Not a moment too soon, here is our staff soothsayer Rasputin's forecast for the 2010 Razorback football season. A Russian immigrant who claims to be hundreds of years old and who sleeps every night in a chamber of pure oxygen, Rasputin (that's him in the picture above) has been a rabid Razorbacks football fan since the program's debut in 1894 under head coach John C. Futrall.

The forecast below was produced after months of fasting, meditating, drinking weapons-grade vodka, consuming peyote and examining animal entrails in disturbingly detailed fashion. We were going to have ole Raz write up his predictions but unfortunately, he overdid the vodka and peyote consumption. Fortunately, one of our staff interns is an expert at deciphering and translating his intoxicated ramblings. After the jump are Rasputin's predictions as translated by that poor intern:

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After many months of wandering in the sports desert, the Arkansas Razorbacks 2010 football season begins in a mere FOUR DAYS. And, if that weren't enough reason for excitement on its own, this year's team could be the best Hog squad in a long, long time. An all-universe offense, an allegedly improved defense, a coaching staff that's up to the task...what could go wrong?

As for that last question, well, this is Arkansas football we're talking about. Events over the last 40 years or so have too often conspired to give Hog fans a bit more kinship with Charlie Brown trying to kick that ball from Lucy than I'd like to admit. Every time the pieces start to come together, something else happens to knock them apart again.

Personally, I feel like this really could be the year we kick the ball right out of Lucy's hands. But, because this is a reality-based blog, we're going to acknowledge that history could repeat itself once again.

So, if you're not too squeamish, follow me after the jump for five things that are worrying me about this season:

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Hog fans who followed the football team in the 1980s no doubt have great memories of watching Tony Chercio, the undersized but tenacious noseguard who starred for Coach Ken Hatfield from 1984 to 1987. Cherico, who was an All-American in his senior season and a three-time member of the All-Southwest-Conference team, is now a defensive line coach for the legendary Barry Lunney Sr. at Bentonville High School in northwest Arkansas. In today's fourth and final installment (here are the links for the preceding segments: part 1, part 2 and part 3), Tony discusses his funniest teammates, "Miami Vice" and the intense love football players have for soap operas.

Expats: We’re always kind of interested in looking behind the scenes. In your days, there, were there any players that stood out as the guys that always kept things loose in the locker room?

Cherico: Oh, yeah. We always had a class clown. Bobby Joe Edmonds, he was legendary for some of the things that he would come up with. First of all, he had his own language. He was a running back. Sometimes, he would come up with stuff that would just floor you.

The other one would be I think Ravin Caldwell. Ravin was funny. He was a great athlete. He was Fort Smith Northside. Heck, he ended up playing in the league five years. He has two Super Bowl rings to show for it. Great athlete but he was a clown. He kept everybody loose.

The whole defense - we were hard-nosed, but we were fun. We were close-knit group of kids.

Greg Thomas on the offense, and Derrick Thomas. They were funny. Derek always used to do imitations of the coaches. [Steve] Atwater and Sammy Van Dyke. It was funny - we always had somebody who could imitate a coach to a tee.

It kept it light. It kept it fun. The one thing that we really had going for us when we were playing under Coach Hatfield is that it was a family-type atmosphere. We knew we were there to play ball and to win but yet we kept everything in perspective. It was a game, and it was fun.

Expats: This is another behind-the-scenes kind of question. When you look back on your playing days, is there any particular song or music that whenever you hear it -

Cherico: Oh man, you’re going to make me date myself to the 80s! The one show – I was there for four different seasons, so we kind of went through the whole gamut. You had "Alf," that was a comedy show that everybody watched.

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Hog fans who followed the football team in the 1980s no doubt have great memories of watching Tony Chercio, the undersized but tenacious noseguard who starred for Coach Ken Hatfield from 1984 to 1987. Cherico, who was an All-American in his senior season and a three-time member of the All-Southwest-Conference team, finished his Razorback career with 258 tackles and 26 tackles for loss. He is now a defensive line coach for the legendary Barry Lunney Sr. at Bentonville High School in northwest Arkansas. In today's installment (here's part 1 and here's part 2), Tony discusses the most impressive players he played with and against, and his recalls Agnes, his pet boa constrictor.

Expats: As far as opposing players, who sticks out as the most impressive, whether it was an individual match-up or somebody who may have been on the opposite side of the field, but awed you with their talent?

Cherico: That's a great question. Back in those days of the Southwest Conference, there were a lot of great players.

I remember my first year in the bowl game at the Liberty Bowl, playing Bo Jackson. He had about 50 yards rushing. We kept him contained. The fullback ripped us a new one, but there's one particular play [by Jackson] I will never forget. They're running a pitch play, some option outside, and I'm running down the line of scrimmage.

I kind of put my head down for a second because I'm coming out of the block. I look up thinking that the back's going to be right here but heck - that man's 10 yards down field already. I said, "I've never seen a man move like that." He stuck out.

My freshman year, Texas they had an offensive center - Gene Chilton. They called him "Gene, Gene, the Coke Machine." Gene was probably 6'5", 305 pounds. He was one of the first 300 pounders.

He got down, he looked like he had four legs on the ground. His arms were so flippin' big. At that time, I was weighing a whopping 225 pounds. I was giving 80 pounds up to this guy. I'm going, "Oh my god." The good thing about it was that he was so big that he didn't move that fast.

I guess the most dominant player that I ever actually played against - it was kind of funny - he was a center on Tulsa. He's a school superintendent now. He was shorter than me, the only guy that I ever played against that was shorter than me. He was about 5'11", maybe about 255 pounds.

I looked at him, and I was licking my chops. I said, "This is going to be a cakewalk." The first time they snapped the ball, I take a step, and this guy's already by me. I'd never played against a guy quicker than me.

The next play's a pass play. I go to rush him. He snaps the ball, brings one hand up - I had no idea how strong he was. He brought his hand up and hit me in the face mask, and it snapped all four buckles off my face mask. I said, "Oh my."

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Sure we're all excited about the 2010 season, but it's so hard to handle the suspense of not knowing what's really going to happen. Can the Hogs knock off Georgia and/or Alabama? Will we fall victim to a Nutty upset in Fayetteville? What kind of bowl will we go to?

Luckily, it's 2010 and these sorts of questions can be definitively answered with computers. So, if you want to know how it all plays out, put down the keys to your flying car and follow me after the jump, because we have the final word on the Hogs' season from not one, but two high-tech oracles.

SPOILER ALERT: Stop reading now if you want to be surprised!

And now, the answers...

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Hog fans who followed the football team in the 1980s no doubt have great memories of watching Tony Chercio, the undersized but tenacious noseguard who starred for Coach Ken Hatfield from 1984 to 1987. Cherico, who was an All-American in his senior season and a three-time member of the All-Southwest-Conference team, finished his Razorback career with 258 tackles and 26 tackles for loss. He is now a defensive line coach for the legendary Barry Lunney Sr. at Bentonville High School in northwest Arkansas. In today's installment (here's part 1), Tony discusses the most memorable wins and losses of his Razorback career.

Expats: What would you say was your favorite win of your time in Fayetteville?

Cherico: Let me think on this one. We beat A&M [in Fayetteville in 1984]. It was 80 degrees down there and then they came up to us, and it was flippin' freezing. It was an ice storm, and I think we beat them 28-0. At halftime, they just wanted to go home.

Man, that's a tough one. I think all the games - you know, a win's a win. I really couldn't tell you. All of them were fun. Back then, in the 80s, we went to four straight bowl games.

Everything was on the upswing. The fan support was phenomenal. Whether we played at home in Fayetteville or we went to Little Rock, it was deafening. It was fun. The crowd was into it. We fed off of that. The fans were incredible.

A win's a win. You don't really remember the wins. Now the losses - lord, I can tell you about the losses.

I guess beating Texas finally down in Austin [in 1986]. We were the first team to do it in 20-something years. I think the frustrating thing about that was two other years, when we had them in Little Rock and in Fayetteville, we should have beat them.

[In 1985] we hold them to five goals, and we missed three field goals. We had some opportunities to score. We played a great defensive game, holding them to field goals. That one hurt.

And then in Little Rock [in 1987], we had them beaten and then on the last flippin' play of the game, the quarterback completes one to the back of the end zone. I have never in my life seen a stadium go from where you could not hear the person next to you even if they're screaming to where you could hear a pin drop as soon as he caught the ball.

That one - oh lord. It was kind of funny - at the time the quarterback and I were good friends. He had just released the ball, and I hit him, and we both went down. We couldn't tell if it was caught or not. But as soon as I hit him, and he went down to the ground, the place went dead silent. I told him when we were laying on the ground, "Hey, great game, buddy." I knew it.

And then I saw the replay, and I said, "Son of a bitch."

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Is your computer depressingly Razorbackless? We've got the perfect solution to that problem: courtesy of Hog fan/designer extraordinaire Patrick Houston (aka SmoovP on this site) we're glad to present this awesome Hog-themed desktop wallpaper:

If you'd like this on your computer, click here for the downloadable large version. And many thanks to SmoovP!

Hog fans who followed the football team in the 1980s no doubt have great memories of watching Tony Chercio, the undersized but tenacious noseguard who starred for Coach Ken Hatfield from 1984 to 1987. Cherico, who was an All-American in his senior season and a three-time member of the All-Southwest-Conference team, finished his Razorback career with 258 tackles and 26 tackles for loss. Now a defensive line coach for the legendary Barry Lunney Sr. at Bentonville High School in northwest Arkansas, Tony was gracious enough to talk with us about his Arkansas career. In today's installment, he discusses his recruitment and the differences between Hatfield and Lou Holtz.

Many thanks to Tony for his time and many thanks to commenter Eddie Van Hoglen for helping to set the interview up.

Expats: Tell us how you became a Razorback in the first place.

Cherico: It was kind of by accident. I was playing my high school ball up in Kansas City. At the time I was recruited, I didn't want to play in - back then it was the Big 8. Unless you went to Oklahoma or Nebraska, all the programs were pretty much down.

And if you went to Nebraska, you had to wait to be a senior to actually play. And Oklahoma, if you weren't real fast and athletic, you weren't going to get on the field for a long time.

Arkansas at the time really kind of caught my eye because it was far enough away from home, but still close enough - it was only four hours away - so my parents and family could come down and see me.

[Assistant] Coach [Jesse] Branch was recruiting me. I came down for my official visit and all that. I was really trying to - I said, "I'm going to commit to you. I want to be a Hog."

I think it was like a week before signing day, Coach Branch pretty much came back and said, "Now, Tony, here's what's going to happen. We have a running back out of Texas that we want, a fullback. And it's between Baylor and us. If he chooses us, we're not going to have a spot [for you]." Which crushed me. And he said, "If he chooses Baylor, then you have a spot."

Well, lo and behold, he took Baylor, which was the best choice he could make, and I had the opportunity to come down to Arkansas.

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