Opponent preview: Ball State

In case you missed the beginning of our opponent previews, you can click on Louisiana Tech, Mississippi State and West Virginia to go back and read the first three installments.

Next up, Ball State, so let's get started. And remember, follow the War Eagle Extra on Twitter here.

Ball State Cardinals

• Head coach: Stan Parrish (1st season at Ball State; 11th overall, 57-42-3 at Wabash College, Marshall and Kansas State)
  
• 2008 record: 12-2 (8-0 MAC, 1st in West), lost to Tulsa 45-13 in GMAC Bowl
• Returning starters: 11 (4 offense, 7 defense)
• Total offense: 442.5 (1st MAC, 17th nationally)
• Total defense: 368.2 (4th MAC, 69th nationally)
• Series: Auburn leads series 2-0
  
• Last meeting: Auburn won 63-3 in 2005 at Jordan-Hare Stadium
  
• Consensus prediction: Fifth place in the MAC West
  

Five-week schedule glimpse

• Sept. 12: New Hampshire
• Sept. 19: at Army
• Sept. 26: at Auburn
• Oct. 3: Toledo
• Oct. 10: at Temple

Ball State had a dream season for 12 games, riding quarterback Nate Davis to a perfect regular season and getting as high as No. 12 in the polls. Then came the MAC championship, where the Cardinals got upset by a Turner Gill-coached Buffalo team 42-24. After coach Brady Hoke bolted for San Diego State in December, Ball State got hammered by Gus Malzahn's offense at Tulsa in the GMAC Bowl, an inglorious end to what was supposed to be a dream season. Davis left early for the NFL, where he was a fifth-round choice by the San Francisco 49ers. With a new coach and no star quarterback, the Cardinals, who once were bottom feeders in the MAC, might be in for a difficult season.

To find out how things this are going for the Cardinals this year, I contacted Doug Zaleski, Ball State beat writer at The Star Press in Muncie, Ind. You can read his work online here and his blog here. Here's what he had to say:

AB: Ball State moved pretty quickly in promoting offensive coordinator Stan Parrish to replace Brady Hoke, who left to become head coach at San Diego State. Parrish has been on board for the entirety of the Cardinals' recent turnaround, so the continuity is there, but he hasn't been a head coach since a pitiful three-year run at Kansas State from 1986-88 when he went 2-30-1. Is he the right man for the job?

DZ: Ball State needed to do something with its head coaching job quickly last December with a bowl game looming and Hoke leaving for San Diego State. Parrish was handy, which made him a convenient selection, but he also had the respect of the school's administration, players and fans. He's the architect of the Cardinals' high-octane offense, so that continuity is there. Certainly Parrish's record as a head coach is not good, but the Kansas State job when he held it was among the worst positions in the country.

AB: Parrish might still be around but all-everything quarterback Nate Davis opted for the NFL instead of coming back for his senior season. Who will replace Davis and what fraction of his production can Cardinals fans expect out of the quarterback position this year?

DZ: Kelly Page was anointed the likely starter heading into spring practice, and he was named the starter coming out of spring ball. Page redshirted as a true freshman last year, and Davis told me he saw enough of Page to think he's going to be a great player at Ball State. Page has all the physical tools to play the position, but he obviously lacks experience. That deficit, combined with a mostly new offensive line could spell some trouble for the passing game this year.

AB: Running back MiQuale Lewis set school records in rushing yards (1,736) and touchdowns (22) last season but still played largely in Davis' shadow. Is Lewis up to the task of being this team's offensive centerpiece and will he approach any of those numbers after Ball State lost four starters from last year's offensive line?

DZ: Everything went perfectly for Lewis last year, and it's doubtful he'll approach similar numbers this season. He will be the centerpiece of the offense, but without a feared passing attack to complement his running skills, the same lanes won't be open. Defenses are certain to load up to stop Lewis and make the passing game beat them. That could be a tough task for Ball State. Parrish is going to try to get Lewis out in space a little bit, lining him up as a pass receiver at times, to get him the ball on the edge, where he can use his shiftiness.

AB; Not too much was written about last year's defense, which gave up only 20.5 points per game, ranking 29th nationally. How much talent is on this unit after losing both starting cornerbacks (Trey Buice and Kenny Meeks) and two starting linebackers (Bryant Haines and B.J. Hill) from last season?

DZ: The big loss for the defense is the corner positions. Besides Buice and Hill, nickel corner Trey Lewis also graduated. The corners who win starting jobs in the fall will be largely untested as regular contributors. The front seven of the defense looks pretty good. Ball State should be able to absorb the loss of Haines and Meeks (coaches are extremely high on freshman LB Travis Freeman), and the front four headed by Brandon Crawford should be solid with lots of starting and playing experience.

AB: Until December of last year, Ball State was having a dream season. Then it lost the MAC championship to Buffalo, was throttled in a 32-point GMAC Bowl loss to the Gus Malzahn-coordinated offense of Tulsa and watched its head coach bolt for the sunny skies of San Diego. Was the Cardinals' success last year fleeting or is it sustainable for the foreseeable future?

DZ: Last year's success was the culmination of a 5-year building process with lots of talented seniors contributing in many areas. Ball State likely will take a step back this year in the MAC because of the inexperience it will have on offense. But Hoke thought his last two recruiting classes were the best of his regime, and Parrish was pleased with this year's newcomers. The players in those classes will need time to mature, but they should prevent Ball State from falling off the map.

NCAA '10 on PlayStation 3 says ... Auburn 45, Ball State 13. Oh, what a rout! Where to start? How about Auburn's 479 yards of total offense? Kodi Burns throws for 220 yards and three touchdowns and scores another on the ground. Ben Tate runs for 148 yards and a score. Mario Fannin adds 75 rushing yards. And Tim Hawthorne has a big day in the air, catching six passes for 133 yards and two touchdowns. An all-around strong offensive day for the Tigers, as they improve to 3-1 while handing Ball State its first loss.

Up next: We get back to conference play, with Auburn's first road trip of the year, what's sure to be a thrilling trip to Knoxville to take on Tennessee.

Rocker, Coleman have father/son relationship

Antonio Coleman was at SEC media days in Hoover, Ala., last week and had some glowing things to say about defensive line coach Tracy Rocker, who had equally glowing things to say about his star pupil.

So everything's always been hunky-dory between the two, right? Well, not necessarily. They didn't see eye-to-eye on everything early in spring practice, with things coming to a head with an on-field exchange, the details of which made their way onto the Internet message boards. It was later classified a "misunderstanding." The result has been a Coleman as focused as he's ever been, ready to take on the responsibility of leading Auburn's defensive unit into battle this fall. Rocker, meanwhile, is pleased -- and grateful -- to have AC back for his senior season.

The story was so compelling that I wrote about it here for the dead-tree version of our newspaper, which also happens to be online for everyone to read for free. Here's how it starts:

AUBURN, Ala. — Tracy Rocker stood shocked as Auburn opened spring practice, taken aback that his newly-inherited defensive linemen skirted physical confrontations by dodging blockers and frustrated that his star end, Antonio Coleman, went about his business in a quiet, self-contained manner.

The outspoken Rocker voiced his displeasure, specifically targeting the slow-starting Coleman. Rumors swirled and the Internet was abuzz when an anonymous report made its way onto the message boards. It said Coleman walked off the field in a huff following the exchange.

Labeled a “misunderstanding,” the incident proved to be a turning point for Rocker and Coleman, one that’s fostered a bond between the former Auburn legend and current All-SEC lineman.

“I just thought that he wasn’t giving his best, and we sat down and we ironed it out,” Rocker said, blunt as usual. “You don’t know how a kid’s going to react. And in the process, he approached it in a very mature way. ‘I didn’t know this. How do I lead?’ Well, hell, I’ll help you lead. ...

“I think that was the turning point for him. After that, I said, ‘OK, that’s the guy I keep hearing about.’”

Opponent preview: West Virginia

We've done Louisiana Tech and Mississippi State, now it's time for the Take Me Home, Country Roads version of our opponent previews. That's right, West Virginia and Pat White-less Mountaineers.

And remember, follow the War Eagle Extra on Twitter here.

West Virginia Mountaineers

• Head coach: Bill Stewart (2nd season at WVU, 10-4; 6th overall, 18-29)
  
• 2008 record: 9-4, (5-2 Big East, t-2nd), beat North Carolina 31-30 in Meineke Car Care Bowl
• Returning starters: 12 (5 offense, 7 defense)
• Total offense: 360.4 (5th Big East, 59th nationally)
• Total defense: 328.9 (6th Big East, 36th nationally)
• Series: West Virginia leads series 1-0
  
• Last meeting: West Virginia won 34-17 last year in Morgantown, W.Va.
  
• Consensus prediction: First place in the Big East
  

Five-week schedule glimpse

• Sept. 5: Liberty
• Sept. 12: East Carolina
  
• Sept. 19: at Auburn
• Oct. 1: Colorado
  
• Oct. 10: at Syracuse
  

Despite a 4-2 record, nothing really clicked last year for West Virginia until Auburn strolled into town and built a 17-3. That's when Pat White, who had been plagued by injuries all year, turned into the Pate White everyone expected him to be. The senior threw for three touchdowns in the game and Noel Devine ran wild for 207 yards as the Mountaineers rallied for a big Thursday night win, driving a stake through the heart of the Tommy Tuberville regime in the process. WVU would win four of six coming down the stretch, including a thriller in the Meineke Car Care Bowl to send White in style. Now he's gone, and the Mountaineers will have to deal with life in the post-superstar era, not an easy transition for a lot of teams.

To get the scoop, I went to Mike Casazza of the Charleston Daily Mail, who answered in great detail, which we at the blog love (we also like that he makes references to The Usual Suspects and a certain legendary North American man-ape). You can find more of Mike's work on his WVU blog here and at the Daily Mail's main sports site here.

AB: After four years, 10,000 yards, more than 100 touchdowns accounted for and 34 wins, including an NCAA-record four bowl victories, quarterback Pat White's West Virginia career is finally over. There will obviously be a drop off in play from one of the best players in Big East history to his replacement, Jarrett Brown, but how much?

MC: A lot, and that's even if JB has a good year. Quarterback play is probably the key to this year's team, but comparisons to the predecessor are going to be unfair. First, Pat White is Pat White. Second, they're different players. JB is bigger with a stronger arm and while he can run, he's not a runner. That said, he comes along at a good time. He's seasoned, he's been patient and indications are WVU is going to be pass-first, or at least pass-prone, to take advantage of good receivers and players who are pretty skilled in space. In that view, maybe the numbers JB produces are different than Pat's, but maybe the offense is as or about as productive. To be fair, though, a lot of JB's potential rests in a mostly new offensive line and the ability to pass and run block. He's played a lot, but he's never been a guy a team game-planned for. Both of his starts have been game-time decisions and the opposing defense wasn't sure who'd be playing quarterback. And again, that matters because they were different players. Maybe the play calls didn't change, but they did different things in different ways. For the first time, teams will be prepping for JB. He'll have to adjust to that.

AB: Will running back Noel Devine (1,289 yards, 4 TDs) be the focal point of the offense this season or will the Mountaineers alter their offensive focus to better utilize Brown's throwing abilities? And are all the skill position questions moot if West Virginia doesn't find some answers — and quickly — on an offensive line that lost four of the five players who started most of last season, including All-American tackle Ryan Stanchek?

MC: Ideally, WVU would be a 50-50 run-pass team. They want to set up the plays they want to call — second-and-short, third-and-short, run when the defense expects pass, pass when the defense expects run. It'll be interesting to see how they get into those situations. They threw the ball a lot in the spring, though part of that was to preserve Noel, get JB comfortable and bring along the offensive line. It worked pretty well and they feel good about their receivers and tight end. Noel's value is in touches and total yards. He'll carry the ball, but not as much as Steve Slaton, and he'll also catch passes. He can't be a 25-carry-a game guy and get through the season healthy and productive, but he's too good with the ball in his hands not to get the ball in his hands. In that regard, sure, he's a focal point. Defenses know that, though, so the offense is going to spread it around. In addition to the known receivers, they have some pretty intriguing freshmen, especially Tavon Austin, that they really want to incorporate into the offense. They also think they have some good running backs to spell Noel or to provide a different look. As you say, though, it's about the offensive line and if they can find the right five right away to get things going.

AB: The Mountaineers return seven defensive starters from last year's squad, and could add much-hyped junior college transfer Tevita Finau to the mix if he clears the necessary academic hurdles. What are the keys for this group taking a step toward being a formidable defense?

MC: Finau's already reached a mythical status here. He's part Keyser Sose, part Bigfoot. People talk about him in these epic tones, but no one's ever seen him. He's not here yet despite promises he'd be here in late-June. But we're pretty sure he's a real person and we're told all those academic hurdles are cleared. It appears he just got caught up in a paperwork shuffle. Yet even if he's here when camp starts next weekend, he hasn't played in a long, long time, he hasn't practiced with the Mountaineers and a very demanding, very good defensive line coach, Bill Kirelawich, and he's immediately behind two good defensive ends in Larry Ford and Julian Miller, who give WVU a nice pass-rushing platoon. Point being, he's not the key to the defense and, realistically, you can't expect a whole lot from him at the beginning. If he develops to or close to his potential, then it's a major bonus because that defense is going to be good. They key for them is continuity, which they already have. They have three starters on the line and some key backups for what is the key to the defense. Their linebackers might be as collectively fast as anyone else in the country and they have depth there, too. Same at the safety spots. WVU starts three safeties — one's a hybrid linebacker-safety — but they've all started, they all play different safety spots and there's depth there, as well. The concern is at cornerback, where they think Brandon Hogan is an NFL talent, but they have two or three guys who will continue to battle on the other side. If they can find their best lineups early, keep them on the field as much as possible and build those groups, watch out. Their bottom line statistic is points allowed. They give up yards and they sometimes struggle with third down conversions, but their red zone defense was great last year and teams had a hard time scoring on them. There's a certain mental strength there and that only grows with experience. You'd figure the physical part would come along and they'd find ways to get off the field and force some more turnovers.

AB: West Virginia ranked third to last nationally in kickoff coverage last year. Plus, it lost second-team All-American kicker/punter Pat McAfee, who was in contention for both the Ray guy and Lou Groza awards last season. Could special teams be one of the most overlooked concerns on this team?

MC: Well, it's not overlooked here. It's a really, really touchy subject, especially because last year's failures were so unexpected. Stewart doubles as the special teams coach and they've regularly ranked among the best teams in the country with special teams. They do really well in things like net punting and even punt and kick return offense, but their kickoff coverage was just bad last year. How bad? Cincinnati's Mardy Gilyard studied WVU on tape before their game last year, predicted he'd break one against something he'd spotted and then brought the opening kick back for a touchdown. It was that kind of season. To be fair, WVU was without it's best kickoff cover guy most of the season and the numbers when he was in were dramatically different than when he was out. By the way, he graduated. They had some other injuries and personnel changes and while not as significant, it was hard to plug guys in and ask them to help out a troubled group. They pressed and missed assignments and tackles last year. This will absolutely be a focus for the team and I just can't imagine them not getting better ... maybe because they can't get much worse. Punting isn't a major concern because they really like Scott Kozlowski, who was one of the best in the country three years ago before he shanked a punt against Louisville that was returned for a touchdown in a game WVU lost. He hasn't kicked since, but was good in the spring. Kickoffs and field goals are going to be a concern because they don't know who or what they have yet. They'll figure that out in camp, but it's between no less than four guys.

AB: The Mountaineers moved quickly to remove the interim tag on Bill Stewart following Rich Rodriguez's departure to Michigan a year and a half ago. What is the general feeling of West Virginia fans about handing him the reins to the program, and now that Stewart is starting to recruit his own players, can he continue to build on the program's success under Rodriguez?

MC: General feeling? Probably mixed. People still wonder if Stewart would have been a candidate if they lost to Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl — they had plans to talk to and revisit other coaches immediately after that game. Nine wins wasn't enough for a lot of people last year, but a lot of people also realize that team wasn't good enough to justify its preseason ranking — they lost Slaton, Owen Schmitt, Darius Reynaud, Johnny Dingle, Marc Magro, Larry Williams, Vaugh Rivers, Eric Wicks, Ryan Mundy and Antonio Lews and Reed Williams ended up taking a medical redshirt. That's 11 valuable players from the team that smoked Oklahoma, which means 11 new players who had to be valuable and frankly didn't have it in them early on against East Carolina and Colorado. I think the fact the offenses wasn't as prolific as people had grown accustom to was used as the biggest negative against Stewart and his coaching staff, almost as if they had no clue what to do with what they had. OK, they didn't have anywhere near the points and yards as they did the year before, but, again, there are reasons, none bigger than simple transition. It's not magic. It's a process. That process is looking better now, though. Last year's recruiting class was among the best ever at WVU and a lot of people think this year's will be even better. That has people excited, especially as they get commitments from big-time quarterbacks, running backs and receivers, which restores hope to return to that explosive offense. Stewart's a leader. He gets his guys and he gets them to march with him. That's his strength, whether it be with players or coaches, and it'll allow him to build. Whether it happens like it did with Rich doesn't matter. Like Pat and JB, Rich and Stewart are different. I guess now we'll see who's better, but the pieces are at least coming together for Stewart as he begins his second year.

NCAA '10 on the PlayStation3 says ... West Virginia 24, Auburn 13. The Mountaineers enter the game riding high, ranked 20th in the country, and thanks to backup running back Mark Rodgers' big day (145 rushing yards, 2 total TDs), they stay that way. Burns reels off a 77-yard touchdown run in the second quarter that Rodgers matches in the third quarter, going 64 yards. Auburn gets as close as 17-13 in the fourth quarter on two Wes Byrum field goals, but Rodgers scores on a 15-yard pass from Jarrett Brown to seal the deal. Noel Devine finishes with only 67 rushing yards, but he adds 83 receiving yards to his total. Ben Tate goes for 135 yards and Burns, thanks to his long run, adds 106, but the passing game struggles for the first time. Burns finished 10-for-27 for only 77 yards.

Up next: A team that's in major rebuilding mode after nearly running the table last season — Ball State.

Let the tweeting begin!

After months of resistance, I've registered for a Twitter account. I've long been against the whole Twitter phase, just because I'm rarely interested in whether somebody is "bummed to be doing laundry :(" or "just had a delicious meal at the Olive Garden." I just don't care about stuff like that and promise not to tweet (twitt? Help me, I'm new at this) in that manner.

However, I understand how much of a social media tool Twitter can be. For instance, when I put up a relevant Auburn blog post, I'll put it on Twitter (the blog's Mississippi State opponent preview was my first tweet.) If something newsy comes out of a press conference, I'll put it up there in short form before elaborating longer on my blog or in a story. And sometimes a news item is only worth a tweet (TE Tommy Trott making the Mackey Award watch list, for example). It just seems like a good way to inform readers of information quickly and efficiently, with the ability to promote other work that I've done as well.

So I encourage all of you loyal War Eagle Extra readers to follow me on Twitter here (I have a running bet with Ashton Kutcher, so please help me out). My handle is wareagleextra just to make things easy to find.

Opponent preview: Mississippi State

We're right on schedule with our opponents previews (read the Week 1 entry, Louisiana Tech, in a previous post.)

Now it's on to Auburn's Week 2 foe, Mississippi State, where we hope things are a little more high-scoring this season, preferably somewhere in the 6-4 range.

Mississippi State Bulldogs

• Head coach: Dan Mullen (1st season)
  
• 2008 record: 4-8, (2-6 SEC, t-4th in the West), no postseason
  
• Returning starters: 11 (7 offense, 4 defense)
• Total offense: 274.9 (10th SEC, 113th nationally)
• Total defense: 327.5 (10th WAC, 35th nationally)
• Series: Auburn leads 57-23-2
• Last meeting: Auburn won 3-2 last season in Starkville, Miss.
  
• Consensus prediction: Sixth place in the SEC West
  

Five-week schedule glimpse

• Sept. 5: Jackson State
• Sept. 12: at Auburn
• Sept. 19: at Vanderbilt
• Sept. 26: LSU
  
• Oct. 3: Georgia Tech

There's a new coach and a new attitude in Starkville after the young, offensive-minded Mullen replaced Sylvester Croom, an older, defensive-oriented coach whose teams struggled to find any kind of consistency on offense. Mullen, a longtime Urban Meyer protege who helped him go undefeated at Utah and win two national titles with Florida, doesn't have any Tim Tebows on his roster, but he's hoping with time that will change. In the interim, he hopes to make some waves at a school that's finished last or second-to-last in the SEC West in seven of the last eight seasons.

To find some answers, I went to Kyle Veazey of the The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. You can read his excellent blog here and find all of his stories here.

AB: The Bulldogs have finished 103rd or worse nationally in total offense in each of the last five seasons. New head coach Dan Mullen is an offensive guru. How long will it take for him to put the pieces in place for the Mississippi State offense to be a factor in the SEC?

KV: This past week's departure of two wide receivers doesn't do much to help Mullen out. Neither does an already-thin depth chart at WR, painfully little experience behind Tyson Lee at QB and an offensive line that was porous last season. That said, look for Mullen to adapt his spread offense to the hand he's been dealt, to borrow a cliché. It's part salesmanship to fans, as Croom was criticized for not being adaptable, but Mullen has said time and time again he'll adjust his offensive style and scheme to what he has. And since he has a good running back in Anthony Dixon and depth there, look for that to be the starting point.

AB: Lee, a senior who is a former junior college transfer, seems to be the frontrunner for the quarterback job, but true freshman Tyler Russell, Mississippi's Class 5A Mr. Football, appears to be the future at the position. How do you see the quarterback situation shaking out as the season goes on?

KV: My take is that Russell will get every opportunity to win the job as soon as he can. And Mullen has made it clear he's not against playing two QBs. But don't bet against Lee. He's a smart kid who works as hard as anyone, and he ran the spread offense in high school and junior college.

AB: While at Florida, Mullen had plenty of offensive weapons at his disposal, particularly versatile players in the Percy Harvin mold. Who are the play-maker candidates on the Bulldogs this season and can they fill the roles Mullen needs them to?

KV: That conversation must start with Dixon, the running back. He's agile for 235 pounds and has been State's only experienced playmaker. He can be valuable in the open field, and look for State to throw him the ball as well as allow him to run it. At wideout, Brandon McRae returns plenty of experience and is a tall wide receiver who can be valuable. Freshman Chad Bumphis, a wide receiver from Tupelo, has a buzz around him heading into the season that he might be an instant impact-type guy.

AB: Two of the Bulldogs' bigger names on defense weren't around last year. Defensive lineman Pernell McPhee transferred in from Itawamba Community College and linebacker Jamar Chaney returns after breaking his ankle in last season's opener. Will their additions be enough to offset the losses of All-SEC linebacker Dominic Douglas and safeties Derek Pegues and Keith Fitzhugh?

KV: State could be thin in the secondary but I think, with McPhee's addition, you'll see improvement on the defensive line. State's defensive strength is going to be at linebacker, with Chaney, a budding star in K.J. Wright and a junior college transfer in Chris White about whom coaches are raving.

AB: Mississippi State never got over the hump under Croom, a first-time head coach. Mullen is in the same boat, having served as an assistant throughout his entire career, albeit under the extremely successful Urban Meyer at three different schools. Is there anything that leads you to believe things will be different under Mullen?

KV: I think the distinction between these two assistants is that Mullen is a career college assistant under perhaps the most successful coach of the past decade. Croom had spent 17 years in the NFL, and, thus, was 17 years removed from college football, even though he did work for the most successful coach of his era, too. Few would argue that the world of college football — from selling your program to recruiting to offensive schemes — had not changed in nearly two decades. Early indications are that Mullen is savvy enough to sell his program. Can he recruit consistently and recruit well? Can he install the right offense and win games with it? We shall see.

NCAA '10 on the PlayStation3 says ... Auburn 21, Mississippi State 20. Wow! An offensive showcase relative to last year's 3-2 rock fight. MSU leads 17-7 in the third quarter before Kodi Burns hits Montez Billings for a 43-yard touchdown pass just before the end of the third quarter to cut the lead to 17-14. Bulldogs kicker Sean Brauchle's 33-yard field goal with 5:42 left make its 20-14 MSU, but Ben Tate plunges in from a yard out with 3:25 to play, giving Auburn a 21-20 lead it would not give back. Burns struggles passing the ball, going 12-for-30 for 181 yards and a pick. Billings saves the day with another big receiving game, catching six passes for 127 yards. The defense chips in with five sacks, two by Jake Ricks.

Up next: A non-conference rematch with the Pat White-less West Virginia Mountaineers.

Marks, Powers agree to NFL contracts

Two former Auburn players agreed to terms with their respective NFL teams on the eve of training camp, according to separate reports.

Defensive tackle Sen'Derrick Marks agreed to terms on a four-year contract with the Tennessee Titans, who selected him in the second round of last April's draft, according to The Tennessean. No dollar amount was given. The Titans begin training camp Friday. Marks was the last of Tennessee's draft picks to sign.

Cornerback Jerraud Powers, meanwhile, agreed to terms with the Indianapolis Colts, according to the Associated Press. It's also a four-year deal, although financial terms were not disclosed. Powers was a third-round choice last April. Interestingly, Powers is the first Colts draft pick to sign. That's weird, consider Indianapolis reports for training camp Sunday.

Auburn's other draftee -- guard Tyronne Green, who went in the fourth round -- agreed to a four-year contract with San Diego over the weekend.

Opponent preview: Louisiana Tech

It's a light week between SEC media days and Aug. 4, the day Auburn players report for practice, so we need something to fill the time. Well, I've contacted beat writers for each team on the Tigers' schedule this year and asked them five questions to get an idea of what Auburn might be up against.

If this sounds like a blatant rip-off of our Georgia beat writer David Hale's idea following spring practice, well, that's because it is. Hey, a good idea is a good idea. I'm not ashamed to say I didn't come up with it.

I'd like to run one of these each day over the next two weeks and will have a tentative schedule posted on the right side of the page. Some of the answers are trickling in, though, so there might be alterations based on that.

Now let's get to Auburn's Week 1 matchup:

Louisiana Tech Bulldogs

• Head coach: Derek Dooley (3rd season, 13-12)
  
• 2008 record: 8-5, (5-3 WAC), beat Northern Illinois in Independence Bowl
• Returning starters: 16 (9 offense, 7 defense)
• Total offense: 343.1 (6th WAC, 75th nationally)
• Total defense: 376.5 (4th WAC, 73rd nationally)
• Series: Auburn leads 10-0-1
• Last meeting: Auburn won 52-7 at home in 2004
• Consensus prediction: Fourth place in the WAC
  

Five-week schedule glimpse

• Sept. 5: Auburn
• Sept. 12: at Navy
• Sept. 19: Nicholls State
• Sept. 30: Hawaii
• Oct. 9: at Nevada

The Bulldogs are riding high after Dooley, in only his second season as coach, led them to their first bowl victory in 31 years, a 17-10 win against Northern Illinois in the Independence Bowl. It stands to figure that Dooley won't be hanging around in Ruston for long (fast-rising coaches get gobbled up by big programs all the time, especially one with his pedigree). But for now, he's at Louisiana Tech and has a veteran team that might, just might, give Auburn some trouble in that first week.

To find some answers, I contacted Jimmy Watson of the Shreveport Times, whose blog you can read here. You can also find more of his stuff online here.

AB: Expectations are high in Ruston after the Bulldogs went 8-5 last year and won their first bowl game since 1977. With non-conference games against Auburn, LSU and Navy, along with the usual battles against their longtime WAC nemeses Boise State and Fresno State, can this team improve on last season's success?

JW: Tech can improve on the 2008 success, although it may not show up on the record. The table is really being set for 2010 when Tech will basically have seven home games, a senior quarterback, two SEC transfers at wide receiver and an SEC running back (Tennessee transfer). Tech should be in the hunt for the WAC title this season and may have its best chance yet to knock off perennial WAC power Boise State in Ruston.

AB: Louisiana Tech returns 16 starters (9 offense, 7 defense), its fast-rising coach and a ton of confidence from last year's success. Auburn is breaking in a new coaching staff, with an unsettled quarterback situation in what will be Gene Chizik's pressure-filled first game on the sidelines with the Tigers when the teams meet in the opener on Sept. 5. What kind of chance do the Bulldogs have of pulling the upset?

JW: Tech snuck up on Mississippi State last season and pulled off the upset, but that was in Ruston. Tech has traditionally played well in the state of Alabama, beating the Crimson Tide twice and nearly knocking off Auburn in 2000 (38-28) and 2001 (48-41 ot). The Tech coaching staff has consistently upgraded its talent over the past three seasons, but doesn’t have SEC caliber talent. Are they capable of beating Auburn … sure. Is it likely to happen … no. I’d expect an opening line in the 14-point range.

AB: The Bulldogs thrived last year once head coach Derek Dooley turned to quarterback Ross Jenkins, who went 6-2 as a starter while putting up decent stats. Playing behind an experienced offensive line with a solid running back (Daniel Porter) and receiver (Phillip Livas), can Jenkins duplicate or even improve on his success from last season?

JW: Jenkins will need to improve on his throws to make his team competitive against the Tigers. Porter and Livas are first-team All-WAC performers and can give anyone fits. But Jenkins will have to make some throws down field, something he was weak at last year, or the game could get ugly. One good point about Jenkins is that he manages the game well, which Is what Dooley asks him to do. He won’t make a lot of mistakes.

AB: Louisiana Tech is solid up front defensively, with all-WAC defensive tackle D'Anthony Smith heading a deep defensive line. But the team lost a lot on the back end of the defense, including linebackers Quin Harris and Brannan Jackson and both starting cornerbacks, Weldon Brown and Stevon Howze. Who are the candidates to replace them and are they capable of making the Tech defense the backbone of the team once again?

JW: Even with the loss of the heady Harris, Tech’s linebacking corps should be solid, although there’s not a lot of depth. Junior Dusty Rust, sophomore Adrien Cole and senior Brian White will be the starters and all of the backups are young. Tech returns the best safety in the WAC and a Sunday player next year in Antonio Baker, an incredible hitter. JUCO transfer Olajuwan Paige will help ease the loss of Brown, while sophomore Terry Carter saw plenty of playing time last season and will replace Howze. D’Anthony “Boo” Smith is a man and will lead a young, but aggressive, defensive line.

AB: Dooley is a coaching name on the rise, having completely reversed the fortunes of a team that went 3-10 two years ago, before he inherited it. He's already interviewed for at least one job, even though the Auburn meeting might have been more of a gesture to his father. How long will he stick around in Ruston?

JW: I don’t think he will leave until he accomplishes much of the agenda that he has in his mind. That could change, of course, if the perfect job (Georgia, LSU) opened, but I don’t think he’ll jump at just any BCS job. He’s making plenty of money in Ruston, his wife is a doctor in Ruston, they like the small town atmosphere and right now he’s king of the mountain. Tech folks are just riding the Dooley train for as long as it’ll take ’em.

NCAA '10 on the PlayStation3 says ... Auburn 30, Louisiana Tech 3. After going into halftime with only a 7-0 lead, the Tigers outscore the Bulldogs 23-3 in the second half. Kodi Burns goes 20-for-39 for 301 yards, with two touchdown passes to Tim Hawthorne and another to Montez Billings. Ben Tate adds a workmanlike 11 yards and a touchdown on the ground, while the defense holds Tech to 281 total yards.

Up next: The SEC opener against Mississippi State.

Greenville DL chooses Auburn

Auburn received its sixth commitment in the last 12 days when Greenville, Ala., defensive lineman Kenneth Carter said he'll sign with the Tigers in 2010. The news was first reported on AuburnSports.com, Inside the Auburn Tigers and AuburnUndercover.com.

The 6-foot-5, 270-pound Carter is Auburn's 14th commitment for 2010. He had offers from Alabama, Kentucky and Ole Miss.

Rivals and Scout rank Carter as a 3-star recruit.

He had 60 tackles and six sacks as a junior in high school, according to AuburnSports.com.

Here's the updated commit list for 2010 (Rivals star rankings are in parentheses):

Here is Auburn's updated 2010 commitment list (star rankings are by Rivals):

• Joel Bonomolo, DE, 6-3, 245, New Orleans, La.
• Kenneth Carter, DL, 6-5, 270, Greenville, Ala. (3-star)
  
• Shon Coleman, OL, 6-7, 275, Olive Branch, Miss. (3-star)
• Jessel Curry, LB, 6-2, 215, Buford, Ga.
• Antonio Godwin, WR, 6-2, 170, Atlanta, Ga. (4-star)
  
• Jake Holland, LB, 6-1, 228, Pelham, Ala. (3-star)
• D.J. Howard, ATH, 6-0, 195, Lincoln, Ala. (3-star)
  
• Shaun Kitchens, ATH, 6-3, 211, College Park, Ga. (3-star)
• Demetruce McNeal, DB, 6-1, 180, College Park, Ga. (3-star)
  
• Jonathan Mincy, DB, 5-10, 175, Decatur, Ga. (3-star)
• Cody Parkey, PK, 6-2, 195, Jupiter, Fla.
• Jeremy Richardson, WR, 6-4, 220, Springville, Ala. (4-star)
• Chad Slade, OL, 6-6, 316, Moody, Ala.
  
• Jawara White, LB, 6-2, 220, Troy, Ala. (3-star)

Where have all the quarterbacks gone?

After the circus of SEC media days, we have a week of cooldown before players report and we fire up August practice.

For those who didn't see it, I wrote a story for Sunday's paper about the lack of experienced quarterbacks in the league. Here's how it starts:

HOOVER, Ala. — For three days reporters prodded coaches at the SEC Media Days to reveal their all-conference quarterback selection, the goal being to find who didn’t fall in lockstep and vote Florida’s Tim Tebow first and Ole Miss’ Jevan Snead second.

A better question might have been who should have been third?

Beyond Tebow, a two-time national champion and former Heisman Trophy winner, and Snead, a Texas transfer putting up gaudy stats in Oxford, quarterback remains a largely unsettled position in the SEC, a major concern in a conference that had 11 teams finish in the top-40 nationally in total defense last year.

“Without good quarterback play, it’s tough to win a championship,” Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said. “There’s no doubt about it.”

It's a weak crop this year for a couple of reasons. Georgia's Matthew Stafford left for the NFL (pretty good decision since he went No. 1 overall and broke the bank). Also, former prized recruit Ryan Perrilloux would be a senior had he not been in constant trouble in his two years in Baton Rouge. Now he's at Jacksonville State. A couple other supposedly big-time recruits -- Neil Caudle and Chris Smelley -- haven't yet panned out.

Seriously, though. Take a glance at this year's group of QBs. It's seriously lagging behind other conferences, especially the Big 12, which has been the cradle of quarterbacks lately.

• Alabama: Junior Greg McElroy, who backed up former Missouri star Chase Daniel in high school, will follow up the steady if not spectacular John Parker Wilson. Despite no college starts to his credit, McElroy wowed everybody in the spring.

• Arkansas: Ryan Mallett, a cannon-armed, 6-foot-7 transfer from Michigan, finished the spring as the starter and should be the perfect fit for Bobby Petrino’s quarterback-friendly system.

• Auburn: Neither Caudle or Kodi Burns seized the job in the spring, so the battle resumes in August, with senior Chris Todd joining the mix following offseason shoulder surgery. Most fans hope dual-threat true freshman Tyrik Rollison can get on the field in some capacity.

• Florida: In three years he’s won two national titles and a Heisman Trophy. One more season like that and Tebow could go down as the greatest quarterback in college history.

• Georgia: Joe Cox served as Matthew Stafford’s understudy for three years. Now the fifth-year senior gets his shot. Highly-touted freshmen Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger will battle for the backup job and a bigger future role.

• Kentucky: The shifty Randall Cobb will stay at wide receiver this season, opening up the job for junior Mike Hartline, who had his ups and down last season but started in six of the Wildcats’ seven wins.

• LSU: Jordan Jefferson only started two games last year but staked his claim to the No. 1 spot with a strong showing in the Tigers’ 38-3 rout of Georgia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. He can’t afford to flop, however, with sophomore Jarrett Lee and freshman sensation Russell Shepard waiting in the wings.

• Mississippi State: Senior Tyson Lee will get the first crack at running the spread offense new head coach Dan Mullen brings with him from Utah and Florida. But Tyler Russell, the jewel of MSU’s 2009 class, is the future in Starkville and might get a shot early.

• Ole Miss: After a slow start, the Texas transfer Snead finished last season strong, throwing for 26 touchdowns and finishing third in the SEC in quarterback efficiency behind Tebow and Stafford.

• South Carolina: After Smelley transferred to Alabama to play baseball, the starting job is Stephen Garcia’s. His development has been slowed by his off-the-field antics, but nobody has ever doubted the former prize recruit’s physical tools.

• Tennessee: Head coach Lane Kiffin said senior Jonathan Crompton and junior Nick Stephens will get equal reps to start preseason practice. Neither thrived while splitting time last year, as the Vols finished 107th nationally in passing offense.

• Vanderbilt: Senior Mackenzi Adams and sophomore Larry Smith will battle for the chance to improve what was the SEC’s worst passing offense last year. Adams is more experienced, but Smith threw for 121 yards in his first start, a 16-14 Music City Bowl victory against Boston College last December.

Fear not, SEC fans. Help appears to be on the way ... eventually. Here are last February's quarterback signees and their national rank, according to Rivals.com:

Pro-style:

• 3. Aaron Murray, Georgia, 4-star
• 7. A.J. McCarron, Alabama, 4-star
• 11. Zach Mettenberger, Georgia, 4-star
• 12. Tyler Russell, Mississippi State, 4-star
• 14. Ryan Mossakowski, Kentucky, 4-star

Dual-threat

• 1. Shepard, LSU, 5-star
• 2. Rollison, Auburn, 4-star
• 10. Jordan Reed, Florida, 4-star
• 11. Raymond Cotton, Ole Miss, 4-star
• 14. Morgan Newton, Kentucky, 4-star

Auburn gets commitment from Moody OL

Offensive lineman Chad Slade said Saturday that he'll sign with Auburn in 2010. The news was first reported by the Tigers' three recruiting Web sites -- AuburnSports.com, Inside the Auburn Tigers and AuburnUndercover.com.

A 6-foot-6, 316-pound tackle from Moody (Ala.) High, Slade had an offer from Mississippi State and had drawn interest from Georgia.

Scout ranks him as a 1-star recruit. Rivals did not have a ranking.

He is the Tigers' 13th commitment for 2010 and the second on the offensive line, joining Shon Coleman of Olive Branch, Miss.

Slade's cousin is former Auburn running back Stacy Danley.

Here is Auburn's updated 2010 commitment list (star rankings are by Rivals):

• Joel Bonomolo, DE, 6-3, 245, New Orleans, La.
• Shon Coleman, OL, 6-7, 275, Olive Branch, Miss. (3-star)
• Jessel Curry, LB, 6-2, 215, Buford, Ga.
• Antonio Godwin, WR, 6-2, 170, Atlanta, Ga. (4-star)
  
• Jake Holland, LB, 6-1, 228, Pelham, Ala. (3-star)
• D.J. Howard, ATH, 6-0, 195, Lincoln, Ala. (3-star)
  
• Shaun Kitchens, ATH, 6-3, 211, College Park, Ga. (3-star)
• Demetruce McNeal, DB, 6-1, 180, College Park, Ga. (3-star)
  
• Jonathan Mincy, DB, 5-10, 175, Decatur, Ga. (3-star)
• Cody Parkey, PK, 6-2, 195, Jupiter, Fla.
• Jeremy Richardson, WR, 6-4, 220, Springville, Ala. (4-star)
• Chad Slade, OL, 6-6, 316, Moody, Ala.
  
• Jawara White, LB, 6-2, 220, Troy, Ala. (3-star)

Chizik all business at media day

Here's a story I wrote for today's paper about Auburn coach Gene Chizik's first SEC media days experience. Chizik certainly wasn't the star. In fact, I heard a lot of people calling his portion boring, particularly this guy. I guess it was a shock to a lot of people who haven't heard the no-frills Chizik speak before, but we beat writers thought it was simply the norm.

Anyway, here's how the story starts:

HOOVER, Ala. — The carnival known as SEC Media Days concluded Friday with the most entertaining lineup of public speakers all week.

South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier was folksy and quick-witted, LSU’s Les Miles earnest and honest, Tennessee’s Lane Kiffin brash and enthusiastic.

But Gene Chizik preceded them all. Making his first league-wide address, the newly-minted Auburn coach was a departure from the rest of the day’s lineup, straight-laced and business-like, cautious with everything he said, careful not to overstep his bounds or draw too much attention 'to himself.

"What gets you attention is when you win,” Chizik said. “I don’t have to go out and try to gather attention for myself. This isn’t about me. This is about Auburn. It’s not about me. It’s not about our coaches. It’s about Auburn.”

It’s been eight months since he was hired on the Plains to replace Tommy Tuberville, and the 47-year-old Chizik remains hard to peg, rarely giving glimpses of a lighter side his players and assistants say completes his engaging personality.

His declarations limited, his words resigned, Chizik refuses to speculate, not on injuries, not on other teams, not on public perception.

When he met with assembled Auburn media prior to his time on stage Friday, he refused to divulge his first-team All-SEC quarterback selection, not wanting to set a precedent in which he would have to discuss future private ballots. Only once he spoke before the entire SEC media contingent, and with additional prodding, did he reluctantly admit to voting for Tim Tebow.

“I do keep things close to the vest,” Chizik said. “I respect everybody’s job and everybody wants information and I want everybody to do their job to the best of their ability, but I also want to make sure that I answer everything and protect Auburn and Auburn football and our players.”

I also had a notebook you can read here. It covers Auburn being picked to finish fifth in the West, Montez Billings's status, Dax Dellenbach's departure, Chris Todd's shoulder, the coach other than Chizik Antonio Coleman wouldn't mind playing for and what colors Chizik would prefer Auburn fans wear to games (hint: he's not too specific).

Our Georgia writer David Hale writes about Lane Kiffin here.

He also has a notebook that covers Georgia's place in the preseason predictions, Spurrier fessing up to causing the Tebow debacle and the issue of coaches not filling out their own ballots.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to tel readers that I'll be doing a day-by-day look at Auburn's opponents starting next week. I've contacted beat writers from each team to do five questions and will be breaking down each opponent.

So keep coming back for more updates leading right up to the opening of August practice on Aug. 5.

AC, Tommy Trott in the spotlight

Antonio Coleman and Tommy Trott joined Gene Chizik in representing Auburn at the SEC Media Days. Here is some of what they had to say:

• AC has talked with former DT Sen'Derrick Marks, who opted to bypass his senior season for the NFL. Any regrets? "We talk to coach (Tracy) Rocker, he came and met with coach Rocker a couple of times and he'll say 'Man I wish I stayed and could play for him,'" Coleman said. "Obviously he played at Auburn and he knows a lot about doing what you have to do to get to the next level. But I don't think he has any regrets. He probably wanted to play for Coach Rocker because coach Rocker is a great coach. I think he's just living life and he's just ready to get out there and play for the Titans."

• Coleman described he and Rocker's relationship as father and son. "And I haven't even known him that long," Coleman said. "I call him with any problems. I see him every day and call him, sitting around on the couch, call him to see how he's doing. We're just close, man, real close. I had coach Price for the first couple years and he taught me so much. But coach Rocker has taught me so much also. I'm just thankful those guys have helped get me where I am today."

• Rocker is not shy about challenging players, though. The two had a dust-up in the spring but ironed out all their problems. "He challenged me when I first got here and I was kind of slow starting off in the spring. People didn't know what to expect, what type of coach he was. You sit down and talk to him, he doesn't hold anything back. He's going to say what's on his mind. You have to be a man and stand up and take that. Most of the guys on the team respect that. He wants the best for you. He's been through all that, he's played in the NFL, he's won accolades at Auburn so he knows what he's talking about so we're blessed to be coached by a guy that knows about the game so much."

• It didn't bother Coleman that Auburn was picked fifth in the SEC West. "I don't buy into anything," he said. "It's all preseason hype. If you do this, they think that. At the end of the day these teams have to get out there and play each other and you have to get out there and produce. That's all it's going to come down to."

• One reporter asked every player which SEC coach they would like to play for other than their own. Coleman struggled to come up with an answer. "Ahh, Muschamp, why did you have to go to the Big 12?" he said. Will Muschamp was Auburn's defensive coordinator from 2006-07. Coleman eventually chose South Carolina's Steve Spurrier."

• Coleman claims Chizik has a sense of humor, but he says Trooper Taylor is hands down the craziest of the assistant coaches. "He's just like one of the guys you're hanging out at the apartment when you're outside of football," he said. "You just go with him and just crack jokes. You just have fun with him. But when you step on the field, it's about business. But every now and then he gives you a laugh or a joke that has you cracking up. But you need to have a coach on the staff like that at all times. It keeps us guys humble."

• Trott's thoughts on offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn: "The first impression's been great. We've been with him all through the spring and as much as possible since then because he can't be out there in the summer. He's a football nut, football 24/7. He's brought a successful offense here, and hopefully things will work well. Hopefully with Coach Malzahn, we can establish an identity and figure out what we want to do as an offense. You look at what Coach Malzahn has done in his year at Arkansas and those years at Tulsa, and you know he's been successful everywhere he's been."

• How does Auburn get its swagger back? "The easier answer is by being physical," Trott said. "That's something that maybe has been lost over the last five years. That's something coach Chizik has been preaching. There was a lot more contact in drills in the spring than since I've been here. Antonio's right, we're going to try to get that swag back."

• Trott on Chizik: "He's brought an aura, an enthusiasm, because he's excited to be back at Auburn. He's been preaching physicality, and hopefully brought more discipline to the team, things like taking your hats off in the building and pulling your pants up.

Spurrier fesses up; Tebow now a unanimous first-team choice

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier admitted it: He didn't vote for Florida's Tim Tebow on the SEC's first team. And he feels terrible about it.

Spurrier, who says he's never filled out a ballot in his 17 years in the SEC, said his director of operations filled out his ballot and gave it to the coach for his approval. Spurrier gave it a look ("I didn't glance at it carefully," he said) and approved it. As a result, Jevan Snead made South Carolina's ballot. The reasoning was that Florida had so many players on the list besides Tebow.

The next day, he read in the paper that Tebow wasn't a unanimous selection. He called his director of operations to make sure it wasn't South Carolina. It was.

"That's my fault," said Spurrier, who claims he didn't sleep well last night because of the gaffe. "I take full responsibility. And I apologized to Tim Tebow. We should not have messed that up. We screwed it up pretty bad. I'm embarrassed about it. I feel bad about it. And that's the way it happened."

The story has a happy ending. Spurrier called the SEC offices to correct his mistake. He changed his vote, so Tebow is now a unanimous selection by the coaches.

"We made a mistake. And I made a mistake," he said. "Tim Tebow is not only the best quarterback in this league, I thnk he's the best football player in the country. And what he's done there, I believe he and Danny Wuerffel will go down as two of the best quarterbacks, maybe the best to ever play college football. That's how good he is. I admire him. And I apologize to him. He should have been on that ballot. I messed that up. I'm trying to correct it the best I can. I take full blame for it."

Finally, our long, national nightmare is over.

Gene Chizik has spoken

Gene Chizik is currently on the stage. I'll update as he talks with any pertinent information. In the meantime, we had a quick sitdown with Chizik before he took the stage. Here are some housekeeping items:

• In addition to DL Jomarcus Savage, DB Christian Thompson and LB Marcus Jemison, who were kicked off the team this summer for disciplinary reasons, LS Dax Dellenbach will not return this year.

• WR Montez Billings is still working on clearing up an academic issue but Chizik said he will play this fall. He will also be ready to practice when the team reports Aug. 4.

• No updates on the status of S Mike McNeil (leg), WR Tim Hawthorne (foot), DB Aairon Savage (Achilles') or QB Barrett Trotter (knee). Chizik did confirm Savage had an Achilles' injury. Seems odd that he wouldn't go into the severity of it when other people basically have said it's not likely he'll play this season.

• He said Chris Todd's shoulder is as good as its been since Chizik has been at the school. He did not say how close to 100 percent it was though, since he had no basis for comparison.

• Auburn was picked fifth in the SEC West. Chizik doesn't care. "Everybody's got an opinion," noting that the predictions really mean nothing at the end of the year. Interesting fact: the Tigers were picked to win the SEC West last year. How'd that work out for them?

• Chizik thinks the team's offensive strengths are at running back and, interestingly, offensive line, provided it can stay healthy.

• Practices will be closed this fall. That's not going to make for a long August for us media types.

• On the revolving door of coordinators at Auburn, Chizik said it's important to buy in to the philosophy and not the guy running it, because "guys leave." He thinks it's a delicate situation to deal with. "Sometimes you have to put on your Dr. Phil hat," he said.

• Best players on defense from the spring: DE Antonio Coleman (duh), LB Craig Stevens (we heard a lot about him) and DT Mike Blanc (now that's kind of surprise).

• Depth at linebacker is one of his biggest concerns this season. "Huge," Chizik said. "Huge."

• Tommy Tuberville was big on fans wearing orange to the game. Chizik doesn't really have as specific a request. "Navy blue and orange," he said. "Those are the colors I vote for."

• On facing pressure going into this season: "I don't think there's any more pressure on Auburn football than what I put on the kids and myself."

• Chizik voted for Tim Tebow on the All-SEC first team, even though he was reluctant to disclose who he voted for (he contends himself up to talking about every vote he made). We're down to Steve Spurrier, Les Miles and Lane Kiffin as possible culprits.

• On the view that Auburn football has stumbled a bit of late. "To be honest with you, I don't really know what public opinion is." This man could deny that the sky is blue.

• "I think the Big 12 has made leaps and bounds. I think it's leaps and bounds better than it was five years ago, top to bottom. I think it's made some significant strides. Who knows? This is one man's opinion. But the SEC, when you travel stadium to stadium, the passion, the pride, all the things that go into what makes college football great, there's greater league than the SEC. ... You've got great players. You've got great coaches. The interest is at an all-time high."

• On being low-key: "I've got three children and my wife. I get plenty of attention when I go home. What gets you attention is when you win. It's that simple. I don't have to go out and gather attention for myself. It's not about me. It's about Auburn."

• "There's a fine line between putting in what you'd like to do on offense and defense and trying to adjust to the talent and skill level that you have. And I think that's what makes a great coach. You have to be able to stay within the realm of what you want to do and still adapt enough."

• On the rising assistant coaches salaries: "I think it's great. I was an assistant three years ago, and I don't forget. These guys sacrifice a lot."

• Recruiting question about if the offseason stunts have worked, since it hasn't yielded many big-time recruits yet. I thought Chizik got a little defensive here. "If you put together the evaluation time people have put together in this room, it's about 10 minutes," Chizik said to the room full of media. "That's what we do for a living."

Florida, Alabama picked for SEC title game

The votes are in and shockingly (well, not really) defending national champion Florida and Alabama were picked to win their respective SEC divisions by the media.

The Gators got 63 of 64 votes to win the SEC championship game. Ole Miss was the only other team to get a vote.

Here's the predicted order of finish:

SEC East

• Florida (64 first-place votes)
  
• Georgia
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Vanderbilt
• Kentucky

SEC West

• Alabama (33)
• Ole Miss (16)
• LSU (15)
• Arkansas
• Auburn
• Mississippi State

Day 2 Wrap: Florida

We're down to the last of the Day 2 Wraps, Florida (read Ole Miss, Georgia and Alabama in previous posts). Let's get started!

• Head coach Urban Meyer bombed with a joke about not voting for Tim Tebow on the All-SEC preseason team. He said it to start his opening comment. I believe a tumbleweed blew through the ballroom. Tough crowd.

• Interestingly, Meyer doesn't go straight for "winning the national title game" as his primary goal. "Expectation as far as the season, our goals are always the same as it was in 2005, as it is in 2009, and that is we want to do everything we can to get to Atlanta. That's our whole we wake up every morning to try to achieve that goal."

• Meyer's got a great problem: too many good players to get on the field at once. "I think we've really promoted the competition and we've promoted team first. Great things happen when you have an unselfish team. Last year's was arguably the most unselfish I've been a part of. They got to wear a championship ring, compete in the SEC championship game. That's what we have going for us right now. I really believe our guys love it at Florida. More importantly, I really believe they care for each other. It's a good situation right now in that locker room, in the weight room, and when they're together. That's not easy. You have 105, 120, 18 to 22 year olds from every stretch, some overrecruited, some underrecruited, some overrated, some underrated. And to keep those guys happy and motivated, that certainly a difficult task. The only way to get it done is with great leadership on our team and our staff does a heck of a job."

• Meyer brushed off the hubbub being made about Tebow not being a unanimous pick to the preseason All-SEC team: "Someone asked me if that's going to motivate Tim. Whoever asks those questions, don't know Tim. Tim has a lot of things to motivate him. That's not one."

• There's been a lot of talk about Tebow not being ready for the NFL because he never takes snaps from under center. Meyer brushed off that concern. "If you want Tim Tebow under center, teach him to get under center, he'll probably do it better than anybody else," he said. As for the idea that Florida will run more of its offense from under center this year to prepare Tebow for the next level, Meyer said that wasn't the case. "To answer your question, he will be under center if it helps us win a game," Meyer said.

• A lot was made about Meyer's future with Florida. Birmingham-based columnist Paul Finebaum ignited things by writing that Meyer was as good as gone to Notre Dame after this year. Meyer had this response: "Well, it's disturbing. I'd lie to you if I said it wasn't. It's disturbing. I care about my family. I care about our football players, our staff and recruiting. If it affects that, then it bothers me. If it's something else, then that's good water cooler discussion. That's what makes the SEC such a valuable commodity right now, is the intense scrutiny and fan support. I've been on the other side now. I've had a couple press conferences where there was no one out there. So I certainly understand it. When it starts affecting your livelihood, that bothers you. Then you go into defense mechanism, attack it. You have to. We have to do that. It bothers you, but I also understand."

• Tebow, on why he decided to come back to school: "I look at it as I'm blessed to come back to the University of Florida for my senior year. When I was deciding to go or to stay, there are a lot of things that crossed my mind. You know, but I think the important things that I looked at were number one, was the opportunity that I had to have an influence in the state of Florida and around the South, for the U.S. for that matter. Something that really illustrated that for me is when we were sitting down at lunch, me, Coach Meyer, my mom and dad. We got a call, two days or something after the national championship game. That call told us that since the national championship game, the verse that was under your eyes was Googled 94 million times. That just kind of showed me, wow, the impact. I could wear something under my eyes and millions of people were going to Google it. I really had a platform. I wanted to take advantage of that for one more year, be a good role model for the kids that look up to me, set an example for them. That was kind of my number one goal as far as coming back, and also to be loyal to Coach Meyer, to my teammates who have done so much for me. I wanted to come back and finish this thing strong for them."

• There might be a little bit too much Tebow love going on for some fans' liking. The quarterback doesn't really pay attention to any of the backlash, though. "You know what, although there has been a backlash, oh, well. You know what, I'll deal with it if I have to. It's not a big deal to me because of the kids and people that have been encouraged by the stories we have tried to tell and by the life that I've tried to live."

• Meyer is often described as a finesse coach because of the spread offense that he runs, but Tebow says he's much more hard-nosed than his reputation. "When you're around him, you would not think that our offense was like that," Tebow said. "It's not. It's all about old school toughness, dedication, go hit him in the mouth, that type of mentality. I think we feed off of that. We try to play like that. Our offensive line tries to be a tough offensive line. I think they have a little bit of chip on their shoulder because we're known as a spread team who likes to do reverses and throw down the field and stuff. I think if you look at our team, you see that it's not just a dink or dunk are throw down the field, reverse team with fast players. I think we kind of take pride on being a tough team. Being a team, if we need to, we're going to try to hit you in the mouth over and over and over again. We take a lot of pride in that, being a tough team, being a team if we need to, we're going to go three yards in a cloud of dust over and over and over again. We have the toughness to do that, we have the leaders to do that. It's something that we do take pride in, that if we need to win a game by will and toughness, we want to be able to do that. All the guys, we just take pride in that."

• Tebow's post-game speech following last year's Ole Miss game has been put on a plaque in front of the Gators' football facility. "I didn't think it would become what it became," he said. "I wasn't even thinking about that too much after the game. I just know I was upset, heartbroken. Just felt like we let I let my teammates down, my coaches, the fans. Was very disappointed. I wanted to let them know ultimately that something good was going to come out of this. They were going to see a different team, a different player, there was going to be positive that coming out of something that was so negative. That was my ultimate goal with what I said. But I didn't think it would have this much hype, no."

Day 2 Wrap: Ole Miss

Continuing the Day 2 Wraps, here's Ole Miss (Alabama and Georgia are in previous posts):

• Head coach Houston Nutt on last year's success: "As we went on through the season, our guys really started believing. When you start believin', that's when you start achievin'." Got to love that Southern drawl.

• Nutt said he has a 600-pound problem. Namely, losing left tackle Michael Oher and defensive tackle Peria Jerry.

• Great stat here: before Ole Miss upset Florida in Gainesville last year, it had been 727 since the Rebels last won an SEC game. Ladies and gentlemen, the Ed Orgeron era!

• Quarterback Jevan Snead is going to be good. But Nutt doesn't want him feeling like he has to out-do Tim Tebow. "I want Jevan to keep being Jevan," Nutt said. "I had a good visit with Eli Manning yesterday. Jevan went to Eli's camp with Archie and Peyton. They watch pros, they watch professionals work. It's their work ethic, how you study the game. You just don't show up for practice. You just don't go through the motions. You really attack and work at your craft. To me, that's what Jevan has done I think in the weight room, film study. As far as a (rivalry with Tebow), we won't get caught up in all that. We have an awesome respect for Tim. Jevan has done some good things. You have to remember, Jevan laid out the previous year. So it took him a while. Those first three or four games, he wanted to be Superman every play. Strong arm quarterbacks think they can throw it anywhere. So it took him about four, five games to really get going. I tell you, he's been very, very good."

• It should be noted that Florida is not on Ole Miss' schedule, so if the teams are going to square off, it will be in Atlanta at the SEC championship game.

• Ole Miss might be the favorite to win the SEC West when the media's predictions are released tomorrow. The Rebels have never made an SEC title game in Atlanta, the only SEC West team that hasn't. Naturally, there are questions about the team being able to handle the burden of expectations. "As far as the team goes, I don't think we're handling it any differently," Snead said. "People said we weren't going to do well last year. We ignored them and kept working hard. We're going to follow that same formula and keep doing everything we can to improve."

• Much of that skepticism stems from Nutt, whose best SEC teams at Arkansas (particularly the 2007 squad with future NFL backs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones that finished 8-5) always seemed to fall short of expectations. "I think if you go back and look at the times we were picked high, we had some major injuries. Major," Nutt said. "Not as an excuse, but part of it. It's a blow." Regardless of how the season plays out, the Rebels aren't viewing this season as Atlanta-or-bust. "I think this: you're in the toughest conference in America," Nutt said. "I believe that with all my heart. If you look at our teams 1 through 12, very, very tough. Our staff has been to Atlanta before. Been there twice. That's a difficult journey. It's very hard to get there. Things have to go right. ... I wouldn't say, 'OK, Atlanta or it's really a downer.' I don't believe that."

• How do you beat Florida? Simple. Control turnovers. (OK, maybe it's not that simple, but it's necessary) "We didn't turn the ball over for the most part and we got three turnovers," Nutt said of last year's game. "I think that's key. Win the turnover margin, gives you a chance."

• Nutt has handled a Heisman candidate before, with McFadden, who was twice the runner-up. He's give Snead, who could play his way into the mix, some advice. "You know, Jevan and I have talked this summer about that, that there's going to be a lot more attention on him. When you play the way you play, at the end of the year, there's going to be attention. It's how you handle the attention. ... I think the biggest thing, learning what we went through with Darren McFadden, there's going to be attention, there's going to be a lot more media, a lot more TV interviewers. There's going to be more and more demands on your time. You have to stay focused and keep priorities priorities. What that means is managing that time. It's school, it's football, and then handle all the extracurricular activities that's gonna happen with all this attention."

• Snead brushed off any Heisman talk. "I try not to put too much into it. When you're a kid you dream of stuff like that. I've had a rocky road getting to where I am. Just to be mentioned with all the great players and for the Heisman is a great honor for me. At the same time, I'm not focused on that. That's not my main goal. My main goal is to do everything I can to improve so I can help my team get some wins." Very PC answer. He's been trained well.

• One of Nutt's biggest tasks is to keep a confident team that won six straight to finish last season from getting cocky. "There's nothing wrong with hitting somebody right in the mouth, pick 'em up, get back. You don't have to worry about reeling off your stats. You don't have to worry about, 'Look at me.' There's going to be enough attention on you. There's going to be enough attention. That's one of the reasons why we did this TV, what y'all call a reality show. I don't like using that word. But I want the cameras on 'em. I want them to get used to it. I want them not to flinch. I want them to not draw attention to themselves. 'Hey, look at me.' You don't have to do that. If you're playing hard, making plays, you'll get enough attention."

• Nutt was part of a goodwill tour of the Middle East this summer. He had great things to say about it: "I had the privilege to go with Mack Brown, Jim Tressel, Troy Calhoun, Jim Grobe, Tommy Tuberville and Rick Neuheisel to Iraq, to Baghdad, to Kuwait, Africa, Ramstein, Germany, where they take our soldiers back. I can't wait to show a video. I have a video I'm going a show our team on August the 9th. I can't wait for them to see it, the work that our people do. They're the same ages really of my football players, a lot of 'em are. To look at our men and women, what they do for our country so we can have freedom, so we can sit here and talk about college football is awesome. I just really respect. We have the best Air Force in the world. We have the best Army in the world. We have the best Navy in the world. We just got great people that are protecting us every day. I just want to thank 'em."

Day 2 Wrap: Georgia

Here's another team wrapup from SEC Media Days. I did Alabama earlier. This one's Georgia:

• Bulldogs coach Mark Richt didn't shy away from the Matthew Stafford/Knowshon Moreno topic, touching on it immediately in his opening statement. "I think the greatest expectation I have for this team is that we understand how important it is to, you know, put the work in and to work together and to realize that it takes a whole lot more than just two stars that everybody felt like were gonna make the difference last year," he said. "With Knowshon Moreno, everybody expected us to win 'em all because we had these two guys that everybody considered stars, and maybe subconsciously our guys thought, We can count on these guys. Now that they're gone, I think our team understands the only chance they have is to play together, work together, earn it as a team. I think they've done a great job of buying into that, preparing throughout this off season for that type of season. So I'm excited."

• Naturally, quarterback Joe Cox, Stafford's long-time backup,was a hot topic. Richt said he's a great decision maker who can handle the pressure of the job and lead."We have exit meetings in the spring," Richt said. "We talk to our players after spring ball. One of the things we ask 'em, besides talking about their strengths and weaknesses, what their goals are, all that kind of thing, we ask them, Who are the leaders on this football team, in your opinion? Who are the leaders? I think it was, like, 106 out of 110 guys that did their exit meetings said Joe Cox. I think that's significant. He was the No. 1 vote getter, if you want to call them votes. For a guy who hasn't started but one game his entire career, that was about two or three years ago, I think that says a lot about what the guys think about Joe and what Joe has done in preparation for this moment."

• Richt voted for Tim Tebow for the All-SEC preseason team but understood how somebody could make a different choice. A few years ago, he went against the grain and voted for Vanderbilt's Jay Cutler. That turned out to be a good choice.

• Interesting back-and-forth with Richt and a reporter when asked about the Florida game, which is played every year in Jacksonville.

• Q. The contract on having the Florida/Georgia game in Jacksonville is about to run out. Do you want to see it moved, stay there, and why?

• COACH RICHT: This is what I want to do. I want to focus on winning that game. That's all I want to focus on when it comes to that game.

• Q. You don't care where it's played?

• COACH RICHT: I really just want to focus on trying to win that game. That's my goal from here on in (smiling). That will be my pat answer from here on in.

• Georgia has lost 14 of the last 17 games played in Jacksonville, which is much closer to Gainesville than Athens.

• Richt didn't know if the team would have another "Black Out" and wear black jerseys this year after Alabama crushed the Bulldogs in Athens the last time they did it. "The one thing about the blackout is that the fans don't buy into it, it's no good. You can wear black jerseys, any jersey you want. If you're going to say, We're going to ask the fans to all wear black, they have to have a spirit of cooperation. After what happened at Alabama last year, I'm not sure everybody would wear black."

• Didn't realize how tough Georgia's schedule was this year. The Bulldogs play at Oklahoma State, vs. Arizona State and at Georgia Tech in their non-conference schedule. That's brutal.

• Entering his ninth year at Georgia, Richt is the dean of SEC coaches, which kind of surprised him. "To think that you are going to be here nine years later in our league, in college football in general, the same team, the way things are going, you can't sit there and start predicting that that would happen," he said. "You know, every decision I ever made since I've been at Georgia has been to try to make a decision that would help us in the long run. I didn't try to do anything in a quick fix fashion. I was used to working for a man, named Bobby Bowden, he had so much success at one place, you know, that was attractive to me. I wanted to provide that same kind of stability for our players and our program and our staff and their wives and children, as coach Bowden did for me and my family. So everything I've done is to try to make sure we will be here for the long haul. But it's humbling, no doubt. I don't know what that means other than we're doing a little something right here."

• Cox, on the leadership differences between him and Stafford: "We are different types of leaders. I'm more vocal that Matthew was. That's not a good thing or a bad thing. Matthew was a great leader, but the distinction is the team. I don't think he had enough help. This year a lot more guys have stepped us as leaders as well. Obviously there is pressure. But it's not something I think about. The success of this team is not all on my shoulders. There are 10 other guys that get the job done as well. I won't carry the team. We'll work together. And that is where our success will come from, the team."

• DT Jeff Owens, on last year's hype versus this year's relative anonymity: "It's been a big difference this season. Before last season, it was, 'Georgia this, Georgia that.' Hype can get to you and that was a factor with last season."

Day 2 Wrap: Alabama

Well, I had a lot of stuff to write for our print edition, including a Tim Tebow feature, a notes package and a scene-setting story for the front, so I didn't get to blog as much as I would have liked today.

To make up for that, I'll wrap up some of the comments from each team in this post.

We'll start with Alabama ...

• Nick Saban, from what I gather, is not big on preseason predictions, so he wished we media types luck in selecting an order of finish for the teams in the conference, which I think was a tongue in cheek way of saying we don't know what we're talking about. "As you all will try to do after this media day, you will try to predict whats gonna happen in this season," he said. "I wish you well in that. I wish you good luck. Because, you know, it's very difficult to predict what a bunch of adolescents are going to do, and we have over a hundred of 'em on our team."

• Saban thought last year's showcase game win against Clemson in the Georgia Dome to start last year was a major boost to his team's confidence, which grew from there. He also thinks it has a big impact on recruiting in a major area city like Atlanta. (Seems like Auburn might want to get in on one of these things.)

• The Tide have another spotlight game to open this season, although I don't think Virginia Tech will be a pushover like Clemson, but Saban doesn't necessarily think that's a bad thing. " players are more intense about what they're doing because they know they're preparing for a huge challenge in the first game," he said.

• Saban voted for Tim Tebow on his All-SEC preseason ballot. But he defended the right of whatever coach chose not to put Tebow on the list with this melodramatic rant. (Cue patriotic music in the background) "I also think everybody should have the right to vote for whoever they want, and I don't think they should be criticized for that," he said. "It's what a lot of people have fought for in this country for a long time. So I don't understand why anybody would even be interested. But I guess it's somebody trying to create news. I wouldn't point any fingers about that, but ..."

• I wrote about this tomorrow, but there was a decent gathering of Tide fans in the Wynfrey Hotel lobby waiting for Saban to arrive. He didn't mind. "Well, you know, my daddy always says, you know, you only have a problem if no one's asking for your autograph. So, you know, when there's not a stir downstairs, I got problems."

• Saban has a role as himself in the movie, "The Blind Side," about the recruitment of former Ole Miss left tackle Michael Oher. He donned LSU's colors for the role, since he was the Tigers' head coach back then. "I really enjoyed the movie," he said. "It's not the takes that get you. It's the angles. You know, I learned something. When I come in the door to do the recruiting spiel, there's seven of us in the picture. You have to do seven takes because there has to be a wide angle, then there has to be a close up on every person. When you watch a movie, you just kind of feel like they just kind of got it with one camera, you know, and it all works. When you start understanding that there's 90% of the movie is close up on somebody's face, and that didn't come from a wide angle camera.o it wasn't that the lines were bad, and the director was great. I wouldn't really say it that way. I would say it this way: He said, Say it however you wanted it. That made it easier. Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw were fantastic people to work with. I had a very small part."

• The way 'Bama finished last season -- with losses to Florida in the SEC title game and Utah in the Sugar Bowl -- didn't sit well with a lot of players. "Last year, we won 12 games, but we didn't finish how we wanted," linebacker Rolando McClain said. "We were disappointed, but this year will be different. Coach Saban is preaching to us, 'Finish, finish, finish' and that's what we're working on doing.

WR Antonio Goodwin commits to Auburn

Auburn snagged its 12th commitment for 2010 when four-star Atlanta wide receiver Antonio Goodwin said he'll sign with the Tigers next February. Auburn's three major recruiting Web sites -- AuburnSports.com, Inside the Auburn Tigers and AuburnUndercover.com -- reported the news this afternoon.

The 6-foot-2, 170-pounder from Washington High had offers from Alabama, Georgia, Florida State, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Georgia Tech.

He is the Tigers' 12th commit for 2010. He is the second wide receiver in the class, joining Auburn's only other four-star recruit, Jeremy Richardson of Springville, Ala.

Goodwin also brings the Tigers up to five commits for 2010 who are from Georgia. Auburn has four from Alabama, one from Florida and one from Mississippi and one from Louisiana (via junior college in California).

Here's an updated commit list:

• Joel Bonomolo, DE, 6-3, 245, New Orleans, La.
• Shon Coleman, OL, 6-7, 275, Olive Branch, Miss. (3-star)
• Jessel Curry, LB, 6-2, 215, Buford, Ga.
• Antonio Godwin, WR, 6-2, 170, Atlanta, Ga. (4-star)
  
• Jake Holland, LB, 6-1, 228, Pelham, Ala. (3-star)
• D.J. Howard, ATH, 6-0, 195, Lincoln, Ala. (3-star)
  
• Shaun Kitchens, ATH, 6-3, 211, College Park, Ga. (3-star)
• Demetruce McNeal, DB, 6-1, 180, College Park, Ga. (3-star)
  
• Jonathan Mincy, DB, 5-10, 175, Decatur, Ga. (3-star)
• Cody Parkey, PK, 6-2, 195, Jupiter, Fla.
• Jeremy Richardson, WR, 6-4, 220, Springville, Ala. (4-star)
• Jawara White, LB, 6-2, 220, Troy, Ala. (3-star)

The Tebow mystery continues

We're no closer to finding out who didn't vote for Tim Tebow on the preseason All-SEC first team.

Tebow, as you know, was not a unanimous pick for the first team. We're assuming second-team selection Jevan Snead was the other selection. If that is the case, it couldn't have been Ole Miss' Houston Nutt, since coaches are not allowed to vote for their own player.

Georgia's Mark Richt and Alabama's Nick Saban both said Thursday they voted for Tebow. Saban even went into a mini-rant about how coaches should be free to think and choose the way they want, saying that's what many people have fought for in this country (he's right, but a bit melodramatic). "I guess it's somebody trying to create news," he said to the questioner. "I'm not trying to point any fingers about that."

All four of the first-day coaches -- Arkansas' Bobby Petrino, Vanderbilt's Bobby Johnson, Mississippi State's Dan Mullen and Kentucky's Rich Brooks -- said they voted for Tebow as well.

Assuming everyone is telling the truth (and that's no guarantee), that leaves one of the third-day coaches as the culprits -- South Carolina's Steve Spurrier, LSU's Les Miles, Tennessee's Lane Kiffin and Auburn's Gene Chizik.

My money is on everyone saying they voted for Tebow. I can't imagine somebody fessing up to it at this point. Well, maybe Kiffin.

Rugby-style punters beware

SEC coordinator of officials Rogers Redding highlighted one major rule change today. If a rugby-style punter rolls outside of the tackle box to kick the ball, there will be no roughing the kicker or running the kicker penalty assessed to the defense if he gets hit.

The problem was that the kicking team gained too much of an advantage by putting the punter in motion and running toward the line of scrimmage.

"From a defensive standpoint, it was difficult to tell, is this guy going to be a runner? Are we at risk if we run into him?" Redding said.

Redding said the punter is still protected from "flagrant slugging" and unnecessary roughness even if he's out of the tackle box, however.

There were few other changes. The rules committee didn't even look at the clock situation, which it seems to have flip-flopped on the last few years. Redding also said officials will interpret a rule differently. Instead of looking for seven men on the line of scrimmage, they will look for more than four players in the backfield. It's essentially the same rule, but just a different way of monitoring it.

SEC Media Days: Part Deux

We're going to take a different tack while following Day 2 of the SEC's Media Days. I'll be posting frequent updates throughout the day but will not be live blogging the coaches. Check back periodically for posts.

So far, the SEC's coordinator of officials Rogers Redding is speaking on the stage. The only rule change that he highlighted was one on special teams. When a team is punting and the punter rolls out to one side to do a rugby style kick, it will no longer be roughing if the punter rolls outside of the tackle box. That might make a few coaches less likely to use that style of kicking if it basically gives the defense a free shot at the punter.

Here's today's order of coaches:

• 8:40 CT: Georgia's Mark Richt
• 9:40 CT: Alabama's Nick Saban
• 10:40 CT: Ole Miss' Houston Nutt
• 11:40 CT: Florida's Urban Meyer

So what came out of the first installment of media days? Here are a few links to our stories:

• I had a story on Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen and the infectious energy he seems to have brought to a stark situation with the Bulldogs. Of all the first-day coaches, Mullen was definitely the most interesting.

• In this notebook, commissioner Mike Slive reiterated his message to SEC coaches to clean things up when it comes to sniping each other in the media. He also addressed the secondary violations that grabbed headlines in the offseason. Also, there's an update on the Tim Tebow front, as in who didn't vote for him on the SEC's first team. No coach has fessed up yet, and it doesn't appear like anybody will. “I don’t know if you all are going to find the culprit,” Vanderbilt’s Bobby Johnson said, “but you can tell him it wasn’t me.” (Update: Richt just said he voted for Tebow as well)
  

• Georgia writer David Hale (who blogs here) writes about Arkansas as a possible sleeper in Bobby Petrino's second year.

Now on stage: Mississippi State's Dan Mullen

New Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen is up on stage. Here's what the first-time head coach had to say:

• Mullen joked he was only going to take questions via Twitter or Facebook when he got on the stage so that he could be the cutting-edge coach. He then fake (or possibly really) Twittered something, slowly saying it as he typed. "I ... am ... on ... stage." Solid opener.

• Mullen said he's been welcomed by Mississippi and made sure to note that his newborn son was born in the state. "He's not a Yankee like me," he quipped.

• He said back when he was just starting coaching at Syracuse under Paul Pasqualoni that he started taking notes about what he would do as a head coach. Now he's thrilled to finally get the opportunity to implement them.

• "The excitement for the program is off the charts." 31,000 fans showed up for MSU's spring game, a record for the state.

• Mullen is an offensive-minded guy, but he hired a veteran defensive coordinator Carl Torbush. "Somebody's who's been a little bit weathered as a coach, gone through a lot of things," Mullen said. He said he's used Torbush, a former head coach at Louisiana Tech and North Carolina, as a sounding board, since this is Mullen's first time as a head coach.

• He's a spread guy and wants to create favorable matchups for players to make one-on-one moves. Mullen said it's still a process to see if he has the right parts.

• Mullen said that he has probably only used 60 percent of his playbook in any given season, whether it was at Utah or Florida.

• "Our quarterback battle will go on until we find we have one true leader who can win football games for us." That might be during two-a-days or afterward. He's not in a rush to make a decision.

• His main defensive philosophy: getting 11 guys to run to the football. "That sets a tone for your team, sets tempos for the game."

• Mullen talks a mile a minute. I bet the transcribers in the room are having trouble keeping up. He's been going for at least 15 minutes and it doesn't seem like he's taken a breath.

• He joked that he would prepare a 39-minute, 15-second speech and get out the door having answered one question. He darn near came close.

• "A champion's not a sometimes thing. It's an always thing. It's a way of life." That would make a good T-shirt.

• Mullen said he was a big Steve Spurrier fan early in his career, so getting to be a head coach in a league with coaching stars like the SEC is a pretty big thrill.

• "As it is, I'm the only undefeated coach in the league." Well, not necessarily true. Gene Chizik and Lane Kiffin haven't lost any games in the SEC either.

• Mullen thinks the QB competition is going to be pretty stiff. He's high on Tyson Lee because he's a senior and a leader, citing championship teams in recent memory. He thinks teams will take on the personality of the quarterback. That said, he hasn't ruled out rotating quarterbacks until he can find the right one.

• He said the talent level of the SEC is pretty high and that you have to game plan players, not necessarily just schemes. He thinks that's the toughest adjustment as a coach and a quarterback is taking into account how talented a safety might be and whether or not he can disrupt a play that normal safeties wouldn't be able to.

• The best way to combat that, Mullen said, is to put quarterbacks in positions to succeed by having them do things they do well. He cited Tim Tebow early in his career, when he was primarily used in short-yardage situations near the goal line. That helped him gain confidence and progress at an early age against tough competition.

• The toughest challenge so far as a head coach? Not much. Mullen said Urban Meyer did a good job of preparing him for stuff that might come up -- both on the field and off -- that might come up once he got a head coaching job. But he doesn't think you can prepare for it until you're actually sitting in the hot seat.

• Mullen's all-SEC quarterback? Tebow. No surprise there. He said it will be strange to coach against Tebow. "When you spend more times over three years with Tim Tebow than you do with your wife, which I did, then that's going to be strange," he said. He doesn't think it will affect any past they've had together, though.

• On going up against Meyer, Mullen thinks it will be a fun challenge. He joked that both sides will have to change their signals. "I look at is as more of a fun day than something that's crazy," he said. Mullen and Meyer worked together for 10 years, by the way, so they know each other pretty well. "That goes both ways," he said. "I'll have to think of doing something, then do the complete opposite."

• Anything annoy him about Tebow? "He can be a little stubborn in his beliefs," Mullen said. He said that if you identify a weakness in his game, Tebow will do everything he can to correct that. "There's nobody who stays the same in this life," Mullen said. "You're getting better or getting worse." Tebow, Mullen said, is in the first camp. He also said Tebow is one of the most unique people in the world. "Just an amazing kid," Mullen said, choking up a bit as he said it.

• Mullen said he doesn't feel revolutionary for bringing the spread offense to the SEC and succeeding. In fact, he doesn't take credit for it, acknowledging that some other coaches probably did it well before that. "Our goal is to always stay ahead of the curve," Mullen said, commenting on his and Meyer's mind set.

That's all for Mullen. Kentucky's Rich Brooks is up next. I won't have time to live blog him because I'll be working on a Mullen story for tomorrow. I'll try to pick some of the finer points out of the Brooks transcript and get it up online later.

Next up: Vanderbilt's Bobby Johnson

Vanderbilt coach Steve Martin, err, check that, Bobby Johnson is next up on the podium. Here's what he had to say:

• The Commodores play 12 straight weeks, a byproduct from some scheduling problems with the MAC from a few years ago. "I'm really not happy about it but I don't think there is anything anyone could do to avoid it," he said.

• Vanderbilt finally had a winning record last season, taking down Boston College 16-14 in the Music City Bowl. Johnson thinks it was the next step for the program and has changed the attitude of the program. "Hopefully our players know what it takes to get to that point," Johnson said.

• The 'Dores have a couple of quarterbacks who have played in the past for various reasons, with Mackenzi Adams and Larry Smith vying for the job. "Devastating things happen to your season if you don't have a guy ready to be in there," Johnson said. He's not going to make any decisions soon on who is going to start, either.

• Johnson voted Tebow to the first-team all SEC. "I don't know if you're going to find that culprit who didn't vote for him," Johnson said to the questioner.

• Johnson has some pretty dry wit. Asked about how he would evaluate Florida this season, he deadpanned, "They have a chance to be pretty good." He waited a beat or two before actually giving a real answer.

• Johnson is hoping the winning season will help make Vanderbilt a more attractive option for recruits. "We have a fantastic product to go out and recruit with," he said, noting the school's academic reputation, the SEC's football reputation and Nashville's fun reputation. "We're much better on the food chain as far as recruiting is going," he said.

• The Commodores return nine starters on defense, including their entire front seven. The only positions with turnover are at strong safety and cornerback, where a group of sophomores and redshirt freshmen will compete.

• More questions about how satisfying it was to make (and win) a bowl, which is a pretty big deal, since it's been so long (53 years since its last bowl victory! I just looked it up). "You say satisfying, I would also say necessary for our program to move forward," he said. "It was satisfying but not satisfying enough."

• Another respect question. (We media types know how to latch on to one storyline, don't we?) Another smart answer. "We weren't seeking respect," he said. "We were seeking to do as well as we could with our program. ... I'm not that motivated by people patting you on the back and saying you're doing well.

• Johnson, with eight years of service at Vanderbilt, is one of the longest-tenured coaches in the SEC, which is clearly a high-pressure league. He acknowledged three horrible years at the start of his tenure (2-10, 2-10, 2-9) before he got a 10-year extension, and how important it was for the Vanderbilt higher-ups to stick with him. "Everybody I think is impatient. They want instant success," he said. "I'm really proud of our administration for sticking with us. I think it's great that they weren't impatient."

• "I think the sky's the limit for Vanderbilt," Johnson said. He doesn't expect his team to rest on its laurels and wants to eventually compete for championships. Then again, what else do you expect him to say. Somehow, I just don't see that happening any time soon.

That's all she wrote for Vandy. Mississippi State's Dan Mullen is up next at 3:10 p.m. CT.

First up: Arkansas' Bobby Petrino

Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino is first up on the dais. We're live-blogging what he has to say:

• The Razorbacks have an 11-game stretch without a bye. Petrino said his team will do things a little bit differently workout-wise as a result, spending more time "lifting weights and conditioning," which sounds pretty basic to me.

• Arkansas has a new series with Texas A&M starting this year. It's in Arlington, Texas, (in the new Cowboys stadium), which he hopes opens up a good recruiting market and harkens back to the days of the Southwest Conference.

• Petrino, predictably, expects more in his second year. Personnel-wise, Petrino thinks his team is closer to getting the right people in place. He's had two quarterbacks -- one being transfer Ryan Mallett -- who have been working in the system for over a year. He thought the offense was good at times last year, but nearly consistent enough.

• The Razorbacks were thin on defense last year. Petrino remembered before a game last year when he started five sophomores and four freshmen. He hopes that group has matured a little since then.
  

• Petrino, as you know, has an NFL background, however brief it was. He's very high on Florida's Tim Tebow, saying the senior has all the leadership intangibles to play in the NFL. "There's no question in my mind that he'll be very successful in the NFL."

• Interestingly, he commented that a big hurdle many young quarterbacks face is taking a snap from under center, since they're so used to playing out of shotgun formations that are so prevalent in high school. "I'm really happy that the high schools are throwing the ball and I really love all the 7-on-7's they're doing," he said. "I just wish they'd just put a rule in that they would have to have 25, 40 percent under center." I think he was being facetious with that last point, but it's an interesting point nonetheless.

• Petrino said Mallet's slimmed down since getting to Arkansas. He was 265 when he transferred from Michigan but is now around 240. Petrino hopes that helps him move in the pocket against the fast defenses of the SEC.

• Petrino was asked about the defense's early struggles last season, like when it gave up 49 points to Alabama, 52 to Texas and 38 to Florida. "I've kind of blacked those games out of my mind," he said. "Those were tough." He said they tried to pick out small things to improve on because they were playing so many young players. "I never felt at one point last season that we lost the team," he said.

• He said quarterbacks in the SEC have to get used to the speed of the conference before being comfortable in the conference. He's a little more comfortable since both of his QBs have some experience, Tyler Wilson having gotten on the field last year and Mallett playing at Michigan.

• In what is expected to be a recurring question of the day, Petrino was asked if he voted Tebow to the coaches' preseason first-team (Someone did not, since Tebow was not a unanimous pick, and it wasn't Houston Nutt selecting his QB Jevan Snead, since coaches weren't allowed to vote for their own players). "I'm not crazy," he said of voting for Tebow. "I probably did, yeah."

• Asked about his team's expectations, Petrino was kind of vague. "It's going to be hard. We play a good schedule," he said. "We will be a better football team. How many wins that comes out to remains to be seen." The Razorbacks do have a hard schedule, with conference road games against Alabama, Florida, Ole Miss and LSU (talk about a tough draw) and a neutral site game against Texas A&M at the Cowboys stadium. His goal? Win all the home games. (Note: He jokingly claimed the A&M game as a home game because Jerry Jones, the Cowboys owner, is an Arkansas graduate).

• Career question! Michael Vick question! How would things have been different if Michael Vick was your quarterback with the Falcons? Predictably, a non-answer answer. "You don't think about those things, the ifs, ands and buts of the world," he said. "That's one you don't think about it." He also wished Vick, who was recently released from his jail sentence for running a dog fighting enterprise, well in the future.

That's it for Petrino. Vanderbilt's Bobby Johnson is up at 2 p.m. CT. We'll blog that as well.

Commissioner Mike Slive speaks

After many minutes of bragging about the SEC's accomplishments -- and they were many -- commissioner Mike Slive gave a State of the SEC speech before the print media this afternoon.

Here's some of his key points:

• First, the bragging. The SEC had 6.7 million fans attend games last year. That's 75,000 per event, with stadiums filled to 97 percent capacity.

• He noted that the league was fortunate to finalize the deal for its new 15-year TV contract with CBS and ESPN before the fullest impact of the current economic recession.

• He addressed the technological revolution, a subject that is obviously interesting to we media folk. He made sure to note that the SEC retained the conference's digital rights when it was negotiating its TV deal. As a result, the SEC will launch a digital network, with a formal announcement coming in the next few weeks. Slive said it will be a state-of-the-art Web site that allows the conference to manage and distribute digital content of past and future games and highlights and make them available in real time.

• He touched on secondary violations, an offseason problem in the conference. He said the conference will take a closer look at schools to see if patterns or trends emerge, and if they do, penalties for schools will become more severe.

• We're currently hearing about the TV deal from an ESPN spokesman. Right now it sounds a lot like a product pitch. If there's anything of note, I'll pass it along.

Auburn opens with three straight night games

Gene Chizik's first game as Auburn's coach will be under the lights. So too will his second and third.

Auburn announced today that the Tigers' first two games of the season -- against Louisiana Tech on Sept. 5 and Mississippi State on Sept. 12 -- will start at 7 p.m. ET. Both are at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Tech game will be televised by ESPNU. The MSU game will air on Fox Sports Net.

The Tigers' third game of the year, a Sept. 19 tilt against West Virginia at Jordan-Hare, was previously announced as a 7:45 p.m. ET start. It will be televised by ESPN or ESPN2.

Here's the full schedule, with game times that have been announced:

• Sept. 5: Louisiana Tech (ESPNU), 6 p.m.
• Sept. 12: Mississippi State (FSN), 6 p.m.
• Sept. 19: West Virginia (ESPN or EPSN2), 6:45 p.m.
• Sept. 26: Ball State, TBA
• Oct. 3: at Tennessee, TBA
• Oct. 10: at Arkansas, TBA
• Oct. 17: Kentucky, TBA
• Oct. 24: at LSU, TBA
• Oct. 31: Ole Miss, TBA
• Nov. 7: Furman (homecoming), TBA
• Nov. 14: at Georgia, TBA
• Nov. 27: Alabama (CBS), 1:30 p.m.

The media guides are here!

Rest easy, folks, I've arrived safely at the lovely Wynfrey Hotel here in Hoover for the SEC media days. So far, everything looks like its first-class all the way.

Not much action yet. Commissioner Mike Slive will be taking the podium in a half hour. In the meantime, we got our media guides for all the teams (I realize all of you were patiently waiting for this moment). Here's Auburn's, courtesy of my wonderful iPhone camera:

Pretty simple formula when you're new to a school. Put a big picture on the media guide to let everyone know who's in charge. Simple but effective. I give it a B+.

As for the rest of the SEC, here are some descriptions of the covers in the order I take them out of the box (I'm only photographing the interestingly good or bad ones):

• Florida: A giant picture of Florida's national championship ring on the front and nothing other than the school name at the top. When you're the champs, you don't need to do anything flashy. Grade: A

• Tennessee: A landscape (sideways) design is a little weird. On the cover is safety Eric Berry and Lane Kiffin with Neyland Stadium in the background. Kind of odd that Kiffin would share the spotlight with anyone else, but I guess Berry is just that good. Grade: B-

• Georgia: Team huddle picture with everybody's hands in the middle and a large, stoic-looking profile picture of Uga looming over the group. Mascots always get a thumbs up. Grade: A

• Kentucky: Three cutouts of players on the front with the phrase "'til the Battle is Won" in the corner. Meh. Grade: C

• South Carolina: Typical media guide template. Cutout of three good players with the coach of the front. Seen too many of these. Grade: C-

• Ole Miss: Houston Nutt is front and center with cutout of four players, including quarterback Jevan Snead, surrounding him. It's a little busy. Grade: C

• Arkansas: Big mug of Bobby Petrino, two players in the back. Not much else. Like I said, everybody does this. Grade: C-

• LSU: The most clownish of the covers, LSU's is mostly white with a blurry photo of Les Miles in the corner and football-like cards of six players surrounding him. There's also a phrase, "Like Knights of Old," whatever that means. (I'm sure it's got some deeper meaning to the Tigers). I'm not feeling this one. Grade: D

• Vanderbilt: Four players in all-black uniforms standing shoulder-to-shoulder with mean-looking scowls on their faces. Props for not having the coach on the cover. Grade: B+

• Mississippi State: As another first-year coach, naturally the Bulldogs went with Dan Mullen. They could have picked a better picture. He's pointing and talking. I thought the stone-faced look of Chizik was better. Grade: B-

• Alabama: The most interesting of the covers. It is a full-body shot of wide receiver Julio Jones in a receiver stance, with his helmet on looking straight into the camera. The background is kind of a metallic color. I like the idea. What's weird is Nick Saban wouldn't even let Jones talk to the media last year as a freshman. Now he's on the cover by himself? Pretty lofty place to be for a sophomore. Grade: A-

I promise to blog much more pertinent information for the rest of the media days.

SEC media days set to begin

Let the pomp and circumstance begin! I'll be heading out to Hoover, Ala., here is a second for three-day circus known as SEC's media days. I wrote a 10 storylines story for today's newspaper. You can read it here.

That's just a primer for the stuff that's going to come out of the event, however. I'll be updating the blog throughout, so check back for updates. Here is the schedule of coaches:

• Wednesday — Bobby Petrino, Arkansas; Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt; Dan Mullen, Mississippi State; Rich Brooks, Kentucky.
• Thursday — Nick Saban, Alabama; Mark Richt, Georgia; Houston Nutt, Ole Miss; Urban Meyer, Florida.
• Friday — Gene Chizik, Auburn; Steve Spurrier, South Carolina; Les Miles, LSU; Lane Kiffin, Tennessee.

Phillips says he'll enroll at Auburn

Offensive lineman Aubrey Phillips nearly chose Auburn on National Signing Day in February, instead choosing Florida State. As it turns out, he's coming to the Plains after all.

Phillips said he plans to enroll at Auburn after being given his unconditional release from Florida State last week, according to the Tigers' three major recruiting Web sites, AuburnSports.com, Inside the Auburn Tigers and AuburnUndercover.com.

The 6-foot-6, 326-pound tackle told the Web sites that Florida State "mistreated" him. He reportedly showed up in Tallahassee on June 21 at 340 pounds but lost 15 in the following month. Still, Phillips claims Seminoles offensive line coach Rick Trickett repeatedly told him he was out of shape and that it was a mistake to sign him.

Per NCAA transfer rules, Phillips would need to sit out for a year after switching schools, but he said he plans to file a waiver with the NCAA asking for immediate eligibility. He hopes the recent sanctions handed down against Florida State will help his cause.

A four-star recruit out of Olive Branch, Miss., the same high school as incoming freshman safety Daren Bates and 2010 commit Shon Coleman, Phillips would provide depth at a position of need for the Tigers. Auburn had eight scholarship linemen in the spring, with none remaining on the roster from its 2008 class. Andre Harris and John Sullen are the only two incoming freshmen this August.

Phillips would count against Auburn's 2009 class.

Howard becomes commitment No. 11

Auburn added another commitment today when Lincoln, Ala., athlete D.J. Howard announced his intention to sign with the Tigers in 2010. The news was first reported by Auburn's three major recruiting Web sites, AuburnSports.com, Inside the Auburn Tigers and AuburnUndercover.com.

The 6-foot, 195-pound Howard chose Auburn over offers from a host of schools in the Southeast, most prominently Arkansas, Clemson, Kentucky, Louisville and Mississippi State.

Howard is the Tigers' second commitment in the last three days, joining Banneker defensive back Demetruce McNeal.

Howard played running back and defensive back at Lincoln High. Rivals ranks him as a 3-star player. Scout has him at 1 star.

Here is Auburn's updated commit list for 2010 (all star rankings are by Rivals):

• Joel Bonomolo, DE, 6-3, 245, New Orleans, La.
• Shon Coleman, OL, 6-7, 275, Olive Branch, Miss. (3-star)
• Jessel Curry, LB, 6-2, 215, Buford, Ga.
• Jake Holland, LB, 6-1, 228, Pelham, Ala. (3-star)
• D.J. Howard, ATH, 6-0, 195, Lincoln, Ala. (3-star)
  
• Shaun Kitchens, ATH, 6-3, 211, College Park, Ga. (3-star)
• Demetruce McNeal, DB, 6-1, 180, College Park, Ga. (3-star)
  
• Jonathan Mincy, DB, 5-10, 175, Decatur, Ga. (3-star)
• Cody Parkey, PK, 6-2, 195, Jupiter, Fla.
• Jeremy Richardson, WR, 6-4, 220, Springville, Ala. (4-star)
• Jawara White, LB, 6-2, 220, Troy, Ala. (3-star)

Auburn gets commitment No. 10

Auburn's recruiting weekend is already paying dividends. Safety Demetruce McNeal out of Banneker High in College Park, Ga., committed to the Tigers on Saturday night, according to the recruiting folks at AuburnSports.com, Inside the Auburn Tigers and AuburnUndercover.com.

The 6-foot-1, 180-pound McNeal is Auburn's 10th commitment for 2010, joining his Banneker teammate Shaun Kitchens, an athlete who committed in April.

McNeal, who chose Auburn over offers from South Carolina and West Virginia among others, is the second defensive back of the class, joining Jonathan Mincy of Decatur, Ga.

McNeal made 74 tackles in eight games as a junior at Banneker last year. He is ranked as a 3-star recruit by both Rivals and Scout.

Here is Auburn's current commitment list for 2010:

• Joel Bonomolo, DE, 6-3, 245, New Orleans, La.
• Shon Coleman, OL, 6-7, 275, Olive Branch, Miss. (3-star)
• Jessel Curry, LB, 6-2, 215, Buford, Ga.
• Jake Holland, LB, 6-1, 228, Pelham, Ala. (3-star)
• Shaun Kitchens, ATH, 6-3, 211, College Park, Ga. (3-star)
• Demetruce McNeal, DB, 6-1, 180, College Park, Ga. (3-star)
  
• Jonathan Mincy, DB, 5-10, 175, Decatur, Ga. (3-star)
• Cody Parkey, PK, 6-2, 195, Jupiter, Fla.
• Jeremy Richardson, WR, 6-4, 220, Springville, Ala. (4-star)
• Jawara White, LB, 6-2, 220, Troy, Ala. (3-star)

Quad Countdown: Auburn at No. 46

For those who haven't been following along, The Quad, a blog on the New York Times Web site, has been counting down the Division I (umm, FBS) teams from No. 120 to No. 1. Today's selection at No. 46? You guessed it. Auburn.

Seems like about the right ranking. That has the Tigers ahead of Arkansas (49), Kentucky (61) Vanderbilt (65) and Mississippi State (89) in the SEC, which seems to be more credit than they are getting from many preseason prognosticators.

Some of the highlights ...

• Interesting opening quote from last year's post: "I anticipate only a small amount of growing pains this fall, with more issues stemming from an inexperienced quarterback group than a new offensive philosophy. Remember, Auburn had its best offensive performance of the season in its bowl game, and that came with little time for Franklin to acclimate the roster to the spread. Over all, when combining a growing offense with its typically strong defense, I see Auburn going 10-2 this fall, though defending champ Louisiana State – which, admittedly, also has major questions at quarterback – is my pick to win the West." Well, that was almost right.
  

• They listed last year's ranking as well. No. 12. Just a painful reminder of how much last year's team underachieved. Their final ranking last year by the blog? 75th.
  

• Apparently there are plenty of skeptics still out there. "Perhaps the program grew tired, perhaps Tuberville deserved to be kicked to the curb because of his massive failure in selecting his assistants; that doesn’t mean I don’t have questions about whether Chizik and his staff can take the program back to the heights its experienced under his predecessor’s watch."

• Even though Auburn was 4-1 at one point, the blog refused to list a high point for the team. I'd agree. That 14-12 game against Tennessee was brutal. I don't think anybody came out of that thinking everything was A-OK.

• The low point was the Vanderbilt loss. I'd agree. It was then that you knew things were beyond repair with the offense and the coaching staff, things that were proven true only a few days later with Tony Franklin's firing.

• The blog lauds Chizik's coaching hires, and rightfully so, considering the young, aggressive group that he put together. "This group was accumulated with recruiting in mind, as that had become a constant source of irritation among the Auburn fan base since Nick Saban arrived at Alabama three years ago. All signs thus far point toward this staff excelling in this all-important area."

• Fun stat time (and I'm assuming the Quad Blog did diligent research for this tidbit): Auburn has won 51 consecutive games when it scores at least 30 points. Of course, that begs the question, how many time will the Tigers score at least 30 points in a game this season?

• The blog nails it with the biggest position battle being quarterback, although I'd say they underestimate Chris Todd's chances a bit. I'd put him right up there with Kodi Burns and Neil Caudle right now.

• Quad Blog prediction: Seven wins and a return to a bowl game. Seems like an accurate prediction, particularly with four non-conference home games on the schedule.

• Quad Blog dream season: 9-3. A lot of things would have to happen -- especially on offense -- for this to come true.

• Quad Blog nightmare season: 4-8. It might be hard to go through more of a nightmare than last season, considering everything that went down.

Ramsey suing former coach, trainer

Former Auburn offensive lineman Chaz Ramsey's lawyer filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Birmingham this afternoon against former Tigers offensive line coach Hugh Nall and athletics trainer Arnold Gamber.

Ramsey alleges that their aggressive rehab program following his back surgery led to a second, career-ending injury. Ramsey's lawyer, Steve Heninger, went on WJOX radio n Birmingham this afternoon to talk about the lawsuit. Have a listen here.

Here's the story:

AUBURN, Ala. — Former Auburn offensive lineman Chaz Ramsey is suing two former university employees, claiming their actions following a back injury he suffered in 2007 caused him pain and anguish and denied him “a very probable career in the NFL.”

Rasmey’s attorney, Steve Heninger, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Birmingham on Thursday, according to several reports. The suit, which does not state a specific a monetary figure, claims former Auburn offensive line coach Hugh Nall and athletics trainer Arnold Gamber disregarded specific orders from Ramsey’s doctor relating to the lineman’s rehabilitation schedule following back surgery.

“This is not just for Chaz,” Heninger said on WJOX radio in Birmingham. “We’ve got to make sure these student-athletes can’t be violating their own physicians’ orders when they’ve had surgery. ... We’re hoping Chaz’s case makes a difference for those kids, because it’s got to stop.”

Neither Nall nor Gamber could be reached for comment Thursday night.

Ramsey earned freshman All-SEC accolades in 2007 but injured his back lifting weights prior to the Chick-fil-A Bowl that December. Things worsened in the spring and he opted for surgery to repair two herniated discs, a procedure that was only supposed to keep him out for 90 days.

The problem began, Ramsey alleges, when Nall and Gamber aggressively pushed his rehabilitation schedule, intimidating the lineman into doing weight room exercises that were against his doctor’s orders, often using the phrase, “Man up.” Ramsey claims he re-injured his back in June because of the accelerated rehab program.

Heninger alleges Nall told Ramsey’s teammates not to associate with him in August, cleaning out the lineman’s locker and withholding his meal ticket.

“They did everything they could to intimidate him,” Heninger said.

Ramsey did not play last season and eventually had a second, more serious surgery in January of this year that ended his football career.

Auburn itself is not being sued. Heninger said the school has sovereign immunity, which prevents it from being sued in federal court.

“A lot of people will see this as a suit against Auburn, though by a different name. But it’s really not,” Heninger said. “It’s against individuals because they went beyond their state of authority.”

Neither Nall nor Gamber were retained by the new coaching staff following Tommy Tuberville’s resignation. They are the only two people currently named in the lawsuit, but Heninger said he will take a deposition of former Auburn coaches, including Tuberville, “to find out how high did the orders come down from.” Heninger, who expects the case to go to trial next summer, noted that he “has seen nothing yet to implicate anybody else.”

Heninger said Ramsey, who has slimmed down from 310 pounds to 245 now that his playing days are over, can run, jog and walk but can no longer play football.

Fan Day, first day of practice scheduled

Auburn's annual Fan Day has been scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 16 from 3-5 p.m. ET at Jordan-Hare Stadium. It is a free event.

Here's the rest of the release from Auburn media relations:

The Auburn football team, football head coach Gene Chizik, along with the Auburn cheerleaders, Tiger Paws, Aubie, and the soccer and volleyball teams will be available for autographs. Posters and schedule cards will be provided at no charge.

Fans are asked to enter Jordan-Hare from the west side of the stadium. Fans interested in obtaining Chizik’s autograph will be asked to enter the stadium at Gate 11 (west side). There will not be access to Chizik’s line inside the stadium.

The Auburn offense will be staged on the South concourse, while the Tigers’ defense will be staged on the North concourse. The Auburn cheerleaders, Tiger Paws, Aubie, and the soccer and volleyball teams will be staged on the West concourse.

The East concourse and upper decks will be closed as will access to the inner bowl of Jordan-Hare Stadium and the field. Gates for Fan Day will open at 2:45 p.m. ET

Concessions and restrooms on the west concourse will be open for public use. Auburn 2009 Football Media Guides and Auburn game-worn football jerseys will also be available for purchase during Fan Day.

In other news, Auburn's players will report for two-a-days on Tuesday, Aug. 4, with the team's first practice scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 5.

Three Tigers make preseason All-SEC teams

Defensive end Antonio Coleman, left tackle Lee Ziemba and running back Ben Tate were named to the coaches' preseason All-SEC teams, which was released Thursday.

Coleman and Ziemba made the second team. Tate was a third-team selection.

If that sounds a little light, it's because it is. In the five preceding years the SEC has put out preseason teams selected by the coaches, Auburn has always had at least one first-team selection and at least seven total selections. The Tigers peaked in 2006, with 14 total selections and eight on the first team.

Here are the Auburn players' mini-bios, per media relations:

• Coleman, who earned first-team All-SEC honors by the league’s media and coaches following the 2008 season, led Auburn in both sacks (6.0) and tackles for loss (10.5) during his junior campaign. He collected a total of 46 tackles (29 solo, 17 assists) in his 11 games played while also forcing fumble. Coleman enters his senior season with 15.5 career sacks, needing just one more to move into a tie for 10th on Auburn’s career sacks list.

• Ziemba has started all 25 games over the last two seasons since becoming the first true freshman to start a season opener for the Tigers since 2002. He finished his sophomore year with 47 cockroach blocks, 19 pancake blocks and 72 rodeo blocks. Ziemba was named a first-team Freshman All-American in 2007 by The Sporting News, Rivals.com, Scout.com and collegefootballnews.com.

• Tate enters his season year with 1,959 career rushing yards, ranking 14th in school history. He has led Auburn in rushing in each of the past two seasons, totaling 903 yards on the ground in 2007 and 664 yards last season. He has 14 career rushing touchdowns and four career 100-yard rushing games, including a career high of 156 vs. Tulane in 2006.

Here is the full list:

First-team offense

• TE Richard Dickson, LSU, Sr.
• OL Ciron Black, LSU, Sr.
• OL Mike Johnson, Alabama, Sr.
• OL Mike Pouncey, Florida, Jr.
• OL John Jerry, Ole Miss, Sr.
• C Maurkice Pouncey, Florida, Jr.
• WR Julio Jones, Alabama, So.
• WR A.J. Green, Georgia, So.
• QB Tim Tebow, Florida, Sr.
• RB Michael Smith, Arkansas, Sr.
• RB Charles Scott, LSU, Sr.

Second-team offense

• TE D.J. Williams, Arkansas, Jr.
• OL Lee Ziemba, Auburn, Jr.
• OL Clint Boling, Georgia, Jr.
• OL Chris Scott, Tennessee, Sr.
• OL Carl Johnson, Florida, Jr.
• C Josh McNeil, Tennessee, Sr.
• WR Brandon LaFell, LSU, Sr.
• WR Dexter McCluster, Ole Miss, Sr.
• QB Jevan Snead, Ole Miss, Jr.
• RB Anthony Dixon, Mississippi State, Sr.
• RB Jeff Demps, Florida, So.

Third-team offense

• TE Aaron Hernandez, Florida, Jr.
• OL Jacques McClendon, Tennessee, Sr.
• OL Zipp Duncan, Kentucky, Sr.
• OL Mitch Petrus, Arkansas, Sr.
• OL Trinton Sturdivant, Georgia, So.
• C Jorge Gonzalez, Kentucky, Sr.
• WR Shay Hodge, Ole Miss, Sr.
• WR Terrance Tolliver, LSU, Jr.
• WR Gerald Jones, Tennessee, Jr.
• QB Stephen Garcia, South Carolina, So.
• QB Mike Hartline, Kentucky, Jr.
• RB Mark Ingram, Alabama, So.
• RB Ben Tate, Auburn, Sr.

First-team defense

• DL Terrence Cody, Alabama, Sr.
• DL Greg Hardy, Ole Miss, Sr.
• DL Carlos Dunlap, Florida, Jr.
• LB Rolando McClain, Alabama, Jr.
• LB Brandon Spikes, Florida, Sr.
• LB Rennie Curran, Georgia, Jr.
• LB Eric Norwood, South Carolina, Sr.
• DB Eric Berry, Tennessee, Jr.
• DB Javier Arenas, Alabama, Sr.
• DB Trevard Lindley, Kentucky, Sr.
• DB Joe Haden, Florida, Jr.

Second-team defense

• DL Charles Alexander, LSU, Sr.
• DL Antonio Coleman, Auburn, Sr.
• DL Geno Atkins, Georgia, Sr.
• DL Dan Williams, Tennessee, Sr.
• DL Malcolm Sheppard, Arkansas, Sr.
• LB Micah Johnson, Kentucky, Sr.
• LB Patrick Benoist, Vanderbilt, Sr.
• LB Rico McCoy, Tennessee, Sr.
• LB Dont'a Hightower, Alabama, So.
• DB Ahmad Black, Florida, Jr.
• DB Chad Jones, LSU, Jr.
• DB Prince Miller, Georgia, Sr.
• DB Myron Lewis, Vanderbilt, Sr.

Third-team defense

• DL Jeff Owens, Georgia, Sr.
• DL Marcus Tillman, Ole Miss, Sr.
• DL Rahim Alem, LSU, Sr.
• DL Corey Peters, Kentucky, Sr.
• LB Chris Marve, Vanderbilt, So.
• LB Jamar Chaney, Mississippi State, Sr.
• LB Ryan Stamper, Florida, Sr.
• LB Perry Riley, LSU, Sr.
• DB Major Wright, Florida, Jr.
• DB Ryan Hamilton, Vanderbilt, Sr.
• DB Chris Culliver, South Carolina, Jr.
• DB Reshad Jones, Georgia, Jr.

First-team specialists

• PK Leigh Tiffin, Alabama, Sr.
• P Chas Henry, Florida, Jr.
• RS Brandon James, Florida, Sr.

Second-team specialists

• PK Jonathan Phillips, Florida, Sr.
• P Brett Upson, Vanderbilt, Sr.
• RS Javier Arenas, Alabama, Sr.

Third-team specialists

• PK Joshua Shene, Ole Miss, Sr.
• P Spencer Lanning, South Carolina, Jr.
• RS Trindon Holliday, LSU, Sr.

Tigers nab commitment from Juco DE

Auburn received its ninth commitment for 2010 when Fullerton (Calif.) Community College defensive end Joel Bonomolo pledged to play for the Tigers. All three of the Auburn's recruiting Web sites -- AuburnSports.com, Inside the Auburn Tigers and AuburnUndercover.com -- reported the news late last night.

The 6-foot-3, 245-pound Bonomolo is originally from New Orleans, where he was an all-metro and all-state player at Rummel High. He made 41 tackles, 17 tackles for a loss and 12.5 sacks as a freshman last year at Fullerton.

He had offers from Iowa State, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and San Diego State, according to AuburnSports.com.

Bonomolo hopes to graduate in time to enroll at Auburn in January, according to Inside the Auburn Tigers.

Here's Auburn's 2010 commitment list so far (those with star rankings by Rivals are listed):

• Joel Bonomolo, DE, 6-3, 245, New Orleans, La.
• Shon Coleman, OL, 6-7, 275, Olive Branch, Miss. (3-star)
• Jessel Curry, LB, 6-2, 215, Buford, Ga.
• Jake Holland, LB, 6-1, 228, Pelham, Ala. (3-star)
• Shaun Kitchens, ATH, 6-3, 211, College Park, Ga. (3-star)
• Jonathan Mincy, DB, 5-10, 175, Decatur, Ga. (3-star)
• Cody Parkey, PK, 6-2, 195, Jupiter, Fla.
• Jeremy Richardson, WR, 6-4, 220, Springville, Ala. (4-star)
• Jawara White, LB, 6-2, 220, Troy, Ala. (3-star)

Tommy Thigpen unplugged

After a short vacation break, we're back with our wildly popular semi-regular series of interviews with Auburn assistant coaches who happen to be in their offices when I visit the athletic complex.

This installment is with safeties coach Tommy Thigpen, who I spoke with last a week and a half ago when he was in his office while on vacation. Here's some of the stuff he had to say ...

• I found it odd that he was hanging out in his office while technically on vacation. He didn't. "That's what we do," Thigpen said. "The first year, to me, is there's a lot of things that need to be done. You need to be around your kids. Study recruiting. It's a great place. If it wasn't such a great place, I probably wouldn't be in the office. But here, you love coming to work."

• Thigpen seems happy with his decision to come to a football-crazy state like Alabama compared to a place like North Carolina, where other sports can monopolize the conversation from time to time. "People here are fanatical," he said. "And you hear about it, that people are fanatical about football, but then you live it and it's totally different. You're never going to understand the scope when somebody says that's the most important thing in the state until people actually start talking to you about it. So I've never lived that. And I'm living it now."

• I thought it was interesting that he didn't reference the University of Alabama by its name. He just said the "team up north."

• I thought Thigpen had an interesting background. He grew up in El Dorado, Ark., where he strayed in school, in part because of the environment he was in. At one point, a friend of his was killed and Thigpen's grades were suffering. He decided a change was necessary and prior to his 11th grade year moved to Dumfries, Va., outside of the military base in Quantico, where his father was stationed. It was an instant turnaround. "I just needed a male role model, so I went to live with my dad," Thigpen said. "Never told me to study one day, and from a 1.8, 1.9 (GPA) I went to a 4.0 just from changing one environment to the other. ... The people I hung around with in high school in Arkansas, nobody looked past high school. They never looked that far. In Dumfries, everybody wanted to go to college. That's why I talk about the environment, if you're around a bunch of people who have the same goals, of course your goals might start to change."

• After being named a Parade All-America and winning Virginia's state defensive player of the year honors his senior season, Thigpen wanted to play football on the East Coast so his dad could make an easy trip to see him play. He chose North Carolina, which is only a three- to four-hour drive from Dumfries.

• Thigpen had great things to say about Mack Brown, who he played for at North Carolina. "The best communicator I've ever met," he said. "He can talk to anybody from any background. You can be the richest guy in the world, you can be the poorest guy in the world, you can be Catholic, you can be Baptist, no matter what background you're from, when he walked into your house, he made you feel like he was part of you. Your parents felt like he was part of you. I always thought that Mack in the end would be a politician, because he can talk to anybody. Again, you can be at the lowest end of the economic spectrum or the highest. Each one of them. To me, that's an art. ... He was really good at talking to people that weren't from his background. And he never made anybody feel that he was above them. That was the one thing that even today I model myself after as far as talking to anybody from any spectrum."

• Thigpen had a brief professional playing career as a member of the New York Giants (1993-94) and Barcelona Dragons (1995-96) of the World League. After teaching for a year, he decided to get into coaching. Brown's staff at North Carolina -- one that had several African American coaches -- helped him make that career choice. "I wanted to be what those guys were," Thigpen said. "And as a young kid, I didn't have many role models that I could idolize. Because in Arkansas, there wasn't much advancement for African Americans. It was a lot of us were born into different lots. If your mom worked at a factory, you were probably going to work in a factory. And so for me, my idol was the guy who was making $12-13 an hour, which was the UPS guy. Then you go to school and see all these guys have graduated from college and they look just like me. And they're loving what they're doing and they're good at it. And it took me a minute to understand what I wanted to do until I started teaching school for a year. That's when I realized I loved teaching, I loved talking, I loved socializing. I love strategizing, and that's when i decided I wanted to be a football coach."

• Thigpen is widely regarded as a top-notch recruiter. He says it all comes down to communication. "To me, kids always use the term, they say, 'Just be real,'" Thigpen said. "And all that means is be yourself. Kids can see through a lot and know when you're genuine. It's like anything else, the more you can communicate and make them feel comfortable, that they know you."

• He keeps up with all the latest fads -- Facebook, Twitter, MySpace -- but knows they don't replace the human element of recruiting. "You still have to have human contact," he said. "I mean, you've never gotten a kid to commit off of Facebook. It takes a human element of having somebody there right in front of you and having a relationship and looking them eye-to-eye and having a trust factor and your body language and everything you do. So there's an art behind that as well."

• Here's his take on keeping up with the technology to communicate with recruits these days: "If you get annoyed (at learning different mediums), then you're probably in the wrong business. If you know your audience and your crowd, you've got to look at it like you're in a salesman job. If you're in corporate American and the fad changed, you can do two things: you can stay the same and let everyone else pass you or you could assimilate and do what everyone else is doing, that being the kids, and get on board and at least try to speak the dialogue that they're doing."

• Thigpen started his coaching career as a GA at North Carolina. He'd move on to Tennessee State as a linebackers coach before joining Bowling Green and an up-and-coming coach by the name of Urban Meyer in 2001. He knew Meyer was going places even then. "You could tell," Thigpen said. "We had average talent, but we were beating teams that were better than us. So we did a great job of just maximizing talent. I thought we were phenomenal at getting the best out of each kid, and then putting those kids in the right position to play."

• We didn't just talk about football. Thipen is an avid fisherman who on occasion heads out to do some deep sea fishing. Where does he go in Auburn? "I've been using peoples' ponds," he said. "I don't do lakes. That's too much work. Give me a little private pond, I'm good. I can work the whole pond." Thigpen used to go out fishing to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. On one trip, he said his group hauled in 800 pounds of tuna. He's not big on putting his prize catches on the wall. "I'm not the taxidermy kind of guy," he said. "I'm the kind of stick-it-in-your-freezer and eat them on a good day."

The Metrodome, Tray Blackmon and injury news

No, those three things aren't related. But they're all in the same blog post for the following reasons:

I bid farewell to the Metrodome as a baseball stadium on Thursday afternoon, watching a lackluster performance by the Twins against the Yankees. I'm hoping the Twins' new digs (Target Field) will somehow incorporate a white, Teflon roof. In the history of baseball parks, that one has to be one of the most mind-boggling designs ever. It'll still be a special place to me, though.

I did manage to catch up with former Auburn linebacker Tray Blackmon in the last few days for a story that ran in today's newspaper. Here's how it starts:

Tray Blackmon was a strange man in a foreign land playing a game he thought he knew when he took the field for his first exhibition in the Canadian Football League last month.

This was football, just not the kind he was used to. The field was bigger, more players lined up on both sides of the ball and multiple offensive backs fired off in motion prior to each snap. It was like the Arena League game on a field four times the size.

“My mind was in cartwheels, man,” Blackmon said with a laugh. “I couldn’t figure it out.”

Fast forward a month and that is no longer the case. Blackmon, who opted to leave his checkered past at Auburn in search of a fresh start and means to support his wife and four kids, is now a starter at middle linebacker for the defending Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders.

There weren't too many extra quotes, so I'm not going to have any additional nuggets here. But I will say it seems like he's in a good situation, given the fresh start that he desperately wanted and probably needed. For those interested, Calgary's game against Winnipeg will be televised on Comcast Sports South tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET. It might be worth a watch.

Also, I can't seem to go out of town without something somewhat major happening on the beat. As reported by AuburnSports.com this afternoon, wide receiver Tim Hawthorne broke a bone in his foot and will be out at least four weeks, possibly as many as eight. Auburn had high hopes this season for Hawthorne, who had the most impressive spring of any receiver. If he misses four weeks, it wouldn't overlap with two-a-days. If it's eight, that would mean he'd miss basically all of two-a-days. That's a big difference. And with foot injuries, you just can't tell how someone -- especially a receiver who has to make frequent cuts -- will be able to come back. With Hawthorne hurt, Montez Billings' academic standing in question, Harry Adams back on defense and Philip Pierre-Louis' role undefined, it's going to be a motley crew of receivers in the mix at the start of summer practice. Quindarius Carr, Terrell Zachery and Darvin Adams have never had a better opportunity to seize playing time. (Paging, DeAngelo Benton. DeAngelo Benton to the white courtesy phone, please.)

One more quick addition: I missed out on going on a Thursday tour of Auburn's new basketball arena, which is slated for completion next summer. From some of the accounts that are out there, it looks like it will be a remarkable facility. I highly suggest clicking on a few of the blogs for some video/photos/accounts of the tour, specifically here and here.

And lastly, barring any major news coming out Auburn, this will be my last post until I return from my vacation next week, when I hope to have something on the blog from my sitdown with safeties coach Tommy Thigpen. Between now and then, I plan to play at least two rounds of golf, win at least one poker game, feast on an unhealthy amount of barbecue and obsess about my fantasy baseball teams.

Vacation musings, plus Ben Tate unplugged

Greetings from comfortably cool Minnesota. I ducked out for a little vacation the rest of this week with a visit back home, hoping to recharge before the unofficial start to the football craze that begins with this month's SEC media days. That picture is of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox for those who wondering. Bunyan is a lumberjack legend from the north who I believe, after 150 years of appeals, was also recently sworn in as Minnesota's junior senator. (Note: I might be wrong on that last part).

It must have been a while since I've flown anywhere, because the airlines seem to have advanced like crazy since I last stepped on a plane (which, to be honest, was only last December). AirTran had a few technological upgrades that made the flight a little bit quicker. They have XM Radio jacks in every seat, which is a nice touch. I think everyone should experience taking off in a plane to "Runaway" by Bon Jovi. It amps things up a little.

There was also Wi-Fi on the plane, which I thought would be great. In fact, I was going to blog something from several miles in the air, but the fine folks at AirTran saw fit to charge $9.99 to use the wireless Internet for the duration of the 2 hour, 12 minute flight. Ten bucks? This is not some space-age technology. For an airline that already charged me $15 for my first checked bag, I figured they might be able to cut me some slack with something that's readily available everywhere a Panera Bread is near. Not so. So cheers to AirTran for the XM. Jeers for the ridiculously priced Wi-Fi.

ANYWAY, you don't come to this blog for pictures of mythological lumberjacks or petty observations about our nation's airlines. You hopefully come for the Auburn coverage. A few reporters had a chance to talk to running back Ben Tate last week. In fact, I wrote a story about it for Thursday's newspaper that can be found by clicking here.

Now, Tate is supremely confident in his abilities. Some would call it being cocky. I'd agree, but it's not in an obnoxious way. I like it when athletes speak truthfully about what they think they are capable of and what they expect of themselves and the team. And Tate generally doesn't pull any punches. In fact, I wonder if this is the reason tight end Tommy Trott and not Tate will represent Auburn's offense at the SEC media days. Because I can't really think of any other reason. Regardless, it's refreshing to hear someone not give a watered-down, PC answer to some of our questions.

There was a bunch of leftover stuff from nearly 18 minutes with Tate, so I figured I'd throw it up here on the blog as some B-sides. Enjoy.

• Tate appears to have a much larger role in setting up the offense between snaps, which I found an odd responsibility for a running back. But that's how Gus Malzahn's system works apparently. "I have to know fronts," Tate said. "That’s different and it also helps you out. I also have to make protection calls. I have to tell the linemen what to do. If I mess up on a call, it’s always going to be on me. It’s not really going to be a lineman’s fault. Most of the time, if I mess up we’re going to be on the same page together, so we’re all messing up together, so most of the time it still gets picked up – it just might not get picked up the right way."

• Malzahn's offense, as you know, likes to move fast, meaning Tate has maybe five seconds to make his call. Or at least finalize his call. "You have to have it rolling off your tongue as soon as you see it," he said. "I would say it’s probably about five seconds. But within those five seconds I might have made five calls because I was wrong on the first four. " Like I said, the man is honest, even when he's taking a dig at himself.

• From the sounds of it, strength and conditioning coach Kevin Yoxall, aka "Yox," has put the Tigers through a brutal summer conditioning program. Here's Tate's description of a medium day, one that's not too difficult: "I would say we come out and do maybe two 150s, eight halves, go to the weight room, power cleans, sit-ups, chain pushups. I would say a typical workout is about two hours or 2½ hours."

• After three years with Yox, Tate knows which days are the hard ones. On Mondays, "he's going to run you," Tate said. "(He'll) just tell you to go until you throw up." Fridays, with the weekend looming, are always bad. "Most of the time on Fridays," Tate said, "if we haven’t done real heavy legs yet we have to push the sled, come and do like heavy back squats then come back out and do something crazy like carry a 45-pound plate all across the field while lunge-walking or push the boards up the hill or push the boards while pulling a sled."


• Tate thinks Yox has worked Auburn's players a little harder this year than in past years. He's also changed some of the workouts, doing more agility drills and plyometrics, "things that's trying to make us a little faster," Tate said.


• He had an interesting take on former offensive coordinator Tony Franklin: "He’s a good man. I liked him as a coach. I honestly did because he was the kind of coach – he kept it real. I don’t want you to lie to me and say, ‘Everything’s OK. You’re playing OK,’ but then behind the scenes say, ‘Oh, I don’t know how this guy’s doing. Let’s see how this guy’s going to do.’ If I’m not getting the job done, just let me know. Don’t tell me one thing and then do something else. I like that coach Franklin was up front about it. He would come to me on the sideline and be like, ‘Ben, what are you doing? You’re a better player than that. That just sucked. You just sucked. That entire series there, you just sucked.’ I was like, ‘All right, coach.’ At least I knew."

• Tate said new running backs coach Curtis Luper is similar in his straight-forwardness: "I know there were times in spring practice where I played up and he was like, ‘Dang, man. That’s good. That’s good. That’s how I want to see it.’ Then there were other times where he was like, ‘What are you doing?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know, coach.’ He was like, ‘Well you have one more chance.’ I would just do something dumb again and he would point to the sidelines and be like, ‘Just go sit down.’ I’d kind of be like, ‘C’mon coach …’ and he’d say, ‘No. Just go sit down and think about what you just did.’ He’s a straight shooter and he’ll just let you know that ain’t it – that’s not what you’re supposed to be doing. Coach Malzahn is the same way."

Auburn adds associate AD, baseball assistant

There were two new hires at Auburn that were announced Tuesday:

1. Scott Carr was named Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs, and
2. Link Jarrett was added as the baseball team's Director of Player Development and recruiting coach

Carr, who spent the last eight years as an administrator for Southern Miss, replaces Nikki Borges, who moved out west with her husband Al, Auburn's former offensive coordinator who now holds that position at San Diego State. Carr most recently oversaw external affairs for the Golden Eagles as well as serving as an administrator for the baseball team. Here's a link to the school's full release.

Jarrett spent the last four seasons as East Carolina's hitting instructor and recruiting coordinator. He'll assist Scott Foxhall with recruiting and work with hitters along with Jeff Duncan at Auburn, working specifically with catchers defensively. Jarrett played at Florida State from 1991-94 and with the Colorado Rockies' organization from 1994-98. Here's a link to the full release on the Auburn Web site.

Tuberville coming to the big screen

Saw this story on ESPN.com and this story on SportsIllustrated.com about the "The Blind Side," the movie being made out of Michael Lewis' best selling book about former Ole Miss left tackle Michael Oher.

Several coaches are playing themselves in the movie, including former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, who didn't personally make an in-home visit with Oher in real life but has a chance to do so in the movie.

Other coaches in the movie are Nick Saban (who dons an purple and gold colored tie to recreate his time with LSU), Houston Nutt (Arkansas), Lou Holtz (South Carolina), Phi Fulmer (Tennessee) and Ed Orgeron (Ole Miss).

Here's a Tuberville portion in the ESPN story, which was written by Mark Schlabach:

Tuberville, who still lives in Auburn, said he didn't hesitate to wear a Tigers shirt during the film.

"I'll always be a fan," Tuberville said. "It's a job. I made it a lot longer than I thought I would. Ten years in the SEC is a long, long time."

Other than appearing in commercials for soft drinks and potato chips and a grocery store chain while at Auburn, Tuberville's acting experience was limited.

Tuberville couldn't help but take a little dig at Saban too:

Overall, Tuberville said his first Hollywood acting role was rewarding. He said the coaches were able to spend a lot of time together during one day of filming, when they spent nearly eight hours on set.

"I've got this acting thing down now," Tuberville said. "It was a good time. They weren't asking us to play a bad guy or anything. Of course, I'm sure Nick had a hard time doing that."

And in case you're wondering about Tuberville's acting chops, this part might alleviate your concerns:

During one of Tuberville's scenes, Hancock asked him to stop moving his hands. The director told Tuberville that people watching the film would be distracted by the movement. On the next take, the coach clasped his hands together and kept them still.

"See, you're coachable," Hancock told him. "I know that now. We'll coach you up and make you look good."

The movie, which stars Sandra Bullock, Kathy Bates, Tim McGraw and a relative unknown Quinton Aaron as Oher, is set to be released Nov. 20 of this year.

Independence Day, Wikipedia and Gus Malzahn

Hey all. Hope everyone is enjoying today's 4th of July celebration, one of the better holidays of the year. There is nothing quite like celebrating American independence by watching a fireworks finale set to music written by a Russian to commemorate the defeat of Napoleon. That's always my favorite moment of the day.

Also, it brings to mind one of my favorite articles from the satirical newspaper The Onion: "Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years of American Independence." The picture alone slays me.

ANYWAY, I wrote a Gus Malzahn feature for today's paper because, well, he was the only assistant coach hanging around the complex last week. Oh, and he's also the offensive coordinator, so that's kind of important too. Here's how it starts:

AUBURN, Ala. — Offensive gurus generally aren’t without their quirks.

Steve Spurrier never passes up a chance to take a clever dig at a rival. Tony Franklin’s down-home brand of blunt honesty is at the same time his best and worst trait. And Mike Leach, for as much as his air-it-out offense has altered the Big 12 football landscape, has an unusual obsession with pirates.

Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn’s staid personality, one cut from the cloth of one of his coaching idols, Nebraska’s stoic Tom Osborne, doesn’t seem to fit the mold.

Yeah,” Malzahn said wryly. “I’m not into pirates.”

No, Malzahn, who was Gene Chizik’s first permanent coaching hire last December, is into football, particularly the up-tempo, no-huddle brand that paved the way for his quick ascension in the coaching ranks, and not much else.

“I don’t do very many things,” he said, “but what I try to do, I try to be very thorough.”

Malzahn is an interesting interview. He's very short with his answers, very concise. There's not a lot of extraneous stuff with him, which I gather is the way he operates all the time. Here's a few B-sides that didn't make it into the article or that I didn't get to elaborate much on:

• It seems that Malzahn's offense has been scoffed at at every stop of his coaching career, especially back when he was first honing the system at high schools in Arkansas. "I think that's fair to say because it was real extreme at that point," he said. "Specifically, there were very few no huddle teams at all, but somebody going fast, it was very new. It was new for officials. But it was a great advantage."

• He knows that will be the case coming back to SEC at Auburn after a tumultuous year with Houston Nutt at Arkansas, where the two clashed over offensive philosophy. I asked if people would be resistant to the offense in the tradition-bound SEC. Here's his answer: "I don't know if resistance is the right word. Maybe skepticism. Maybe people are skeptical. Not so much now but early on, probably."

• Malzahn pointed out that some of those walls have already been broken down in the SEC and around college football for that matter. Urban Meyer, for instance, has done wonders with a unique offense at Florida. I don't think Gators fans seem to mind. "It probably does (help), because they're very unique," Malzahn said. "As well, we're unique. But you kind of see college football, you kind of see it being more unique, not traditional. Each year it changes a little bit. I mean, you look at what Oklahoma did last year with the speed. They're running no huddle with a fast pace. And of course they were very successful."

• Malzahn said most of his coaching idols were from the high school ranks in Arkansas, since that's where the majority of his formative coaching years took place. But he did identify one college coach that he really admired: Nebraska's Tom Osborne. "His professionalism," Malzahn said of what impresses him the most. "Of course he was a winner. And he was different. He was different than a lot of the coaches. ... Of course, they ran the option. As far as scheme-wise, definitely (we're) a lot different. But as far as trying to model myself as a coach, as a person, as a professional, that was what I wanted to be similar too."

• Malzahn was a walk-on receiver at Arkansas for Ken Hatfield from 1984-85 but admitted he "wasn't good enough to play." Going to Arkansas, though, was something he always wanted to do. "Just growing up in the state.," he said. "That's the only school in the state and a lot of those players dream about being Razorbacks. I was just like a lot of them. So it was a chance to play there and get a shot." Malzahn transferred to Division II Henderson State, where he played and later graduated in 1990.

• Tulsa seemed to be the only time in college so far where he had free rein to run his offense as he saw fit. That's because Malzahn had a kindred spirit in Todd Graham. Graham was a high school coach in Allen, Texas, while Malzahn was at Shiloh Christian in Arkansas. "I put out a little video and he bought it and called me in 1998, '99, somewhere around that, and we started talking," Malzahn said. "I went to Springdale High School and he was at Tulsa as the defensive coordinator. I took my teams over to team camp, so we kind of developed our relationship a little further, and he said, 'Hey, when I get a head job a little later, I want you to be my coordinator.' So I said, OK, sounds good, whatever. Well, that came to truth. He was great. We had the same exact philosophy, so it was a really good situation for me."

• Malzahn on his coaching demeanor: "I would say I'm probably pretty intense. I would say I'm a perfectionist. I want it to be perfect. And I think if you demand that, you don't get very many chances to coach your guys. The time limits and the rules, you've got to take advantage when you're out there. You've got to make the most of it."

• Thought this was telling: Malzahn used to play golf quite a bit but doesn't get out too often anymore. "I'm not good enough anymore to be good, so I don't like to play," he said. That sounds like the words of a perfectionist. (Strangely, I've never been good at golf, yet I still like to play. I think that makes me a glutton for punishment.)

• Malzahn was straightforward in acknowledging depth and learning a third offense in two years would be major hurdles for Auburn this year. But he couldn't give a timetable for when things normally click in his offenses from past instances. "I think you look at the Tulsa situation, we were solid the first year and the second year it all clicked," he said. "But it's hard. Each situation is different, so it's hard to put a timetable as far as when guys can get it, because the dynamics of how many young guys have to play, how many veterans you have that understand coverages and can easily adapt a new scheme or something. So there are a lot of variables where it's hard to put a specific timetable on it where, 'Hey, we should be clicking by this time.' I think it's a work in progress, and of course the more information I get, the more I know about our guys, and the more our coaches know about our guys, the quicker we can answer that question."

• In that regard, this summer is invaluable in making progress. "Of course we put in our base offense in the spring," Malzahn said. "And the whole key is this summer on their own if they can build upon that base and have a better understanding than when we left the practice field in the spring, and they come to fall camp where it's a little more natural. That's the goal. And then you can add all the fancy stuff later."

• Malzahn wouldn't mind being a head coach someday. But that's way, way down the line. "Somewhere down the line at this level I do, but I'm not in any hurry," he said. "We've got high goals here and Coach Chizik has put together a plan and we want to see that thing out. So that's my focus."

Catching up with QB Neil Caudle

It's been quite a summer for junior Neil Caudle, who's finally in the thick of a quarterback race for the first time in his career.

As a result, he has to answer all the annoying questions from we the media about who will win the starting job come August. Does he mind?

"No," he said point blank. "It definitely beats the alternative of nobody caring what you have to say."

Caudle ran the gamut with a few reporters yesterday. Here's what he had to say:

• He's been doing some schoolwork and working out with receivers during the summer, just working on routes and timing. "This is kind of the most important time we have, because we can all get out there every day, get out there on our own and really work on things as much as we need to for as long as we need to and work on the exact things we need to do," he said. "In practice, we just run what is scripted and if we mess it up, we just go over it again, but you've got to move on and work on some other stuff."

• Caudle thinks the work is especially important considering Auburn is installing Gus Malzahn's offense. "It's really a timing offense as far as the routes go and the passing game," he said. "So it's really important this year, not just because it's a new offense, but because of the way the offense is structured."

• He said he's treating the quarterback competition as a job interview. "It's intense," he said. "You can't really take any days off and can't really take anything for granted as far as the job goes."

• He's worked sparingly with one of the prizes from Auburn's 2009 recruiting class, wide receiver DeAngelo Benton. Caudle said it's clear that Benton has good hands and knows the game well. It's just a matter of the freshman learning the routes and running them crisply.

• For those counting, there are seven scholarship quarterbacks on the roster right now -- Caudle, senior Chris Todd, junior Kodi Burns, redshirt freshman Barrett Trotter and true freshmen Tyrik Rollison, Clint Moseley and Robert Cooper. It'll be interesting how Auburn deals with having seven QBs on the practice field. "I'm not really sure," Caudle said. "We'll address that later when we get closer to two-a-days. But it's weird having I guess seven quarterbacks in the meeting room now and seven quarterbacks on the field. It gets really crowded. So there's going to have to be some system to work that out, but we're not real sure right now.

• Malzahn is Caudle's fourth offensive coordinator, joining Tony Franklin, Steve Ensmiger and Al Borges, something Caudle never envisioned when he first came to Auburn. "It's really tough," he said. "Coming in, I had it in my mind that it was going to be one offensive coordinator all the way through, and I'd get to work with him a lot. Fate hasn't worked out that way. I guess I've had something like four offensive coordinators. And it's been tough, but that's just life, especially in this business, which has a high turnover of coaches. And you've got to expect different offenses coming in and out until things start working."

• He's added about five pounds since the end of spring, hoping to add some overall strength. He's also been doing a lot of long toss to strengthen his arm. "This time is always a good time to get your arm stronger, because there is time to go out and long toss and you can really take care of your arm instead of the grind of a season or practice," he said.

• Gene Chizik has been straightforward in laying out his team rules, not leaving any gray area. Still, Caudle, like many of his teammates, was a little surprised at the dismissal of safety Christian Thompson, defensive lineman Jomarcus Savage and linebacker Marcus Jemison last week for violating team rules. "It showed that they weren't joking about these rules, and they're real serious about making Auburn have a good image and for this team coming together," he said. "The off-the-field stuff will help us on the field also. It definitely showed the whole team they are serious about it. I'm sure a lot of people were surprised, because normally that would have been just a suspension or a slap on the wrist or something. But I think that it's really an eye opener. They know that these coaches really mean what they say and will act on what they say." (Quick aside: I realize Chizik is trying to make a point with these dismissals, but I always find it funny that the players in question are always second- or third-teamers and not starters.)

• Don't know if anyone had mentioned this in the spring, but Caudle was wearing a blue, team-issued T-shirt that had the date for the Iron Bowl (11/27/09) on the right sleeve and the date of the SEC championship game (12/5/09) on the left sleeve. "Obviously two of the more important dates on the schedule," he said.

Notes and notes and notes

Had a notebook in today's paper on some miscellaneous football things. You can read the whole thing here, or you can read the Cliff's notes version right here, in bullet form!

• T'Sharvan Bell is now a safety. The 6-foot, 177-pound cornerback got moved after Christian Thompson was dismissed from the team and Aairon Savage suffered an Achilles' injury. Safeties coach Tommy Thigpen, by the way, does not expect to have Savage available this season. That's how severe the injury was.

• Two players -- linebacker Da'Shaun Barnes and defensive lineman Andre Wadley -- are taking a medical hardship this season, according to AuburnSports.com. Barnes had hip problems. Wadley had kidney issues. Both will remain on scholarship, but they will not count against the Tigers' limit of 85.

• While my request to speak to quarterback Chris Todd is pending (and quite honestly, might not happen until August), word from some of his teammates is the senior can fire the ball pretty hard when he wants to. "He’s putting some zing on that ball,” running back Ben Tate said. “I had to tell him sometimes, ‘Hey, Chris. Don’t throw the ball to me that hard. We’re just playing catch. You’re just trying to get warmed up.’ ”

• In former Tiger news, linebacker Tray Blackmon led the Calgary Stampeders with 7 tackles and a forced fumble in a 40-27 loss to the Montreal Alouettes in his Canadian Football League debut last night. "I felt like I went out and I played hard and I gave great effort," Blackmon told The Canadian Press. "I had a couple plays I wish I could have back, maybe a couple errors out there. I wish I could have maybe ran harder to a play. We'll just go back and try to work on those little things and try to get better." Also, Tray is a blogger. Here's his first blog post about the opener.

• Also of note, AuburnSports.com says Harry Adams, who moved to wide receiver in the spring, will be moving back to cornerback. Not surprising, considering the sudden lack of depth in the secondary.

Blackmon to start for CFL's Calgary Stampeders

We here at the Ledger-Enquirer are still working on getting in touch with former Auburn linebacker Tray Blackmon, but in the meantime, Blackmon makes his Canadian Football League debut tonight for the Calgary Stampeders. That's the defending Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders for those that care.

This game preview lists Blackmon as Calgary's starting middle linebacker when it takes on the Montreal Alouettes tonight at 8.

Also, here's a team Q&A with Blackmon from back on June 4 in which he had good things to say about his star-crossed time at Auburn. Here's an excerpt:

"No matter what, I have nothing bad to say about the people at Auburn. I love them because they took really good care of me and they’re still like family to me. That’s why I say that this is just the way things were meant to be and I’m trying to seize the moment and take advantage of it."