Bill's Blog: Frost on the Pumpkin

FAYETTEVILLE — This is what Homecoming should be like.

The first real frost of the year greeted those of us who live at the World Wide Headquarters of the Razorbacks, a crisp 33 degree dawn.

Get those jackets out of the closet and find the hand warmers — tomorrow night is going to be genuine fall football weather.

But before the game, a whole weekend of Homecoming events are on the docket starting with the annual Homecoming parade and pep rally. Robert Pulliza’s volleyball squad hosts the first of two key SEC West matches with Alabama tonight at 7 p.m.

THE PURE ESSENSE OF "HOMECOMING": Graduates return to the alma mater. Doesn’t get much bigger than a current head of state coming home. UA grad and Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli is here for the weekend. Martinelli was in Fayetteville this spring, and threw out the first pitch for a Razorback baseball game. This weekend, however, he is back simply as an alumn — not making the "state" visit.

REMEMBER THE LIVE BLOG: I’ll start at 4 p.m. on Saturday with regular items, but likely will post periodic things before hand. If you can’t get into the game due to the Fox and blackout issues (read further below), I will be your lifeline on the blog tomorrow night along with audio via RazorVision. This bears repeating: RazorVision does not have the rights to stream football, never has, never will. That belongs to the SEC and it’s partner neworks. We do own rights to the audio, and that will be available via your computer or iPhone with iHog (provided you are already a RazorVision subscriber).

HOMECOMING STREAMING: If you can’t be at the parade or rally, the Arkansas Alumni Association is working with UATV to provide live coverage of the parade and pep rally. Learn more by going to this page on the alumni association’s website. The stream is coming off UATV’s UStream channel.

HALFTIME STREAMING: Last week we had some technical difficulties, but I’m pretty confident you will not have to stand by this week. The halftime performance of the Razorback band and the presentation of the homecoming court will stream live via RazorVision. Go to the live events page and you’ll get the link when it goes live. Since we are working around TV, we cannot activate until the first half is over — thus the link won’t go live until halftime. Keep checking the page.

WE CAN’T BE THERE, BUT YOU CAN: Since volleyball has a match tonight, the new media crew is in Barnhill. But we’d really like some photos and short videos from the Homecoming parade. Take some iPhone photos of the parade and do one of the following: post them on Facebook and tag them out for ArkRazorbacks, send them on Twitter with our #WPS and @ArkRazorbacks tags or just good ole email them to bismith@uark.edu. Who knows — you photos could be in tomorrow’s live blog of the game.

DISH UPDATE!: According to a press release from DISH, the problem with Fox (and in turn Fox Sports Net) was resolved late Friday evening. We were advised by the SEC this means our game should be back on Fox via DISH. Fox and DISH Network had a major deadline to beat by Sunday, and they did at the close of business on Friday.

ESPN3 BLACKOUT: Also keep in mind that if you are going to watch via ESPN3, you must be outside the SEC’s 9-state footprint. Here’s the coverage map.

TWIT TIX TOMORROW: With a 6 p.m. kickoff and lots of folks in town, the TwitTix giveaway will take place tomorrow afternoon near Razorback Stadium. To qualify, you need to have forwarded today’s #FF message, gotten one new follower for @ArkRazorbacks and show me your work on your mobile.