After a day to digest the Hogs' win over North Texas State, or was it the Texas State Armadilloes from the 90's movie Necessary Roughness? Same difference.

The point is you can beat nobody teams like this as much as you want, but you will not get respect from the college football world until you beat real teams. Like Alabama. Like Kentucky. It will be interesting to see how the 'Bama fans react to Nick Satan, I mean Saban, after the Tides' 2nd straight loss.

One can't help but wonder if the true believers still believe Saban is a genius. We are the last team to figure out how to lose to 'Bama, by the way, thanks to Nutt's "clock management".

It won't be too long until we find out if Kentucky is for real also. With Auburn coming to Fayetteville in a couple of weeks, a win there no longer seems like a given with The Tigers winning in Gainesville.

Tonight's lopsided win over the North Texas State Green Weenies or whatever they're called, takes a little pressure of Houston Nutt... for now. But in the long term, it doesn't mean much. This team lost to OU 79-10 earlier and gave up 45 to SMU last week. Rent-a-wins like this one define a teams' season only if it loses them.

Until the Hogs beat a real team of the SEC variety or at least a major conference team, of which there are none on the schedule with Tennessee/Chattanooga next on the menu and the Florida School For The Blind or some such tackling dummy later, this writer remains unconvinced. With Houston Nutt on the sidelines and Casey Dick under center, the 2 non-conference games are the only gimmes left.

The 2 Mississippi schools are certainly beatable and Auburn is a winnable game, but the Tigers' win in "the swamp" tonight proves they can win on the road. You know the Hogs will get outcoached against South Carolina and winning at Knoxville is something no Hog coach except Joe Kines has ever done, so 7 or 8 wins looks to be how the season will shake out.

You notice I didn't mention LSU, which will beat us like a drum in Red Stick like they usually do.

The question is: will 8 wins get the team in the Cotton Bowl vs. a Big 12 also-ran? Against this soft schedule, anything less than 8 wins is a bad year. If the Hogs do spend New Year's Day in "Big D", will history repeat itself? You know. Ken Hatfield coached the Hogs in the CB against Tennessee on Jan. 1, 1990, then split for Clemson without even bothering to visit the campus.

It is my belief that Nutt will not be fired. Broyles will leave any major moves like that to Jeff Long, surely. I mean, the Boss Hog has let Houston go this long without being accountable. Do you really think he would fire his boy on his way out the door? I don't. And I don't believe Jeff Long will want to make such a major move that soon in his reign. I believe HDN will take his ball and go to whatever team will have him. He wouldn't have to be that highly paid to make more than his settlement amount at UA.

What with Hillis, Monk, D-Mac and probably Felix leaving, the cupboard will be less than bare next season resulting in a subpar season which would surely make the Nuttcracker Suite a hit. So, why stick around another season to get fired when you could make a new start somewhere else? We can hope. In my opinion, such a parting would benefit both sides and allow a healing of the divisions in Hog Nation.

Houston Nutt is obviously starting to feel the heat with petulant comments the last 2 days such as: "the players and coaches want to win 10 times as much as anybody else" and " I put more pressure on myself than anybody else can".

Ok, let's address the first one. While it's true the players and coaches go through sweltering practices in August, etc., they don't have to pay to get in the games. They don't have to pay for a motel for at least one night per game, much less 2. They don't have to pay $4 for a soda and fight the traffic, walk a mile to their seats.

Mr. Nutt needs to be reminded that the FANS pay the freight or there would be no college football, at least not as we know it. We, the FANS pay his bloated salary whether in the form of tax dollars, ticket sales or contributions to the Razorback Foundation. If there were not 70,000 plus people in the stands for games, does he really think he would still have a job?

People from all corners of this state make the drive from places like McGehee, Paragould, and Texarkana, not to mention other states, to see the same predictable offense, the same boneheaded coaching decisions, and hear the same excuses after losses.

I don't think it's asking too much for a Head Coach making $1.2 million a year in one of the poorest states in the U.S. to level with the fans and tell us the TRUTH. We don't expect the man to tell us the game plan or info that would help opponents. We do have the right to hold the staff accountable when they give us mealy-mouthed used-car-salesman double talk about "there's no dissension on the staff, nothing could be further from the truth". Then we see coaches defect to smaller schools for less money. Then we hear "Mitch hasn't decided what he's going to do, he's just weighing his options" and he announces he's leaving almost immediately.

We're told Nutt knew nothing about the infamous Teresa Prewitt email until after the Bowl game, then we see evidence to the contrary. Why should we believe anything Houston Nutt says when he has been caught in so many lies? When he utters his favorite catchphrase "nothing could be further from the truth", hold on tight to your wallet, he's getting ready to tell a whopper.

You can get away with a lot with the people of Arkansas, but lying repeatedly over a period of time is not one of them.

One thing about being an Arkansas Razorback fan, with a coach named "Nutt", a Quarterback named "Dick" and the former QB having been named "Johnson", you're bound to be the butt of a few jokes. Last year with Danny Nutt on the staff as running backs coach, there were 2 Nutts and 1 Dick. Now with D. Nutt having resigned for health reasons and with the addition of Casey Dick's younger brother Nathan as a back-up Quarterback, the reverse is true. So much for the Hog being anatomically correct.

Anyway, here are a few Houston Nutt jokes for your enjoyment.

What do a hot fudge Sundae and razorback football have in common? They would both be better without the "nutts"!

Did you know that Houston Nutt has already picked out his Halloween costume? He was advised, by text message of course, to choose something that no one would ever think of him as. So he's going to the Halloween party as a football coach.

Included is a pic from an email I received, entitled "Hoot wants to be a millionaire". Enjoy.

It was fairly quiet on the Nutt front today. No finger-pointing, excuse-making or the like. Mainly fallout from Danny Nutt's presence in the coaches box with headsets. It's hard to believe that Danny and his brother didn't know that it would be against the rules of the SEC or NCAA, since there is a limit to the number of coaches.

"He was just watchin' the game" said Houston in his Sunday presser. So he couldn't do that from the 50 yard line or on the sidelines away from the team? What's next, Teresa Prewitt with headsets in the box? One never knows, she could be calling Mitch Mustain at his new number in L.A., asking if he has Prince Albert in a can.

Nuttcase has really outdone himself with his comments from Monday concerning Michael Smith. Comparing a fumble to using a stolen credit card....Asinine. "Throwing Smith under the bus" just as he did Casey Dick after the 'Bama loss after he constantly tells the players not to point fingers? Disgusting. "Don't say I confess, it was your fault" he tells them. What a hypocrite!

Reggie Herring and even David Lee have taken responsibility for their units, but not Houston Nutt. He never takes responsiblity for anything but victories. "I called that play, Chuck"!

It appears HDN's nose has grown even more with the claim that he cleared brother Danny to be in the coaches' box last Sat. Now the SEC office says that was not the case and bars D. Nutt from the box and the team area on the sidelines. It could have been a misunderstanding, but I doubt it, given the track record for truthfulness on the Hill the last couple of years.

As if Houston Nutt didn't have enough problems, what with being up to his backside in alligators without Florida even being on the schedule, now this. The arrest of one Michael Smith for felony forgery after using a stolen credit card to buy $96 worth of goods or services at 3 convenience stores.

Yes, the same Michael Smith who fumbled Kentucky back into last Saturdays' game right before the half, turning a possible 23 or 27 to 7 lead into 20-13. Then there was the injury to Crosby Tuck, the only Hog receiver to score a touchdown thus far this season.

To add insult to injury, Nutt was booed lustily late in the Kentucky game and is being roundly criticized on talk shows and the internet. Both Reggie Herring and David Lee stepped up and took responsibilty for their units' struggles, something the Head Coach has never done, unless I missed it.

According to Noah Trister of the Tulsa World, Houston Nutt told the team after the Hogs lost at home to Kentucky, "I told them there's going to be a lot of negativity, so just blame it on me". How noble of Nuttcase! If the sackcloth and ashes fit, by all means, wear them, but spare us the martyr talk.

I know Marcus Monk's injury has hurt the team, no doubt. I also know that Monk is the only receiver Nutt and his staff has developed in several years. Whose fault is that? Whose fault is it that we haven't had a QB who was respectable enough as a passer to keep opposing defenses honest since Clint Stoerner? Stoerner was recruited by Danny the Dinosaur, by the way.

Nutt always wants to use injuries as an excuse. It should be noted that UK played most of the 2nd half with a third-string true freshman at tailback and outrushed UA in the second half.

Injuries are a huge part of the game of football for everyone. They are why major college football programs have an allotment of 85 players on scholarship. Every team gets bad calls at times. And how long did Nutt use the NCAA probation as an excuse?

For years, every time the Hogs would lose a game, the probation would get longer as far as how many years it "killed recruiting". Speaking of which, if we were "getting killed" in recruiting, why not say it on Signing Day instead of only bringing it up following a loss?

Another Saturday night, another head-scratching loss for the Hogs. Once again, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Some say the team never recovered from the fumble return for a TD right before the half, but the Hogs led by 8 after the Felix Jones kickoff return and the Tejada PAT and appeared to have recaptured momentum.

The bonehead penalty in the kicking game giving UK a 2nd chance was critical. Many will point to #41, Ryan Powers, but he was knocked into the kicker by Michael Grant. Of course, Powers did have several busts on the night, looking more like Austin Powers than an SEC linebacker at times.

Bob Davey pointed out from the booth that most teams don't rush from both ends on the FG defense team for just that reason. UA isn't most teams, playing "Nutt-ball", a strange brand of football in which you seldom throw over the middle of the field, preferring 2-5 yard flare passes to the backs.

In Nutt-ball the defense plays bump and run man to man defense, or tries to, no matter whether the DB's are capable of staying with the opposing WR's or not. Usually not. After taking a 20-7 lead late in the first half, the Razorbacks got outscored 35-9.

Since the thumping of Tennessee last Nov. 11, the Hogs are 2-5 with the wins coming against Mississippi St. and Troy St., both of which were lackluster. That's 5 losses in the last 6 games, for those of you keeping track. That's 10 straight seasons in which the Hogs have lost the next week after the first conference loss, a streak of which Nutt said he wasn't aware of but one "we're gonna break".

I'm sure the injuries to some receivers will serve as Nutt's excuse, something he has a seemingly bottomless well of. In fact, his list of excuses is even longer than the list of phone calls, emails and text messages to a certain TV personality last winter."The SEC is haaaaaaaaaard" he likes to say. He might say the same of keeping his job after all the controversy in the offseason followed by losing football games.

Like the old saying "you reap what you sow" Houston Nutt's chickens seem to be coming home to roost. With all the lies and deceptions in the Malzahn-Mustain Springdale situation, the email scandal involving a close family friend sending scathing emails to a player and the retirement of his surogate Daddy on Dec. 31, HDN's days at UA may be numbered. At least many fans can hope.

It's Friday and the night in the fall normally reserved for the High Schoolers. (So why isn't Houston Nutt coaching tonight?) Anyway, Tulsa is hosting OU on the deuce, hanging with them fairly well, although the Sooners' superior athletes and massive size difference is starting to tell from the middle of the 2nd quarter on.

Gus Malzahn's offense looks pretty good, but can't run a lick. You know, the problem I had with his tenure at UA was not the fact that we didn't run his offense. You don't throw, throw and throw some more with that #5 back there. No, my objection to the whole mess was the lies that were told to get Gus and 4 of the Springdale 5 on board. Lies and deception.

Every time rumors would surface about dissension on the staff, Nuttcase would trot out his favorite cliche "nuthin' could be further from the truth". When he says that, keep both hands on your wallet and check for missing silverware, 'cause that's one of the surefire ways to tell when HDN's lying.

When John White appointed Nuttsack to investigate himself over that email that White said made him want to take a shower, let's just say the Three Stooges of the UA administration should have been fired. Houston has told at least 2 different stories on that deal, claiming in one that it had been handled before White stepped in. In the other version he had the gall to say he didn't know about the email even though he had talked to "Mother" Teresa Prewitt many times in the interim and his wife Diana had forwarded the email to many people , including most of the other coaches' wives.

Nutt should have nipped other coaches calling Gus "High School" in the bud, but did nothing. I know this is all old news, but when you can tell someone is lying whenever their lips are moving, any respect I ever had for the man was destroyed. It's kind of ironic, Nutt and his cronies calling a coach "High School". That, or something similar is how our staff is regarded by most opposing coaches.

It has been said that "victory has many Fathers, while defeat is an orphan". Houston Nutt has always been at the head of the line, claiming credit for wins while pointing the finger at players or alibiing about injuries in defeat. The probation of a few years ago was used as an excuse for what, 7 years?

As I tell more people about my new blog (it's sorta new) one of the most common responses is: how do you come up with something to write about every day? In the soap opera that UA Athletics has become, it's not that hard.

Like Will Rogers once said "it's easy being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you" and it's the same with the "gang that couldn't (wouldn't) shoot straight", otherwise known as the UA administration. John White has to be the most out of touch individual in the universe, unless George W. Bush or Frank Broyles trumps him. UA has come to stand for Under Achievers in athletics, with only the facilities, fan support, and salaries of the coaches being more than mediocre.

I never have been one to keep up with soap operas, but even I know who Victor of The Young and the Restless is. It seems to this blogger that he is the most like Houston Nutt of any of the male soap stars. Nutt's ability to escape accountability at any and every turn in spite of mediocre records in 5 of his 9 seasons, with 2 good records and 2 bad ones, shows he is even more of a broken field runner than DMac. And that's plenty impressive, unless you're a Hog fan.

By that I mean, DMac and the other players only have to put up with him for 3-5 years, while we fans are wondering if his is a lifetime appointment like the Supreme Court. If Daddy Frank hadn't been pushed out, it may well have been. Or at least until Houston ran out of chapstick or the inclination to kiss the Head Hog's backside.

You may think that's harsh unless you're a hardcore "Nutt-Hater", but how else do you explain Nutt's being the only coach in well over half a century to survive 2 consecutive losing seasons with not only his job intact, but getting raises as well? The way he and his flesh-peddler agent played Lindsey and Broyles for that 2 year "free pass" should prove beyond any doubt that the Used Car Salesman comparison often used to describe Nuttcase is valid. Sorry, salesmen. Pre-Owned car salesman. See what I mean?

That phrase has taken root in our sensibilities in this PC world we live in, where like 1984, up is down and down is up. In fact, the UA was one of 229 Colleges and Universities nationwide cited for suppressing First Amendment rights in a recent study. I wrote an article last January on the subject if you would like more information. It is a disgrace that an Alma man was treated like a criminal last season for wearing a T-shirt unflattering to Houston Nutt on the parking lot. Especially since the shirts contained only facts about Nutt's record at UA and a cartoon of Nutt.

As if that wasn't enough, Thomas McAfee of Searcy was given the gestapo treatment over requesting Nutt's phone records under the FOI, which is anyone's right to do, regardless of motive

As for the soap opera that has gone on at UA for the last 6-8 years, the administration has only itself to blame for allowing Nutt free reign while his boss was asleep at the wheel. For all Broyles' accomplishments, and they are considerable, the only worthwhile thing he has done since the dawn of the new millenium is the overhaul of the football stadium. Once that was completed JFB would have been better served to ride off into the sunset. And so would Razorback fans.

In today's Stephens Media newspapers, there was an article by Ryan Malashock (is his name really Malshock and that is justHDN's pronounciation?) about how in the Houston Nutt era at UA, the first SEC loss has been followed by another loss in the next game in all 9 seasons of Nutt's reign of error.

In the article, Nuttcase claims he didn't know about the trend. It kind of reminds me of the late Paul Eels asking Danny the Dinosaur late in his regime about being outscored something like 97-10 in the third quarter of the Hogs' games that season. The Ford who didn't have a better idea, or any ideas, really, didn't know about it. It would have interfered with his playing the stock market, I guess.

Anyway, the article ends up with a quote from the Hogs' fearful leader: "I'm not worried about that, it's brand-new news to me. I've never known that stat. I hate that I even heard it. But you know what, now that I have, we're going to break it". Sounds like a guarantee of victory to me. I figure it will take 40 points or so to win this one for either team. I've heard some Hog fans saying things like "Kentucky 'don't' have a defense", etc. Am I missing something? Did the Hogs not just give up 41 points to a team Vandy held to 24?

Remember all those H. Nutt speeches about not pointing fingers? Well, it seems the 40/29 co-anchors' favorite coach pointed the finger right at Casey Dick in the aftermath of Saturday's loss to Alabama. He was told, said Nutt, to run if Robert Johnson wasn't wide open and Dick responded by throwing into tight double coverage. Lucky it wasn't intercepted. Imagine the email he might have received from "Mother" Teresa Prewitt, especially if he didn't take the blame for his coach like a good little soldier.

Speaking of soldiers, pray tell Diana Nutt, how does one enlist in the "Army of Haters to the North"? Does it require moving to Springdale? I suspect recruiting for that Army is going swimmingly after the loss, but it isn't necessary to live north of Fayetteville.

Nutt has always been quick to take credit after wins (I called that play, Chuck!) and blamed officials, players, or simply made excuses such as injuries, etc. after losses. He even had the gall to say that 'Bama was "fortunate" to win the game. In some ways they were, but has he forgotten all those missed kicks by the Tide's 2nd string kicker last season? But that didn't keep Coach Rah-Rah from elbowing the band director out of the way to lead the band did it?

Nuttcase has a very selective memory and has always acted as if the Hogs are the only team that ever has injuries. He bristled when told of former coach Lou Holtz's comments about his clock management, or mismanagement in this case, but who was the better coach? Don't answer that, it isn't at all necessary.

Our boy is at it again. Finding ways to lose football games, I mean. By snatching defeat from the jaws of victory for the 4th time in the last 5 games, Ol' H outdid himself. Of course the lone win in that time was against mighty Trojan State, excuse me, Troy State. I was thinking about their leaky defense, although their offense slipped by the Hogs for 26 points.

While we're on the subject of phalluses, how about those 4 straight Dick incompletions vs. LSU on the Hogs' last possession? Then the Florida fiasco, led by Reggie Fish, who would never make it on the FLW tour, after all, you've gotta catch something before you can release it.

Then the What's In Your Wallet Bowl, (oops, another Trojan reference) giveaway in which the Hog hat was trumped (speaking of Dicks) by the Cheeseheads due to a totally inept offensive "performance" featuring a 4th down pass to a guy who's now a starting guard. Only Houston Nuttcase would move a player from guard to fullback and back again.

The game was about as exciting as watching an Amish cheese-grating contest, with the Badger offense being the slowest I've seen in probably 20 years. The term "running back" was definitely a misnomer for PJ Hill, who moved like a Pachyderm Jogging, maybe that's what it stands for, but he wasn't standing much, mostly Hill was at the bottom of a pile 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

Now, the peanut of SEC coaches got outcoached by Nick Satan. No surprise there, we expected that. What we didn't expect was the boneheaded clock management on the 3rd and 12. Where was Felix Jones, first of all? Secondly, if we had run the ball, and kept it in bounds, 'Bama, with no time outs, would have had no more than 1:30 or so on the clock to go over 70 yards.

You know the worst part of all this, besides losing the game, of course? The usual fawning and excuse-making by the Arkansas sports media. Harry King of Stephens Media, who becomes more of a hack all the time, had a sub-headline of "Saban Nearly Outsmarts Self". Huh? Who outsmarted whom? Of course, outsmarting Houston Nutt is about as challenging for an SEC coach as outscoring Paris Hilton on an IQ test.

Clay Henry, the Speak No Evil to King's See No Evil and Chuck Barrett's Hear No Evil troica almost topped that with: "Razorbacks Refuse To Give In To Tide". I know Henry is the big cheese of Nutts Illustrated, but what have these guys been smoking? Or have they just been inhaling the smoke coming out of Houston's cellphone?