Bits and Pieces, Week 3

Arkansas says something, something

Mike Bobo is no relation to the famous Bobo clan from Atkins.

We think.

Or maybe he is and that would explain his dreadful play calling late in the fourth quarter, or maybe Bobo is a degenerate gambler and had money on the Dawgs to lose. Or maybe he was still woozy from a pregame head butt with a helmeted player that left a gash and blood trickling down his nose.

Regardless of the real or imagined reason, Bobo, a Georgia lifer, is likely out of a job at the end of the season simply based on that third down call late in the fourth quarter when the game was knotted up at 24-24.

Needing roughly four yards to get the first down, with the game on the line and a shaky freshman quarterback, Bobo, instead of drawing up a play to get the first, sent three wideouts deep and not a single player as a safety valve in the route.

The quarterback drops back and then gets de-helmeted by a flying Jake Bequette and it is fourth down, with Georgia now playing for overtime.

Instead, as called by ESPN, Ryan Mallett made a Heisman statement and sent one deep to Greg Childs, which lead to a touchdown and a thousand Arkansas fans lighting up their Facebook pages with "Childs Please."

Georgia was left thinking what "child please" actually means as envisioned by Chad Ochocinco, hilarious on FX's "The League" last week, and wondering what else could go wrong before their two, maybe three, best offensive players were back for the rest of the season.

Arkansas fans, which never see the bad with the good, were left overjoyed with Bobby Petrino's second SEC road win and is now an impressive 6-11 in the conference while at Arkansas.

Let's go with the bad and good before getting to No. 1 Alabama coming to town in a week.

• In the first half, the punter was the team's leading rusher with five yards on one bad snap of punt, turned into a carry.
• The rushing game couldn't get anything going, period, and the starting tailback was in negative yards for the game.
• The defensive line could have been rung up for about half a dozen offside penalties, if Georgia's center had just simply snapped the ball. Georgia obviously coached the center not to snap as to not put any more pressure on that freshman quarterback, but other schools won't be so kind.
• The linebackers over pursued on rushing attempts that a decent tailback would have exploited.
• The secondary gave up huge plays in obvious passing situations when Georgia rallied in the fourth quarter to tie it up.
• Arkansas couldn't sustain a drive and the scoring efforts were the result of big plays made because of blown coverage

On to the good:

• Mallett made some huge plays, and especially when his team needed them.
• The special teams are clearly improving with clutch punts and field goals made, and one dazzling punt return for a touchdown that was called back because of a penalty.
• The defense kept Arkansas in the game when it mattered.

Now Alabama is rolling in and as memory serves, this will be one of the rare times a No. 1 team has played in Fayetteville. The hype for this game will be immense and it will truly be on the national stage with CBS making it the 2:30 p.m. kick on Saturday.

For Arkansas to be competitive, the Hogs will need a running back to step up and have at least 100 yards rushing and the team in 140 to 160 range. Mallett will need to roll up yards and touchdowns and the defense will simply have to play better.

The odds makers didn't think Arkansas would beat Georgia and an early suspicion is that they won't think the Hogs can beat Alabama either. A seven point favorite would be one early guess.

If you're going, best that you already have tickets, because this will be one of those times, you won't be able to score some in the parking lot.

Luck of the draw

For the Poolsville players, a shaky 3-2 here, mostly on the strength of two overtime wins. It just as easily could have been 1-4 with Texas the only sure winner in a miserable selection of inconsistent performers and were mostly looking at Clemson here.

Going Nutt-y on the Hill

It seems most Arkansas fans are only complete when the Razorbacks win and Houston Nutt takes one on the chin.

The level of obsession makes even stalkers think it is a little bit weird.

Yes, Ole Miss lost to Vanderbilt on Saturday. The fourth win in six tries, by the way, and here's the thing. If SEC fanbois want to make the argument that the league is the strongest in the country, doesn't it mean that any school can beat any other school on any given Sunday?

So shouldn't a win by a Vanderbilt, or a Kentucky or any other school be expected when they beat a favored opponent in the conference?

The level of cognitive dissonance on this one is astonishing, even for the SEC fanbois. For the Arkansas fanbois, who are still remarkably ignorant on most things SEC even after 18 years, it is taken up to a completely different level. Of course that ignorance seems to be largely of the willful variety.

God is still a Notre Dame fan

Michigan State beat Notre Dame on one of the gutsiest calls of the year, a fake field goal on fourth down and in overtime against the Irish. It led to a touchdown and a wild celebration by the Sparty faithful.

On Sunday, Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio had a heart attack and emergency surgery to fix the problem. He might miss the rest of the season or maybe not. These things, as in the case of Urban Meyer, tend to be fluid.

It would be easy to go with the cheap joke here. Something like God being a Notre Dame fan and we note that we already have, but on a more serious note, calls like Dantonio's are a rare thing and nothing but healthy wishes here.

Around the country

• Iowa lacks the heart of a decent junior high team.
• ESPN is going to ramp up the noise machine for Boise-Oregon State on Saturday, despite better games being out there, but those games aren't broadcast on the ABC/ESPN family of networks. Ah, corporate synergy.
• I love my girlfriend. (She reads the blog, so "Hi, Honey." *waves*) We started watching football at 11 a.m. Saturday and didn't stop until more than 12 hours later and it was all her idea to watch all those games.
• While the hate for Comcast runs deep, all but Stanford was in crystal clear HD as the dreaded cable company has something like a dozen of hi def sports channels.