You can’t help but like John Pelphrey if you have ever met the man.

He is nice, personable and a down right good guy.  But that don’t mean a hill of beans to the Razorback faithful if he has one more season like the last one.

2-14 in the SEC ain’t gonna do it Pel.

I have no logical answer as to what happened to the Razorback basketball team after they started playing in the conference.  Well…I do, but I am not going there right now.

I’m just trying to raise a point here and that’s all.  I’m going to guess that 75% of the fan base are still John Pelphrey fans.  The other 25% are ready to send him packing his big blue suitcase and go home.

I say to you 25% just hold on a minute.  It doesn’t matter if you think he should be fired or not.  Coach Pelphrey is going to be here another year at least so you better jump on and support the team.   You don’t have to support the man, but please support the team.

What will you do if Arkansas goes to the sweet 16 next year?  Are you still going to complain then?

What will it take to make you happy?  9-7 in the SEC?  10-6?  11-5?  A trip to the dance?

Give the guy an opportunity to turn it around.  Nolan didn’t start off so hot either.

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And so it starts…

SEC Media days ‘08 is a wrap, under 35 days til kickoff, and old rivalries are at an all time high.

Hello everyone and welcome again to The Mines Report.

Hoover, Alabama played host to the 2008 SEC Media Days again this year, with more fans, larger national media coverage, but surprisingly not much in the way of on-the-field news.  This year seemed to be strictly about the coaches and their relationship with the press.  Everyone asked and answered the same questions from “What are the team’s goals for this season”, to “How has the team improved since last year”.  Exciting stuff, I know, but what news can you expect to hear from the most competitive conference where even starting rosters are held top secret?

All 12 coaches fully understand that anything they say will be picked apart and used to try to gain an advantage by the opposing teams.  Knowing this, we are left with boring sound bytes and quotes that sound more like it’s being read from campus brochures than the coach’s actual feelings.  We still have over a month before our favorite teams take the field, and it seems like forever since the last game was played, so we’ll all take what we can get.

One of the bigger stories from this year’s Media Days had to be the fiasco surrounding Tennessee Head Coach Phillip Fulmer, affectionately known outside of Knoxville as “The Great Pumpkin”.  Before Coach Fulmer could make his way into the lobby of The Winfrey Hotel in suburban Hoover, Alabama, he was hit with a subpoena for a decade old court case involving an Alabama recruiting scandal.  Fulmer is scheduled to give his testimony in a Birmingham, AL court September 25th, just two days before the VOLS face Auburn on the plains.  I’m sure this is all a coincidence and not meant to deflect the Tennessee coach’s attention in the middle of an important season.  We’ll see if Coach Fulmer and his attorneys actually show up, or if this case will even be heard, as the time nears.

Check back weekly for updates in the SEC and for “Karus’ Picks” where I’ll give my picks for the winners, key players to watch, and the upset game of the week.

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1. Alabama 9-3 – I don’t have my “crimson colored” glasses on, but I think that Bama will be a much better team this year. With this recruiting class, this is the most talented Bama team in many years. This team will start several freshmen and if they can live up to the hype, watch out! The DL and LB are areas to watch-out for this year, but with the coaching staff on campus, I’m optimistic.

His name is Arian Foster and he needs just 684 yards to surpass Travis Henry as the Tennessee Volunteers all-time rushing leader.  The only thing that may hamper Foster from breaking that record is if he can stay healthy.

New offensive coordinator, Dave Clawson will use Foster in multiple ways in his west coast style offense that promises a balanced attack.  Last season Foster caught 39 passes for 340 yards and you can bet Clawson will utilize him even more in this type of offense.  On the ground Foster had 1,193 yards and should have had a lot more.

David Cutcliffe…you had a racehorse, what were you thinking?

The Vols return eight starters on offense and that includes the entire offensive line.  If I were Arian Foster I would wine and dine those big guys this summer.  You gotta take care of the men that take care of you.

So what does the head coach think about his 6′1 215 lb running back that is a preseason All-SEC first teamer?

“Arian brings a level of maturity, physical toughness and confidence to our team, ” says Philip Fulmer.  “He has been in the wars and battles, and he’s made the tough runs.”

The Vols are going to need that level of maturity when they open the season at UCLA.  With a new offense it will take a few snaps for the team to find its groove and get into the swing of things.  The games on the schedule to watch are Florida and Georgia.  The Florida game will set the tone for the entire season and playing at Georgia is always tough for any team.  If the Tennessee Volunteers are going to compete for the SEC championship again they are going to have to figure out how to getArian Foster the football.

SEC East prediction – 2nd.

Bobby Petrino is going to breathe new life into a divided Razorback fan base—and several months after his hiring, the healing has already begun.

Right now though, the question on everyone’s mind is this one:

How long will Petrino stick around to bleed Razorback red?  Houston Nutt came to Arkansas in December of 1997 like an evangelical preacher on a crusade and hit the ground running with a passion that lit the entire state on fire.  That enthusiasm carried over into his first season as he began 8-0 and ended up playing Michigan in the Citrus Bowl.

Nolan Richardson, the Arkansas basketball coach at the time told Nutt after his first year, “Congratulations, now you have created a monster and you will have to continue to feed it.” Those words stood true over a 10-year period where Nutt to his credit brought Arkansas out of the tumultuous Danny Ford era, but lost a lot of the fan base after two losing seasons in 2004 and 2005 and a myriad of off-field drama in 2006 and 2007.

Despite his last two years being his best, the damage was too much for many Hog fans.

Finally, the monster chased Nutt to Ole Miss, where he is now the head coach of the Rebels. In his news conference the day after he was hired did not mention a “National Championship Under Construction” like he did at Arkansas.

This time Nutt only said, “My goal is to win a Southeastern Conference Championship.”

Maybe the “Right Reverend,” as ESPN likes to call him, has finally learned not to make such promises behind the pulpit of a tough SEC.

Enter Bobby Petrino.

Coach Petrino, unlike Coach Nutt, is laid-back and more of a quiet leader.  In his own words, “I like to walk softly and carry a big stick.”

Those were refreshing words for Arkansas fans.  Coach Petrino is the perfect fit for Arkansas and the timing was right for both parties.

Regardless of what you hear out of Atlanta, nobody is going to care when the season starts next year.  Why should they care anyway?  Only the Razorback faithful understand what it’s like to be a hog and the passion of watching a game on the Hill on a crisp fall afternoon. The burning question everyone would like to know about Petrino is whether he will be here in a few years.  It is my belief that Razorback fans should not worry about this one bit.

Let’s say he goes 9-4 his first season and wins the Cotton Bowl.  That’s pretty good for his first year, right?  Let’s say the next season he goes 11-2 with a loss in a BCS game.  In the years of Nutt that is what fans wanted—a coach to take them to a BCS game and it never happened.  Finally, in his third year he leads Arkansas to the National Championship game and…

I’ll let you use your imagination to what might happen in that game.

In this scenario I have put a lot of expectations on Coach Petrino, but suppose all this happens and a team like USC comes calling.  Let’s say Pete Carroll decides to go back to the NFL and they offer Petrino a $6 million contract.

Here is my point:  If this does happen, yes it would be a great loss for the University of Arkansas, but don’t you think the program would be in better shape than when he found it?

By that time, a lot of top-notch coaches would want the job.  The Tommy Bowden’s of the world would no longer use Arkansas to help them get a raise, not that I think Bowden is in that class.  In my opinion, the great fans of Arkansas need to relax and enjoy the presence of an offensive genius and not worry about where he might go to next.  You never know, the state of Arkansas may remind Bobby Petrino of his native Montana and he might stay forever.

However, let the prophetic words of Nolan Richardson not be forgotten—the monster will have to be fed, and Bobby Petrino is the man to do just that.