If you care enough about the (mis?)fortunes of the Arkansas Razorbacks football program, by now you know the bad news.

Arkansas, a co-finalist for the services of the country’s most-prized recruit/initialism, Springfield, MO wide receiver Dorial Green Beckham, (a virtual household name, already, in the college football world, known simply as DGB) was left at the altar this morning on National Signing Day when he signed with homestanding Missouri.

Chaos immediately ensued in Arkansas. Forecasts of impending Razorback doom formed with the swiftness and intensity of an unexpected Eastern Oklahoma thunder storm. Grown men temporarily lost their Bobby Petrino-damned minds.

And then, some of us realized that, while missing out on DGB and Courtney Gardner stings a little (the latter is a Junior College super freak Wide Receiver who had cast his lot with the Hogs in January, only to commit to the Land Thieves in Norman, OK last night), now might be the perfect time for a little perspective.

We only do a few things well at BlogHawgs, and we don’t do them frequently, but perspective is in our wheelhouse. No, really. It is.

I know it’s not what some of you want right now, and I understand that the snarkiest of anonymous, internet tough guys will scoff at this commentary as Rose-Colored Glasses Rationalization at its worst. That’s fine.

Those are the same people who don’t bathe regularly, breathe primarily through their mouths and cannot grasp the difference between “your” and “you’re”.

If “you’re” perusing this and you just read that description without knowingly shaking your head, “your” the one I am talking about. Feel free to log off, go smoke a few packs of cigarettes and deep fry something.

Now, for those of you who are still here, note this: Recent  history and sheer numbers tell us that the class that Arkansas and Petrino are signing in 2012 has the potential to keep the Razorbacks in the upper echelon of the Southeastern Conference, and hence, the Top 5, nationally.

Consider: Arkansas is 26-6 in its last 32 games.

Five of the losses came on the road or at neutral sites.

But, most remarkably, FOUR of those 6 losses came to teams that were either ranked #1 at the time Arkansas played them, or were ranked #1 at the end of the season.

Read that again. It’s ridiculous.  (The other 2 losses came at 17th-ranked LSU in 2009 and to #6 Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl in 2011.)

Pollsters have taken notice. Arkansas ended last season ranked in the Top 5 for the first time since 1977  and has been given 12:1 odds to win the next BCS National Championship by “Guys Who Know Things” in the Nevada Desert.

The Razorbacks have climbed to such a lofty level on the strength of recruiting classes that, based upon the recruiting rankings of the 2 major services in the U.S., were, by SEC standards, average at best.

To be fair, saying that Recruiting Rankings are an inexact science is an insult to chiropractors.

Some “can’t miss” guys fail miserably (Mitch Mustain) and other “Who are they?” guys lead their team in tackles for four consecutive seasons and will be playing for pay on Sundays in the Fall (Jerry Franklin).

A perfect anecdotal example of how Arkansas is turning lukewarm recruiting rankings into sizzling seasons is the case of East Poinsett County (Lepanto, AR) linebacker and 2012 Arkansas signee A.J. Turner (6’3 220).

Those in the state like, myself, who have seen him play marvel at Turner’s athletic ability.

Many experts feel Turner is the best player in Arkansas. He is the rare specimen that can dunk a basketball any way you would like, and can roam from sideline to sideline on the football field and get to his destination in a bad mood.

As a junior, he racked up 171 tackles. That is not a typo.

And yet, the national “experts” only have Turner ranked as a 3-star (For non-recruitniks–READ: Pretty and approachable, but with an annoying laugh).

When asked berated about the fact Scout.com had Turner listed as a 3-star recruit and the 4th best player in the state behind a guy who was not even named to the Arkansas All-State team, but boasts a much more affluent zip code, one national “expert” actually told me the ranking was the result of Turner’s High School not having good video equipment, and, because, during all of Turner’s highlight plays on his (ALLEGED) lone, existing, scouting tape, a guy in a leather jacket kept blocking the camera.

I wish I was kidding. It makes me mad enough to write the preceding comma/error-filled paragraph/run-on sentence.

But, unless we are going to resort to crazy things like actual on-the-field results (SEE ABOVE) to form our opinions about a team’s talent, the rankings are all we have.

What have they told us about Petrino at Arkansas (other than Lepanto needs some Steady Cams?)?

Give Petrino a puncher’s chance, and more often than not, he will punch you in the face.

Here are the results for the four classes that Petrino has used to build Arkansas into an emerging national brand:

Scout. com Rankings:

2008—24^th Overall, 6^th in the SEC

2009—20^th Overall, 9^th in the  SEC

2010—35^th Overall, 9^th in the SEC

2011—17^th Overall, 7^th in the SEC

Rivals Rankings:

2008—36^th Overall, 9^th in the SEC

2009—16^th Overall, 7^th in the SEC

2010—49^th Overall, 10^th in the SEC

2011—24^th Overall, 9^th in the SEC

Those results clearly belie the recent success of the Arkansas program.

And what about the current class? I won’t go Super Geek on you and break it down player-by-player, but it is a solid, if not currently spectacular, class–21st Overall and 9th in the SEC per Scout.com and 34th overall and 12th in the SEC–according to Rivals.com.

The class is also incomplete, and has a few spots that will be filled by a high-profile recruits.

(UPDATE: While I was writing this, Arkansas landed Vigor, AL Defensive lineman Darius Philon, an Alabama Crimson Tide commitment until he was LITERALLY unceremoniously dumped by Inexplicable National Media Darling Nick Saban, TODAY.)

But even if Arkansas misses on those targets, or lands a few and does not move up much from its current rankings –its 2012 class has an abundance of (somewhat unrealized) potential.

In other words, the 2012 Arkansas Razorbacks recruiting class looks like more of the same.

But, Don’t Go Berserk.

“More of the same” isn’t necessarily a bad thing–unless you prefer that wins and losses (and our team and collective self-worth as Hog fans) be determined in February by video-spoiling guys in leather jackets instead of defense-foiling guys carrying leather footballs in September.