Garrick McGee to FAU?

Earlier today, I saw where Arkansas offensive coordinator Garrick McGee has interviewed for the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic University. The Owls (1-10, 0-7 in Sun Belt Conference play) have guaranteed themselves at least a share of last place in the Sun Belt Conference after finishing 6th in the conference in 2010 and now have a record of 5-18, 3-12 over the last 2 seasons. If you're FAU, going after McGee is a very smart move. The Owls only averaged 14 points per game on offense this season. Arkansas averaged over 37 points per game with McGee calling the plays. It's yet to be seen whether or not McGee will be offered the job or if he will even accept it if he does receive an offer. But if he does, who could likely replace him as Arkansas's offensive coordinator? Paul Petrino could be a candidate. He was McGee's predecessor and was recently released (along with Ron Zook's entire staff) from the University of Illinois after a disappointing 6-6 record. Right now, I think that Petrino is probably the most logical choice; however, only time will tell. Personally, I feel that Arkansas's offense will continue to click regardless of who's calling the plays. The offense never missed a beat when Petrino was first replaced by McGee and I see no reason why it would sputter if McGee was replaced. Who else could replace McGee if he leaves? Do you think it would cause any problems with the team's offensive production?

Building a Powerhouse

Well, if you don't know it by now, the Arkansas Razorbacks got knocked from their #3 ranking and back down to Earth on Saturday when the #1 LSU Tigers manhandled them, 41-17, in Baton Rouge. The Hogs finished the regular season on a losing note; however, they still finished the season with a record of 10-2, 6-2 in conference play. With 10 wins this season, the Razorbacks recorded consecutive 10-win seasons for the first time since the 1988-89 seasons and for only the third time in school history. Bobby Petrino, like him or not (personally I love him), has proven himself to be exactly the type of coach this program needs, in my opinion. Since the beginning of the 2010 season, the Hogs are 20-5, not bad considering most of the fan base had grown used to losing 5 games in an average season. It is clear that the Razorbacks have come miles with Petrino at the helm. Now all the program needs to do is go out there and get the 4 and 5 star recruits on defense. The program seems to have established itself as a staple in the top 10 to top 15 and could very well be on the verge of taking the next step toward consistently competing at a high level on the national stage. Despite the recent set back, it still is truly a great time to be an Arkansas Razorback fan. Wooooo Pig Sooie!

Ranking the SEC West

With the recent BCS madness, the only thing that can be said for sure about the landscape of college football this season is that the SEC Western Division is simply head and shoulders above the rest of the country. That's true for the top half of the division at least. As everyone knows, LSU, Alabama, and Arkansas checked in at 1, 2, and 3 respectively in the latest BCS poll.

While the SEC West's dominance is clear, the ranking of those top three teams is something that is not quite so clear. As it stands now, they are ranked in the correct order; however, there is one more hurdle in making the final decision. On November 25, the Friday after Thanksgiving, #1 LSU takes on #3 Arkansas in what promises to be one of the most highly anticipated games of the year. If LSU wins, then the rankings should be simple. LSU would remain #1, Alabama (assuming they take care of business against Auburn) would remain #2, and Arkansas's national championship hopes would be dashed as they would likely fall to #4 or #5.

But if Arkansas manages to invade Baton Rouge and knock off the top-ranked Tigers, chaos will rule the BCS rankings. In that case, the rankings would be open to all sorts of speculation. Would a win on the road against the #1 team in the country be enough to propel the Hogs over Alabama to take over the #1 spot or would the Crimson Tide move up to #1 and the Hogs have to settle for #2? Or would that win simply move Alabama up to #1 and drop LSU to #2, leaving Arkansas at #3? At this point, anything could happen with the BCS poll.

Furthermore, of these three teams, who would get the nod to go on to the SEC championship game to face #13 Georgia? Again, if Arkansas wins, the three teams would have identical records (11-1, 7-1), all having lost to each other (Alabama defeated Arkansas earlier this year, LSU defeated Alabama, assume Arkansas defeats LSU in 4 days). If you coached one of these teams, would you even want to go to the SEC title game? This is the only time I can ever remember that teams stand a better chance at making the national title game if they don't play in their conference championship game. For instance, if Arkansas beats LSU and Alabama goes to the SEC championship game, Arkansas would all but clinch a spot in the national championship game if they move up to #1 or #2 following the LSU game. However, Alabama would then still have to win one more game to make it to the national championship game. Very rarely does it play to a team's advantage to not win their division, but it seems that will be the case for either Alabama or Arkansas this year.

There was already a strong sentiment to create some sort of playoff system for college football before this season even began. Now, you have to believe that people will be all over the BCS voters to come up with a more effective system because one of the top three teams in the country right now will completely miss out on a BCS poll altogether, something that has been almost unheard of up to this point.

BCS Top 10- Week 13

The BCS released their week 13 poll Sunday night at 7:15. With all the madness this weekend created, it's no surprise that the top ten has been shaken up a bit:

1.   LSU
2.   Alabama
3.   Arkansas
4.   Oklahoma State
5.   Virginia Tech
6.   Stanford
7.   Boise State
8.   Houston
9.   Oklahoma
10. Oregon

This creates a pretty interesting scenario with the top three teams all being from the same conference and division. Only one of these teams can go to the SEC championship game to face Georgia. Arkansas and LSU have a huge game looming on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Put simply, if LSU wins, they're in. However, if Arkansas wins, things will get a little bit crazy. Assuming Alabama beats Auburn and Arkansas beats LSU, all three of the top teams will have identical records (11-1, 7-1 in SEC play). In this case, the likely candidate for the SEC championship game would be Alabama; however, Arkansas could advance to the national championship game without even going to the conference title game if  a win over LSU in Baton Rouge was to propel them to #1 or #2. It will be very interesting to see how the final 2 weeks of the regular season play out. Personally, I think if Arkansas wins at LSU, they should be ranked #1 without question. In that case, Alabama would go to the SEC title game. If they took care of business against Georgia, it would likely set up a rematch between the Hogs and the Crimson Tide for all the marbles in New Orleans. What are some other scenarios you guys would like to see play out in the final 2 weeks?

Forever a Razorback

Most people probably know this by now, but the Razorback community lost a great person and a wonderful teammate yesterday morning. Backup tight-end, Garrett Uekman, was found unresponsive in his dorm around 11:15 Sunday morning. First responders arrived on the scene 5 minutes later but their attempts to revive Uekman were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at Washington Regional Medical Center at 12:20 PM. Uekman, 19, was a redshirt freshman who had played in nine games this season for the Razorbacks. He was an outstanding human being and he will be sorely missed by everyone in Razorback Nation. Please join me in offering our thoughts and prayers to everyone close to Garrett in this tragic time. God bless Garrett and his family.

BCS Bedlam, SEC Dominates

If you follow college football, then you know exactly how special of a weekend this has been. Heading into this weekend, there really weren't a lot of games that jumped out as potential thrillers but we had plenty. Four top 10 teams were toppled while two more narrowly escaped disaster.

#2 Oklahoma State     31                                                   #7 Clemson                        13
     Iowa State             37     Final/2OT                                     North Carolina State       37     Final

#4 Oregon                   35                                                  #8 Virginia Tech                24
    USC                       38     Final                                           North Carolina              21      Final

#5   Oklahoma            38                                                  #9 Stanford                        31 
#22 Baylor                  45     Final                                           California                      28      Final

So what does this madness mean? It means that the landscape of the college football season is definitely going to be shaken up a great deal. Oklahoma State will almost certainly be out of the national championship conversation, as will Oregon, Oklahoma, and Clemson. What it also means is the SEC, the SEC's Western Division to be more precise, will likely have a stranglehold on the new BCS polls. LSU has been #1 for several weeks now. Alabama was #3 and figures to move into the #2 slot with OSU's loss. Arkansas, the biggest winner from all of the craziness, will most likely jump from #6 all the way to #3 with all of the teams falling down in front of them. This would mark the first time in the history of the BCS poll that its top 3 spots were occupied by teams from the same conference. This also means that regardless of what happens from here on out, there is no foreseeable scenario in which no SEC team will make the national championship game. In fact, it is likely that two SEC teams will meet for the title.

Dominance in Little Rock

When Arkansas and Mississippi State met last season in Starkville, MS it was a fight to the bitter end. Arkansas managed to escape the madness with a 33-30 win in overtime. When the Bulldogs came to Little Rock on Saturday to face the red-hot Razorbacks, that thriller had long since been forgotten. The Hogs (10-1, 6-1) jumped out to fast start, driving 66 yards in 6 plays to score a touchdown less than 2 and a half minutes into the game. Mississippi State (5-6, 1-6) cut Arkansas's lead to 14-10 at the 12 minute mark of the 2nd quarter but it was all Razorbacks after that. The Hogs tacked on 30 unanswered points to take a commanding 44-10 lead with 3:20 left in the game. The Bulldogs managed to put it in the endzone one more time with 15 seconds left to narrow the final score slightly, 44-17.

Overall, the Hogs played their most complete game of the season. The offense was stellar as always. Prior to this game, the Bulldog defense was only allowing an average of 19 points per game. However, the really impressive aspect of Arkansas's game this week was the defense. Mississippi State scored an early field goal and scored their first touchdown only after a Tyler Wilson fumble was returned all the way to the 20 yard line. The final touchdown was scored on the backup defense. Even more impressive, the Hogs did not allow the Bulldogs to pick up a single first down in the 3rd quarter. Overall, the Hogs outgained the Bulldogs 539-211.

The Hogs now set their sights on #1 LSU in Baton Rouge on the Friday after Thanksgiving in what will almost surely be a battle between 2 of the top 3 teams in the newest BCS poll. LSU will almost lock up a spot in the national championship game with a win; however, it now looks likely that Arkansas could do the same.

Latest BCS Standings

On Sunday, the BCS released their latest poll, ranking the top 25 teams in college football. This is what it looked like after week 11:

1.   LSU
2.   Oklahoma State
3.   Alabama
4.   Oregon
5.   Oklahoma
6.   Arkansas
7.   Clemson
8.   Virginia Tech
9.   Stanford
10. Boise State
11. Houston
12. South Carolina
13. Kansas State
14. Georgia
15. Michigan State
16. Nebraska
17. Wisconsin
18. Michigan
19. TCU
20. Southern Mississippi
21. Penn State
22. Baylor
23. Texas
24. Auburn
25. Florida State

While I agree with most of these rankings, there are a couple of things that bother me. First of all, I do not see any justification whatsoever for ranking Oklahoma ahead of Arkansas. Yes, maybe this is just my bias toward Arkansas talking but think about it. Arkansas is 9-1, 5-1 in SEC games while Oklahoma is 8-1, 5-1 in Big 12 games. Arkansas's lone loss was in Tuscaloosa to #3 Alabama, 38-14. Oklahoma's only loss came in Norman at the hands of a terrible Texas Tech team, the same Texas Tech team that lost at home to Iowa State, 41-7 the very next week. Since taking down the Sooners, the Red Raiders have lost 3 straight games by a combined score of 159-33. Even more to the point, the Red Raiders are 2-5 in Big 12 games, with their only wins being against Kansas (2-8, 0-7 in Big 12) and the "mighty" Oklahoma Sooners. It would not surprise me one bit if the Sooners lose to Baylor in Waco this weekend. Then this entire argument will be irrelevant.

The next thing that stuck out to me was the number of non-BCS conference teams in the poll, 4. Boise State only fell 5 spots to #10 after losing at home to an unranked conference opponent in TCU. That "major upset" shot the Horned Frogs all the way up to #19. Let's be honest. Neither Boise State nor TCU should be ranked at this point. TCU is just not a very good team this year and they simply exposed an average Boise State team for being just that, AVERAGE! Any team in the SEC, Big 12, Big 10, etc. could have sleep-walked through Boise's schedule and be undefeated. Their only semi-impressive win came against Georgia in week 1, at the time that it was questionable as to whether or not Georgia's coach would even have a job at the end of the year. Admittedly, the Bulldogs have turned it around and now have the inside track to winning the SEC's Eastern Division; however, they look completely different than they did in week 1. It's like night and day really. Frankly, I would have Georgia in the #10 spot in this week's poll if I controlled it, but I do not. I am also not sold on Houston. The Cougars are 10-0; however, they squeaked by a couple of mediocre teams early in the year (4 point win over UCLA, 1 point win over Louisiana Tech, 7 point win over UTEP). They have not been challenged in the past few weeks so maybe they are deserving and maybe not. Personally, I don't think so. Last but not least, Southern Miss. Their only loss is to a 2-6 Marshall team. Enough said.

Conference Shake-Up

Anyone who follows college football even just a little bit is surely aware that the landscape is changing. The conference moves just continue to grow in numbers. Earlier this season, Texas A&M made its move to the SEC official. Now it looks as though Missouri will follow suit and head to the SEC as well. West Virginia has since been lobbying to take Missouri's place in the Big 12 and will likely be accepted. TCU has changed conferences twice in less than a year, first leaving the Mountain West for the Big East and then withdrawing from the Big East after being offered a spot in the Big 12. The latest conference expansion news focuses around the Big East. There has recently been a lot of speculation as to whether or not the conference would survive all of the changes in college football. It now seems that the conference is determined to survive as it is rumored to have recently invited 6 schools to join: Boise State, Navy, and Air Force for football only and SMU, Houston, and Central Florida for all sports. Memphis and Temple are also candidates to receive invitations to the conference. I will no doubt be discussing this more as more information surfaces.

Wade Suspended for One Game

If anyone saw the Arkansas Razorbacks' game Saturday (10/29) in Nashville, TN against the Vanderbilt Commodores, I'm sure you saw Marquel Wade lay out Vandy punt returner Jonathan Krause before he was ever able to touch the ball. Wade was flagged for a personal foul and ejected from the game. SEC commissioner Mike Slive has since announced that Wade would be suspended from Arkansas's upcoming game against the #9 South Carolina Gamecocks. I have to admit that when I first saw the hit, I felt like the ejection was justified and fully expected a suspension to follow; however, recent events have caused me to change my opinion slightly. Monday (10/31) Wade issued a public apology, stating that "he thought the returner had already fielded the punt and was trying to advance the ball.......but he (Wade) would take full responsibility for his actions." Based on the way that Wade jumped up and celebrated the hit, I do believe that he thought Krause had the ball and thought he had made a legitimate play. He clearly stopped celebrating after seeing that Krause was hurt.

Of course, Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN's College Gameday condemned Wade's hit and implied that a one-game suspension was not enough. On the other hand, ESPN First Take hosts Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith argued that Wade should NOT have been suspended or even ejected from the game. I tend to agree. I don't think you can do that to a kid who is out there giving 100%. He is just a kid afterall and he made a mistake. I think the personal foul penalty was plenty. I just feel like if Wade played for Alabama, LSU, or another of the media's favorites this wouldn't have been blown out of proportion like it has been. Maybe that's just my bias for Arkansas talking but I really feel that way. What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them.