FAYETTEVILLE — Tickets hot item on web
Tickets for No. 10 Arkansas’ home game against No.
1 Alabama on Saturday are scalding items on the Internet.
The online site StubHub.
com reported Wednesday this is the biggest-selling Arkansas football ticket in its history. The average price of tickets for Alabama-Arkansas selling on StubHub was $197, the highest in college football this week, and the volume of tickets sold is the 10th-largest in college football this season, said Glenn Lehrman, a spokesman for StubHub.
“Our company has been around 10 years, and this is by far the biggest in terms of sales for a Razorback game,” Lehrman said. “And it’s about four times the previous high, which was the game against LSU in 2006.”
Only Saturday’s UCLA Texas game has moved more tickets through StubHub, a San Francisco-based company, than the Arkansas-Alabama game, the company reported.
Lehrman said ticket purchases by Arkansas-based fans are outnumbering those of Alabama-based buyers by about an 8-to-1 margin.
Dirty Debbie
Alabama Coach Nick Saban shot a couple of commercials with ESPN’s college football talent this summer, including one in which he opens one of his cherished Little Debbie treats as part of his daily ritual. In the ad, the Little Debbie drops to the floor, Saban scoops it up and begins eating it while staring at ESPN’s Chris Fowler, KirkHerbstreit and Desmond Howard.
Asked if he truly ate the Little Debbie or was it a “trick of photography,” Saban replied, “I just do what they tell me on that stuff.
“The thing I remember most is there were 33 takes and after 17 bites I couldn’t take any more Little Debbies.”
No comment on whether he ate it off the floor, although he did not appear to violate the 5-second rule.
O’Brien matchup
Representatives of the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award have deemed Saturday’s game at Reynolds Razorback Stadium as its marquee matchup for the week.
The game will pit Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett, the nation’s passing leader, against Alabama’s Greg McElroy, who leads the country in passing efficiency.
Eager Dont’a
Alabama linebacker Dont’a Hightower is eager to face the Razorbacks after suffering a season-ending knee injury on a block from Mitch Petrus last year.
“It means a lot, especially with the injury last year,” Hightower said. “They took me out for the season.”
Hightower said his injury occurred on a cut block, but he was not bitter about the play.
“It wasn’t really a dirty block,” he said. “I didn’t play it as well as I should have.”
Catch a streak
Junior Joe Adams continued his streak of having a catch in all 25 games during his Arkansas career with six receptions for 130 yards last Saturday at Georgia. Adams has surpassed the 100-yard mark in four games, two this season.
Junior Greg Childs is working on a 17-game streak with at least one reception, dating back to the Mississippi State game of his freshman year. Childs also has four 100-yard games, one this season.
Jarius Wright and Cobi Hamilton did not have receptions in the Hogs’ victory at Georgia.
Wright had a streak of 20 consecutive games with at least one catch snapped. The junior from Warren has three 100-yard games in his career.
Hamilton has a catch in 11 of 16 games and has produced one 100-yard performance - 3 catches for 131 yards and 2 touchdowns last year against Mississippi State.
Tight end D.J. Williams has a reception in all three games this season and in 23 of his past 28 games.
Cowboy play
Arkansas sophomore tight end Chris Gragg has two catches in his career, both for big yardage with him lined up in the slot, and both on the Hogs’ Cowboy Get It play.
Gragg caught an uncovered 57-yard play-action pass for a touchdown to cap Arkansas’ first possession last week at Georgia.
“That was one of our favorite play-actions right there,” offensive coordinator Garrick McGee said.
“I was supposed to fake with the corner, and I guess the play-fake was excellent because the corner just ran in for the blitz,” Gragg said. “I knew I was going to be wide open.”
During his freshman season of 2008, Gragg was well guarded when he grabbed a 25-yard pass on fourth-and-1 that saved the Hogs’ game-winning touchdown drive against Louisiana-Monroe.
Sports, Pages 20 on 09/23/2010