Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

It was one of the most intense and closely watched recruiting sagas ever at the University of Arkansas: Would Parade All-American Player of the Year and Springdale quarterback Mitch Mustain commit to playing for Coach Houston Nutt and the Razorbacks? Mustain marched through the 2005 high school season, winning the state championship and not losing a game under the guidance of Gus Malzahn, and fans wondered - over and over again, on bulletin boards and on radio talk shows - whether Mustain would keep his talents behind that imaginary fence Houston Nutt had set up around the state's border or would he really take his God-given talents off to some horrid place like Texas?

The past five years have seen events that no Hog fan could ever have imagined back in the Spring of '06. The Razorbacks did go to a BCS bowl with a homegrown quarterback, but it was Louisville's Bobby Petrino and Michigan commitment Ryan Mallett who led the way there. Houston Nutt is now the coach at Ole Miss. His former assistant coach, brought on perhaps as an enticement to Mustain, now has an NCAA National Championship ring. And Mustain? The Parade All-American? He's not where many expected him to be after five years.

Ending his college career as a back-up quarterback at Southern California, Mustain did not hear his name called in last week's NFL Draft, though he did participate in workouts under the watchful eyes of NFL coaches. He wasn't even mentioned in Monday night's United Football League draft. Perhaps the Argonauts will come calling. Perhaps he could even become a member of the reserve squad in Dallas. Maybe he'll find a State Farm franchise to call his own in Orange County.

Many thought Mustain would have a chance at playing in the pro's, going under the "Rule of Cassel" that playing back-up at a powerhouse school was more valuable than being a big fish in a small pond. But an embarassing bust last February in which Mustain was taken into custody for selling Adderall online (it wound up not being Adderall) and released later with charges dropped may have forced NFL teams to keep their distance. If Ryan Mallett's stock dropped him from a first-round to third-round pick because of unsubstantiated rumors, who knows what those L.A. headlines did to Mustain?

At any rate, Mustain in 2011 isn't where many thought he'd be in 2006. Maybe hopes were too high. Maybe circumstance and fate made a bigger difference in his playing career than anyone could have imagined. The good news for Mustain is that he's still young and he still has plenty of talent. And maybe in five years, Mitch Mustain will find himself in a more stable situation than the one he is in right now.