It almost was shocking Monday when Dari Nowkhah told the Little Rock Touchdown Club that every Saturday night he and the rest of the crew on the SEC Network rank the SEC teams 1-14, and that after No. 7 it becomes a struggle.
Seven? Really?
Let's see: 1. Alabama, 2. Georgia, 3. Auburn, and then there's, well, uh, hmmm. Just pull a name from a hat.
Seven? There's only four SEC teams ranked in the Top 25, and one of them is Florida, the world's luckiest team. Head Coach Jim McElwain should be buying lottery tickets.
Oh, and Nowkhah said he was sorry, but the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville was jumbled up in the bottom seven.
Not one of the weekly lunch bunch seemed surprised. After all, the Hogs are 0-2 against teams from Power 5 conferences this season, although TCU is undefeated and ranked No. 8 in the country and Texas A&M is 4-1.
One third of the way into the season it seems the Razorbacks are surrounded by too many question marks and too few answers.
Nowkhah -- who admitted he and Bret Bielema are close -- said he thinks the Razorbacks need to go back to what Bielema does best and be the ground-and-pound Hogs. He also said that if Austin Allen had any protection, he'd be an All-American.
Mostly what Nowkhah did Monday was give his thoughts on all the people who work on the SEC Network, but in the end he gave some thoughts about LSU (not good) and that the Razorbacks would finish 6-6 and go bowling.
The part about ranking the SEC teams 1-14 was just part of the closing act, but he listed only the top three, so it's anyone's guess how the top seven would be ordered and whether Missouri or LSU would be No. 14.
The Mizzou Tigers have no defense and have the only losing record in the SEC.
The LSU Tigers are coming off a stunning home loss to Troy 24-21, and it was not really an upset because you have to protect the football.
Having gotten home from Fayetteville in time to watch that game on TV, here's an opinion of what is wrong with the Tigers: Ed Orgeron is trying too hard not to be the Orgeron who got fired at Ole Miss.
He is stoic on the sidelines, looking more like a statue than a fire-and-brimstone coach who would eat railroad spikes if it would help his team win.
There's no doubt Orgeron has taken some diction lessons and is more understandable, and he may not need to rip his shirt off and challenge his players to wrestle, but to sit on his passion and act like he's coaching a game of Parcheesi instead of football isn't working.
LSU isn't supposed to lose to Troy. Ever.
Troy is a good football team, but it beat New Mexico State by three and Arkansas beat the Aggies by 18. Those are the results SEC teams are supposed to get when they pay teams the big bucks.
These are Les Miles players and they loved their coach, so maybe Orgeron needs to tell them if they don't want to play for him, hit the road jack and don't look back because right now they simply aren't playing hard.
LSU is the big story from last week's SEC action. When you gain 428 yards, 266 on the ground, you are supposed to win instead of finding a way to lose, which is what happens when you turn the ball over 4 times (2 fumbles lost and 2 interceptions).
Nowkhah said he questioned the hiring of Orgeron, and he doesn't know if he's ready to coach at LSU.
Maybe someone needs to tell Ed Orgeron to quit handing out milk and cookies and chew some, uh, railroad spikes.
Sports on 10/03/2017