Razorbacks report

It’s all sunny for UA

Arkansas Coach John L Smith (center) is expecting good weather for Saturday’s season opener against Jacksonville State. “The sun always shines on the Hogs,” Smith said.

— Arkansas Coach John L. Smith is counting on decent weather for Saturday’s 6 p.m. opener against Jacksonville (Ala.) State at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, anticipating the remnants of Tropical Depression Isaac will have finished dumping rain on the state.

“We have faith,” Smith said. “The sun always shines on the Hogs.”

Arkansas coach John L. Smith recaps the Razorbacks' practice on Thursday and looks ahead to the upcoming game against Jacksonville State.

John L. Smith - Thursday Post Practice

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Smith said the coaching staff was aware of the storm, but that they expect it to be cleared out.

“The field’s not going to be slick,” Smith said. “Our plan A and B are all worked in. What might change slightly was the amount of time maybe that you’d throw the football. It might change their plan as well.”

Confidentially

John L. Smith said he has seen just a few minutes of the CBS Sports special on the Razorbacks, the first edition of which aired Wednesday night.

“I think it’s going to be very, very good and very, very positive for the Razorbacks,” he said. “Our kids were great in what I got to see. [It will] help us advertise ourselves around the country.”

Smith said he heard through the grapevine that “the Twitters were good and all that” regarding the show.

Openers

Arkansas has a record of 92-22-4 (.797) in season openers, including five consecutive victories and in nine of its past 10. Jacksonville State is 47-47-7 in all-time openers.

No. 10 woes

Arkansas’ record as the No. 10 team in The Associated Press poll is 10-11. The Razorbacks’ record in that spot includes a twogame winning streak from last season — a 38-14 victory over Auburn and a 29-24 victory at Ole Miss — but the two games before that were excruciating losses: 24-20 against Alabama in 2010 and 28-24 at Tennessee in 1998.

Felton honored

Former Razorback All-American Robert Felton will serve as the honorary A Club captain for Saturday’s season opener against Jacksonville State. A versatile offensive lineman, Felton made 42 starts during his career and earned second-team All-America honors after the 2007 season as awarded by The Associated Press.

Tim knows Jack

Arkansas running backs coach Tim Horton was a senior in 1989 when Jacksonville State Coach Jack Crowe was the Razorbacks’ offensive coordinator.

The Razorbacks won their second consecutive Southwest Conference title and finished 10-2 that season.

“I still talk with Coach Crowe several times a year,” Horton said. “He had a great career here as an offensive coordinator. Things obviously didn’t work out for him as the head coach, but I think he still has a lot of respect for this program and some of the people that he was associated with, and I think it’s got to be special for him to come back.”

Horton said Crowe was a “terrific coordinator.”

“He did a great job of taking us to the edge of the cliff, but not over the cliff,” Horton said. “I mean, he pushed us probably harder than we’d ever been pushed before.

“At the time you think, ‘Man, this guy’s losing it. We’ve got a good team, we’ve got good players. What’s he doing?’ You look back at the end of the year and when you’re getting a conference championship ring and you say, ‘Thank you, Coach Crowe. Thanks for taking us to a level we couldn’t go to by ourselves.’ That’s what he did for us and that team.”

Sports, Pages 27 on 08/31/2012