Image by Michael W. White
On Sept. 11, we'll be here. And all will be good.

Middle-aged men across the South dreaming gridiron dreams mark the days off their midsummer calendars with Alcatrazian mechanics, languishing in cubicles of soft taupe.

What? The Travs beat Midland last night? Wooo hoooo. Now I'm pumped ...

Football, oh football, wherefore art thou, football?

Fortunately our sentence is about to be commuted. The brief tease that was the almost-restructuring of college athletics earlier this summer was a welcome respite; SEC Media Days last week wet our whistles, and next week, brethren -- next week! -- our sacred gladiators in cardinal and white (OK, this year apparently it's gonna be bright red and black -- don't get me started) will take the field officially for the start of fall practice. The start of the Fall Campaign under General Petrino.

Summer's great, don't get me wrong. Being outside, sandals and shorts, cooking out, the symbiotic harmony of kids, dock and water -- I'm there. But from a work perspective, summer inches along. Slowly. And we find ourselves longing for fall.

Ah, fall.

The smell of burning leaves, burning brats and crispness. The crispness felt in the crunch of leaves underfoot, of a quiet autumn twilight with just a hint of chill in the air, of silent self-reflection amongst a wooded pallete of red, orange and yellow ...

Who am I kidding? The crispness of a Greg Childs post route that leaves a corner adjusting his jock strap, of a Hog call reverburating across the Ozark Plateau, of a Paul Eells (er, Chuck Barrett) touchdown call, of 75,000 descending in unison upon the visitors sideline to envelope the Ole Miss coaching staff ... OK, hold on, I'm back. I was somewhere else there for a second (and it was getting ugly).

Next week, boys and young men across this great land will don their armor for the start of practice. From fifth graders to future first-round picks. But not just yet. There's that last chunk of summer, taunting us, threatening to linger. Work Blog wants to help bridge that gap separating us from all that is right.

We offer up a projection of the upcoming season (the Hogs' season, who else?), game by game, through the lens of the workplace. This is the Work blog, after all. (For a professional forecast, check out ArkansasSports360.com's Chris Bahn, the Ned Perme of his genre.)

Tennessee Tech....1-0.

The first day on the job. Taking in new surroundings. Getting your e-mail set up, staking out quickest routes to men's room and Coke machine. For my buddy Friedman, making mental note of office hotties. No actual work required; a breeze.

ULM....2-0.

Still a breeze. You have to show up and offer up a pretense of work, but relax, you're still golden. Don't take the sports page with you into the men's room just yet, though.

at Georgia....3-0.

Heavy lifting now required. Boss drops first real project in your lap with a turnaround time of two days. Time to roll up the sleeves and get 'er done.

Alabama....4-0.

After acing real project No. 1, there remain non-believers. But you're ready to plant your flag on the top of Mount Promotion-Here-I-Come. Can you say Management/Top 10 Material?

Texas A&M....5-0.

How many Aggies does it take to screw in a light bulb? We have no idea, actually, but upward mobility just introduced itself, and its name is invitation-to-lunch-with-the-big-boss/Game-Day-is-penciling-in-Fayetteville.

at Auburn....6-0.

Slam dunk this project and we're taking the freakin' atlas into the men's room...

Ole Miss....7-0.

Ohhhhhhhhhh, life is good. The little dweeb -- you know, the one who uses his work phone for personal texts, two minutes before a huge presentation that one time, and refuses to take responsibility for anything -- must sit and watch you pass him by. Languish in Sales, purveyor of used dreams.

Vanderbilt....8-0.

The view from Upper Management/Top 5 is a nice one. We think we'll stay a while. And take an extra hour for lunch.

at South Carolina....9-0.

Chicken. It's what's for dinner. At the big boss' house. We're in, baby.

UTEP....10-0.

You know how doctors leave early to hit the course? Now we do too.

at Mississippi State....11-0.

We may be in like Flint at work, but headaches -- like forgetting to track your time -- still pop up. (That one always gets us.) Still, paperwork is no obstacle for this freight train.

LSU....12-0.

There's a spot opened up in Upper Management/SEC title game. It's ours for the taking, and we'll be stepping over that obnoxious Cajun co-worker to get it.

Florida, SEC championship game....13-0.

So this is how it feels? Wow. We thought we'd never get to experience this. You have a problem with me taking the sports section into the men's room? How 'bout I take your personnel file with me next time? But there's one more step ...

Ohio State, BCS title game....14-0.

BCS title, CEO, Top Hog. The pinnacle. The corner office. An entire library in our own personal bathroom (eat your heart out, Costanza).

There you have it. Some of us are well on our way to that BCS/CEO title. Some of us wallow in cubicles, struggling to handle the ULMs of the world. Work Blog is somewhere in between, happy and content in his workspace, but nonetheless dreaming of football on a hazy midsummer's day.