Lamar University’s fledgling football program could wind up getting a big-time boost from Bobby Petrino replacing Houston Nutt as the head football coach at Arkansas. West Brook ex Joe Chiasson, a two-time PA News Super Teamer who signed with the Razorbacks in 2006, has left Arkansas and is reportedly considering enrolling at LU. If he does, it would be a huge early boost for Cardinal coach Ray Woodard, who can’t begin assembling his first recruiting class until next February. Chiasson is an exceptional athlete who played both quarterback and running back at West Brook and was recruited by Arkansas as a defensive back. Because of his scrambling ability, and what he learned playing for Craig Stump, Chiasson sounds like at ideal fit as a quarterback for Lamar . . . Florida Atlantic, which has only had a football program seven years, opens against Texas in Austin on Saturday. It’s worth mentioning that because crusty old FAU coach Howard Schnellenberger has rattled the Longhorns cage by being quoted in the school newspaper as saying Texas isn’t a physically tough team and labeling Greg Davis’ offense as nothing but a bunch of “dink and dunk” passes. I know Schnellenberger wasn’t misquoted because he told me basically the same thing last spring when I interviewed him about Lamar starting football. He also told me he couldn’t understand why Texas, with its ability to recruit physically dominant athletes, chooses to play finesse football. I agree with him, but wonder why he’s gone out of his way to get the Longhorns aroused for a game they probably would have approached in ho-hum fashion.

With football kicking off for real this weekend, two long-time Port Arthur News staples are headed your way. On Wednesday, The I Beat Bob West Football Contest will launch for the 27th year. Beat Bob and you can win monogrammed travel bags and caps. Old Bob, by the way, is the defending champion among pickers at The News. After you make your selections on Wednesday, be looking for Football 2008 inserted in Friday’s newspaper. The 48-page tab will be packed with area schoolboy team previews, looks at the Cowboys and Texans and high school, college and NFL schedules . . . Rice opens with a 7 p.m. nationally televised game on ESPN against SMU Friday night. Shame on the two schools and ESPN. Both teams need the money and the exposure, but they are stepping all over high school football to get it. Friday night should be the exclusive domain of high schools and was until ESPN jumped into the fray a few years ago. With ESPN, it’s all about greed and programming. The all sports network could care less about tempting fans to stay away from high school games. The worst was last year when Oklahoma played Tulsa on a Friday night . . . The numbers are 5 and 89. The questions to go with them are how many head coaches in the Southeastern Conference have won a national championship and how many schools have won a bowl game since Notre Dame last celebrated post-season success on Jan. 1, 1994. Those 5 SEC coaches with a national title, by the way, are LSU’s Les Miles, South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier (at Florida), Alabama’s Nick Saban (at LSU), Florida’s Urban Meyer and Tennessee’s Phil Fulmer. Any wonder why most experts consider the SEC far and away the top football conference?

Two wonderful things happened for the Houston Rockets in the Olympics. First and foremost, Yao Ming made it through six games without setting back the healing process on the stress fracture in his left foot. Nearly as positive, Yao said that he doesn’t intend to play for China in the 2012 Olympics, that he feels he needs to rest his body during the NBA’s off-seasons. It sounds great, but you have to wonder if there won’t be intervention from the Chinese government . . . Lamar basketball fans who have written off two of the team’s fringe big men — Lawrence Nwevo and Coy Custer — need to revise their thinking, according to Cardinal basketball coach Steve Roccaforte. “Their teammates say they are the two most improved players in the program and will be able to help us this season,” Roccaforte said. The LU coach is also raving over strides made by senior Jay Brown, junior Ashton Hall and redshirt sophomore Shane Mahoney . . . According to a statement released by the University of Texas, former Memorial basketball great J’Covan Brown did not meet academic requirements to enroll for the fall term. UT coach Rick Barnes said he hasn’t given up on Brown, but offered no additional details. It seems probable that Brown will enroll in a junior college, although there has been speculation he might play overseas.

Denver Broncos fans were all over second-year QB Jay Cutler last season, as his numbers dropped and his passes fluttered. Turns out he was suffering from Type 1 diabetes and it was sapping his strength. The condition wasn’t diagnosed until this past spring, Cutler has since regained the 35 pounds he lost and his passes again have the customary zip. Before Denver’s pre-season game last week with Dallas last week, Cutler got some been there, done that advice from Cowboy QB coach Wade Wilson. Wilson played 14 NFL seasons after being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes . . . When the Cowboys drafted Texas A&M tight end Martellus Bennett in the second round, I thought they had come up with special athlete who could make a huge impact. He may well be that type player down the line, but it will probably be later rather than sooner. After watching three installments of Hard Knocks, Bennett comes across as immature, self centered and difficult to coach. It wasn’t exactly encouraging watching Dallas tight ends coach John Garrett practically beg him to tuck his jersey in . . . Jamaal Charles’ chances to make a strong bid for playing time with the Kansas City Chiefs have been hampered by a shoulder injury. Charles has missed the last two weeks of practice and the Chiefs second and third preseason games. He’s one of eight Kansas City rookies, including both first round picks, to have missed time with injuries.

The rush to cash in on swimmer Michael Phelps’ eight gold medals is in high gear. It was announced Thursday that a division of publishing house Simon and Shuster will have a book out on Phelps’ life before Christmas. It will be titled Built to Succeed and will cover everything from Phelps overcoming attention deficit disorder, to being raised by a single mother, to his philosophy on training and competition. Can you say, “best seller?” . . . The struggles of Lumberton’s Clay Buchholz with the Boston Red Sox were mentioned in this space last week and since then his situation has gotten worse. Buchholz was shelled by Baltimore Tuesday night — the same team he no-hit last Sept. 1 — to drop his record to 2-9 and raise his ERA to 6.75. After the game, the Red Sox announced he was being assigned to their AA team. Among the numbers that troubled Boston management most were 93 hits and 41 walks in 76 innings. Buchholz appeared in 16 games and the Red Sox were 3-13 in them . . . Say a prayer for Lance Van Zandt and his family. The retired football coach from Port Neches, who was the defensive coordinator on a national championship team at Nebraska under Tom Osborne, was Bum Phillips’ secondary coach with the New Orleans Saints and coached with Bum and Wade at Oklahoma State, is fighting a losing battle with cancer. Gravely ill, Lance is at St. Mary Hospital. He and wife Jeanette recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Sports editor Bob West can be e-mailed at rdwest@usa.net. His Sportsrap radio show airs Mondays at 7:05 p.m. on KLVI (560-AM)