The word of Corliss Williamson's retirement from the NBA snuck up on me Tuesday and then slapped me on my noggin.

It was the psychological equivalent of being slapped from behind on the ear while waiting in the lunch line in junior high school.

You turn around to find everyone behind you laughing, but you have no discernible target for your aggression.

You're stunned because it could have been any one of the four or five smart alecks behind you, whom you formerly regarded as your friends.

Thinking as logically as any hormone-driven 14-year-old male can, there is only one recourse. You swat the ear of your buddy who is in front of you.

Monkey see; monkey do.

Well, this column is meant to be a swat to the ear to the many Razorback fans who are ready to give up on the Hog football team three games into the season Hey, I feel your frustration. It's almost as hard for me to write about a complete meltdown like the one we witnessed last Saturday at Razorback Stadium as it is for you to sit through it.

But as bad as it was, there was some pretty good stuff in that game. I mean Darren McFadden's 56-yard touchdown run was a masterpiece of speed, power, will and determination.

And Felix Jones' 82-yard return of a free kick for a touchdown and his 73-yard dash were just as lovely.

It's been said before but runners like those guys only come around every now and again and we had best enjoy them. If Felix exits early, as McFadden is clearly planning on doing, we only have nine, or 10 with a bowl, more opportunities to see them run in a Razorback uniform.

It's a shame that neither will run for an SEC championship team, but that does not make their weekly exploits any less fun to watch.

And I'm here to tell you, this season will be over in a flash.

It seems like just last week that Corliss and his mates were running roughshod all over the SEC in basketball, but its been 13 years since the Hogs won the 1994 national championship. And during that time Williamson carved out a fine NBA career He wasn't the superstar in the NBA that he was here with the Razorbacks, but he did win the NBA's Sixth Man Award and play on an NBA Championship team with the Detroit Pistons.

There have been some decent teams and good players to come through the Razorback program since Williamson leaped into the NBA after his junior year in 1995, but none were as special as Corliss and his teammates.

That group was a team in every essence of the word. Scotty Thurman, Clint McDaniel, Corey Beck, Roger Crawford, Darnell Robinson and Dwight Stewart all could have been bigger scorers and perhaps bigger stars elsewhere, but their combined efforts, along with Big Nasty's, created something special here in Fayetteville, that may never be duplicated.

While covering that squad, I knew it was something special, but at the time, I was just as certain that the 1994 national title was just the first that Nolan Richardson would bring to Fayetteville.

I thought it was the start, but in actuality it was the pinnacle.

When Arkansas lost to UCLA in the 1995 national title game, it was disappointing, but, hey, I figured I'd be back to the Final Four before long.

But it's 12 years and counting now.

The point is that if you are a Razorback fan, you should make the most of every season no matter the circumstances because the future is uncertain and is in no way promised to us.

This isn't a pie-in-the-sky endorsement of mediocrity on the part of the Razorbacks because Arkansas' overall performance against Kentucky last week missed mediocre by a mile.

But it is a reminder that time flies and the only recourse we have is to make the most of every moment, and of course to look back and remember when.

Terry J. Wood is the sports editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times.