WAR EAGLE EXTRA: Lunchtime links: Monday edition (9/14)

Monday, September 14, 2009

We'll start with some West Virginia links and move on from there ...

West Virginia wasn't perfect in its 35-20 win against East Carolina last weekend, but it got the win, writes Mitch Vingle of the Charleston Gazette.

QB Jarrett Brown has performed admirably in place of Pat White, and West Virginia has opened up its passing offense, writes Colin Dunlap of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Special teams gaffes aren't just a major concern for Auburn heading into the game. The Mountaineers have problems of their own, writes Mike Casazza of the Charleston Daily Mail.

Auburn has the Wildcat formation; West Virginia has the Pistol, writes Bob Hertzel of the Times West Virginian.

Gene Chizik and WVU's Bill Stewart have somewhat similar stories, writes Hertzel.

LB Reed Williams cherishes his leadership role, writes Mickey Fufari of the Times West Virginian.

Williams and DL Scooter Berry are a little banged up, writes Dave Hickman of the Charleston Gazette in this notebook.

Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel, who admittedly was skeptical of the Stewart hire, has been impressed with what the Mountaineers have looked like this year.

In that same notebook, he also had good words about Gus Malzahn (although he seems to have the same problem that I do in that he types "Guz" when trying to spell "Gus" all the time): "Malzahn is working his magic again. Facing the same Mississippi State team it infamously beat 3-2 a year earlier, Auburn racked up 589 yards -- including a staggering 390 on the ground -- in a 49-24 win. Under the direction of the former Arkansas and Tulsa offensive coordinator, the Tigers currently rank fourth nationally in total offense, up 100 spots from 2008."

Elsewhere ...

Auburn continues to gain votes in the polls. The Tigers got 26 votes in the Associated Press poll this week, up from four last week. And they got 30 votes in the USA Today/Coaches Poll, up from 13. They'd be No. 33 in the AP poll and No. 31 in the coaches poll.

Interestingly, ESPN College Gameday's Kirk Herbstreit has Auburn ranked the highest of anybody, at No. 17 on his ballot. If the Tigers beat West Virginia this Saturday, I can see them getting into the polls for real.

Auburn moved to seventh in ESPN.com blogger Chris Low's SEC power rankings, just ahead of South Carolina and behind Georgia.

Low also commends Auburn's offense in his What We Learned post. Interesting fact that I had not noticed. The Tigers scored six touchdowns against Mississippi State. They scored eight touchdowns in SEC play last year. He also gives helmet stickers to both Chizik and the offensive line.

Is Auburn gaining some respect nationally? ESPN's Mark Schlabach has the Tigers in the Chick-fil-A Bowl against Miami in his bowl projections. Bruce Feldman still has them in the Independence Bowl against Baylor.

For the record, that Ball State game in Week 4 is not shaping up to be a tough one for Auburn. The Cardinals might be the first team to go from 12-0 in the regular season to 0-12.

Trees were killed to put college football scores on the front pages of Sunday newspapers across the country. The least you can do is look at a few of them.

Georgia LB Rennie Curran's big play saved the day against South Carolina and prevented the Bulldogs from falling to an 0-2 start, writes Tyler Estep of the Macon Telegraph.

Jonathan Crompton looked like ... well, Jonathan Crompton in Tennessee's loss to UCLA last weekend, writes Geoff Calkins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Quarterback is going to be a major problem as Lane Kiffin tries to rebuild in Knoxville.

The best line of the week? Florida by 28.5 over Tennessee. Yikes. Can't imagine Urban Meyer calling off the dogs after Kiffin's offseason remarks. Don't let his demeanor fool you. He's a spiteful one. Remember the multiple timeouts at the end of last year's Georgia game?

Monday, September 14, 2009