In 1998, when Houston Nutt was in his first season as head football coach at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Alabama had begun its decade of darkness but was still the measuring stick.
Once the bell cow, always the bell cow in the SEC.
Which was why a mediocre Alabama team was ranked No. 22 on Sept. 26, 1998, when it came to Fayetteville. Both teams were undefeated and the game was picked up by ESPN2.
Nutt was hired after Danny Ford had gone 4-7 in back-to-back seasons. But in all fairness to Ford, he had done a crazy-good recruiting job.