Last week when Mini Muhammad said her son, Darren McFadden, was considering leaving for the NFL after his junior year with the Arkansas Razorbacks, she was most likely just stating the obvious.

Granted, she admits to not knowing much about football, so the protocol of always saying “just focused on this season” was most likely something she didn’t know either.

Still, it should not have caused a ripple when she said it.

The fact is this time next year, McFadden — and probably Felix Jones — will be running for millions of dollars.

If McFadden and Jones are in college to prepare themselves for their future, then they should have already learned a very valuable lesson: Take the money and run.

Does Muhammad saying that her son might leave distract this team from its goals ? No. If SEC linebackers can’t stop her son, a sentence won’t slow her son from giving his all when he is running, passing and blocking in his quest to be the first Arkansas Razorback to win the Heisman Trophy.

McFadden enters this season as the favorite after finishing second to Troy Smith last year, and unfortunately, that is not always a good thing.

Saying McFadden faces large expectations would be like saying LSU fans won’t be inviting Nick Saban to a crawfish fry anytime soon.

Yet, if anyone could put an entire state on his back and carry it to New York and bring home the most coveted college trophy, it is McFadden.

Probably the toughest part about being him right now is the media coverage.

McFadden loves to play football, but being interviewed time and time again is not his favorite thing to do.

Make no mistake, he is always polite and pleasant, but you can see in his body language that he doesn’t like to be singled out among all his teammates.

It is the only time you ever see him squirm.

However, the stories have started coming and will continue to unless he’s injured.

Monday, Pat Forde had a great piece on ESPN. com, and even dealt with Muhammad’s past drug problems.

There was a quote in the column that many won’t pay much attention to, but it is also a huge part of the McFadden story.

Muhammad thanked Cookie McFadden, who is married to Darren’s dad, Graylon, for treating Darren like her own son while Muhammad was battling addiction.

Darren lived much of the time with his dad and stepmom, and that had a lot to do with him playing for Oak Grove instead of Central High, which is a few blocks from where Muhammad lives.

When McFadden moved back in with his mom, he enrolled at Central in the ninth grade and went out for football.

No one, at that time, knew anything about him. Mickey Dean was also a ninth-grader, and because he came up in the Little Rock school system playing football, he was the one getting reps at tailback.

McFadden stood around a day or two and transferred to Oak Grove, where his friends were.

Dean helped the Tigers win two state championships (and was freshman of the year in the Southwestern Athletic Conference at Arkansas-Pine Bluff ), but across the river, a legend was being born.

The day McFadden received his Parade All-America plaque, his coaches said he was going to be a great running back, but that he was even better at safety.

He won’t get the chance to show those abilities now, not when he dots the I formation and is the hemi in the WildHog engine.

So why is it controversial for his mom to say this might be his last year ?

The bigger news would be if he came back for his senior season.

What would be the icing on the cake would be to win the Heisman, and this time, if he gets invited back to New York, it would be nice if he took his mom again, but added his dad and stepmom to the travel party.