Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

If Arkansas fans can get a glimpse of a Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine, they wouldn't worry about the difficulty of games with Alabama or LSU, but rather would concern themselves with the Texas A&M matchup in Arlington, Texas. Plenty of reasons abound to fret about the Aggies, to be sure, but in Texas Football's case the magazine says the Aggies should roll against everyone on their schedule except the eventual national champion: A&M's Big 12 rival Oklahoma.

There, an opportunity to chortle twice. Given the chance to consider recent history and the five straight national championships won by the SEC (and 6 out of 8, compared with 1 in the past 10 years for the Big 12) the Texas media see Oklahoma winning it all -- and, get this, over LSU. In the New Orleans Superdome. In New Orleans. Where LSU has won both its national championships in this century and will have 40,000 fans outside the venue unable to get inside where purple-and-gold-clad fans will dominate the sellout crowd.

Back to Texas A&M, though. A&M defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter did wonders in rebuilding the Aggies defense going into the 2010 season, after the likable Joe Kines was retired, and as the year progessed the Ags became almost a poor man's version of the ol' "Wrecking Crew" of the Jackie Sherrill/R.C. Slocum heyday. Arkansas' Ryan Mallett hit the Aggies once for a huge bomb to Cobi Hamilton in the first half, but for most of the rest of the day the Arkansas offense was frustrated when it crossed midfield, and the Hogs were fortunate to escape Cowboys Stadium last October with a 24-17 win.

A&M finally junked whatever it was trying to do with turnover-prone Jerrod Johnson at quarterback in favor of the solid execution of former wideout Ryan Tannehill, and head coach Mike Sherman acquiesced backup running back Cyrus Gray's wishes to start in place of speedy-but-not-nearly-as-bullish Christine Michael, and the A&M offense from the halfway point of the season took off. A&M beat Oklahoma and Texas in the same season, which is a heavenly year for Aggies fans, and only the disappointment of a blowout loss to LSU in the Cotton Bowl sullied Sherman's best march in three years at College Station.

The second game in the Arkansas-A&M series renewal in Arlington was a far cry from that 47-19 Hog romp in 2009. Expect more of what we saw last year for this season and the rest of the 10-year series, as long as Bobby Petrino can at least match A&M's talent haul -- Sherman in three years has beefed up the quality he was left by Dennis Franchione.

A&M will return 10 of 11 defensive starters, but the one who is gone -- NFL draft pick Von Miller, an superb blitzing outside linebacker -- was the guy everyone schemed to beat but seldom succeeded in stopping. The offense will have Tannehill and Gray back, plus wideout Jeff Fuller, who may be better than any of Arkansas' vaunted big four receivers. Fuller made the Hogs' secondary look silly at times in last year's matchup.

But here's where it seems the Texas Football staff and its wealth of writing talent seem to have stopped off too long at the margarita stand: Besides two straight losses to Arkansas in Cowboys Stadium, A&M hasn't beaten Oklahoma State yet in Sherman's short tenure, and the magazine admits Oklahoma will be ready this year for the Aggies. But, the big topper here is: Does anybody seriously believe Texas (yes, TEXAS!) will finish SEVENTH in the 10-team Big 12?

Texas hasn't finished seventh in national recruiting in forever under Mack Brown, so how can the Longhorns be seventh in a middlin', top-heavy conference? Texas, according to these experts, will finish behind the likes of Iowa State and Missouri.

Meanwhile, A&M, now expected to handle Texas these days, will finish second behind Oklahoma and, according to these magazine pages we read over the weekend, "should be favored" when the Aggies play Arkansas. Why? What has A&M done against any comparable program that would lead anyone to write such drivel?

Face it, every state is loaded with homers. Arkansas has plenty. Some people will read our recent Football Preview and throw us in the homer pile.

Alabama? Loaded with homers. Why do you think Alabama was the runaway winner of the recent poll of the SEC media for league champion in the media days held in the middle of the state of Alabama.

Georgia? Homers. Plenty of 'em. Georgia should either win it all or fire Mark Richt; there is no in between over there this year.