importance of the Hogs to us, but often help us keep things in perspective as well. In my case, it was a grandmother who set the example for me of what a truly dedicated Razorback fan looked like. And it is now her daughter that goes with me to each game I attend and talks to me on the phone about the latest Razorback news, whether it be up or down. Yes, traditionally we think of the college football line running from father to son and so on. But it also runs through the female side of a family tree as well, especially in the South. My father likes the Hogs, but when painting my family's portraits, it was my mother I painted at a Razorback game.

So to all of our Razorback women out there, a true Woo Pig Sooie to you for the fans you are in your own right, or for simply putting up with the fans that we are. No college football season would be the same without you! Can I get a second on that motion? I bet I can.

Searching the internet for some college football buzz this morning, I came across some information coming out of South Carolina that the Gamecocks are looking at trading the Hogs as their permanent opponent from the SEC West with newbie Texas A&M. In the future (beginning with 2013), the Hogs would instead travel to Columbia, Missouri, every two years. That would give us three tigers every year! Auburn, LSU, Missouri. This is coming from Harris Pastides, South Carolina's president. He is also the leaker who said the SEC was moving to nine conference games, which doesn't seem to be the case right now. So don't consider this move as a done deal. But how would you feel about it if the Hogs did lose South Carolina for Missouri? Such is the subject of today's poll. Personally, I am okay with it from the Arkansas perspective, but I think Missouri fans are going to be upset about not being able to play a game in the fertile Texas recruiting grounds every other year. I would be.

Tomorrow is the once every four years, February the 29th. You know what that means don't you? Yeah, one extra day put between us and the start of the 2012 college football season! haha. Blame Julius Caesar, not the NCAA. Now with the schedule all finalized, we know that the Hogs begin the 2012 season with Jacksonville State in Fayetteville. This is how the season after the greatest season since the famed 1977 season begins. How will the Hogs follow-up such a performance? In 1978 they followed it up with a decline from 11-1 to 9-2-1, with the tie being in the Fiesta Bowl vs. UCLA. The losses were on the road to Texas and Houston. Our collective hope is that Petrino and company can keep things marching upwards still in 2012 and not suffer a decline in wins. The subject of today's trivia question turns the clock back to 1978 when the Hogs began the season in Little Rock vs. a current SEC team. Which SEC team was it? Click your choice and then look in the comment section for the correct answer.

What you are about to read, I know, tests the patience of the internet attention span of most of us. So easy to move a mouse and be instantly on another topic. I do that often myself. But I think the subject of whether the Razorbacks keep a presence in Little Rock after the current contract with War Memorial Stadium runs out is one that Arkansas fans are willing to give some time to, and I hope that my writing is at a level that you will want to read until the last word of this admittedly lengthy post. So far I've not read or heard a more comprehensive case for keeping games in Little Rock, so I've tried my best to present such a case here for why I think the Hogs should not play all their home games in Fayetteville, but should continue to play in Little Rock as has been our tradition.

First, I want to make clear that I know there are a thousand things of more consequence in the world than where the Arkansas Razorbacks choose to play a college football game. Iran going nuclear. The Euro-zone near collapse. Unemployment still too high. Global climate change. Flesh eating zombies on AMC! haha. You name it. So don't worry about my perspective. I've got it under control. As a natural born worrier, I also spend arguably too much time worrying about such subjects as the ones I already mentioned. But those problems aren't the subject of this blog - and thank goodness! What I want to worry about here with you is the state of the Razorback fanbase and what I think to be the negative prospect of moving all the games to Fayetteville after the contract expires with War Memorial Stadium in a few years. Though Jeff Long says not to read anything into the moving of the LSU game, fans outside of Northwest Arkansas can't be blamed for feeling like the moving of a marquee game, necessary or not, out of Little Rock after nearly twenty years of being played there is but one step towards moving them all out.

Full disclosure here, I am a former full package season ticket holder who lives out of state, but has gone to just the Little Rock package since 2006 due mainly to affordability and accessibility. I've experienced in person such lows as the 2006 LSU game in Little Rock and such highs as the 2008 and 2010 games. Good and bad memories, but all still part of the uniting fabric that is the Hogs in Arkansas. Yet last week when the announcement was made that the LSU game was moving to Fayetteville, I think we got a look at some unraveling of that fabric as fans became known again not just as Hog fans, but as pro-Little Rock crowd vs. anti-Little Rock crowd. I had flashbacks to the pro-Nutt / anti-Nutt schism of 2007. We actually came out the better for that debate in the respect that Bobby Petrino was hired, but there's no guarantee that the wounds will heal as quickly if the result is a Fayetteville takes all.

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The newsroom here is all abuzz with the BREAKING NEWS about the 2012 football schedule, as reported below in the blog. The interns have been working at full speed and have just handed me this report. This JUST IN from our wikipedia desk. Arkansas has played Ole Miss in Little Rock a total of 14 times. The series is tied with each team getting six wins. There's also a tie that both teams agree on was a tie and one disputed game from back in 1914. Ole Miss won the game on the field, but Arkansas claims it as a win all the same due to an ineligible player charge. Here's a complete look at the series in Little Rock over the years.

1913 Arkansas 10 / Ole Miss 21 (Loss)

1914 Arkansas 7 / Ole Miss 13 (Disputed)

1924 Arkansas 20 / Ole Miss 0 (Win)

1937-1947 Arkansas and Ole Miss played in Memphis. Outside of Oxford and Fayetteville, the two teams have also played during the regular season in Jackson, Mississippi.

1952 Arkansas 7 / Ole Miss 34 (Loss)

1954 Arkansas 6 / Ole Miss 0 (Win) This is the game of the famous Powder River Play.

1956 Arkansas 14 / Ole Miss 0 (Win)

1958 Arkansas 12 / Ole Miss 14 (Loss)

1960 Arkansas 7 / Ole Miss 12 (Loss) Frank Broyles never registered a win over Ole Miss while coaching Arkansas.

1982 Arkansas 14 / Ole Miss 12 (Win)

1984 Arkansas 14 / Ole Miss 14 (Tie)

1986 Arkansas 21 / Ole Miss 0 (Win) The Hogs' defense tends to rock in the Rock when beating Ole Miss.

1988 Arkansas 21 Ole Miss 13 (Win)

1990 Arkansas 17 Ole Miss 21 (Loss)

1992 Arkansas 3 Ole Miss 17 (Loss)

2012 Arkansas _ Ole Miss _ ( ) But I am predicting a win!

If you have any memories of these games that you would like to share, please share them in the comment section. I've only seen Ole Miss in Fayetteville myself. But I will be in Little Rock to see the Rebels this year. I wonder what Houston Nutt is thinking? "If I could have just made it one more year in Oxford!" - possibly. And Arkansas fans might have had another fly-over banner for him too! haha.

Well, it has come about per this report that the Hogs will play LSU in Fayetteville after Thanksgiving and Rutgers in a home and home beginning with a game on September 22nd in Fayetteville. The Little Rock crowd will still keep an SEC game. I think their choice of Ole Miss on October the 27th is a good one. You tend to agree with me if we go by the poll that we set up. Ole Miss was the preferred team. And there's a good bit of history of playing Ole Miss at War Memorial as well, so being a history and tradition kind of guy, I like that. Texas A&M would be a good team to select for years when the Hogs are playing Ole Miss in Oxford. That is if the Arlington agreement is not kept. Right now it just says TBD per the report on the link. (Haha, Beau is on the job! He beat me to it by a minute or so. But as you can see, it is a big news item and worth two reports, I think.)

Today is Valentine's Day, and I thought I would send out a Valentine's post of my own to our beloved football team. We are all enjoying the after-glow of the 11-2 season and the Cotton Bowl win, but I would have written this poem last year as well after its disappointing end. I think it was St. Paul who wrote that love beareth all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. He was writing to the Corinthians, but he just as well could have been writing to college football fans about themselves. The poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning arguably wrote the most famous of love poems when writing to her husband in "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." I hope the Brownings don't mind, but I am going to piggy-back, haha, on their poem for a tribute of my own to the Hogs.

How do I love thee? Let me signal the ways.

I love thee to the three deep and breath and height

Our stadium can reach, when feeling out of sight.

For the ends of autumn glory and

Grace in the air.

I love thee to Saturday's roar, by sun and stadium light.

I love thee in Fayetteville.

I love thee in Little Rock.

I love thee with red passion put to use

In my old Hog hat, and with my childhood's faith

I love thee with a love that is not lost

With the final score - I love thee with the breath

Cheers, tears, of all my seasons! - And if

God chooses, I shall but love thee even better

After the final second of my clock has expired.

Yes, haha, I do need a girlfriend! But I know you feel just as passionate about the Hogs. And why? You don't need a why. Just because they are your team. That is good enough. Feel free to share with us any testaments of your love for the Hogs if you like in the comment section. But make sure you have first told the one you love how much you love her/him here on Valentine's Day.

I thought we needed a topic besides last night's basketball game to end the day with here, so I went hunting for some Razorback news and came across this report from Chris Bahn and company that the UofA is close to reaching a deal with Rutgers for a home and home series. This will complete the 2012 schedule, with I am assuming the first game of the series being a home game in Fayetteville. In 2013 the Hogs would play in New Jersey, hopefully early in the year. Have the Hogs ever played that far north before? Not in recent memory, I can say that. Though I was hoping for a bigger name to fill out the season, I'll take Rutgers, which has come along in respectability in recent years and is not some directional school from a non BCS conference. But that's my opinion. Answer our poll with your take on Rutgers being the final team on our schedule in the year the Hogs win the national championship. Thinking positive here! And it would be fitting, for college football itself began with Princeton vs. Rutgers in 1869. You don't automatically think of college football when you think of New Jersey, but the Garden State is where it was born.

I knew Ryan was the third string quarterback for the Patriots, so I wasn't expecting to see him on the field. However, I kept an eye on the sidelines with the thought of seeing him there. I didn't spot him there, but I think I did see him in sweats and a ball cap following Tom Brady into the tunnel at the start of half-time. At least I thought it was him. He might feel a bit cursed this morning after being on the sideline of the losing Patriots this year to follow up on last year's loss in the Sugar Bowl. However, I think Ryan is going to have a chance in his own right to put up some big wins in the future. Here's a link to an article from the Boston Globe about Ryan and how he is getting along with the Patriots. I didn't spot Ugoh or Petrus on the field for the Giants. Maybe one of you did? Either way, they'll still get Super Bowl rings. Congratulations, Giants. As for Tom Brady, I still hold a grudge for the 1999 Citrus Bowl, so I am not shedding any tears for him.

College Football in February comes in the form of National Signing Day, and yesterday brought the Hogs twenty-three signatures from young men who want to be Razorbacks. I give them all a big "Woo Pig Sooie" welcome. Before going into further details about them, I would like to say that if I were a highly touted wide receiver from Arkansas and had a chance to play for the Razorbacks, even though I had offers from Missouri, Texas, and OU, I would have gone with the team I grew up supporting, even though it might not be the best team on the block. That's what I would imagine I would do, so I can understand the home state pull. And if Missouri over there in the East can use DGB to knock-off an SEC West team, all the better for the Hogs. It isn't like we lost him to LSU, Auburn, or Alabama. But enough with the one that got away, let's look at those recruits who smiled back.

RANKINGS: What did the national people think of the class? Rivals puts the class at 31. Scout has them at 21. 247 has them at 27. We didn't make ESPN's top 25. If you average all of that out, Arkansas's 2012 class was ahead of only Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, and Kentucky.

STARS: In terms of stars, according to Rivals, the Hogs picked up 0 - 5 stars, 2 - 4 stars, 20 - 3 stars, and 1 - 2 star recruit.

GEOGRAPHY: Arkansas got most of its recruits from Texas, with six players. Arkansas gave the team five players. Three were snatched from OU/OSU country in Oklahoma. The state that gave us Dylan Breeding, Alabama, gave us two additional players this year. Tennessee also contributed two. Then Arizona, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Jersey all contributed one each. That equals eleven different states.

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Tonight the Hogs play on ESPN (9 PM Eastern) Vanderbilt in Bud Walton Arena to what I expect will be a loud and jumping crowd. Note to crowd, you all need to have your "We Want You DGB!" signs made and ready for tonight, haha. Vanderbilt brings a 2-0 road record to Fayetteville. The only other team to go undefeated on the road in the SEC is No. 1 Kentucky. Arkansas has not lost a conference game at home, but Vanderbilt is one of the rare conference teams to have a home loss. And that brings us to today's trivia question, a rare basketball trivia question from me. After 39 conference games as of yesterday, just how hard to win on the road in the SEC this year do you think it is? The answer is in the comment section.

The winds of change, from what I can tell, appear to be blowing over War Memorial Stadium in connection to the Hogs' tradition of playing LSU there every other year on the Friday after Thanksgiving. You might have noticed that when Jeff Long and company put out next year's football schedule that locations were omitted. It just says "Home." Count me amongst those who would miss seeing LSU in Little Rock. And, yes, I am a ticket holder for the Little Rock games. But if a change is to be made, as it seems like it will be, which team would we want to have in Little Rock in place of LSU? That is the subject of today's poll question. And I am even adding the option of "None - Move Them All to Campus" just to see how many of you lean in that direction. I don't count myself amongst you, but I do acknowledge you and your arguments.

The game is set for Indianapolis, and though for me it is a crying shame that New Orleans won't be there, the Giants and the Patriots do have on their rosters former Hogs that I am happy about them being there. Last year's Super Bowl had former Hog, Brett Goode, playing for the Packers. And this year we'll get two Hogs, # 70 Tony Ugoh and # 62 Mitch Petrus, for the Giants and more famously #15 Ryan Mallett with the Patriots. However, your chances of seeing a Hog actually on the field are much better with Tony Ugoh and Mitch Petrus, haha. I believe Ryan is sitting at third string quarterback right now. So even if by some bad fortune for the Patriots, Brady got hurt, it would be Brian Hoyer who would step in next. To go along with this post, here is a history, straight from the media guide, of the Razorbacks who have played in the Super Bowl over the years.

Lance Alworth (Dallas) vs. (Miami) in VI

Steve Atwater (Denver) vs. (San Francisco) in XXIV / (Green Bay) in XXXII / (Atlanta) in XXXIII

Ravin Caldwell (Washington) vs. (Denver) in XXII and (Buffalo) in XXVI

Mike Cherry (N.Y. Giants) vs. (Baltimore) in XXXV

Steve Cox (Washington) vs. (Denver) in XXII

Henry Ford (Tennessee) vs. (St. Louis) in XXIV

Ryan Hale (N.Y. Giants) vs. (Baltimore) in XXXV

Dan Hampton (Chicago) vs. (New England) in XX

Raylee Johnson (San Diego) vs. (San Francisco) in XXIX

Greg Lasker (N.Y. Giants) vs. (Denver) in XXI

Jim Lindsey (Minnesota) vs. (Kansas City) in IV

Brison Manor (Denver) vs. (Dallas) in XII

Dave Reavis (Pittsburgh) vs. (Minnesota) in IX / (Dallas) in X

Billy Ray Smith (Baltimore) vs. (N.Y. Jets) in III / (Dallas) in V

R.C. Thielemann (Washington) vs. (Denver) in XXII

Tony Ugoh (Indianapolis) vs. (New Orleans) in XLIV

Dennis Winston (Pittsburgh) vs. (Dallas) in XIII / (L.A. Rams) in XIV.

Worth noting, Jerry Jones, Barry Switzer, Jimmy Johnson, all former Hogs, had a thing or two to do with three Super Bowl wins by Dallas in the 1990s. You could add Washington's Joe Gibbs (coached in four Super Bowls) in there as a former assistant coach for the Hogs. All this to say, that the Hogs have some not insignificant history with the biggest game in American sports. And either Ryan Mallett or Mitch Petrus and Tony Ugoh are going to get Super Bowl rings this year. Personally, I hope it is the Giants, for I had to root against Ugoh the last time he was in a Super Bowl, when they played the Saints. No offense taken, I hope, Ryan.

Tis the season for NFL try-out games. I always enjoy seeing that Razorback helmet out there amongst the scattering of other helmets, so I thought you too might want to know where you can find our seniors this year as they try to impress the scouts. Count me already impressed with all of them! One post-national championship game has already been played. You might have missed ( I did) seeing Broderick Green put on a Razorback helmet one more time at the Casino Del Sol College All Star Game, which was in Tucson on January the 16th. If anybody caught that and saw Broderick, please give us a report. Here are the other games and which Hogs are scheduled to suit up for them.

EAST WEST SHRINE GAME: January 21st in St. Petersburg, Florida, 4 PM Eastern on the NFL Network. Greg Childs, Jerry Franklin, and Jarius Wright.

BATTLE OF FLORIDA: January 21st in Baco Raton, Florida, 8 PM Eastern on Fox College Sports. No Hogs in this one. If there were any, I am sure some SEC ref would blow a call to make one of our players look bad. I haven't forgotten our last battle in Florida. No, sir. But Stephen Winning Garcia will be there. I wonder if they let him use his South Carolina helmet?

SENIOR BOWL: January 28th in Mobile, Alabama, 4 PM Eastern on the NFL Network. Joe Adams and Jake Bequette are scheduled to appear in this one. Some SEC players that I think we are all happy to see move on are appearing as well. Marquis Maze, Courtney Upshaw, Mark Barron, and DeQuan Menzie will be in attendance. This game by far has the largest number of former SEC players at twenty-three.