Searching for Bobby next for UA
With a variety of head-scratchers to choose from, which football development over the weekend left you especially perplexed?
Repeating our top story, the Arkansas Razorbacks still have LSU problems as evidenced in a 34-31 Baton Rouge tingler that drew ESPN’s A team of Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe. As usual a double-digit underdog in Death Valley, the Hogs did enough good things to stymie the interest of folks back home in the wake of a home loss to Brigham Young they alternated as conquerors and clueless.
Arkansas coach Sam Pittman came away thinking that despite all the penalties and stage fright associated with his team’s first true road game, it might yet make some noise. KJ Jefferson is no worse than the No. 2 quarterback in the Southeastern Conference — LSU’s Jayden Daniels leading that department in which Alabama, with three QBs for coach Nick Saban to consider, rates “I” for incomplete.
Arkansas and Texas A&M direct all business to AT&T Stadium in Arlington for the Southwest Classic in the 11 a.m. hour Saturday. Here, Jefferson can make amends for his second-quarter fumble against the Aggies that loomed all season over a team that started 3-0 and finished 7-6.
No. 1 in your Razorback program if not in your heart, Jefferson has played four games without star running back Raheim Sanders, too often from behind in the last two games and repeatedly betrayed by an offensive line that has not lived up to hype.
If you’re driving to the game on Interstate 30, think of Don Meredith as you pass Mt. Vernon, Forrest Gregg in Sulphur Springs and the glory days of the Alps Cafe in Mount Pleasant. Crossing the Red River on Texas Highway 37 between Idabel, Oklahoma, and Clarksville, Texas, brings to mind pecan trees along the road.
For shock value alone, consider what is happening in Jonesboro, where the local college team has the same number of victories as their rich neighbors on The Hill in Fayetteville. Outscored 110-3 the first two weeks, the Red Wolves ap
peared to be presiding over the last days of coach Butch Jones. Now, with a Sun Belt Conference victory over Southern Miss as a springboard, the Red Wolves have a decent chance of returning from Saturday’s trip to Massachusetts with a winning September record.
Harding’s road win over Henderson State did not come as a surprise in that the Bisons and the other Arkadelphia team, the Ouachita Baptist Tigers, grip the Great American Conference tightly. Repeating a point often made here, I did not expect to see two private schools carry the banner of the old Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference so highly but am thrilled that it is happening.
My Mississippi loved ones have yet to check in after yet another Alabama victory over the Rebels, though condolences are in order from a 24-10 game that the Crimson Tide came to dominate. Alabama has won 16 straight from Arkansas, all in Saban’s time, but if one wishes to feel foot-inthe-face domination, consider that Alabama is 59-10-2 all time against Ole Miss.
Saban is 15-2 against Ole Miss with Alabama, 4-0 against Lane Kiffin, the younger man once again falling short against the master. Certain things happen as a matter of course: the sun rising in the east, geese flying south for the summer —and Alabama beating Ole Miss in football. Consider that our country was mourning a fallen president (John F. Kennedy) in 1963 when the Rebels last won an SEC championship, and even then Ole Miss could not win the Sugar Bowl against an Alabama team playing without Joe Namath.
Frankly, the game in Tuscaloosa lost its usual snap as Kiffin, no clothes horse is he, had last rites read over his team. The thought here is that if Arkansas winds up 3-8, let the win be against Ole Miss, in Oxford, Jefferson getting the decision in his home state.
Arkansas people have a more immediate concern against Texas A&M, where the Great Playcaller, Bobby Petrino, once at Arkansas, sits at the right hand of Jimbo Fisher. High gas prices be hanged, it’s almost worth your while to board the Winnebago on Saturday and trek down Interstate 30 just to hear the Fighting Texas Aggie band.
The Aggies get a bad rap, of course, too often finding themselves on the punch line of going to a Pink Floyd concert and asking which one is Pink.