A few good links to tide you over while you decide rather to pull for Red or White this weekend:

* With a top 10 recruiting class waiting for him, Mike Anderson really couldn't have walked into a much better situation for a new coach, and now Andy Katz is reporting that Ky Madden, Hunter Mickelson, Aaron Ross, B.J. Young and Devonte Abron are all on board for Anderson's "Fastest 40 Minutes in Basketball". Throw in Rotnei Clarke, who flirted with transferring and decided against it, and that's a pretty nice base to build on.

* As for the guy who recruited all those studs, he's rejoining Billy Donovan's staff as an assistant at Florida. Perhaps Mike Anderson will tell him thanks when the Hogs and Gators meet next year.

* The Hogs only signed one tailback in their 2010 and 2011 recruiting classes (incoming freshman Kody Walker), so finding a quality RB or three is a top priority for 2012. Luckily, there are a lot of good ones in the vicinity...AS360's Otis Kirk has the report on who might someday follow in the footsteps of Knile Davis, Darren McFadden, Felix Jones, etc.

* You might think that combining a love of the Razorbacks with the love of the Wu-Tang Clan into a single tattoo would be impossible. You would be wrong.

* Lastly, in the "too obvious to even make jokes about it" department, Nathan Stanley, once highly touted as Ole Miss' quarterback of the future, has left the Rebels. Remember when a popular meme in the media was that Arkansas had royally screwed up by letting Houston Nutt go and bringing that scoundrel Bobby Petrino instead? Good times.

A few quick links to help you pass the time between now and kickoff:

* the Hog Database says the Mississippi State game is the most important one the Razorbacks have played since 2006, and follows that up with a numbers-based breakdown of where Arkansas fits into the BCS picture. (For the record, we think that might be a tad hyperbolic, but agree that it's a deceptively big game.)

* Outback, Chik-fil-a, Cotton or...dare we say it...Sugar? Chris Bahn takes a look at what the experts are thinking about the Hogs' bowl options.

* the Bulldogs have a plan for stopping Ryan Mallett, writes Brandon Marcello. How well will it work?

* occasional Expats contributor/podcast guest Derek Jenkins does a compare & contrast between the types adversity experienced by Mississippi State and Auburn this season. An enjoyable read from aboynamedsooie, as always.

* last, but certainly not least, AS360's Otis Kirk turns in an excellent position-by-position breakdown of 2011 recruiting, including who's committed so far and what the areas of need are. You may be shocked to learn that WRs are lining up to play in the Petrino offense (and that we desperately need more linebackers). Definitely check it out.

* Straight from Twitter: Tom Murphy quotes Bobby Petrino as saying Greg Childs has a better chance of playing this Saturday than Joe Adams does. And sure enough, Childs practiced today and Adams did not.

* The Razorbloggers offer up their Vanderbilt scouting report. The summary is that the Commodores' offense has been pretty anemic this year, although we suspect that spending some time with the Razorbacks' beleaguered D might be just the thing they need to get unstuck.

* Vandy blog Anchor of Gold takes a look at how the SEC teams fare in the trivial matter of their players actually graduating from college. Without giving too much away, allow us to say the Hogs are not exactly leading the pack here (and the basketball team's grad % is even worse than their recent winning %).

* As noted earlier, defensive tackle D.D. Jones was arrested early this morning for possession of marijuana (good mug shot, at least). Until proven otherwise, we're going to assume that is connected in some way to Snoop Dogg's appearance in Fayetteville a few days ago. Damn you, Doggfather!

* Our kickoff returns may be lagging, but no such worries on the punt return side of things. (Except the small issue of Joe Adams being hurt, of course.)

* On a basketball note, Marshawn Powell as been named to the preseason All-SEC 1st team, and Rotnei Clarke to the second. (Although notorious fun-killer Chris Bahn points out that, with 17 players named, almost 1/3 of the SEC starting rosters get some sort of recognition here so the honor is a little diminished.)

Some links to enjoy while you think about where to hide your laptop from Jeremiah Masoli:

* Phil Steele vs Chris Low: Who Wins? It seems that two of our favorite college football experts have a different take on the Hogs' secondary this year. In our recent Q&A, Steele said he expects "large improvement" from the Razorback DBs, and ranks them the 19th best unit in the country. On the flip side, Low placed the Arkansas secondary an unimpressive 12th out of 12 in his SEC rankings. So who's right?

* The Heisman Race is On. The Heisman Pundit has posted his preseason thoughts on this year's Heisman race and, not surprisingly, Ryan Mallett is in the conversation (specifically, he's ranked 6th). He notes that Mallett will have to excel in the brutal early season stretch against Georgia, Alabama, Texas A&M and Auburn to have much of a chance, but also notes that he's the SEC's #1 candidate (Bama fans might disagree).

* Houston Nutt is Canceling His SI Subscription. Sports Illustrated scribe Stuart Mandel went medieval on Nutt in his column yesterday, accusing him of being the epitome of a dirty coach for allowing noted troublemaker (and, coincidentally, talented QB) Jeremiah Masoli to fulfill his lifelong dream of pursuing a Parks & Recreation graduate degree at the University of Mississippi. Personally, the whole thing feels way overheated to me (A college football coach putting aside ethics for a chance to win?? Somebody fetch my smelling salts!), but it was still kind of fun to read.

* Patrick Beverly is the Luckiest Man Alive. He's parlayed his ignominious exit from Arkansas into a shot at playing for the insanely talented (and widely hated) Miami Heat. Not too shabby.

* Exercise Your Right to Vote. Our friends at Team Speed Kills are polling their readers for opinions about each SEC team this summer. Here's the link to the Arkansas poll - be sure to go there and put in lots of positive votes to help defend against the snarky comments that are otherwise sure to follow (and, let's be realistic, will probably follow anyway).

• Simply Superlative. Chris Low, ESPN's indefatigable SEC blogger, recently weighed in on the football Hogs' strongest and weakest positions. No real surprises here. According to Low, the team's strongest position is receiver/tight end, and the weakest is linebacker.

Says Low: "Nobody else in the league can touch the Hogs when it comes to talent, production and depth at the receiver/tight end positions."

Toto, we're definitely not in the Houston Nutt era anymore.

• Non-Scholar Athletes. In a recent interview with Little Rock's 103.7 The Buzz, John Pelphrey claimed that 12 Razorback basketball players were academically ineligible after the 2007 spring semester. (Pelphrey became the Arkansas coach in April 2007.)

Those dozen players then became eligible for the following season during summer school, he said. Pelphrey made the comments as a way of illustrating the poor shape that the program was supposedly in when he took the Arkansas job. You can listen to the entire interview here.

• Big Man Cometh? A 6'10" Minnesota prep star is reportedly considering joining Pelphrey's 2010 class of recruits. His name is Kevin Noreen, and he originally signed with Boston College, but he's now looking at other schools after BC coach Al Skinner got canned. The Hogs desperately need some size and skill in the frontcourt, and Jim Harris' article suggests Noreen could be a nice addition to the program, both on and off the court.

• Shock the World. Nolan Richardson will make his WNBA coaching debut this Saturday night when his Tulsa Shock open their 2010 season. Would you believe that one of his players is disgraced track star and former jailbird Marion Jones? We kid you not. As Hog fans, though, we're used to pulling for athletes who've spent some time in the pokey, so we have no hesitation in wishing Nolan and Marion and the rest of the Shock a wildly successful season. Go Shock!

• Losing the 'Tude. Running back Dennis Johnson has been one of my favorite Hog players for a while. He's always struck me as a very gritty player. I guess looks can be deceiving, though. Both Chris Bahn of AS360 and Brandon Marcelllo of WholeHogSports.com detail Dennis' past tendency to be in Petrino's doghouse and his recent attitude adjustment.

• Go Get 'Em, Mike. I'll admit it: I'm not going to miss watching Michael Washington get his shot blocked by much smaller players. Still, I wish him well in his pursuit of a professional basketball career, and per Brandon Marcello's Twitter feed, that pursuit is off to a decent start. While playing Wednesday in the Portsmouth Invitational, Washington scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds in 26 minutes of play.

• Talking with D.J. Williams. Robbie Neiswanger has posted a Q&A with the Razorback tight end.

• Sounds Good to Us. Thoughts from the Dark Side, an Oakland Raiders blog, is arguing that the team should trade Darren McFadden (btw - we're all for it. The man needs a fresh start). Here's what the blog has to say:

The problem with McFadden and the Raiders is they were never a good match. This has caused his stock to drop constantly since the first moment he stepped on the field in silver and black. The best thing for McFadden and the Raiders would be to shop him right now while there may still be teams that think he has value. And more importantly; while there are quite a few teams that can properly utilize a player with his skill set.

This would be a win-win-win situation all-around. No doubt the Raiders were not the only team that had McFadden high on their draft board in ‘08. Since then, his lack of production has been partially due to the Raiders "lethargic" offense. Well, combined with the aforementioned misuse of his skill set.

Among the teams that would likely be interested in McFadden’s services would be the Dolphins, Cowboys, Bears, and Eagles.

A lot of you are probably already regular readers of Chris Low's SEC blog over on ESPN.com, but in case you don't check his site often, he's posted lots of great Razorback-related content recently. Here's a sampling:

* Bobby Petrino is notorious for not particularly loving the interview process or the media in general, so when he sits down for some "kicking it" with Low, it's definitely worth reading. Lots of good stuff for his expectations for next year (among other things) in this post.

* Somewhat amazingly, spring practice is only a few weeks away (or in LSU's case, less than one week away) and Low breaks down the things to watch for Arkansas and the rest of the SEC West.

* Lots of marquee players have moved on from the SEC, so Low takes a look at the conference next year and pegs the Razorbacks as one of the "new faces" who could potentially make some noise in the new competitive environment. If you need another reason to look forward to next fall, he's bullish on the Hogs.

* This is old news by Internet standards (i.e., it's from last week), but Low ranked Ryan Mallett as the 6th best player in the SEC last season. Worth a read, for sure.

*Special Bonus Non-Chris Low Item*

* AS360's Jim Harris shares some notes about Scotty Thurman's recent induction to the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, and his post includes some fascinating tidbits about one of the all-time Razorback greats. For example, did you know Davor Rimacs was scheduled to start over Thurman in the famous 1995 Kentucky game? And, speaking of Thurman we should probably plug the in-depth (5 parts!) interview we did with him a little over year ago...if you missed it the first time around, here's part 1.