Bidding bye-bye to bye week might hurt these Razorbacks later this season but could help them for their SEC opener against Alabama.

The Razorbacks and Alabama Crimson Tide open their SEC West campaigns in Saturday's 11: 30 a.m. Raycom televised game at Frank Broyles Field at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Arkansas was supposed to play Texas last Saturday in Austin, Texas, but learned the night of Sept. 10 that the then-impending Hurricane Ike moved the game two weeks later, a Sept. 27 date still at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

Originally, Sept. 27 was going to be an open date week and a welcome one. The Hogs would have had consecutive games with Texas and Alabama and then resume with two more monster SEC games, Florida, Oct. 4 in Fayetteville and Auburn, Oct. 11 in Auburn, Ala., followed on successive Saturdays at Kentucky, at home with Ole Miss and Tulsa and at South Carolina before the Nov. 15 bye week with only two games left to play. Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino had spread out a lot of plans on the Sept. 27 bye week table. Hurricane Ike blew them away. " Now we have basically lost our bye week, " Petrino said. " Normally what you do with a bye week is you get to go back to some of the things in camp you wanted to work again plus have two weeks to prepare for your opponent. " However there is a subconscious tendency to ease a bit in practice during a week without a game. Arkansas didn't have that problem in what became a bye week last week. Tuesday and Wednesday practices, by far the toughest practices of the week, were conducted with Texas Week urgency. Only Thursday's brief practice was conducted post the postponement and it was all about prepping for Alabama. So was a workout Sunday night. " Hopefully the couple of extra days preparation will show up in the game, " Petrino said. While the Razorbacks got to refresh last Saturday, so did Alabama even while the Tide played. The clear-the-bench breather that Arkansas wanted but didn't get struggling to the wire to overcome underdogs Western Illinois and ULM (the University of Louisiana at Monroe ), 28-24 and 28-27 in Fayetteville and Little Rock, Alabama achieved. The Tide rolled 41-7 over Western Kentucky in Tuscaloosa. The Tide is 3-0 opening impressively over heralded Clemson and then struggling to beat Tulane before amassing 557 yards to level WKU's Hilltoppers.

Jack in the deck Arkansas' Jack linebacker position (basically a hybrid safetyoutside linebacker position called rover in previous Razorback football administrations ) was conceived and then expanded because Freddy Burton's twogame suspension and injuries to Elston Forte, Ryan Powers and Wendel Davis made all those conventional lettermen linebackers unavailable at the season's outset. Now all are back and all will play, defensive coordinator Willy Robinson said. But the Jack, as played by surprising true freshman starter Jerico Nelson and senior Walner Leandre, remains prominent in Arkansas' deck.

ADVERTISEMENT

" Of course, " Robinson said. " That's our defense. Now obviously we have the ability with those guys back to match personnel more if they have bigger bodies. If they have faster bodies, we can go faster bodies. "

Is he happy with Nelson and Leandre ?

" Absolutely, absolutely, " Robinson said. " They have done a good job. "

Roger's Rec Old grads in town for the Arkansas-Alabama game who whiled away UA leisure time drinking beer and shooting pool at Roger's Rec may wish to pay respects to the old Dickson Street institution for a final full-sized memory. Discussions are afoot after the Sept. 26-27 Bikes, Blues and Barbecue weekend possibly to cut Roger's Rec in half with a separate nightclub-type bar in the front and the pool hall in the back.

Roger's Rec has a long history with the Razorbacks. Old football players flock there the Thursday and Friday April afternoons of the annual Razorback Reunion Weekend.

Legend has it Lance Alworth about doubled his scholarship's worth shooting snooker at Roger's Rec.

Must have been something to it. The late Roger Koetter, the beloved, longtime Roger's Rec proprietor, was among the first Alworth looked up when the San Diego Charger's NFL Hall of Famer returned from California in 1988 to be inducted in the UA's first Sports Hall of Honor class.

Nate Allen covers the Razorbacks for the Northwest Arkansas Times.