In case you need any extra help getting fired up, we’ll be providing a handy pre-game cheat sheet detailing why you should hate each one of the Razorbacks’ opponents this fall. Some weeks will be easier than others…

1.They’re better than you think. Unlike certain other non-conference foes we could mention (actually, all of them), Troy can actually play. They gave Florida State all they could handle last year, and they have legit talent in QB Omar Haugabook and RB Kenny Catthouse.

2. They won their bowl game last year. Any Razorback fan has to be a little jealous of a team that can actually win their bowl game, even if it was the slightly less-than-legendary New Orleans Bowl.

3. They can throw the ball. Last year, Haugabook passed for 2,400+ yards and 21 touchdowns. Um, the Razorbacks’ QBs posted similar stats, right? Right??

4. There’s no upside. To be fair, this isn’t really Troy’s fault, but even if the Hogs win in a rout this game could come back to haunt us.

5. We seem to have bad luck in opening games against Trojans. ‘Nuff said.

Have your own reasons? Let us know in the comments section.

Here at RazorbackExpats, our vast legion of assistants has spent virtually every second of the last few weeks pouring over game films, crunching numbers and sneaking into practices all across the Southeastern Conference - all in the service of helping us compile our predictions for the Razorbacks’ 2007 season. Let’s take a moment to thank them for their amphetamine- and Red Bull-fueled efforts. Now, on with the prognostications.

We know we’re taking a risk here, but we’re going to assume that the Hogs will win their four non-conference games. We’re also pretty confident that Arkansas will win both of its contests against the SEC’s Mississippi schools.

The first conference game of the year — on the road against Alabama — scares us. It will be nice guy Nick Saban’s home SEC debut, and the Crimson Tide players and their fans are sure to be insanely jacked up. Still, we’re cautiously predicting that D-Mac and the fellas will bring home a victory. We’re also picking the Hogs in their Fayetteville tussles with Kentucky and South Carolina.

However, the Auburn, Tennessee and LSU games strike us as losses. That puts the regular season record at 9-3 and keeps us out of the SEC championship game in Atlanta.

As for what bowl game that puts us in, we haven’t the foggiest idea. If we’ve learned anything over the years, though, it’s this: Arkansas will lose its bowl game, likely in rather embarrassing fashion. It just wouldn’t feel like the holidays otherwise.

So, there you go: 9-4. Thoughts?

It’s a favorite conversation starter for sports fans everywhere: who is the greatest player/coach/pitcher/center/quarterback? With Darren McFadden about to embark on a potentially historic season, it feels like an appropriate time to start that debate for the Hogs.

Let’s throw out all stats, facts and figures, and comparisons of eras and go with gut feelings here. Simply put, who is the greatest Razorback of them all (looking purely at their college production)?

I’ll start by saying that D-Mac has already staked a pretty good claim as the best football player ever to play at Arkansas. With all due respect to past legends such as Lance Alworth, Billy Ray Smith, Joe Ferguson, Steve Atwater and many others, no one has had the individual impact or national recognition as McFadden.

As far as I know (which isn’t very far), no football Razorback had previously won a major national award, and McFadden has already won the Doak Walker. No Razorback has ever seriously been in the conversation for the Heisman, and McFadden was the runner-up after his sophomore season and figures to be the thick of it again this year.

After that it gets trickier. Sidney Moncrief put the basketball program on the map. Corliss Williamson was a dominant national player and led the Hogs to their only major sport national title. Mike Conley won multiple track championships and was a general athletic freak of nature. It’s hard to assess where D-Mac fits in this crowd without some broader perspective, but the simple fact that he’s already in the conversation after just two years is pretty amazing.

So who gets your vote? For me, I have a personal bias for Corliss but D-Mac could very well shoot to the top of this list after this season. In the meantime, McFadden will only be a Razorback for 13 more games, so let’s appreciate and enjoy history in the making while he’s here.

Razorback basketball fans can be excused for wondering if it’s the late 1980s or early 1990s. Not only is John Pelphrey reinstalling the fast-paced offense and full-court pressure defense of the Nolan Richardson era, but he’s also recruiting hard in a city that served the former coach very well: Memphis.

According to an article in today’s Democrat-Gazette, Pelphrey has a strong interest in Memphians Terrico White, a shooting guard, and Laurence Bowers, a small forward. (Bowers is the nephew of former Hog point guard Arlyn Bowers.) The two play for an AAU team that is sponsored by Memphis Grizzlies guard Mike Miller - whom Pelphrey recruited to Florida - and that also features point guard Terrance Joyner, who committed to Arkansas in the summer.

More than 20 years ago, Nolan Richardson’s rebuilding of the Razorback basketball program began in earnest when he plucked All-Everything forward Ron Huery out of Memphis’ Whitehaven High School. After Huery, there was a steady flow of Bluff City talent into the Arkansas program, including such Hog heroes as Todd Day, Corey Beck, Dwight Stewart and Arlyn Bowers. No city was more important to the success of the Richardson years than Memphis.

Suddenly, though, in the late 1990s, the pipeline dried up. After Marlon Towns, who had a nice freshman year in helping the Hogs unexpectedly reach the 1996 Sweet Sixteen and then quit the team, Nolan never signed another Memphis hoopster. I’m not even sure if he recruited another player from the city. Why this was the case - and why his overall recruiting took such a nosedive in his final years - is a mystery, at least to me.

Pelphrey, though, appears ready to make serious inroads into Memphis, which Stan Heath never did (again, I’m not sure that he tried to.) Perhaps a Memphis signee - or two or three - will help propel Pelphrey’s program the way Huery and Day did Richardson’s. And maybe then John Calipari will deem the Razorbacks enough of a “national” program that he will get off his high horse and let one of college basketball’s most underrated rivalries resume.

If you’re going to the game against Troy this weekend, be sure to smile, dress nicely and make yourself presentable at all times…you’ll be on camera. Also, if your resolution for the new season was to show your support for the team by driving full speed into the security barriers around the stadium, well, we advise against that now.

Wally Watch: Where we read Wally Hall so you don’t have to.

August 23, 2007: Say what you will, but Hogs can get to #9
Primary Theme: Wally voted Arkansas #9 in the preseason AP poll and is very sick of hearing that this might have been a little optimistic.

Money Quote: “Perhaps I’m wrong, maybe even an idiot, but that doesn’t mean a posse should harass me.” Love it…this quote is great for so many reasons.

August, 24, 2007: Time to read up on Delta Classic-4-Literacy

Primary Theme: A Wally Hall stew of various informational and conversational morsels.

Bold Statement Alert: “If Darren McFadden wins the Heisman Trophy, last week’s issue of Sports Illustrated, dated Aug. 20, 2007, will increase in value in Arkansas”

August 26, 2007: “Harrison’s arrest should serve as wake-up call”

Primary Theme: Dissecting Marcus Harrison’s recent arrest like only Wally can.

Head Scratcher: The claim that Ecstasy, either directly or indirectly, causes the deaths of “tens of thousands of young people” each year. We’re not downplaying the seriousness of the situation, nor are we experts in drug policy, but our suspicion is that if Ecstasy really was responsible for a yearly death count equal to half the American lives lost during the entire Vietnam War, we’d probably be hearing a lot more about it.

Humor Alert: We’re guessing that Wally’s rather odd assertion that “if a player just feels he has to be stupid and shoplift, the worst place to do it is in Dillard’s, which has dozens and dozens of cameras” is a joke, and if so it’s pretty funny. We could definitely see him ripping someone else for saying something like this, though.

Our Analysis: We like to give Wally a hard time (a statement that’s probably Wally-esque in its obviousness), but to be fair this column was a surprisingly moderate and reasoned analysis. For the sake of this blog, we like it better when he stands proudly on the moral high ground and lets us all know how to act. Oh well, maybe next time.

* Technically it’s still the offseason, so why not continue the trend and squeeze in some more off-field drama while there’s still time? Marcus Harrison is suspended after being arrested on a felony drug charge.

* Some dude from South Carolina is calling out Darren McFadden. That’s smart.

* Since when did Arkansas become such fertile recruiting ground for USC?

* The dream of having an AD named “Terry Don” is now dead.

* An early preview of the Troy game…and not a particularly optimistic one.

* The Hogs’ passing game will be led by a couple of Dicks this year. Literally.

* Add another one to your collection of D-Mac YouTube videos.

* This bodes well for our chances in Tuscaloosa in a few weeks…Leigh Tiffin is closing in on Alabama’s starting kicker job.

You may not recognize him at first - his hair is now gray, and he’s reportedly considerably thinner than he was in his U of A days - but Nolan Richardson is returning to your TV set. On Sunday morning (9:30 EST to be exact), he will be featured on ESPN’s top-notch news magazine “Outside the Lines.” The show will focus on his current gig as the coach of Mexico’s national team, which is now competing in the Tournament of the Americas for a spot in the 2008 Olympics. (Richardson’s team beat Puerto Rico 100-89 last night in its first tournament game.)

Nolan’s appearance may have changed, but, in an accompanying column by Andy Katz of ESPN.com, he displays his trademark feistiness, remarking about his failed lawsuit against the university, “Well, you gotta remember this, it wasn’t about the money. It’s about principles that I live by because I had to do that. I never would’ve ever rested with myself [if he didn’t file suit].” He also says that he hasn’t had a job interview since leaving Arkansas in 2002.

I’ve lived out of the state long enough to not have a strong sense for how Razorback fans now feel about Nolan. It wouldn’t be surprising if there’s a good chunk of them that would be happy to never see or hear from this fascinating and complex man again. Not me. My feelings about his departure are unresolved, but I can’t wait to see Sunday’s show.

Wally Watch: Where we read Wally Hall so you don’t have to.

August 22, 2007: “It doesn’t take long to feel at home in Colorado”

Primary Theme: Wally got a free trip to Colorado in order to…well, we aren’t really sure why.

Choice Analogy: “Saying [Alfred Williams] is popular in the Denver area would be like saying there’s a little skiing done in the state.”

Heartwarming Factor: 2/10. Unless you’re moved by the thought of Wally taking a nice working vacation, that is.

Names Dropped: Tons! Charles Baker, Donald McDonald, Steve McClain, Derrick Clark, Jeff Bzdelik, Charles Johnson, Alfred Williams. Plus references to Scott Hastings and Ken Hatfield.

God Watch: Not counting a slightly confusing reference to a Muslim barber shop, nothing of note.

Our Analysis: Definitely one of Wally’s more random efforts. After reading it several times, we’re still not entirely clear why he went to went to Colorado in the first place. Is checking in on the former head bball coach of Shorter College that newsworthy? It contains a nice nugget about Williams considering going to Arkansas (because of Ken Hatfield’s offense, of all things), but other than that its analysis of the Denver sports scene makes it an odd fit for the Democrat-Gazette. Maybe local Colorado fans would find it interesting?

On the day that that the football Razorbacks kick off their highly anticipated season, the John Pelphrey era will begin quietly and unofficially in, of all places, Cancun, Mexico. That’s where the basketball Hogs will play an exhibition game on Sept. 1 and another one on the following day. The Razorbacks don’t yet know who their opponents will be, and Pelphrey tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that potential complications from Hurricane Dean could force the cancellation of the games.

But the games aren’t really the important things, Pelphrey adds - it’s the 10 practices that the Hogs are allowed to prepare for the trip. “Any time,” he tells the paper, “there’s a coaching change, there’s got to be some anxiety on the ballclub, especially for our seniors … I’m sure there can be some trepidation there, some anxiety. I think with this trip, if nothing else, we’ll be able to get those things out of the way. They’ll be able to get a feel for what it’s going to be like for them, what to expect from us.”

Reading about the upcoming trip jogged my memory to a fairly obscure corner of Razorback hoops history: the 1983-84’s team journey to Japan in the summer of 1984. I’ve searched in vain for some summary of the trip, but I seem to remember that they played a total of six games. As I recall, they won the first three fairly handily, but then Alvin Robertson and Joe Kleine had to leave the trip to join the U.S. Olympic team. The remaining Hogs proceeded to get slaughtered in the last three games. Perhaps the most memorable thing about the trip was when the owner of a Fayetteville pizza joint shipped some pies to the team after reading their complaints about the local cuisine.

It wasn’t obvious at the time, of course, but those last three blowout losses were in a sense the beginning of the end of Eddie Sutton’s tenure at the U of A. The following year started with him ordering the team back onto the floor for practice minutes after an uninspiring season-opening victory and ended with him sitting in the stands during Arkansas’ second-round NCAA defeat to St. John’s to protest the officiating. In between, Sutton continued to act strangely, and the team lost 13 games - the only time that one of his Hog teams posted a double-digit loss total - and suffered several brutal beatings.

A couple of weeks after that defeat, Sutton, feuding with Frank Broyles and battling personal demons, took Kentucky’s job and poured salt in Hog fans’ wounds by remarking that he would have “crawled to Lexington” for the job. When the team departed for that trip to Japan, who knew that things were about to unravel so quickly?