Items worth pondering on bye week
Random thoughts and second thoughts while pondering a week without Razorback football (not that the team’s last performance was especially watchable):
* The hot-stove league of Arkansas college football on Sunday night had Bret Bielema replacing Robb Smith as defensive coordinator with Charlie Strong, presumably out as Texas’ head coach. Don’t think that happens but don’t see either Smith or Strong in his present role next year.
* Former colleague Sean Saunders looked forward to a Saturday doubleheader of Southeastern Conference football (Arkansas vs. Auburn) and National League baseball (Cubs vs. Dodgers). A University of Arkansas graduate and tortured Cubs follower, Sean celebrated the team’s first pennant of his lifetime when Chicago won 5-0 in Game 6 of the NLCS. From his native Jonesboro, where attending graduate school, he writes: “This has been a World Series 31 years in the making.”
* If Jessieville puts two good offensive halves together, a recurring problem for an otherwise solid team, the Lions’ home game with Centerpoint Friday night could be the best of the Garland County season. Expect quarterbacks Keenan Owens (Centerpoint senior) and Adam Saveall (Jessieville junior) to put on a show. Jessieville has a blockbuster running game with rugby star Ruben de Haas and senior classmate Steven Benson.
* The Arkansas Activities Association can save the time and trouble of football playoffs in classes 6A and 2A, where Greenwood and England tower over the competition. Pulaski Academy is the 5A favorite again but Wynne is getting a lot of attention.
* The 2016 Alabama defense has entered the discussion as the Crimson Tide’s best ever. The 1961, 1979, 1992, 2009 and 2011 Alabama defenses might beg to differ, but the Crimson Tide’s ability to score defensively has allowed offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin to buy time with Jalen Hurts, his true freshman quarterback.
* One man’s SEC power rankings: 1, Alabama (tempted to put Crimson Tide second team at 1A). 2, Texas A&M. 3, Auburn. 4, LSU. 5, Florida and Tennessee tie.
* An Arkansas native working in the Mississippi media says Razorbacks lose next two home games “unless Florida and LSU play down to their level. If they lose to both, what happens in last two? Mississippi State is a bad matchup for Hogs. (The Bulldogs) can score points if you are weak at linebacker and secondary.”
* Same guy says Bret Bielema is doing the best he can with the talent on hand. In short, recruit better players.
* Any chance that Bobby Petrino coaches longer at Louisville than Rick Pitino? (Sue, my blessed wife, could never get those sound-alike names straight.)
* Along about halftime Saturday night at Auburn, Arkansas people got really interested in Mike Anderson’s Razorback basketball team. Then came a rip-roaring Red-White game Sunday, 118-113 in overtime. Anderson needs to make the NCAA tournament after going 16-16 in the season ending in 2016.
* If Bret Bielema speaks to the local Razorback Club next year, don’t bring up the Auburn game.
* Wonder if ESPN announcers Joe Tessitore and Todd Blackledge have seen enough of the Razorbacks, who in three losses before their eyes have allowed 150 points.
* Not bragging (much), but the only unbeaten college football team in Arkansas celebrates homecoming this weekend at Searcy. As one who entered then-Harding College with fellow freshman Ronnie Huckeba in 1973, the Bisons’ soonto-retire head football coach deserves the Great American
Conference championship his team is crafting.
* Another in-state team worth watching is Central Arkansas, 5-0 in the Southland Conference and its 6-1 season record including a road win over Arkansas State. UCA topped out when it hired Steve Campbell, a veteran of the Mississippi junior-college ranks, to succeed Clint Conque after the 2013 season. Campbell’s Bears face Conque’s Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks on the road Nov. 5 in Nacogdoches, Texas.
* Can’t understand the dislike on social media directed toward Gary Danielson, Verne Lundquist’s partner on the SEC game of the week on CBS. For someone who played at Purdue and spent his National Football career in Detroit and Cleveland, Danielson offers a keen understanding of SEC football and its traditions. Gary, by the way, is 65, making him a spring chicken compared with Verne, calling it a career after this season at age 76. They’ll be in Fayetteville for the Nov. 5 Arkansas-Florida game, moved to a 2:30 p.m. kickoff on CBS.
* Speaking of announcers, ABC’s pairing of Keith Jackson and Frank Broyles decades ago remains the gold standard for college football play-by-play and commentary. Kirk Herbstreit, ABC’s current No. 1 analyst, also is in the elite class.
* Sad to read of impending budget cuts at War Memorial Stadium, Little Rock’s home away from home for the Razorbacks since 1948. Chances of Arkansas playing at War Memorial after 2018, when the current contract with UA expires, are roughly the same as Razorback AD Jeff Long hiring Nick Saban as head football coach next year.
* Best Little Rock game I witnessed: Arkansas vs. LSU in 2002 (the Miracle on Markham). Best I didn’t see: Arkansas over Houston (Quinn Grovey outdueling future Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware) in 1989. One I’m glad I missed: Miami 51, Arkansas 7 in 1987.