Couldn’t help but follow the link from Razorback Athletic Director Jeff Long’s Twitter feed to an account of the 2013 football team banquet.

It’s kind of the football equivalent of the UA PR Factory’s  response yesterday — !We Weren’t Indicted! — after  a nolle prosse decision by a local prosecutor and a legislative squelching of critics. in the Advancement Division financial scandal.

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In the football version of UA PR, there was no mention of the bleak W-L record this year but extensive quotes from parents of Hog football players about their affection for Coach Bret Bielema and his awesomeness.

In other words, as with Gearhartgate: Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative and don’t mess with Mr. Inbetween (or Mr. 3-9 or Mr. Shred-those-documents).  Sample:

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Sandy Hocker, mother of All-SEC K-Zach Hocker: “He got to fulfill a dream of being a Razorback. It’s been just awesome. Zach grew up wanting to be a Razorback. It’s the best coaching he’s had. It has been an awesome experience and he wishes he could have had more time with Coach Bielema. He’s been awesome.”

Awesome

Someday, somebody will figure out whether a university pest control contract, a cagey governor, the university’s proven lobbying muscle (including free football tickets and parking passes — admittedly not such a hot commodity this year) — explained the Sen. Bill Sample-led move yesterday to silence  Brad Choate before the Legislative Audit committee. We know why the lions of audit went easy the day before on expense account cheat Lt. Gov. Mark Darr.  He’s part of the ruling Republican Party and they are blithering hypocrites. But the bipartisan stifling imposed on Choate remains something of a mystery, apart from UA clout and their obvious interest in stopping Chancellor David Gearhart’s bleeding.

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