A somewhat abbreviated college schedule was played last weekend, and the NFL officially kicked off its season with the New York Giants' victory over the Washington Redskins last night.
And, in many places, including right here in Texas, most high school football teams opened their 2008 seasons a week ago today.
Regular readers of this blog know that I grew up in Arkansas. There, and elsewhere in the region, it comes down to this: Football rules in the South.
When I was growing up in Arkansas, the state was as divided as it could be on many issues, but it seemed that everyone came together for a few hours every Saturday when the Razorbacks were playing.
When you grow up in Arkansas, you learn pretty early that part of the territory, for a Razorback fan, is having to endure some rough years.
And 2008 promises to be a pretty rough year for Razorback fans.
Arkansas started its season last Saturday at home in Fayetteville with a 28-24 victory over Western Illinois. As Wally Hall observes at WholeHogSports.com, this year's Arkansas squad is "probably one of the youngest ever to take the field wearing the Razorbacks uniform" and some jitters were to be expected.
The Hogs, writes Hall, "will most likely improve during the season."
Perhaps they will, but it's far from certain whether that improvement will be reflected in the record.
Hall has been watching Arkansas football for a long time. He had been sports editor for the Arkansas Democrat for quite awhile when I was working on the sports copy desk for the rival Arkansas Gazette in the 1980s.
And he observes that six of the last 10 teams on Arkansas' schedule this year are ranked in the Top 25 — he doesn't mention that four of those teams are in today's Top 10.
"They will improve as they gain experience, but at the same time the Razorbacks have the second-toughest schedule in the nation, and maybe the most difficult now that Alabama has knocked off Clemson."
Wally Hall
Beyond that, Hall observes that two other opponents, Tulsa and Ole Miss, will be "highly emotional."
He doesn't mention any reasons why those teams will be so emotional, but I think I can guess at least two reasons:
1) Both schools have coaches and/or players who were at Arkansas in recent years.
2) Arkansas has had rivalries with both schools for quite awhile, although those rivalries never really matched the Arkansas-Texas rivalry when those schools were part of the old Southwest Conference.
Oh, and by the way, Arkansas travels to Austin next week to renew its rivalry with Texas, now ranked 10th in the Associated Press poll.
Here is the AP's current Top 25. Teams that are scheduled to play Arkansas are entered in bold.
- Southern Cal (1-0)
- Georgia (1-0)
- Ohio State (1-0)
- Oklahoma (1-0)
- Florida (1-0)
- Missouri (1-0)
- LSU (1-0)
- West Virginia (1-0)
- Auburn (1-0)
- Texas (1-0)
- Wisconsin (1-0)
- Texas Tech (1-0)
- Alabama (1-0)
- Kansas (1-0)
- Arizona State (1-0)
- Brigham Young (1-0)
- South Florida (1-0)
- Oregon (1-0)
- Penn State (1-0)
- Wake Forest (1-0)
- Fresno State (1-0)
- Utah (1-0)
- UCLA (1-0)
- Illinois (0-1)
- South Carolina (1-0)
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