Hello Dallas, Bye Bye Houston.

The Hogs are Cotton Bowl bound after crushing LSU's National Championship hopes in a 50-48 triple-overtime win in Baton Rouge.

Against pretty much the best defense team in the nation, the Razorbacks put up 513 yards total, with 388 of those on the ground in the "Battle for the Boot."

The LSU Tigers have not allowed a 100 yard rusher all season.
Darren McFadden had 206. And 3 touchdowns. And one TD throw.

What's a guy got to do to win a Heisman around here?
As amazing as he was, it was a team effort. LSU had no answer to the triumvirate of McFadden-Jones-Hillis. Along with D-Mac's 3 touchdowns, Hillis had 3, and Jones was crucial in OT, running in the final 2-point conversion.

Poor wikkle tigers.
Lose their title hopes, and most likely their coach to the Wolverines.

Speaking of...Sorry Houston. You've pulled out the biggest win of your Arkansas career, but you're still out. All that this proves is your inconsistency. I wish you well, but (as a UA student and Razorback fan) I'm not sorry to see you go. Well done, but...holla' atcha boy.

But that's for later. Until then, I'll see you guys at the Cotton Bowl.

Word on the Street

The word on the street is that Tennessee quieted McFadden. Everyone is saying that, but Darren went out and got 117 yards on a day when the offense wasn't doing much. While 117 yards is 42 yards below Dmac's avg yards/game, it is still higher than what any other running back averages on a game day with another SEC team.

Knowshon Moreno - 106.29
Felix Jones - 90.17
Terry Grant - 87.57
Arian Foster - 85.33
Ben-Jarvus Green-Ellis - 81.33
Anthony Dixon - 80.33
Tim Tebow - 73.38 (though he does lead all other backs in TDs with 16)

Barkley vs. Bavetta Heisman Watch

Right now you really are down to 5 Heisman Candidates: Tim Tebow, Darren McFadden, Dennis Dixon, Matt Ryan, and Mike Hart. Possible Darkhorse, Pat White.

I'm gonna break down what has to happen for each of these candidates to win the coveted BvB Heisman which has way more value and homerism than the real award delivered in New York every December.

The current BvB standings are:

1. Dennis Dixon
2. Tim Tebow
3. Darren McFadden
4. Matt Ryan
5. Mike Hart

Dennis Dixon needs to keep winning. With games left at Arizona and UCLA with a home game against Oregon St. It seems very possible for the Ducks to make it to 11-1 with a berth to the title game or the Rose Bowl. Of the 5 candidates, His team is the best team and highest ranked in the country. If all 5 candidates stay undefeated and Dixon's injury doesn't affect him, then he will be the winner.

Tim Tebow needs to keep scoring and winning. If the gators drop any of their remaining three games, Tebow is out. If the Florida Defense can't keep the Gamecock offense off the field next week, Tebow will have to take the game over and keep scoring. If that happens, it will be a huge bonus to his chances, but Tebow may be out of luck if no one knocks off the ducks. If Oregon loses or if Dixon doesn't perform then Tebow will be able to beat out the rest of the candidates.

Darren McFadden knows what it is like to get close to that trophy. He has had a tough time getting healthy this season, and a tougher time being able to help his team win. The strange thing is Spurrier is right, if McFadden doesn't get his bell rung in that Alabama game, and if his ribs stayed healthy the hogs could be undefeated and sitting atop the BCS right now. Darren needs close games to help his Heisman hopes. The razorbacks can't jump out to 3 score leads that they hold the whole game or Nutt is going to bench his bread and butter and save him for the rest of the season. Tennessee is a team he can perform well against statistically and pulling a win out of knoxville will help him. He needs a monster game against LSU and somehow pulling out a victory to put himself ahead of the other candidates. A 5-3 conference record could be just the thing to put him on top, but once again Dixon winning will be insurmountable.

Matt Ryan really hurt himself this weekend. After a bad statistical performance against Virginia Tech and the 3 interceptions and loss to FSU, he might be done for. Clemson and Miami might be tough games, too. Boston College has slipped to 8 in the BCS, but Matt Ryan won't get the Heisman unless he has some more Boston Magic like the magic that gave Flutie the award in 1984. It will take a lot of faltering by the other candidates before Ryan comes up with it.

Mike Hart has been quietly working against the 0-2 start the Wolverines experienced. His yardage has been better than McFadden's, but his competition inferior. With only one 200 yard outing, he has been consistent and has had 100 yard games in all 8 games he's played in. With only 2 more games to perform in he is going to need a huge performance to get into Heisman contention. Not to mention the fact that he has so many players ahead of him that might fail. Without a huge performance against Wisconsin or Ohio St. he won't even get invited.

BigFootFool's prediction for the Heisman winner: Darren McFadden

Here's the scoop, Dennis Dixon's knee will hamper him more than he thinks, and while the Ducks will win out limited playing time and poor performances against Arizona and UCLA will leave him behind. Tim Tebow has monster stats, but a loss to South Carolina will put the gators off any chance at an SEC championship game and will derail his heisman hopes. Darren McFadden will put up 200 yard games against Tennessee and Mississippi St. At LSU, whether the hogs will win or not won't matter as Darren will have a stiff arm against Glen Dorsey that gets played so often on Sportscenter the voters won't be able to get McFadden out of their head. Darren wins by the narrowest margin in voting history.

Darren McFadden is Arkansas

The Razorbacks were able to win their 2nd conference game against their every year opponent South Carolina on Saturday night with help from Darren McFadden and his 321 rushing yards. What a beast!

He is pictured here (courtesy of ESPN.com) with head coach Houston Nutt celebrating the 48-36 win.

Darren McFadden can credit a lot of this great day on the ground for him to the offensive line, but I think having Felix Jones being a credible threat running on the outside during 16 plays where McFadden took the snap and handed off or faked to jones who amassed over 160 yards and 3 touchdowns himself.

The hogs gained bowl eligibility with this win and while they are not mathematically eliminated from a share of the SEC west game, they are playing for respectability, for their Seniors, and for Heisman chances of Darren McFadden. Some people might say they are playing for their coach, and that is completely respectable. They are closer to their coach and they may see the things in a different light than the fans.

This is a great day to celebrate and later this week I will be posting a Barkleyvs.bavetta exclusive interview with outgoing Athletic Director, Frank Broyles.

Now I'll post my favorite Steve Spurrier post game quotes.

"[Arkansas] guys can block,” he said. “They know how to block, which is what linemen are supposed to do. Someday we’re going to have some blockers around here.”

“They didn’t need to throw [11 passes]. … To sum up the game, they pitch the ball to [McFadden ]. He drops it, hits the ground, rolls around a little bit, he picks it up, lobs it in the end zone and we can’t knock it down. And their guy outfights us for the ball. When those kind of things happen, shoot, I don’t know what you can do as a coach except just say, ‘Hey, those other guys just want it more or are better than you or superior up front. ’”

" It looked like a Division III team playing a SEC team, " Spurrier said. " I think the Division III team could have made more plays [on defense] than we did. "

“Arkansas should be a three-touchdown favorite over Tennessee next week.” “ Now I’m just going on two games [against Tennessee last week and Arkansas on Saturday ], but it probably won’t be [a 21-point spread ], ” Spurrier said. “Arkansas is a dang good team, but obviously a lot more physical and stronger than we are.”

This last quote is from Alabama Safety Rashad Johnson when asked if the LSU game was the most physical game he'd been in this season. “I don’t think it was the most physical,” he said. “I think the most physical game I’ve played in since I’ve been here was the Arkansas game. Those guys are really physical.” Rashad Johnson is a Junior for the Tide.

Yabba Dabba Doooo!

"You'll have a gay old time"

Hogs Running Backs Darren and McFadden showed off their halloween costumes in the student union yesterday and plan to seel the uniforms for charity. The two razorbacks were greeted by media and student and a surprisingly large number of Betty and Wilma costumes were then sold at every costume store in fayetteville by eager young girls hoping to make millions off the future pro stars in child support.

SEC Arkansas vs. South Carolina preview

Casey Dick always will hold the South Carolina game dear to his heart. Maybe it's not as gay as that, but his freshman year, Houston Nutt opened the floodgates by removing the redshirt as everywhere someone was trying to come up with the raunchiest way of saying "Dick to replace Johnson for Nutt against Cocks!" While he was mediocre in that first game, Razorback fans were more excited to see someone more like a gunslinger out there. His replacement of Mitch Mustain in 2006 to the tune of 11/19 for 228 yards(which is still his career high) wasn't bad, but it was Darren McFadden's career high 219 yards and 2 touchdowns that gave the hogs the lead that they wouldn't lose.

The Gamecock Defense is improved over last year going from 9th in the conference to 5th in the conference, but the rush defense has gotten a little worse. Darren McFadden and Felix Jones look to run hogwild over the Cocks, but with Darren McFadden injured and Wide Reciever Marcus Monk below full strength it looks like this game could be decided by the running games. though Blake Mitchell has never had spectacular games against the hogs, his 2nd half comeback nearly broke the hogs until Darius Vinnet picked him off to seal the game for the razorbacks.

The keys to the game will be defense. How well South Carolina can stack the line to stop the run and how well Arkansas secondary can cover the pass. Arkansas started off the season ranked 10th in total defense, but in the month of October the hogs were 1st in defense as they fed on a steady diet of cupcakes, a low scoring game with Auburn, and the most pathetic team in the SEC, Ole Piss.

The other question will be if Casey Dick can throw it well enough. The hogs might be in trouble if they have to see this too much.

Bigfootfool Game Prediction

South Carolina 31
Arkansas 17

Arkansas may have been able to move the ball against Ole Miss, but that doesn't mean squat. The razorbacks passing defense was lucky enough to scare Auburn from attacking the secondary and forced them to use the ground game. With a wily coach on the other sideline like Nick Saban expect the Gamecocks to be able to score against this defense. All of the defensive momentum the razorbacks have is false belief and this game will expose them. South Carolina's defense is one of the best in the league and with Darren McFadden's sore ribs, expect them to beat him around the corner and drop him for loss.

JTExperience Game Prediction:

I think you give these defenses too little credit. I see this a slugfest, much like the Auburn game. S.C. is coming off a tough loss to the Vols, and the Razorbacks have turned the corner. D-Mac might not be at full strength, but Felix is teabagging dudes all over the place. The way I see it:

Arkansas 20
S.C. 16

Go Hogs. Beat Cocks.

Another 4th Quarter Let Down

Actually the whole game was kind of a let down, but for the first time this season the razorback defense looked good. Thanks to some dropped passes in the 1st quarter, Tuberville was glad to let his tailbacks work the ground game with his 3-0 lead. While on the other side of the ball the name of the game was 3 and out. The razorback offensive line could not move the Tigers away from the line of scrimmage and let 2 sometimes 3 defenders into the back field to wrap up McFadden for loss or no gain. The play calling seems somewhat at fault as the razorbacks continuously went for the same zone pulls and rarely varied the running game.

It was good solid defensive football for 3 quarters, but when push came to shove, Casey Dick put together a scoring drive with Lucas Miller falling into the endzone to put the hogs up 7-6 on an Alex Tejada Field Goal. Then special teams came back to bite the hogs in the ass when Brian Vavra gave the Tigers excellent field position to start their drive down to the 3 yard line and a Field Goal.

The hogs are lacking in identity and need to post a win this week over Ole Miss to hope for a bowl game and Houston Nutt better hope for the same or all of those job leads he's been searching out might come in handy when Jeff Long shows him the door.

Darren McFadden: The Heisman Candidacy might be over. Even the best offensive player in college football couldn't help his team against the stingy Auburn Defense. Breaking to school record in a game where you only have 43 yards is awful. Was that the Elephant in the stadium that kept you so shutdown? Were you afraid of Ben Cowins? Darren. You're gonna get drafted by an NFL team that is going to have an offensive line on par with what the razorbacks did this weekend. If you're going to start veering away from collisions, you might wanna wait until you're in the NFL and you have your money!

Auburn at Arkansas

Two underachievers line up this saturday in the 'ville. While Auburn has bounced back from a 2-2 (0-1) start, the hogs are trying to get their first win in the SEC. The hogs have gone 0-4 in their last 4 SEC games.

While Auburn gave Florida the finger, taking a W from the swamp, and torching Vandy 35-7, the Hogs have been feasting on the sunbelt and UT-Chatt to try and regain their strength. The hogs let pony boy Andre Woodson escape from F-town with a win and hope that their defense can finally stand up and stop the Cox, but more importantly the Auburn running game. Auburn returned Brad Lester to the lineup last week after he sat out the first 5 games for undisclosed Academic reasons (Football players go to class?).

Projected to be the Tigers/Eagles #1 running back at the beginning of the season he now returns to the tune of 13 carries for 77 yards and 2 TDs in his debut. He somewhat relieved the much maligned passing game headed up by Brandon Cox who went 14/17 with a TD and an INT. Brad Lester was one of the bright spots in last years 27-10 loss to the hogs in which he had some great kickoff returns one for 68 yards.

The hogs defensive backs are just hoping not to have a repeat of the last time Cox came into Fayetteville, when he threw for over 200 yards and 3 TDs.

This game will come down to defense, and the hogs just don't have it. While both teams are very different than the 35-27 victory I predicted for the tigers early in the season, I think the score will still be the same. While the hogs seemed to play a really solid game against North Texas's High School team, they suffered a let down in the Rock and didn't play up to their potential.

With DMac in the backfield, the hogs can beat anyone, but the offensive play calling must improve and the defense must get a few stops. Against Kentucky, the hogs continually gave up on defense and bailed the Kentucky offense out with offsides penalties and more.

Auburn 35-27 over the hogs.

Sad Stats

He's the King. Even Bama Fans agree, but there is a reason why you haven't see this pose from D-Mac very much this year. Arkansas ranks 3rd in overall Rushing Offense(yards). They have only put 6 of those 154 attempts into the end zone. Darren McFadden is Number 1 in most Heisman polls and #1 in the NCAA in rushing yards. Rushing TDs? He's got 31 guys ahead of him. He has guys like Omar Haugabook from Troy in front of him. Ray Rice has 8 TDs and Darren McFadden has 4. The team is struggling to put the ball into the end zone, and that is why they rank 57th in rushing TDs(behind Hawaii) and that is why they are 0-2 in SEC play.

Arkansas vs. Kentucky was a game of Arkansas apparently manhandling Kentucky in the 1st half 20-7 until a Micheal Smith fumble made it 20-14. The truth behind that is two field goals, a Defensive TD on Kentucky's first offensive play, and a 56 yard zig zag TD by Darren McFadden. The other TD of the game was a Special Teams takeback by Felix Jones.

Arkansas has a team coming to town that is in the same boat as them. North Texas ranks 5th in passing Offense with 378 yards/game, but they have only put the ball in the end zone 5 times! A large part of that is the 9 interceptions they've thrown. They rank 65th in passing TDs.

David Lee and the Arkansas offense needs one focus for this week. End zone

What We Know About the SEC: Post Week 4

Alabama
What we know: Saban came to play. The tide are trying to start rolling again
What we don't know: What will happen when they play the cream of the SEC against LSU
What we don't want to know: What Alabama Fans will do when the Tide wins the Iron Bowl this year.

Arkansas
What we know: The hogs can't play defense. Sure they have a safety, but so does Akron.
What we don't know: At what point will Darren McFadden just quit and declare for the draft.
What we don't want to know: Where Houston Nutt will coach after new AD Jeff Long fires him.

Auburn
What we know: Brandon Cox has completely lost it.
What we don't know: Auburn fans never seem to get really down on their team after a loss. If they fade to the bottom of the SEC West will any of them notice? Kodi Burns?
What we don't want to know: If the Auburn Mascot is an Eagle or a Tiger.

Florida
What we know: TIMMY
What we don't know: If the Florida Gators can win against a real defense.
What we don't want to know: Another Florida National Championship, making it 4 in a row in the college sports that matter.

Georgia
What we know: Georgia fans love to make a big deal over a 26-23 "trampling" of a Recovering Alabama Team.
What we don't know: If Matt Stafford can keep making a deficient team around him "better"
What we don't want to know: Another Georgia let down at home.

Kentucky
What we know: This team can play offense, and apparently defense holding Darren McFadden to 9 yards on 3 carries to force a punt for the Go Ahead Score.
What we don't know: If the come from behind antics of this team will hold them through a tough SEC East Schedule
What we don't want to know: How many more passing attempts Andre Woodson will have before he throws an interception. The passing yards may not be Heisman worthy, but that no interception number might just be.

LSU
What we know: Glen Dorsey
What we don't know: If the albeit steady, but mediocre offense will be able to put up enough points if the Defense has a bad day.
What we don't want to know: Another Flip Field Goal Rush for a TD by a kicker. What is this backyard Football?

Ole Miss
What we know: They can lose by two scores to Vandy and Missouri, but they can hang with the Gators.
What we don't know: How Coach O can limit the carries of a spectacular back like BJG-E to 11 carries.
What we don't want to know: The Egg Bowl....

Mississippi St.
What we know: Same thing we knew last year. Mississippi St. is the bottom of the barrel in SEC offense.
What we don't know: Anything more about the Bulldogs since their miraculous win against Auburn. Is Anthony Dixon any good, or is he the closest thing to a bright spot in Starkville... the toughest place to recruit in the world.
What we don't want to know: The Egg Bowl....

South Carolina
What we know: Spurrier has a team that can play defense.
What we don't know: How Spurrier has failed to bring huge offensive prowess which was once his forte.
What we don't want to know: A news report about Gamecock fans kidnapping Lee Corso about his comments.

Tennessee
What we know: Fulmer has been accused of being a bad coach despite his Championship run in '98 which is the only national championship since the days of the General.
What we don't know: How the fans can be so upset at losing to two fantastic teams in Cal and Florida
What we don't want to know: Fat Phil fired. He is SO easy to make fun of.

Vanderbilt
What we know: They have a football team?
What we don't know: Why they kept playing after Jay Cutler got drafted
What we don't want to know: More about the Commies(Where is Joseph McCarthy when you need him - or was Communism just a red Herring?) outstanding Academics

It's just not fair

Darren McFadden had a rough day. 27 yards short of 200, Darren McFadden played very well. Stuffering from Stomach Flu and a Defense that couldn't back him up, Darren looks utterly tired here in the 1st half. He only carried 12 times in the 2nd half, but it should've been none. The razorback offense is doing it's job which is in stark contrast to the Razorback teams in the past several years.

Reggie Herring's press coverage scheme worked well for the Razorbacks defensive secondary last year. While not stellar, it was not as embarassing as it is this year. Losing Chris Houston to the 1st round of the draft is tough though. The new scheme is the "watch the receiver catch the ball" scheme. Kentucky QB Andre Woodson loved the hogs secondary as they helped keep his record breaking streak of passing attempts without interceptions alive. The hogs refused to play the ball and gave up several chances at picks and even had a few slip through their hands.

We all know Houston Nutt must be insane right now. After dealing with the crazy post season ride, he seemed so ready to just get back to Football. Houston came into the season with an experienced offense with QB Casey Dick (while not a prolific passer, does a good job managing the game), WR Marcus Monk, FB Peyton Hillis, a solid O-line, and two of the best running backs to ever play at the school or anywhere. The defense was a question, but getting Micheal Grant and Freddie Fairchild back from injury, the defense looked like it would pull together and get enough stops to help the offense win games.

While getting Micheal Grant back from injury with something to prove ended up getting Star Wideout Marcus Monk injured, but these things happen. It should've been apparent then that this season was one that could go disasterously wrong.

The truth of the matter has been that the hogs are on a crazy roller coaster and at the end of every game they just keep going down.

So This Guy has to be the funniest guy I have ever read online. He obviously has no clue.

Pretty sweet Tattoo by the way Darren. Let me know the last time you had to hold a clip board. At least you could hold a clip board as opposed to the way Steve Slaton can't even feel his own hand.