The Times Dispatch Blogs

It’s hard to believe that the college football season is almost over. It seems like just a few days ago when I was all pumped up over the start of another season, now here we are with the beginning of the bowl season just a few days away.

The state’s two Division I programs experienced contrasting seasons in 2009.

Arkansas State was expected to challenge Troy for the Sun Belt Conference title. However, the Red Wolves lost an exciting 30-27 game to the Trojans in Jonesboro back in September and never recovered, finishing in sixth place in the conference with a 3-5 record and 4-8 overall.

ASU did finish strong, winning their final two games, so maybe that will give them some positive momentum heading into the off-season.

Over in Fayetteville, Arkansas’ season went much more as expected. The Razorbacks finished 7-5, which was pretty much in line with most preseason predictions.

The Hogs earned an invitation to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, where they will play East Carolina on Jan. 2.

The Arkansas-ECU matchup provides one of the more interesting side stories of the bowl season. East Carolina is coached by Skip Holtz, whose father, Lou, enjoyed a successful run as Arkansas’ head coach from 1977-1983. Skip spent his teenage years in Fayetteville and is a 1983 graduate of Fayetteville High School.
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In his last three games, Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett is 60-of-73 for 982 yards and eight touchdowns. I can remember years past when those could have been season totals for a Razorback QB. What’s more impressive is the fact that Mallett has thrown only four interceptions in 294 pass attempts, while completing nearly 60 percent of his passes.

As a team, Arkansas leads the Southeastern Conference in passing offense, pass efficiency, scoring offense and total offense.

Arkansas hosts Mississippi State on Saturday. The Bulldogs are 10th in the SEC in pass defense and 11th in total defense, so expect to see the Hogs pile up some big numbers again this week.
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The Arkansas Activities Association has announced the conference assignments for the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school years. Conferences of the Lawrence County schools are as follows:

3A-3 football: Bald Knob, Corning, Earle, Harrisburg, Hoxie, Manila, Piggott, Rivercrest.

3A-3 basketball: Corning, Earle, Harrisburg, Hoxie, Manila, Piggott, Rivercrest, Tuckerman.

2A-3 football: Augusta, Cedar Ridge, Cross County, East Poinsett County, Marked Tree, McCrory, Rector, Salem, Walnut Ridge.

2A-3 basketball: Buffalo Island Central, Cross County, East Poinsett County, Marked Tree, Marmaduke, Maynard, Rector, Riverside, Walnut Ridge.

1A-2 North: Calico Rock, Hillcrest, Izard County Consolidated, Mammoth Spring, Norfork, Sloan-Hendrix, Twin Rivers, Viola.

1A-3 East: Armorel, Bay, Black Rock, Crowley’s Ridge Academy, Ridgefield Christian, Turrell, Weiner.

3A-Northeast volleyball: Bay, Cedar Ridge, Crowley’s Ridge Academy, Harrisburg, Hoxie, Piggott, Ridgefield Christian, Walnut Ridge.

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This weekend looks to be an eventful one for football teams of local interest.

The ASU football program will get a lot of national exposure in the coming days, when the Red Wolves next two games will be televised by ESPN2.

ASU travels to Iowa City on Saturday to take on the 13th-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa is coming off a big win over then fifth-ranked Penn State last week, and may be looking past the Red Wolves. The contest will be ESPN2’s 11 a.m. game.

ASU’s following game will be at Louisiana-Monroe on Tuesday, Oct. 13.
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The Arkansas Razorbacks will be rekindling an old rivalry, when they face Texas A&M in Arlington, Texas, Saturday evening.

The Hogs and Aggies were both members of the old Southwest Conference until Arkansas bolted for the Southeastern Conference following the 1991 season. The SWC folded soon after and A&M, along with Texas, Baylor and Texas Tech joined the Big 8 (which became the present-day Big 12). Remaining SWC members SMU, Rice and Houston all landed in various other conferences.
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On the high school front, Walnut Ridge will host Salem for their football homecoming game on Friday night. Homecoming festivities will begin a 6:30 p.m., with kickoff set for 7.

The Walnut Ridge junior high football team will look to stay undefeated when they host Marked Tree on Thursday.
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The Hoxie Mustangs will look to avenge last season’s only regular-season loss, when they travel to Wilson to take on the Rivercrest Colts. Both teams won their conference openers on the road last week. Hoxie won at Manila, and Rivercrest picked up a big win at Harrisburg. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

The junior Mustangs will look to pick up their second conference win at Corning on Thursday. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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This is my first post. And it's a test . . . . I'm setting up my blog. Yippie!

I’m not sure my TV remote can withstand many more days like this past Saturday.

As anyone who reads my blogs knows, I like college football. On a typical Saturday in the fall, I will spend hours in front of a television taking in as much action as I can. From the time the first games kick off at 11 a.m. until the final game ends, I’m in pigskin heaven, switching back and forth, trying to keep up with as many games as possible.

This past Saturday was even better than most, with the outcome of nearly every game undecided until the final seconds.

I began the day watching the first half of the Florida-Troy game, one of the day’s few blowouts. At halftime, I switched to ESPN and watched the second half of Wisconsin’s overtime win over Fresno State. When that game ended, I tuned to ESPN2 just in time to see Central Michigan kick a last-second field goal to upset Michigan State.

Things really got interesting when the afternoon games started. I primarily watched the UCLA-Tennessee game on ESPN, which wasn’t decided until the final minute. All the while, I was keeping tabs on the Michigan-Notre Dame game on ABC, a seesaw game won by Michigan on a touchdown with 11 seconds to play. Fox Sports Southwest was showing Houston’s 45-35 upset of Oklahoma State.

Saturday’s prime time games proved to be more of the same. I was flipping between the USC–Ohio State game on ESPN (won by USC on a late TD) and Georgia’s 41-37 win over South Carolina on ESPN2. I was also able to see the final minutes of Jacksonville State’s near upset of Florida State on my laptop, thanks to ESPN360.com. I also cheated and watched some of the NASCAR race on ABC.

The day wasn’t over, yet. There were still games on the West Coast that had to be watched. Oregon defeated Purdue 38-36 in an entertaining, high-scoring game. When that game ended, I was able to watch Utah hold off an upset bid by San Jose State, 24-14. That left only one game still in progress, and, naturally, it went down to the wire, as Oregon State kicked a field goal on the game’s final play to defeat UNLV 23-21.

It was approaching 2 a.m. when I finally felt that it was safe to go to bed without missing any action.
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Both Arkansas and Arkansas State opened the football season with blowout wins against overmatched opponents. While the big wins may have made the home fans happy, its tough to get too excited, considering they were playing the weakest teams, by far, on their schedules.

Hawaii scored with just over a minute to play to pull out a win against Central Arkansas. I’m not sure how many games Hawaii will win this year, but it still would have been a very big win for the Bears if they could have pulled it off.

Monday night’s Miami-Florida State game was a great example of why I love college football.

The game featured lots of offense, with the lead changing hands seemingly on each possession of the second half. Miami took a four-point lead with just under two minutes to play in the game. Florida State drove to the two-yard line before a pass into the end zone fell incomplete on the game’s final play.

Thoughts on this weekend:

ASU travels to No. 22 Nebraska on Saturday. I’m not predicting an upset, but the Red Wolves should fare better than Florida Atlantic, also from the Sun Belt Conference, who lost 49-3 at Lincoln on Saturday.

Arkansas has the week off, before hosting Georgia on Sept. 19. That game should give a better indication of how much the Hogs have improved this year over last.
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It is funny to me that no matter how old we get, or how long we’ve been out of “the game” that we still act like awkward, giggly, anxious pre-teens when we get the opportunity to meet a “prospective” new love.

I am almost 37 years old. I have been divorced for 4 years and have had no real luck with the “dating scene.” Trust me… NO LUCK. ☺

I have a great job, a nice home, drive a pretty nice vehicle, pay my own bills, take care of my own yard, and am raising my little boy all by myself. I have wonderful friends, and a great church. I have a full, busy life. Yet, I still have that age-old feeling of some sort of emptiness without a man in my life.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve tried dating over the past few years. I’ve made a couple of friends out of the experience. But that is it. No bells or whistles or fireworks. Nothing really to do cartwheels over. I basically resolved myself to just be alone & be ok with it. I don’t go to singles spots, or bars. I work, go to church, take my son to school, and stay home. Life is pretty simple and routine.

Then, a friend wants to introduce me to a “good guy”. With many apprehensions and qualms, I do it. I go to meet him. And you know what? He is not a toad. He is not a demon-possessed evil being sent to destroy me (which has kinda been how I’ve viewed men most recently.) ☺ He’s quite handsome, and seems to have his ducks in a row. I mean we ALL have some wrinkled up issues that need to be ironed out. I’m sure he is no exception.

But, here’s what is funny about it all: I’m smiling. Uncontrollably, smiling. I’m anxious to paint my nails, shave my legs, try on 15 outfits, and find just the right lip-gloss, just to have lunch with him. He’s called me a few times, and I find myself almost “giggling” when the phone rings. Isn’t that hilarious?

Now, I don’t know if ANYTHING will develop out of this or not. And I’m ok if it does or if it doesn’t. I’ve just realized, we ALL want to feel loved, desired, attractive, and accepted. No matter our age. No matter our situation. No matter our expanding waistbands or newly found gray hairs. We as women, or maybe just as human beings, have an internal, natural, instinctive “need” to be with a mate. It has somehow made me feel like “more of a woman.” It has somehow made me feel more alive. Just to have someone that I am equally attracted to, say, “I think you are pretty.” It feels really nice. We’ll soon see if this could be the beginning of a new journey or not. But even if it was just one step, and that’s as far as it goes. It’s been a nice trip. ☺

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Labor Day weekend is upon us and that means the beginning of another football season. For a lifelong football junkie, it can’t come soon enough. Sure, there are other sports to follow from February to September, but none quite fill the void that’s left after the final seconds of the Super Bowl tick away.

College basketball comes close, but that season ends in early April, which still leaves a good five-month drought. I haven’t really kept up with the NBA since the 1980s.

Baseball is all right, but I don’t really get too revved up about it until the playoffs.

NASCAR used to be exciting, but seems to have gotten dreadfully boring in recent year, although Mark Martin’s resurgence this season has been fun to watch.

I’ve tried watching the CFL, which is similar to football. It’s more like “Football Lite.” Canadians should stick to hockey and leave the football to us Americans.

But the long drought in finally over. The opening weekend of college football season kicks off Thursday night and continues through Monday evening.

Who’s playing? It doesn’t matter. I’ll be in front of my television, taking in as much of the action as possible. Football is back and us junkies are ready for our five-month fix.
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Last year when my dog, Hank, died, I was devastated. We had him for almost six years, and he was very much a part of our family. Every step that I took, he was there with me. I have missed him enormously since he died.

I thought I wanted another dog, and have suggested it to Briar, Brad and Tim several times with resounding NOs from all of them.

My mom’s shih tzu recently had puppies, and I have thought about bringing one of them home. I’ve grown pretty attached to one of them. I’ve just never been really crazy about small dogs. While I like to pet him and play with him at Mom’s house, the thought of constantly tripping over him and listening to shrill barks isn’t appealing – I like the deep woooof of a “real” dog.

Anyway…. Tim called me yesterday to tell me that the daughter of one of his friends has a mastiff (which is the same breed as Hank) she wants to give away. He is two years old, house-trained and is not only the same breed as Hank, but has the same coloring and markings.

My first reaction was YES!!!! However, after thinking about it a little more, and actually shedding some tears at the thought of losing another beloved pet, I’m leaning more toward no. Briar and Brad still say no. I’ve got till Saturday to make up my mind. So… is the time right or not? Any thoughts????
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