It’s only October, but silly season in college basketball coaching has already arrived. And for Memphis fans, the script is incredibly familiar. A high-profile job opens up. Immediately, John Calipari’s name is thrown into the mix because, well, his name is always thrown into the mix. Posters on Internet message boards who previously trashed Calipari will suddenly claim that he’s their program’s savior. A columnist in said college’s area will inevitably write the case against hiring Calipari - regardless of whether he’s really a candidate - drudging up Marcus Camby and the laundry list of the off-court problems he’s had at Memphis.

In the case of Arizona, which will be the big job open next April now that Lute Olson has announced his retirement this week, let me go ahead and save everybody the trouble.

Calipari isn’t going to Arizona.

Of course, some of this stuff has already started, though not by national writers who understand the dynamics of the situation. But Calipari’s name has been thrown out in Arizona newspapers, and apparently even a Phoenix radio host said that he’d heard Calipari would be willing to take a pay cut to go to Arizona (Whoever is spreading that rumor doesn’t know Calipari very well.) When I mentioned to Calipari that his name had popped up in the Tucson papers, he laughed, because it’s entirely predictable. But his response was clear and unequivocal. He’s not interested.

As someone who spends a lot of time around Calipari and the program, there are a couple things are worth keeping in mind when it comes to Calipari and any other job, especially this one.

1) With his newest contract, Calipari makes $3.35 million a year guaranteed. Let me repeat. Calipari makes $3.35 million per year guaranteed. And that doesn’t even include a dime from the new shoe contract Memphis is about to sign with Nike. Now, I can’t get anyone in the athletic department to go on the record right now about what the financial ramifications of this deal will be. But from what I’ve gathered, it will add another significant chunk of money to Calipari’s annual package. How significant? I’m not sure yet, but the total numbers could be Nick Saban-esque. Olson’s total package at Arizona, according to published reports, was somewhere between $1.3-1.5 million, which is pretty much in line with the pay scale in the Pac 10.

2) Calipari’s mindset, at this point, seems to be geared more toward riding out the momentum at Memphis rather than starting over somewhere else. That doesn’t mean he’s going to coach at Memphis forever, but if the Tigers get a couple of the recruits they’re after along with the players who are already in the fold for next year, Calipari sees them right back in the championship mix. Like Indiana, Arizona is probably a 4-year rebuilding job at minimum.

Bottom line, though, is that Memphis fans have no need to wring their hands over Internet speculation, mostly fueled by fans (and in some cases coaches) from teams that are recruiting against the Tigers. As many others have written on a national basis, fans of Gonzaga and Pitt should have much more reason to think about Arizona at this point than Memphis fans.

While I’m killing time at Memphis Motorsports Park waiting for the Nationwide Series race to start, I thought I’d pass along an interesting tidbit I picked up last night.

According to MUS coach Bobby Alston, last night’s game at ECS marked the first time all season the top-ranked Owls have played on natural grass.

That’s amazing to me.

They’re nine games into the season, and they’ve played only one game on grass?

What happened to the days when high school football was played on a nasty mix pof mud, grass and white paint?

No matter what happened to those days, I’m glad they’re gone. Teams like MUS and ECS deserve better.

By the way, ECS coach Jim Heinz spent all day Friday getting his field ready after Thursday’s heavy rains. The field looked great.

Perhaps returning the favor, Alston chose not to add a late fourth-quarter touchdown that would have increased the score to 29-10 MUS.

Instead, his quarterback took a knee at the ECS one-yard-line.

Both coaches are classy guys.

If you’re up early Saturday morning taking part in Tennessee’s special youth deer hunt, be sure to turn on “Outdoors with Larry Rea” on AM-79.

The show starts at 6 a.m., and I’ll be in the studio with Larry for the entire 90 minutes.

He’ll have interviews with TWRA hunter education specialist Gene Smith, and a nice list of other folks, including:

** Alex Rutledge, a pro-staffer for Hunter Specialties

** Danny Van Pelt of the Mid-South Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association

** Memphis realtor Linda Arnold, who recently landed a 25-inch trout on the Little Red River

** Ernie Lenzt, a natural resources specialist at Arkabutla Lake

** C.J. Davis, who will talk about ThermaCell’s wildly popular new earth-scented mosquito repellent

They’re all interesting folks – and Larry is always worth listening to.

Here’s a couple of thoughts before the Tigers and Golden Eagles kick off at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Saturday night:

*** Deciding on a quarterback to start Saturday’s game against Southern Miss will be difficult for the Tiger coaching staff. Junior Brett Toney has a better grasp of the playbook and true freshman Tyler Bass has the better physical skills (stronger arm, better runner).

*** Each time the Tigers have turned their season around after a lackluster start, a playmaker has emerged to lead them. Three years ago, it was receiver-turned-quarterback Maurice Avery who stepped in when starter Patrick Byrne and backup Will Hudgens were injured early in the season and when the job was a bit too much for freshman Billy Barefield. Avery, with plenty of help from All-America running back DeAngelo Williams, directed the Tigers to the Motor City Bowl.
Last year it was senior quarterback Martin Hankins who stepped up and put together a second-half that carried the Tigers to the postseason. Hankins tossed 17 touchdowns and averaged 351 yards passing in the team’s final six regular-season games.
I’m not sure if there exists a player who can carry the team on his back the final four games of 2008. Bass has star potential, but it may be asking too much of a player who wasn’t taking reps in practice a week ago.

*** And if the Tigers are to turn it around (or at least go 3-1), they couldn’t have asked for a more accommodating schedule. The U of M’s remaining opponents are a combined 7-20. If the Tigers can split the next two (Southern Miss, at SMU), they may have Arkelon Hall back for the Nov. 22 game against UCF and the Nov. 29 game against Tulane, both at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. No games Nov. 1 or Nov. 15 should improve Hall’s chances of returning in late November.

I’ve read a lot through the years about scent and how different ones tend to trigger different memories.

I really believe that.

Every time I smell Golden Rule Barbecue, I’m reminded of mid-summer fishing trips with my father and grandfather.

Every time I smell honeysuckles, I think about the spring days I spent swimming and fishing on the Cahaba River near Birmingham.

But no scent triggers my memory like the sweet smell of dirt.

For me, it will always mean hunting.

That’s the biggest reason why I like the new earth-scented mosquito repellent from Thermacell.

It’s the same old butane cartridge that fits into a portable unit - the same one that’s been helping hunters avoid mosquito bites for years. But instead of smelling like bug repellent, it smells like dirt.

When I say it smells like dirt, I don’t mean the nasty, musty dirt you smell during the third quarter on a high school football field.

It smells like fresh, damp earth with a hint of fallen leaves. It’s the same wonderful scent you smell every time you enter the woods before daylight. The same scent you’ll smell as you track your first deer on the opening day of the muzzleloader season (I mean, once the smoke clears from the black powder).

The smell of corn dogs will always remind me of the fair.

The smell of gasoline and freshly mowed grass will always remind me of my garage, the inner-sanctum of my home.

But dirt, fresh earth, will always mean it’s time to go hunting.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission has voted on changes for the state’s 2009 sportfishing regulations, but there doesn’t seem to be anything really earth-shattering for West Tennessee.

The Commission decided to maintain the minimum length limit of 15 inches for smallmouth bass on Kentucky Lake. That’s a perfectly reasonable limit. As far as I’m concerned, they could have gone with 16 or more.

The Commission also decided to establish a daily creel limit of 30 crappie per person for West Tennessee fisheries, including Kentucky and Barkley Lakes, but excluding the Mississippi River. The creel limit will remain 50 on the Mississippi.

There was a big scare a few months ago over a TWRA proposal that would have lowered the daily limit for crappie to 15 per person on Kentucky Lake. But area anglers made such a fuss that TWRA changed its mind.

It was the right choice. A limit of 15 would have been too constricting. Many out-of-town anglers would have marked Kentucky Lake off their lists because it wouldn’t have been worth the trip for 15 measly crappie.

That would have cost guides, hotel owners and restaurant owners on Kentucky Lake a lot of money, and long term, I don’t think it would have helped the lake’s crappie population that much.

The changes will take effect March 1, 2009.

A couple other things worth mentioning, besides the development with the Henry family:

- Tyreke Evans has been good, but he finally had the “That’s Why He’s a Lottery Pick” practice on Wednesday. It certainly helps to be an 18-year old with a 25-year old’s body, but he was simply dominant.

- Pierre Niles had the best practice probably of his career. It was nicely timed, too, since I have a story on Pierre in tomorrow’s paper. He made one play that made me do a double-take. It was a reverse layup where he transferred the ball from his left hand to his right, but I can’t do it justice. And he wouldn’t have been able to make that play at 350 pounds, I can guarantee that.

- Doneal Mack has quietly had a pretty good preseason. I am seeing much more consistency day-to-day than I’ve seen in the past.

- The guys who are struggling a little bit right now are Wesley Witherspoon and Roburt Sallie.