On January 6th of this year, the Hogs beat Texas in what I think we can all agree was one of the most glorious Razorback sports moments in recent memory. Coming on the heels of an almost-as-glorious win over Oklahoma, it was a heady time to be an Arkansas fan...suffice it to say, we were all feeling a little giddy.
Take a moment to read through some of the posts linked in that last sentence and try to recall that spirit of exuberant optimism we all felt back in those halcyon days. Seems like another, very distant era entirely, right?
That was a little over seven weeks ago.
Incredible, huh? One minute we were all wondering how highly the Hogs would be seeded after winning (or maybe finishing 2nd in) the SEC West, and the next minute we're staring at the possibility of a mind-blowingly bad 1-15 conference record (the cockeyed optimist in me thinks we'll probably do better than that...but it's at least a possibility).
To continue that theme, on January 6 the upsides of Fortson and Clarke were somewhere in the vicinity of Lee Mayberry and Alex Dillard...on February 26 it feels more like Kareem Reid/Cannon Whitby territory. On January 6 we were worried about losing Michael Washington to the NBA and John Pelphrey to Kentucky...on February 26, not so much. On January 6 the Razorback basketball program was back!!!...on February 26 we're wondering just how good Ryan Mallett will look in Petrino's offense.
Anyway, I say all this more out of amazement at the sudden reversal of fortune than anything else. I'm not a hater by any means: I still believe in Pelphrey (and his red jacket, which he really should wear more), and think he's too much of a winner to let this continue. And probably the important life lesson to learn here is that things are never quite as good or as bad as they seem. But wow...what a crazy seven weeks this has been.