Jermain Taylor: Your 15 Minutes Are Up

With his loss to Kelly Pavlik Saturday night, Jermain Taylor has fallen to a level of mediocrity that he won't soon get out of. The former middleweight champ had most sports fans in this state that don't know a thing about boxing fooled into thinking he was actually pretty good. I watched his early title fights and he can't box. He can survive to the decision better than anyone else in the sport. But when it comes to putting a guy away he can't get it done.
Another thing that cracks me up is all these Arkansas media types who four years ago knew nothing about boxing outside of how Rocky Balboa fared against Ivan Drago now are all of the sudden "experts" on this sport. What they are really experts on is trying to desperately cling to a story to help give central Arkansas some sort of sports identity since all of the interesting sports in the state....the sports people of Arkansas really care about....take place in Fayetteville. Its all about the RAZORBACKS....everything else is just details. I've lived here my entire life and it hasn't changed.
But back to J.T., good luck reviving a dull career. I for one do not want to watch your fights anymore because they bore me. There is nothing you or your entourage can say that will make me want to watch your fights because they are not interesting. I am also tired of hearing everyone say that everytime you lose that the judges "screwed you" and should never be allowed to watch a boxing match ever again.
A buddy of mine said it best, Taylor was not a boxer, he was just a celebrity trying to keep his name out there.
14:58.....14:59......15:00.
Times Up.

Jeff Long Just Did What Frank Broyles Never Could

By getting a huge name coach to come to Arkansas. Frank Broyles never really made a big name hire. Eddie Sutton came from Creighton. Lou Holtz was not known well. Nolan Richardson was at Tulsa, which was a nothing program back then. With his first hire as Athletic Director at Arkansas, Jeff Long didn't just hit it out of the park but past the parking lot and into a nearby creek.
I don't think its an overstatement to say that, other than a National Championship, this is the most significant moment to happen in Razorback athletics.
Bobby Petrino is the perfect guy for this job. He has brought the fans together closer than they have been in a very long time. I have not seen a crowd hang on every word like that in a long time. Every time he stopped a sentence he got applause. Pelphrey didn't even get that kind of welcome.
At 10:30 pm on Tuesday, December 12 everything changed in Fayetteville. This administration is not going to settle for being 7th best in the SEC. There is now a feeling in the air that we can win championships here. Don't be surprised if it happens either.
Way to go Jeff Long on getting the best possible coach to come to the U of A. The worst part is football season is still 9 months away.

UA Shooting For Brad Pitt Has to Settle For Andy Dick

Although the University of Arkansas has the best athletic program in this state, they have one of the worst ones in America. I say this because that's the perception of people outside of this state. Nobody wants to work here, its viewed as a suicide mission. The very second you slip up, the fans will swarm you. Of course, the fans wouldn't have been swarming so much if you haven't had a coach that was have an affair with a TV anchor and having e-mails written to run off players he didn't like.
I ask you...could lightning like the good fortune of finding John Pelphrey happen to the same school in the same year again? It seems very unlikely that for the second time in a year, the fifth or sixth choice candidate could workout as well as Pelphrey has so far. Then again, I guess anything is possible in 2007 in the Razorback Nation.

UA Coaching Search: Nobody Knows Anything...

...Except Jeff Long and a few other elites in the higher ranks at the U of A. Everybody that thinks they have a scoop or have talked to a guy that talked to a guy that was in the McDonald's line behind Tommy Tuberville is WRONG! Truth is nobody knows a thing and generally speaking, these things never are accurately reported until the day before or day that they happen. Check through the recent history of major hirings, the story was broke correctly the day before or the day it happened. No press conference yesterday or today means no news. Everybody stand down.
Nobody wants to jump the gun but that appears to be what has happened. I know people that hunt, and they don't cancel hunting trips for any reason except an extreme emergency. Tuberville isn't coming out of that duck blind anytime soon and when he does, odds are he's going back to Auburn to coach the tigers. I'm not reporting one way or the other, I'm just gonna watch everyone jump out in front of this story too far, then come back with egg on their face when something else happens.
I will say this though, when you have multiple sources that are confirming the same information, as a reporter you have no choice but to run with it. Even if they are all giving you the wrong information, if you get those confirmations its usually a good sign that its true. I don't know any sources or anybody connected to Tommy Tuberville, Jeff Long, or Chancellor White. So I don't know where this onslaught of mis-information came from but I know that it must have been pretty reliable to those that disseminated it because they reported on it.
This thing is starting to get to me and in the end whats it all for? So you can put a promo up that says "we were the first to break this story." Fact is, nobody really cares who says it first or loudest. Viewers, listeners and readers don't care who says it first, all they want is the facts. When we start putting the pressure to be first over getting the story right, we fail ourselves, we fail our organization that we work for and, most importantly, we fail the public. First job here is to inform the public as to what's going on...I don't see why there is such a clamoring to be first just for a silly promo. When the guy is coming, we'll know who it is soon enough. Then we'll have plenty of time to talk about him, his staff and everything else. After all, the 2008 football season is still some 8 months away.
Nobody remembers who was first to report the major events in Arkansas. I have lived in this state my entire life, and I can't tell you who was first to report on the crash of American flight 1408 during that thunderstorm in Little Rock. I can't tell you who was first to report that Bill Clinton would be running for President of the United States. Nor can I tell you who first reported back in 1997 that Houston Nutt would be the head football coach at Arkansas. Nobody remembers who said it first because its not important. Being right, in my view, should always be paramount to being first. Problem is, everybody feels pressure to get it first to "crush the competition" in electronic media. And thats not just TV, I'm talking web, radio and even print to a certain extent but it is getting harder and harder to get a scoop for newspapers given the immediate impact that electronic media can have.
Here's what I would like to see happen. It won't go down this way, but this is how I'd like it to be: Lets all just hang out and wait this thing out, then when Arkansas gets a coach, we can start up the discussion. Until then, unless you know something (and none of you do) keep it quiet.

Houston Nutt Plays the U of A Like A Fiddle!

In the end it might be a win-win situation, angry Hog fans got rid of Houston Nutt and he is laughing all the way to the bank. Nutt duped few by having this job lined up in his back pocket for weeks, maybe months. Who's to say he didn't make a special visit to Ole Miss that Friday night before his team blew out Colonel Reb. Unless White and Long really wanted him to go, Nutt played the U of A into letting him resign and get a good chunk of his buyout, only to let him get a job 15 minutes later with more money. I wouldn't worry about the Nutt family financially right about now. Houston's new home in Oxford might as well have a pool filled with 20's. Nutt and Jimmy Sexton put the screws to the UA and they are both laughing all the way to the bank. How can those of you that supported Nutt still admire him after he did that? And then, to try and take credit for bringing the fan base together. One of the great slimeball moves in Razorback history. I for one am thirlled that Nutt is going to "crawl all the way to Oxford."

Long Will Get His First Hire Right.....I Hope

Make no mistake about it, Jeff Long knows the magnitude of his first official duty as Chancellor of Athletics, or whatever his fancy title is that takes effect January 1. Long knows that hiring this football coach will be the difference in him staying in Fayetteville briefly or being on the hill for a long time. Its a very important task he has been given and I believe he knows that before he officially "takes office" fans could hate him forever if he beefs this up...at least I hope he does.
I must say I am a bit nervous about the one man search committee aspect of this search however. I know there is help for Long behind the scenes if he needs it. John White was the only person that we know was involved in hiring Jeff Long, which we don't know yet how that will work out. Frank Broyles took it upon himself to get a new basketball coach and brought Hog fans Dana Altman....well we know how that ended. After that, John White hired the search firm and John Pelphrey was brought on board. It is very unlikely that someone would "go Altman" on the U of A again, but I think I would feel a bit more comfortable with the search firm being hired yet again.

Hoop Hogs Get Good Early Test vs. Missouri

Wednesday night's game vs. Missouri should be a good benchmark exam for John Pelphrey's Razorback basketball team as they implement his new fast-paced style of play. Mike Anderson learned how to play up tempo ball from the best, Nolan Richardson of course, and his teams both at UAB and Missouri are very good at turning up the intensity. We will really get to see where this team is in learning how to play fast but under control instead of the snail's pace they were playing under Stan Heath.
And one more note on Anderson, I hope that he gets a roaring standing ovation when he is introduced at the game tonight. He deserves it. I think most would agree he should have gotten the Arkansas job after Nolan was let go. Time heals all wounds and I know that I am over the whole "pay me my money" episode from five years ago. Mike Anderson is a great college basketball coach and he helped lead Arkansas to its brightest moments in program history, and for that I think he should get a nice welcome to Bud Walton Arena tonight.