Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Very nice image of University of Arkansas running back and Heisman candidate Darren McFadden (anyone heard of this guy yet?) on the front of SI.com right now.

But this is better: DMac on the cover of one of five regional SI print editions, on newsstands this week.

The splash is part of the magazine's annual college preview.

The university points out the rarity of the feat:

McFadden becomes the first Razorback football player to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated since Ben Cowins and Ron Calcagni joined former Arkansas coach Lou Holtz on the cover of the magazine on Sept. 11, 1978. McFadden becomes only the second individual football player to grace the cover by himself in school history. Harry Jones was Arkansas’ first cover boy on Nov. 8, 1965.

SI writer Phil Taylor's feature on McFadden is available here. You can see a slideshow of the other covers here.

Meanwhile, the magazine's Razorbacks preview has little mention of McFadden, except in how he relates to Casey Dick's prospects as quarterback.

And of course there's the standard "nut graf" (if I may misuse an old journalism term for the sake of a bad pun) on Houston Nutt and the off-season drama that led to Dick's installation, almost by default, to that pivotal post:

After an off-season marked by turmoil -- Mustain transferred to USC and offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, who had unconvincingly denied rumors of a power struggle with Nutt over control of the play-calling, left to be a co-coordinator at Tulsa -- Dick emerged as Arkansas's best, and essentially only, option at quarterback.

The complete SI scouting report is available here.