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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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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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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March Madness is upon us once again. The 65-team field for the 2009 NCAA Tournament was announced on Sunday.

It was a down year for the Southeastern Conference and that was reflected in the tournament selections. Only three SEC teams made the tournament and they were lucky to get that many teams in. LSU, the regular-season conference champion, is seeded only eighth in the South Regional.

Now, on to the predictions.
First-round winners

Midwest Regional: Louisville, Ohio State, Arizona, Cleveland State, West Virginia, Kansas, Boston College and Michigan State.

West Regional: Connecticut, Texas A&M, Purdue, Washington, Utah State, Missouri, Cal and Memphis.

East Regional: Pittsburgh, Oklahoma State, Florida State, Xavier, UCLA, Villanova, Texas and Duke.

South Regional: North Carolina, LSU, Illinois, Gonzaga, Arizona State, Syracuse, Michigan and Oklahoma.

Second-round winners

Midwest: Louisville, Arizona, Kansas, Michigan State.

West: Connecticut, Washington, Missouri and Memphis.

East: Pittsburgh, Florida State, Villanova and Texas.

South: North Carolina, Gonzaga, Arizona State and Oklahoma.
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Congratulations to the Arkansas State Red Wolves on their 18-14 upset win over Texas A & M last week. It was good to see them finally get a win against one of the “big boys.” Several times over the years, ASU has come close to beating a big-name opponent, but could never quite pull it off.
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Congratulations are also in order for Hoxie senior football player Derek Johnson. Derek was named first-team preseason All-Arkansas, as well as being named the preseason Defensive Player of the Year by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in last Sunday’s edition.
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The NFL season kicks off tonight with the Washington Redskins visiting the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. It’s good to have the NFL back, but there just aren’t any real marquis matchups on the first weekend.

A couple of former Razorback players will make their pro debuts in the Monday night game between the Oakland Raiders and the Denver Broncos. Darren McFadden, the fourth pick in the NFL draft, is expected to be a star with the Raiders. Due to injuries suffered by the starters, ex-Hog Payton Hillis is expected to get the start at fullback for the Broncos.
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234 days.

That's how long it's been since we watched LSU manhandle Ohio State 38-24 (it wasn't as close as the score indicated) in the BCS Championship game, concluding the 2007 college football season. Sure, the NFL playoffs lasted until early February and the 2008 NFL preseason has been underway since early August, but it's been 234 days since we've had college football.

The long drought ends on this holiday weekend, with a schedule beginning on Thursday and continuing through Monday evening. There aren’t any blockbuster games on the schedule, but there are some interesting matchups.

Both of Arkansas’ Division I teams begin new eras on Saturday.

After decades as “Indians,” Arkansas State will take the field as the Red Wolves for the first time. “The Wolves” will be in College Station, Texas, to take on the Texas A & M Aggies. I expect Steve Roberts’ crew to put up a good fight, but I can’t see them pulling off the upset. It’s going to be hard getting used to calling them the Red Wolves. Can I at least call them the WolfTribe?

In Fayetteville, the Bobby Petrino era begins at the University of Arkansas when the Razorbacks take on Western Illinois. After a decade of Houston Nutt’s conservative run-oriented offense, Petrino brings a more balanced offensive attack to the Hogs. It will be interesting to see how the players, most of whom were recruited for Nutt’s system, will adjust to the new offense. As for Western Illinois, the Leathernecks are ranked 13th in a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-AA) preseason poll by The Sporting News, so this may not be the cakewalk many fans are expecting. (By the way, Central Arkansas was ranked 25th in the same poll.)

Elsewhere around the nation:

Perhaps the most interesting matchup of the weekend will take place when Appalachian State visits No. 7 LSU. Appy State pulled of one of the biggest upsets in college football history when they knocked off Michigan on last year's opening weekend. The Mountaineers won’t sneak up on the Tigers, like they did Michigan, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can keep it close.

Vanderbilt visits Miami (OH) tonight and Mississippi State travels to Louisiana Tech on Saturday, which means that the SEC could open with a couple of embarrassing non-conference losses.

In Oxford, Miss., Houston Nutt’s Mississippi Rebels host the Memphis Tigers. This rivalry usually produces close games and this year should be no different. Ole Miss fans are excited to have Nutt as their coach. Most Arkansas fans are also glad that Nutt is the Ole Miss coach.

Missouri versus Illinois is another rivalry that usually produces a good game. Mizzou brings a #6 preseason ranking into the game, while the Illini are ranked 20th.

Sunday brings a couple of good intra-state matchups, when Louisville hosts Kentucky and Colorado hosts Colorado State.

No. 18 Tennessee plays at UCLA in prime time on Monday.
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