Citations with a flair for football

While the opening salvos of college football sason have already prompted some head-scratching, here's a Labor Day batch of "David Citations" for the interesting, weird and zany in sports:

MOST THOUGHT-PROVOKING RESULTS: The University of Arkansas has to rally from 10 points down in the final quarter to beat Western Illinois, an NCAA Football Championship Subdivision team, same as the University of Central Arkansas. Arkansas State defeats Texas A&M in College Station. Maybe now's the time to start talking about future matchups involving all three of the Arkansas teams. Never in modern history have they been closer as far as competitive matchups.

A STATEMENT MOST RAZORBACK FANS THOUGHT THEY WOULD NEVER HEAR: "Thank Goodness for Casey Dick."

BEST UNDERSTATEMENT AT A POSTGAME NEWS CONFERENCE: UA coach Bobby Petrino after the Hogs had to rally to defeat Western Illinois: "That was a lot closer than we anticipated."

BEST DIG: A friend received a call from a buddy after Western Illinois took a 10-point lead over Arkansas. He said, "I have two words for you, "Cita Del." The Citadel stunned UA in the first game of the 1992 season and coach Jack Crowe was fired the next day in one of the most infamous weekends in UA history.

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MOST MURMURED WORD ABOUT REYNOLDS RAZORBACK STADIUM ON SATURDAY: "Citadel."

STRANGEST ATTIRE ON ONE OF THE HOTTEST EVENINGS OF THE SUMMER: The UCA coaches were attired in black polo shirts for the team's debut against Henderson State.

BEST OPENING-NIGHT PERFORMANCE BY A KICKER WORTHY OF A STATE FAIR FAVOR: UCA's Eddie Carmona, who was five for five on PAT's, 1 for 1 on field goal attempts, and 3 for 3 on kicks into the bouncy castle in the south end zone.

MOST INACCURATE REFERENCE: Several in the media called Western Illinois a "subdivision team." Technically, both the UA and Western Illinois are subdivision teams, the Hogs are in the Football Bowl Subdivision and Leathernecks in the Football Championship Subdivision (former Division 1-AA).

MOST TELLING STAT: Against Henderson State, UCA was 10 of 15 on third down. Henderson was 1 of 10 on third down.

WEIRDEST AND MOST UNEXPECTED STAT: In the first quarter against Western Illinois, the Razorbacks ran 10 plays for a net of 9 yards.

WORST POSTGAME ANALYSIS BY A CALLER; This call came in on a post-game radio show Saturday night, "They should have pulled Casey Dick at halftime." (Either by running or passing, Dick accounted for all four Razorback touchdowns).

BEST ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF A THURSDAY NIGHT GAME: UCA coach Clint Conque noted, "When you win on Thursday, you have three days to watch football over the weekend and you enjoy yourself and don't care who wins. If you lose on Thursday, you sit there the rest of the weekend and hope everyone loses."

MOST CREATIVE MARKETING: Lisa Cooley, UCA's marketing director, sold advertising space on the back of Conque's cap. Conque turns his cap around along the sidelines.

(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)