Bret Bielema isn't keeping it a secret; he expects his team to be pretty dang good this fall. That confidence has been contagious, too, because now Arkansas fans are feeling it as well, and it seems as if this feeling is going to carry us through the summer months all the way until fall camp. And as Doc wrote about yesterday, several ESPN writers and analysts are high on Arkansas, putting the team in the way-too-early top 25 and even in the top five in the SEC post-spring ball. Like I said, BERT is high on his own team, too, and he's not being shy about it. And he shouldn't be.
Five Razorbacks were taken in the NFL draft last week, four coming on the defensive side of the ball for the first time in quite some time – because let's face it, Arkansas hasn't been good on defense in a while. And of course after every draft, people begin the discussion of the "biggest steal," the player who went under the radar who could turn into a star, and for Edward Aschoff of ESPN, it just so happened to be a "second round talent that fell to the fourth round."
ESPN's Alex Scarborough also recapped the SEC's breakout players this spring. Basically, you just need to keep scrolling down ESPN's SEC blog today - it's full of Arkansas related articles. And here is Jeff Long discussing the College Football Playoff and much, much more.
During the offseason we could always use something pretty silly to waste our time on. And thank the good Lord that North Dakota decided to ask its fans – and everyone else – to send in suggestions for a school nickname, because apparently they ain't got one. Arkansas opened its baseball season with North Dakota this year, and we all thought it was strange they were mascot-less. Anyway, read the hundreds of pages of suggestions and waste some time today. The best part is that UND asked for a rationale for each suggestion, and they're absolute gold.
H/t to Andrew Hutchinson (@NWAHutch) for gracing my timeline with this list last night.
Tweet of the Week
Over the past two days, CNN has inadvertently promoted more mixtapes than Cash Money Records has made.
— Ryan Higgins (@rhiggins479) April 29, 2015