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.

Four quick links for your reading pleasure:

* I'll admit that I'm obsessing over Joe Adams' situation a bit...the thought of a 19-year old having a stroke is just totally crazy to me. Brandon Marcello has posted some info about Adams and how his situation was diagnosed from today's Petrino's press conference.

* The folks at the Dr. Saturday blog (one of our favorite sites) have shared their take on the top college football scandals of the decade and the Hogs/Petrino figure in two of the final four. Woo Pig Sooie!!

* SI.com's Stuart Mandel breaks down the Arkansas-Florida game (scroll down about halfway). Bottom line is that he sees it as a potential trap game for the Gators, but also thinks Urban Meyer will use the opportunity to open up his offense a bit.

* Lastly, I'm guessing the general appetite for basketball news is pretty low these days, but Dudley Dawson has posted a very interesting look at some 2010 recruiting possibilities over on Hawgs Illustrated. If you're interested in finding out who John Pelphrey will be suspending next year, definitely check it out.

The pace of Razorback news is definitely picking up as we inch closer and closer to the start of the season. Here are some links that have caught my eye recently:

Can't We All Just Not Get Along? I was intrigued to see that ESPN.com had an entire day of themed content around hated teams and individuals earlier this week (clearly we're a huge influence on their editorial process), and when I noticed that none other than Pat Forde had written a column about the 40 greatest villains in college sports my immediate reaction was to wonder if he'd listed Bobby Petrino 1st or 2nd on the list. After all, Forde has earned his reputation as the #1 Petrino-hater in all the land.

But, imagine my surprise that Mr. Blank Shark Eyes couldn't even crack the top 40, which apparently makes him a less hateable figure than St. Tim Tebow and the mild-mannered Jim Tressel (not to mention Houston Nutt). Either Forde has gone soft or Petrino has slipped way down the hate scale...whatever it is, I'm not comfortable with this new world order.

More Preseason Prognostications The good people at the Fayetteville Flyer have weighed in with their predictions of how the 2009 season will go, and it's an entertaining read. Plus, bonus points to them for their use of the groovy old-school Razorback illustration.

Free D-Mac! In the latest chapter of the ongoing Oakland soap opera that surely makes Darren McFadden long for the peaceful, quiet days of his time as a Hog, Raiders head coach Tom Cable is in hot water for allegedly breaking an assistant's jaw (and putting him in the hospital) with a mighty punch. Meanwhile, D-Mac is still trying to find his role on a team that's overstuffed with running backs.

Irony is Not Dead As if playing four top ten teams on the road wasn't enough, Petrino has a new worry for his Razorbacks: swine flu.

A few choice links from around the web to carry you through the weekend:

* The "Razorbacks as a Trap Game" meme continues, as Dr. Saturday himself singles the Hogs out as the most likely contender to fill the Ole Miss '08 role on Florida's fall schedule. Of course, saying we're a trap game for the elite teams is really just damning us with faint praise...it'll be nice when people are talking about other guys potentially trapping us.

* As we've noted countless times by now, we're big fans of Jerry Hinnen's Auburn blog, the Joe Cribbs Car Wash. His 2009 Arkansas-Auburn preview is up...if you only read one super-long, very humorous analysis of Hogs by an Auburn fan this year, make sure it's this one

* Rivals.com has posted their top-to-bottom conference rankings broken down by unit. Sneak preview: our offense fares better than our defense or special teams.

* ArkansasSports 360 is all over it as usual, with reports from today's football kickoff luncheon and preseason practice #11.