* As you’ve probably seen, the Hogs have been picked to finish last in the SEC West by just about every prognosticator out there. Now, the no respect train continues to roll as Sports Illustrated has ranked Arkansas 69th out of the 119 D-I teams. For those of you scoring at home, that’s immediately behind noted football powers like Bowling Green, Ball State and, um, Louisville.

* After slandering Dwight Stewart earlier in the week, those sky blue snobs over at Tar Heel Fan have taken aim at another Razorback icon. Reporting on their 1993 team, they write: “…the Heels faced Arkansas and the ever talkative Nolan Richardson. The Razorbacks’ coach took the opportunity to make all sorts of statements in the media which UNC kindly stuffed back in his face by beating Arkansas in the Sweet Sixteen.” If I may practice a bit of armchair psychology, I’d guess that they know deep down that the Hog teams of that era were better than their UNC counterparts, and are aghast at the thought of finishing behind those non-pedigreed ruffians.

* Remember the names Michael Dyers and Claude Johnson. This article says they’re players Petrino has to sign in 2010. Yes, 2010. And yes, he might be at his second post-Razorback job by that point.

* It’s nice to see the national media catching on to what we Arkies have known all along: D-Mac can play some football. And he’s not quite the thug he was made out to be, either.

* In addition to being a fairly decent football player, D-Mac isn’t too shabby as a pitchman, either. Check this out (link courtesy of Arkansas Sports 360):

The Hogs unveiled their new uniforms today, and - pardon me while I slip on my Mr. Blackwell hat here - color me unimpressed. A few quick observations:

* What’s with the super small “Arkansas” in the front? Where’s the pride in the Natural State? I say show off those eight mighty letters proudly and let the rest of the SEC cower in fear.

* Along those same lines, using a different font for the lettering on the front and back seems like bad form.

* No offense to Reggie Fish, really, but you’d think they could have chosen a more typically-sized football player to be the model. Poor Reggie looks like the backup punter’s kid brother in this picture…the wrinkled-up shoulders and back aren’t doing him any favors.

* The little tusky things on the front sides are kind of neat…not so sure about the weird stripes over the butt in the back, though.

* What do the pants look like? For the love of Reggie Herring, please no red pants!

* The helmets are also key…since the Hogs currently possess one of the coolest helmet designs in all of sports, I’m really hoping they have the wisdom not to mess with it.

That’s about it from me…what do you guys think? I know we have some fashion experts among our commenter base, so don’t be shy. As for me, I’m returning to my day job reviewing Britney Spears’ latest wardrobe blooper as editor of HollywoodFashionFauxPas.com.

Greetings Expats readers…apologies for my long absence from the blog, but I’ve been living in a tent outside the Green Bay airport for the past few weeks, waiting patiently for Brett Favre’s triumphant return. Now that the biggest event in the history of the universe is behind us, I can resume my regularly scheduled Razorback blogging. So, with that in mind, some links:

* The freshmen football class started their first training camp as Razorbacks today, and Arkansas Sports 360’s Chris Bahn has the full report. Kind of crazy to think that the first game is coming up in less than 4 weeks.

* What’s the top SEC rushing offense of the past 15 years? Any Hog fan would tell you that it’s obviously the recent McFadden/Jones/Hillis attack, but according to one Tennessee blogger that team ranks no higher than third. Check out his full list here, and prepare to be morally outraged.

* If John Pelphrey owes you money, now is a good time to collect: he just got a raise.

* Reader Eastville Holdings passes along an article about former Hog Shawn Andrews’ battle with depression. The Expats staff will be keeping a good thought for him…I’m sure he can rely on the rational perspective and cheerful nature of the Philadelphia Eagles’ fanbase to help him through this tough time, too.

* Georgia celebrated being ranked #1 in the preseason coaches poll with a fun weekend that saw two players arrested and two hospitalized from a bar fight. Come on guys, is that the best you can do? I’d expect more from the #1 team in the country.

* A Florida fan previews their October 4 tussle with the Razorbacks. His predicted final score is 45-24, although we won’t spoil the surprise by telling you who he’s thinking will come out on top.

* The word out of Dallas is that Felix Jones might play “a larger role than expected” in the Cowboys’ offensive plans. Even famed Hog fan Peter King took a few minutes out of his Favre vigil to write: “Felix Jones is going to be good. Maybe really good. He runs smoothly and with a fluid determination. You aren’t going to see many backs cut with the quickness and decisiveness Jones runs with.”

It’s no secret that we here at RazorbackExpats consider Dwight Stewart not only a great figure in Razorback history, but possibly one of the finest Americans ever. And we are shocked (shocked!) to discover that there are people out there who don’t share this view - namely North Carolina Tar Heel fans.

The blog Tar Heel Fan is ranking the North Carolina basketball teams of the past 27 seasons. Coming in at No. 6 on the list is the 1995 squad, which, you may recall, was defeated by the Razorbacks in the Final Four.  

The blogger describes the last few seconds of the first half of that game (click here for a visual reminder) this way: “Arkansas with barely enough time to get the ball upcourt inbounded it to that tub of a human being Dwight Stewart who just chucked it from about 60 feet or so and made the shot at the buzzer.”

Tub of a human being!?! Them’s fighting words. And believe us, after growing up on the mean streets of The Heights and Pleasant Valley and attending a private liberal arts college, we know a thing or two about throwing our fists around.

The crimes against humanity continue in the comments thread, where one commenter says, “I hate Dwight Stewart to this day.”

 Honestly, we are speechless … except to say this: “Go Duke.”

OK, this is getting embarrassing.

You’ve surely heard the word by now, but Razorback defensive lineman Ernest Mitchell is facing drugs and weapons charges in St. Francis County, making him the sixth(!) Hog footballer to have a run-in with Johnny Law this offseason.

Mitchell is due in court tomorrow, and Petrino says he will make a decision on Mitchell’s punishment afterwards.

Ho-hum. Just another day in Razorbackland.

Move over, “Wheel of Fortune.” Eat your heart out, “Jeopardy.” It’s time for another edition of the game that Americans from coast to coast have fallen head over heels in love with. “Name That Obscure Hog” is a straightforward game: We post a photo of a Razorback that most fans have probably forgotten and ask our readers to name him. The first person to do so will receive nothing in return other than our undying respect … as well as our concern that he or she - like us - may need to get out more.

Here are some clues about today’s obscure Hog: Like last week’s mystery player, he was a highly touted basketball recruit whose years in Fayetteville were something of a disappointment. One other thing that he and Ricky Norton have in common: they were both suspended for the first half dozen or so games of this player’s senior season. Unlike Norton, this Mississippi native spent much of his Razorback career as a back-up to Scott Hastings.

Here’s the photo (major props for those bad-ass shades):

Razorback fans living in Memphis: be strong.

You’ll need to be because ESPN.com has given Tiger fans yet another bragging right over their Hog-loving rivals. In case you haven’t heard, the Worldwide Leader in Sports has compiled its list of the most prestigious college basketball programs since the 1984-85 season.

The Hogs slide in at No. 15. Not too bad, you might say, especially considering the all-out crappy play that plagued the program throughout too much of this decade. The good feelings — if you can call them that — won’t last long, however. To be exact, they will last as long as the time it takes your eyes to scroll down to No. 14. That’s where the Memphis Tigers – at one point perhaps the Razorbacks’ biggest rival — reside.

First, Memphis coach John Calipari says Arkansas is not a “national program” and discontinues the annual series between the schools. Next, Memphis has completely and thoroughly outshone the Hogs for the past five years or so. Then, when Frank of the Ozarks calls Calipari to see if he’s interested in the Arkansas job, it apparently takes the Tigers coach less than a nanosecond to say, “No.” And now, this ESPN ranking.

Oh, the humiliation.

When this rivalry was at its height in the 1990s, there was no team I hated losing to more than Memphis. I don’t have that level of animosity any more, thanks to court-ordered counseling and to my befriending a couple of Tigers fans over the years. I even found myself rooting for Memphis during the past few NCAA Tournaments.

Still, when those friends invite me over, I’d like to have something to gloat about for a change.

It brings me no joy to report this, but the already-stocked Washington County prison all-star team just got a little more talented: former Hog hoopster Elmer Martin was has been sentenced to 15 years in the clink for a variety of drug-dealing charges, apparently involving cocaine and Ecstasy.

It’s a sad turn of events for Elmer. In addition to being a role player on the 1994 national championship team, he became a somewhat unlikely starter for the latter part of the 1995 season. After struggling with lineups throughout the year, Nolan found Elmer to be his good luck charm and rode that all the way to the finals (as a general Expats policy, we don’t speak of what happened then).

He later played with the Harlem Globetrotters for awhile before we lost track of him…obviously the ensuing years did not go well.

Courtesy of reader Eastville Holdings comes this nice Felix Jones profile from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The whole thing is worth a read, but the best anecdote is this one (which was news to me…I don’t recall hearing this reported anywhere else after the game, although I could certainly be wrong):

When Arkansas beat LSU last fall in three overtimes, Lee called for a toss sweep with the option to pass on the 2-point conversion.

“Let’s put it in the hands of McFadden and see if they can tackle him,” Lee told then Arkansas coach Houston Nutt.

The huddle broke from the sidelines, and there was McFadden not going anywhere.

“What is Felix doing running out there?” Nutt said into his headset, noting that he had no more timeouts.

“Who cares?” Lee said.

Much like McFadden, no one could tackle Jones either, and he scored on the sweep designed for McFadden for the game-winning points in one of the nation’s biggest upsets of the season.

For the Razorback blogosphere, Houston Dale Nutt is truly the gift that keeps on giving, even after he’s taken up residence in Oxford, Miss. The hilarious Tre Baker of ArkansasSports360.com is asking his readers to supply captions for the photo below, which surely has to rank among the great moments in the history of photojournalism. The pic shows Nutt and the members of the the Ole Miss Ladies Football Forum about to take the field last Saturday for some sort of pep rally. According to Mr. Baker, the funniest captions may end up featured in an upcoming print edition of ArkansasSports360.com. Even if you don’t enter the contest, you need to check out the entries. Funny stuff.