Light afternoon for player interviews. Hopefully we'll get some more later, but here are the early notes and quotes:

(Quick Twitter and Facebook plug)

• Gene Chizik publicly challenged his veteran offensive line to be more physical at the point of attack today. Left tackle Lee Ziemba didn't seem surprised at the comments. "I've seen the same film he has," Ziemba said. "We definitely need to be more physical up front to win ballgames. That's showed up big time."

• "It kind of hurts a little bit, but you can't get down on yourself about it," right guard Byron Isom said. "You just have to respond to it. Through adversity, that's how you become a better man. So we're definitely going to respond to it."

• Ziemba and Isom said there's no trick for coming out with a more physical attitude. It starts in practice. "I think the attitude is there," Isom said. "It's just really putting it out there on the field and really showing what we can do. We haven't done that up to this point."

• The obvious question is can the Tigers be as physical as they want to be in an offensive scheme that doesn't seem like it's catered to that style of play. Chizik disagreed with the premise. "We run the exact same plays that every I-back team runs," he said. "The exact same plays, powers, counters, zones, inside zones, our run game is exactly the same.”

• Understandably, both linemen felt bad for right tackle A.J. Greene, who is out for the year with a serious ankle injury. "That's tough, but that's the nature of the game," Ziemba said. "He worked his tail end off to get that starting spot. He did a good job for us. I'm glad I got to play with him."

• Ziemba didn't seem to think replacing Greene with either John Sullen or Brandon Mosley will affect the dynamic of the line too much. "It's all the same calls," he said.

• Here's how Chizik addressed a question about the right tackle spot today: "Our plan is on Tuesday to be able to rotate those guys and find the combination that fits us best. I don’t know how we’ll do it in the game but both guys will have equal opportunity to be the guy. We’ll start looking at that today.”

• Auburn scored 21 third-quarter points. Ziemba thinks that prove what this offense is capable of. "We always know that we can do it," he said. "We're down 17 points but we know we're not out of it. It's just kind to kind of click. If we can get all four quarters like we played one quarter the other night, I think we'll be on the right path."

• Big stakes going up against No. 12 South Carolina. "It's a lot to prove," Isom said. "We go out there every week trying to make a statement. When you get this type of attention for this type of game, it's really a statement game."

• Defensive end Antoine Carter tries to ignore the hype. "I really don't pay attention to the polls," he said. "I really don't understand it. It's just another chance for us to go out and prove ourselves. We'll stay under the radar for now. We don't like to be the talk. We'd rather just go under the radar and prove ourselves on the field."

• Odd response from Carter about South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore, when asked to compare him to Auburn's Mike Dyer: "I don't think you can compare an Auburn running back and a South Carolina running back. That's just my opinion. I'm an Auburn man, so I don't see the comparison."

• Obviously there are heavy hearts at South Carolina today, after news broke of the apparent suicide of beloved former wide receiver Kenny McKinley. Chizik spoke about it being difficult to monitor the mental health of players. "It’s a tough question," he said. "You know you really try to keep a good eye and try to monitor your guys, and that’s why with us personally we’re always trying to be involved with what’s going on in their lives, with what’s going on in their family life. You don’t know. It’s very tricky. It’s tough to know what’s going on at one time in every guy’s world. We try to do our best to stay up on what’s going on in 125 guys’ lives. And that’s tough, but we do our best to do that. Again, that’s a tough situation."

• South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier commented on McKinley today. "Certainly, this is a tragic loss for all Gamecocks, especially his teammates, coaches that knew him very well. Our players will hopefully do our grieving here the next day or so. We will remember Kenny for the good times, and, again, it is hard for us to comprehend how this all happened."

• Signee Shon Coleman, who has battled leukemia since the spring, attended the Clemson game. "It was just awesome to see him smiling and just back being himself, and I think it was neat for a lot of our coaches to see him again and his mom," Chizik said. "We keep in touch with them on a daily basis and we want them to come back as often as they can get back. We know sometimes that gets a little taxing, but it was just awesome to see him back here and us recognize him. It was a cool deal.”

• Chizik didn't speculate on if he expects Coleman to play football at Auburn. "I can’t make that call," he said. "I expect him to be at Auburn. Whether he’s playing or not, I don’t know, but I expect him to be at Auburn.”

It's over. All we have are the quotes. Here they are:

• "It's going to be another great SEC weekend. Obviously we have a huge, huge challenge in front of us with the best football we've played to date."

• "Name of the game for us is to play a very physical football game." Didn't think the team was physical enough in the Clemson game.

• He elaborates on physical football: "We're talking about the point of attack on the line of scrimmage." Both sides of the ball. "That's where we need to improve as a team."

• Lots o' veterans up front. Chizik doesn't say he's surprised they haven't been better, but it's understood they need to improve. "They know it, we know it and we've got to fix it."

• "You're not going to do it in a game if you don't do it in practice."

• USC's receivers are tall.Auburn's cornerbacks are not. This is a concern for Chizik. "They are very talented, very athletic."

• On Lattimore: "He doesn't run like a freshman."

• Chizik said Auburn's "hearts go out" to South Carolina regarding the tragic news about Kenny McKinley.

• Said mental health is more difficult to gauge than physical health."It's a very tricky thing to know what's going on in every guy's world. But we try to stay up on what's going on in 125 guys' lives, and that's tough. It's a tough situation."

• John Sullen and Brandon Mosley are going to rotate at right tackle in practice. Doesn't know how it'll work in game. Mosley is a "swing guy" who will work at left and right tackle.

• Back to physicality: "Watching (South Carolina) on film, they play on the other side of the football."

• Disputes notion that offensive scheme prevents Auburn from being physical: "We run the exact same plays that every I-back team runs."

• Thinks Dyer will only gain confidence as season goes on. "We're ready for him to do more."

• Philip Lutzenkirchen hasn't caught a pass. "We've got to get more guys involved in the passing game. Period."
  

• "We're going to do in the game plan what gives us the best chance to win." Would like 50-50 split in run-pass. Said it doesn't always work out that way.

• Shon Coleman was at last week's game. "It was just awesome to see him. We want him to come back as often as he can." He expects Coleman to attend Auburn but didn't want to say anything about his potential football career.
  

For the second straight week, an Auburn player nabbed SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors.

Right tackle A.J. Greene's season is over after suffering a serious injury to his left ankle in the fourth quarter of the Clemson game.

"It doesn't look like he's going to be returning this year," said Auburn head coach Gene Chizik, who did not give any further details.

Greene, who separated himself for the starting job at the end of August, went down in a pile as quarterback Cam Newton was sacked on a third-down play early in the fourth quarter. He didn't get up.

Medical personnel tended to him on the field and put his left leg in a brace before carting him off the field. Both Chizik and Dr. James Andrews went out on the field to check on Greene's condition, usually an indication of a serious injury.

Sophomore John Sullen replaced Greene in the lineup and will do so in his long-term absence, although junior college transfer Brandon Mosley is also an option.

"We'll re-evaluate it all," Chizik said.

Sullen was the runner-up to Greene in August for the starting right tackle job, showing progress after losing 40 pounds from when he reported as a freshman.

"The way it unfolded, I think he played well," Chizik said. "John came in and helped us win a football game."

The voters had mixed feelings about Auburn's 27-24 win against Clemson on Saturday.

The Tigers moved up one spot in the latest USA Today coaches' poll to 14th but dropped one spot in the Associated Press poll to 17th.

The Tigers are the fifth highest SEC team in the coaches' poll, behind Alabama (No. 1), Florida (8), Arkansas (11) and LSU (12) and just ahead of this week's opponent, South Carolina (15).

They're sixth in the AP poll, behind Alabama (1), Florida (9), Arkansas (10), South Carolina (12) and LSU (15)

Auburn moved past Iowa in the coaches' poll. The Hawkeyes dropped from 10th to 18th following a loss at Arizona.

But the Tigers got passed by Arizona and Stanford in the AP poll. The Wildcats made a 10-spot jump from 24th to 14th. The Cardinal went from 16th to 19th.

Coaches' poll glance:

12. LSU (3-0), 801 points, LW: 12
13. Utah (3-0), 693 points, LW: 14
14. Auburn (3-0), 655 points, LW: 15
15. South Carolina (3-0), 612 points, LW: 16
16. Arizona (3-0), 610 points, LW: 18

AP poll glance:

15. LSU (3-0), 654 points, LW: 15
16. Stanford (3-0), 606 points, LW: 19
17. Auburn (3-0), 600 points, LW: 16
18: Iowa (2-1), 482 points, LW: 9
19: Miami (Fla.) (1-1), 472 points, LW: 17

Here's a quick look at how the AP voters placed Auburn:

• The Tigers are now on 59 of 60 ballots. Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald is the lone holdout. He's got Clemson 25th for some reason. Guess he turned in his ballot before last night's game finished.
• Auburn is 10th on three voters' ballots: Joe Giglio (Raleigh News & Observer), John Niyo (Detroit News) and Rob Long (Fox-1370 Radio, Baltimore).
• Randy Rosetta of the Baton Rouge Advocate has Auburn 11th, the highest of any SEC writer.
• Kirk Herbstreit, who called the game for ESPN, dropped Auburn two spots to 15th.
• State voters: Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News has the Tigers 18th, same as last week; Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News has Auburn 16th, down one spot.
• Most common ranking: 18th.

The stories have been sent for tomorrow's paper. Here's a sneak peak at how the game story starts:

AUBURN, Ala. — It wasn't as gut-churning as last season's Outback Bowl overtime thriller, but Saturday night's win might have been just as satisfying for No. 16 Auburn.

The Tigers rallied from a 17-point first-half deficit and survived an overtime session at Jordan-Hare Stadium, coming away with a 27-24 overtime victory against Clemson to remain unbeaten.

Wes Byrum made a 39-yard field goal for Auburn (3-0) to start overtime.

Clemson's Chandler Catanzaro couldn't match, hooking a 32-yarder wide left into the blue-clad Auburn student section that erupted in celebration.

"We just want to make it exciting, that's for sure" said Auburn head coach Gene Chizik, who has two overtime victories in his last four games. "I couldn't be more proud of just the way they responded."

Let's get to some bullet points:

• Where to start? How about the comeback. It was Auburn's biggest comeback win since erasing a 17-point deficit against Syracuse in a triple overtime 2002 win. "You are always trying to figure out who your football team is," Chizik said. "And you never know until you get into situations where you've basically embarked on uncharted territory, which is where we were tonight."

• The good: Auburn scored 21 unanswered points in the third quarter. Quarterback Cam Newton threw for 203 yards and two touchdowns. The offense gained 308 of its 424 yards and scored 24 of its points in the second half and overtime. Onterio McCalebb ran for 81 yards, Mike Dyer 69 and Newton 68. And Darvin Adams had the breakout game he was waiting for, catching five balls for 118 yards.

• The bad: the whole first half. Auburn fell behind 17-0 before getting a Byrum field goal as the clock expired. The Tigers had 78 yards and didn't get a first down until midway through the second quarter. Newton looked out of sorts, going 1-for-7 for 23 yards and a pick (he's add another in a spot where he shouldn't have forced a pass, turning the ball over to Clemson at the 1-yard line in the third quarter.)

• Deadline was so tight, I couldn't get any player quotes in. Here are a few:
  

• Dyer, on the comeback: "When you are down, it really shows your character. Our team stayed together tonight and no one gave up."
• DT Nick Fairley, on the defense. "As a defense, you can bend, but you can't break. That's one thing we do: we bend but don't break."
• Newton, on the team's urgency: "Everybody started to realize that we can't wait until next time."
• LB Josh Bynes, on the student section's help at the end. "You get the crowd noise involved. I think when we got that second chance to defend the field goal our crowd helped in him missing."
• S Zac Etheridge, on the same thing: "They did not really have much to cheer for in the first half. We apologize for the first half. We told them all week that we wanted them to be 'All In.' We were not all in the first half. In the second half, we had to give the fans something to watch."

• About the end of the game: Clemson looked like it made a 26-yard field goal. But the play was whistled dead for motion up front. Clemson's players pointed as though Auburn had jumped offsides, which might have given the visiting Tigers a first down inside the 5-yard line. After a brief meeting, the officials ruled an illegal snap against Clemson's Matt Skinner, backing the ball up five yards. It made a difference. Catanzaro's second kick started left and stayed there.

• Auburn's rushing defense didn't do so hot, giving up 187 yards. Andre Ellington finished with 140, finding great success up the middle. Etheridge made a huge tackle on him in overtime, though, when Ellington tried to bounce outside on a second-down run that looked like it could have ended in a touchdown.

• LB Craig Stevens was back. I didn't have a chance to get to the locker room to speak to him afterward, but he said this about his two-game suspension to the Opelika-Auburn News: "I was just home relaxing. It feels good to be out there with the team." Not the greatest game for Stevens, who finished with two tackles and got juked by Jamie Harper on Clemson's first touchdown, an 8-yard shovel pass.

• Some defensive standouts: Bynes got the big-tackle game he's been waiting for, finishing with 11 and two TFLs. Nick Fairley had seven tackles, a sack and three TFLs. He has seven TFLs in three games. DT Zach Clayton had four tackles and 1.5 TFLs.

• No turnovers forced for Auburn, which is minus-4 in turnover ratio this year.

• Auburn had quite a few penalties too. There were four holds on the offensive line in the first 2.5 quarters alone, an uncharacteristic number. Auburn finished with nine penalties for 90 yards.

• Some injury stuff: Mario Fannin (shoulder) dressed but did not play. Dyer started in his place and held his own. LT Lee Ziemba started his 41st straight game. He's barreling down on that career starts record.

• RT A.J. Greene looks like he might be out for a while. He went down early in the fourth quarter with a left ankle injury. His entire leg was in a brace and he was carted off the field, giving the thumbs up to the crowd. Still, it's not good when the head coach and Dr. James Andrews come out to the field to see how you're doing. Wouldn't be surprised if this is a season-ender. John Sullen will have to step up.

• WR Trovon Reed got his first college action. Very limited work. Two snaps for eight yards out of the Wildcat, although I'd imagine his role will increase in the future.

• No blue pants. Can't wait for the next time this rumor pops up.

• This is a pretty good rivalry (despite Auburn's 59-year winning streak). So good that the schools might as well start a season with a neutral site game.

• Lastly, all that separates Auburn from its second straight perfect September is No. 13 South Carolina at Jordan-Hare Stadium a week from now. Chizik knows an effort like this won't cut it. "It was a sloppy win," he said. "There were things that we are going to look back and not like. ... We can't win games consistently doing that, but we can win games if we play with a lot of heart."

AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn's offense didn't solve anything that was ailing it in the second half at Mississippi State.

No. 16 Auburn has only 116 yards of total offense in the first half against Clemson at Jordan-Hare Stadium, going into halftime trailing 17-3.

Kyle Parker has touchdown passes of 8 and 24 yards to Jamie Harper, who dove for the second one in the end zone just before halftime. Parker is 16-for-24 for 194 yards. Clemson has 267 yards of offense.

Auburn has produced only a fraction of that. Gus Malzahn's crew has four first downs on five possessions, going three-and-out three times to start the game.

Quarterback Cam Newton is 1-for-7 passing for 23 yards and an interception. Mike Dyer started at running back but gained 13 yards on six carries. Onterio McCalebb leads the team with 35 rushing yards.

Wes Byrum made a 35-yard field goal as the first half expired. It snapped a 64-minute, 29-second scoreless streak for Auburn, going back to the first half of the Mississippi State game.

Auburn and Clemson announced they will play on the opening weekend of the 2012 season in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta's Georgia Dome.

No date has been set for the matchup. It will be broadcast on ESPN or ABC.

"These are two of the preeminent brands in the Southeast and in the nation," said Gary Stokan, president and CEO of the Chick-fil-A Bowl. "And as we have promised in our mission of the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game to always have the best game that first weekend of college football. We've framed it up as the Daytona 500 of college football."

It's one of two games that night. The other will be Tennessee-N.C. State.

Tickets will be distributed evenly between the teams, with each getting 31,200. The projected per team payout is $2.1 million, which is higher than 22 bowl games last year.

The kickoff game has matched two ranked opponents in each of the first three years. This year's game was between No. 16 LSU and No. 18 North Carolina. Past games include No. 5 Alabama vs. No. 7 Virginia Tech in 2009 and No. 9 Clemson vs. No. 24 Alabama in 2008.

The teams flipped a coin to decide officials. Clemson won, meaning the on-field officials will be from the ACC, with the SEC providing replay officials. As a result, Auburn will be the "home" team.

Tonight is the first game of a home-and-home deal between the schools. They play at Jordan-Hare Stadium tonight and will play at Clemson next season.

Linebacker Craig Stevens is back with his Auburn teammates after missing the first two games because of a team-imposed suspension.

Stevens, a second-team preseason All-SEC pick, was not allowed on the sideline the first two games, but he participated in Tiger Walk on Saturday and joined his teammates at midfield for the pre-game prayer.

Auburn has not announced whether or not he'll play against Clemson, but his presence is a good indication.

Stevens was the Tigers' second-leading tackler last year, behind fellow linebacker Josh Bynes. Junior Eltoro Freeman has started in his place the first two games and has a team-high 15 tackles.

We've arrived at the stadium a good two hours before kickoff. It is HOT out. No joke. Hot. If I had to guess, I'd say it's at least 156 degrees in the sun. The weather service says 95. I think they're low-balling it.

From the looks of it, most fans have bought into this "True Blue" gimmick, much more than the disastrous "Navy Nightmare" attempt last Halloween. Lots of blue in the section. I'm sure those in orange are being shunned.

We'll be blogging leading up to the game with important bits of info. We'll be able to put to rest the blue pants rumors once and for all and will probably get a good idea of if Craig Stevens comes off the suspension list, so check back. I'll tweet the important stuff. You can follow me on Twitter here.

If you missed ESPN's College GameDay this morning, both Desmond Howard and Lee Corso picked Auburn to win. (Kirk Herbstreit didn't make a pick because he's calling the game.) Here's Corso throwing toilet paper shortly after making the pick. Click to embiggen.

Time for your pre-game minutia, courtesy of Auburn's game notes:

• Auburn leads the series 33-11-2 and has won 13 straight in the series dating back to 1951.
• Auburn is 5-5 as ESPN College GameDay's on-site game. It has a 3-2 mark at home. Clemson is 1-1.
• Auburn is 20-4 in home night games since 2000.
• Auburn opponents are 0-for-7 on third-down conversions in the fourth quarter this year.
• Cam Newton is second in the SEC in rushing (120.5 ypg) and total offense (281.5)third in passing efficiency (186.5) and 10th in all-purpose yards (131.5).
• Auburn's 10 touchdown plays this year have averaged 25.1 yards. Five have been 35 yards or longer.
• Clemson QB Kyle Parker is the first player in NCAA history to throw for 20 touchdowns and hit 20 home runs in the same season.

UPDATE, 4:20 p.m.: LB Craig Stevens is out with the team at midfield for the pre-game prayer. He hasn't been out there the last two weeks. That's a good sign he'll play.

Also, OT Roszell Gayden had his right arm in a sling with a cast. Not sure what the problem is, but this, combined with the knee injury that slowed him during August, probably means he's headed for a redshirt season.

UPDATE, 4:29 p.m.: Auburn's players were sporting T-shirt that said "All In" on the front as they entered the stadium. Apparently that was a Dabo Swinney phrase from a couple years back. (And, honestly, a poker phrase for forever.) Turnabout is fair play. Clemson co-opted the phrase "Tiger Walk" for its jaunt to the stadium. Like I tweeted earlier, be like rappers. Call it "sampling," not "stealing." Sounds more pleasant.

UPDATE 5:23 p.m.: Sorry for the delay. Lots of pre-game stuff going on if you look above this on the blog. On last quick note: Freshman Mike Dyer will start in place of Mario Fannin at tailback. This might be the game where he seizes the full-time gig.

Auburn plays Clemson tonight at 7 p.m. ET. Here's how today's game advance starts. If you missed The Edge breakdown, click here. I'll be back with more later this afternoon as a lead-in to tonight's game:

AUBURN, Ala. — Whether sincere or simply taking a page out of the Lou Holtz hyperbole playbook, Auburn went out of its way to be effusive with its praise of Clemson this week.

Defensive coordinator Ted Roof called Clemson “one of the most athletic teams that’s ever on the schedule.”

Defensive line coach Tracy Rocker said Clemson’s offensive linemen “all look like basketball players. They just all weigh 350.”

Head coach Gene Chizik said Clemson is such a physical team that it would fit in well in the SEC.

Everyone will find out if any of it is true tonight at 7 ET at Jordan-Hare Stadium, in what is No. 16 Auburn’s only true non-conference test this season.

For all the compliments heaped on Clemson (2-0) this week, nobody really knows if the visiting Tigers are as good as the team that won nine games last year and captured the ACC’s Atlantic Division crown.

Read the full thing here. Follow the blog on Twitter and be a fan on Facebook.

We're back with everyone's favorite Friday blog post (because it's usually the only Friday blog post). I thought last week's breakdown format worked well, so I'll keep doing it that way. And away we go ...

(Quick plugs: Follow the blog on Twitter and be a fan on Facebook.)

Another successful chat today. Fortunately, we avoided a whole bunch of uniform questions. If you missed it, click below for the replay. I'll do it again next Thursday at a similar time.

Here's a new video from tonight's round of interviews. It's got head coach Gene Chizik, defensive line coach Tracy Rocker, offensive line coach Jeff Grimes and wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor. Enjoy.

There has been endless speculation on the Auburn message boards this week that the Tigers will break tradition with their uniforms and wear blue pants this Saturday. (I mean, look at the great Photoshop work somebody out there did in the above picture.)

Not happening, said Chizik.

“Our uniforms are our uniforms as we know,” Chizik said. “And we love them. That’s what we got.”

Asked if the Tigers will wear their normal uniforms this weekend, Chizk said, “Oh yes. No doubt.”

[UPDATE: What have we here? Is Auburn playing coy with this whole thing? (Umm, no) But this will be enough to keep the Internet chatter going the next few days.]

[SECOND UPDATE: GA Travis Williams tweets it'll be the same old uniforms Saturday.]

Follow the blog on Twitter and be a fan on Facebook. Also, join me Thursday at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT for a live chat about Auburn football. I''ll go at least an hour if there are enough questions. I'll get a link up tomorrow as soon as I can.

On to the bullet points:

• Trooper Taylor said the staff erred on the side of caution last week with freshman wide receiver Trovon Reed, who has dressed the first two games but not played because of a bruised knee. “I wanted to play him Thursday, but they wanted to wait one more week,’’ Taylor said. “The kid wanted to go, and I wanted him to go.’’

• The coaches sounded encouraged that Reed can play Saturday against Clemson. “We’re kind of trying to bring him along,” Chizik said. “Just day by day seeing how healthy he feels, how he’s running, just how he’s kind of moving around out there. We hope that he can play. We’re not going to play him until we know he’s ready to go out there and help our team win.”

• Trooper was more definitive with a statement: "He’s looked good this week, and if continues to progress like he’s been, I wouldn’t see any reason why he couldn’t get out there, not just on offense, but he could help us on special teams – kickoff returns and punt returns."

• FB Ladarious Phillips, meanwhile, continues to be on he mend with an ankle injury. The 290-pound freshman hasn’t suited up in either of the first two games. “We’ve just got to continue to evaluate him,’’ Chizik said. “There’s no real change.”

• WR Travante Stallworth's surgically repaired knee has still been bothering him. "He runs some of the routes, but after a while he gets tired," Taylor said. "As far as character-wise and the type of kid he is, he’s perfect. Physically, I don’t know if he is ready to help us as much."

• Chizik spoke to a gathering of students Wednesday night (good crowd from the looks of the picture), encouraging them to show up in full force for ESPN’s College GameDay but also thanking them for their support. “Just kind of going back last year to the West Virginia game and what an important part they played in the gameday experience and the gameday atmosphere and our players really appreciate it,” Chizik said. “That’s really just the message, how much we appreciate them.”

• RB Onterio McCalebb slipped a lot last week, a problem that he has. Here's Chizik's reasoning: "He runs with a lot of body lean. He's extremely fast as we all know. Sometimes I think he gets ahead of himself. He gets in the open space and when he sees an opening, he wants to hit it in that opening and hit it down hill. He's just got to really, really balance himself and get some balance in his body and I think he gets a little top heavy when he sees those cracks there in the defense and he wants to hit it. It's just body control and he's just got to try to concentrate on being able to balance himself better."

• Defensive line coach Tracy Rocker has been very impressed by Clemson's offensive line. "They all look like basketball players, they just all weigh 350," he said. Close. All five starters are 6-foot-5 or taller. Heaviest is 330, though (RG Antoine McClain).

• Lots of praise from Rocker for DT Mike Blanc. "The last couple games, he’s quietly doing it -- Mike Blanc. He’s come off the bench and stimulated our defense up front. If you go back and look at the Mississippi State game,he came off the bench and all of a sudden -- bam! -- sack. Arkansas State, bam! tackle for loss! sack! It’s things like that have made me really, really happy about Mike Blanc."

• He said Zach Clayton has been solid and that he'd like to see more production from defensive ends Antoine Carter and Michael Goggans.

• Rocker thought the freshmen defensive linemen (aka, the "young ones," were a little wide-eyed at MSU. "On the road, they were still worried about them cowbells," he said. "They hadn’t seen that many cowbells. You saw a different look when all those young freshmen got there. Now they're played on the road, they’ve played at home, they’ve gotten to know all that freshman stuff. Now you just play football and go to school and play ball. Now I sense a more relaxed crew. I made it clear to them: You’re not freshmen anymore. You’ve seen it all. ... They didn’t get as many snaps as I would like them to have, BUT it’s time to play, time to let 'em go."

• Offensive line coach Jeff Grimes said he feels better knowing Brandon Mosley can step in as a backup at left tackle. He said Mosley would be the first to go in at LT if Lee Ziemba had to come out.

• Grimes liked the communication at MSU. "For it being our first opportunity with this group in a loud environment on the road, I thought we handled it very well. We didn't have any procedure penalties. I don't think we had any times where we didn't communicate well enough. There were breakdowns in technique at times where a guy didn't necessarily win his individual battle. But I think the communication part was really good."

• Grimes still doesn't think the line has been as physical as he'd like it to be so far. "Honestly, I wasn't very pleased with our effort in the first game," he said. "But I felt like we tried to get much more physical in this game, knocking more guys down, played to the whistle much more, had guys running 30 yards downfield to try to make a block. Still not quite where I want to be in terms of that fanatical finish that goes to the echo of the whistle on every play but much closer."

• Quindarius Carr muffed a punt Thursday, but the coaches left him in the game as a punt returner. He fielded the rest of his opportunities cleanly. "It shows you the kid doesn’t lack in confidence, and the plays he’s been able to make in the games got him that confidence," Taylor said. "Watching him make a catch with guys breathing on him again… And if you watch on that play, the punter kind of held the ball a little longer, and that threw everything off. That was something he hadn’t seen. The bottom line: I don’t care if they drop it out of a plane, his job is to catch the football. Field the football at all cost."

• High praise from Trooper about Emory Blake. "Emory Blake is the most improved in that room," he said. "He lined up at every spot last week; and he also won the special teams award because he led the team in tackles on special teams. He’s grown up and matured. He’s confident. Before he was just trying to hold on."

• Big recruiting weekend ahead for Auburn. I'll let Trooper lay it out for you. "Huge. Anytime you are put up on that stage to show what your team is about, what your town is about and what your university has is huge. But not for our sport, for baseball, for softball, for men and women’s basketball, track – everybody will reap benefits from this. We’ve had so many phone calls from people wanting to come, but we have only so many tickets. We’re trying to sift through who can come and who can’t, because we can appease everybody. We’ve got tons of calls."

Freshman running back Mike Dyer seems like a humble guy. Auburn coach Gene Chizik is trying to keep him that way.

Chizik said during today's SEC teleconference that he talks to all his players about staying humble, especially the freshmen.

"You hope that within each guy you recruit there's a certain level of humbleness to them to start with," he said. "But I think when they come in and they see the lay of the land with the older guys, and early on they're trying to kind of find their role, I think they are humbled to a certain extent anyways."

Dyer, who joined Auburn as a five-star recruit ESPN had as the No. 1 back in the country, has had immediate success, running for 143 yards in two games. Chizik, like he did after Onterio McCalebb's fast start last year, has tried to slow play the freshman, choosing any praise wisely when speaking to the media.

"You've just got to keep them on the right path and keep talking to them about staying focused on your job, what it is that you're supposed to do to help us win and things of that nature," Chizik said.

"We try to talk to our guys all the time about outside distractions and reading this and reading that and all the evils that come with that, just trying to stay focused on the task at hand."

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said Gamecocks freshman running back Marcus Lattimore's style reminds him of Emmitt Smith.

Chizik, predictably, didn't come up with a comparison for Dyer.

"Michael's unique in his own way," he said. "There's nobody off the the top of my head that I can say that I can compare him to or say he reminds me of right now."

Some other quick hitters from a mostly redundant teleconference:

• Chizik still won't come out and say LT Lee Ziemba's right knee is fine, even though the senior has said it himself. I'm sure he's got Clemson fooled on this one.

• Plenty of praise for Clemson and QB Kyle Parker. "This will be our biggest challenge to date."

• Asked what he's learned about his team after two games, Chizik had this response: "I see a team that I think is going to fight and battle down to the end, regardless of circumstances. ... I think it's a scrappy team. I like the fact that they're willing to keep fighting."

Made another video from tonight's round of interviews. It's got offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, wide receiver Darvin Adams, running back Mike Dyer and left tackle Lee Ziemba. Enjoy.

As left tackle Lee Ziemba tried to hobble off the field at Mississippi State, he saw his coaches yelling at him to get on the ground.

They needed him to stall enough to get the No. 84 tight end jersey off of his replacement, Brandon Mosley.

“They needed some time,” Ziemba said with a laugh. “When they said to get down, I hit the deck.”

Five days after going down with what looked like it could be a serious knee injury, Ziemba said he’s fine. He practiced Tuesday at full speed and said he’ll be ready to go for Clemson.

“I knew it wasn’t that bad,” he said. “I wasn’t in agony. I just knew something wasn’t right. I’m good to go.”

Ziemba missed the final two and a half quarters and had an MRI after the game that revealed no tears in his knee.

He has 40 consecutive starts, nine shy of Will Herring’s school record.

“It doesn’t mean as much to me as winning games,” he said. “The starts will come. I just want to win football games. I think we have a chance to do something special this year. I’m really excited. I just want to do my part.”

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Here are some other notes and quotes from the late round of interviews:

• A lot of talk about pace tonight, which I plan to turn into a full blown story for Thursday's paper. But we'll put some quotes up tonight too. Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said it was deliberate. "Yeah, we did go slower," he said. "Couple factors: We were on the road, we’ve got a new quarterback. I wanted to make sure our communication was good. And the fact that we got a lead, and we wanted to be smart and whatever gives us the best chance to win the game."

• This was especially true near the end, especially when Auburn was trying to kill the clock. "I thought they responded well," he said. "Obviously now we would have liked to get points a couple of times in the red zone. The story of that game was we moved the ball decent but we got down in the red zone and weren't able to score. We got negative plays and backed up. If we would have scored a couple of those times, we would have felt a little better about that."

• Malzahn said the team still wants to crank the pace. "We're going to do what we do," he said. "We still want to play fast and score points. But you've got to give Mississippi State some credit on that, too."

• This seems contrary to Malzahn's attack philosophy. "You do whatever it takes to win," he said. "Obviously we like to go fast. But like I said, the situation dictated that."

• The players seemed to be OK with slowing things down. "Like coach said, you got to adapt to different things," wide receiver Darvin Adams said. "At some point we tried to eat up a little clock. He did that on purpose, eat up a little bit of clock and get the defense off the field."

• Malzahn on quarterback Cam Newton's first pick: "He didn't make very many mistakes during the game but that was one he'd like to have back. The good thing about Cam is once he does make a mistake, very rarely does he come back and make the same mistake. We'll keep working on the things that need improved. Overall, I felt he made some good decisions."

• Although Malzahn said he likes what freshman running back Mike Dyer has shown, no change has been made to the running back pecking order. Not sure how much I believe him after the split of carries the first two weeks.

• Malzahn was asked if he could ever see a back getting 37 carries in a game like South Carolina's Marcus Lattimore did. "Yeah, I could," he said. "That's a lot but we can do that. Ideally, you'd like to spread it around a little bit. But we have a couple that could do that."

• Dyer took it as a compliment that the coaches entrusted him with the ball late in the game. "It was like a big decision, getting thrown in as a freshman in a key moment, trying to run the clock out," he said. "Just kind of going in and getting the reps, when it’s big time, it’s kind of like, wow, what are you going to do with it? I just wanted to go out there and protect the ball and do what I can for the team and help us win the game."

• He ran out of bounds on the first carry, a no-no on a clock-killing drive. The coaches didn't tell him about it. "Actually, Ziemba did, not the coaches," Dyer said. "He just said stay in bounds.”

• Adams has tweaked his ritual of quickly handing the ball to the nearest official after every touchdown catch. He’s added a little pat on the back. “He’ll smile every now and then,” Adams said. The receiver started the routine as a sign of respect. He knows there’s no risk a 15-yard celebration penalty if he simply hands the ball to the ref. “It makes the ref feel a little better,” he said. “It makes coach feel a lot better.” Does Adams think respecting the ref will pay off in the long run? “I hope so,” he said. “Maybe he’ll give me a big call one day.”

• The ESPN College GameDay set will be on the Campus Green east of Jordan-Hare Stadium, adjacent to the Heisman Drive parking deck. It’s the same location as GameDay’s visit in 2008.

• The show airs from 9-10 a.m. ET on ESPNU and 10-noon on ESPN. There will also be live and taped segments on Friday afternoon at a time to be announced.

• Auburn has designated Saturday night as a “True Blue” game and is encouraging Tigers fans to wear blue against Clemson.

Here's a short video from today's pre-practice interviews. It's got defensive tackle Nick Fairley, safety Zac Etheridge and center Ryan Pugh. Enjoy. Back with more after practice tonight.

Of the big plays in Nick Fairley's highlight-filled night at Mississippi State, which was most satisfying -- the sacks, the fumble recovery, the pick?

“The win," he said Tuesday, a day after being named the SEC's Defensive Player of the Week. "Coming out of an SEC game on the road, second game, first SEC game on the road actually, coming out of that with a win was a great feeling.”

Fairley had a monster night in Starkville, with five tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2.5 tackles for a loss, a fumble recovery and an interception.

The junior defensive tackle, who joined Auburn last year after spending time at Copiah-Lincoln Community College, said it took a while for him to get accustomed to the SEC, where double teams are a constant.

Coaches, especially defensive line coach Tracy Rocker, wanted to see more consistency out of him in the offeseason.

"I told coach Rock early in the workouts during the summertime, ‘You aren’t going to have to worry about me coming to play every game,'" Fairley said. "I’m going to go out there, do my best, play within the defense and hopefully make a lot of plays for us.”

Even teammates have seen a jump in his improvement.

"What he did Thursday night, he does in practice all the time," center Ryan Pugh said.

As for Rocker, he didn't hesitate to challenge Fairley after the game.

"When he came do me, he said, ‘Great job. Can you do it again?'" Fairley said. "I said, ‘Yes, I can.'"

Some other news and notes from today's early interviews:

• More Fairley praise from safety Zac Etheridge: "That just shows if Nick, if he goes at it every day, he can't be blocked. If he gives us that week in and week out, we'll have the best D line there is. ... He's a guy that when he do turn it on, he can't be stopped. That's one of the things you got to get Nick to do is just keep going every day."

• Fairley said Antoine Carter and Mike Blanc liken him to former Auburn DT Pat Sims, who plays for the Cincinnati Bengals. "A couple d-linemen compare me to him all the time," he said. "Before I cut my hair.”

• Pugh said Fairley has a tendency to jump the snap count in practice. "It's good for us when he's playing somebody else," he said. "Of course, we'll throw a penalty when he's playing us in practice."

• The coaches aren't the only ones with a high opinion of freshman RB Mike Dyer. "I think the offensive line has full confidence in Michael," Pugh said. "I think he's been out there and showed what he can do. In the fourth quarter on the last drive, that was evident what he could do the last game. Ninety-five yards the first game. I don't think there's anything else you need to go see."

• Dyer doesn't seem to have any physical obstacles that are holding him back from getting playing time. "Physically, he can do it," Pugh said. "We saw that the first two games. He's tough to tackle. I don't know if anyone has really tackled him yet. I think that he's just kind of run out of bounds or they piled him up. I haven't seen anyone just bring him down or hit him. So I think he's got good awareness when he runs."

• Clemson has played North Texas and Presbyterian so far, so it's hard to get a gauge on what they do, but Auburn has a good idea of how good the visiting Tigers are. "You can turn on any game from last year and you can turn on the first quarter of this year, and they know how to play," he said.

• Pugh doesn't think Clemson is too different from an SEC team. "Yeah. Physically, they're talented. They play hard. They're fast. They look just like an SEC team except they're Clemson. There's no difference in their athletes and our athletes. It's going to be who does this better? Who does this better in the end."

• Which SEC team does Clemson remind him of? "Physically, they look like LSU. They have that type of speed and they're that good on defense. I think it's good to be a part of it."

• It's been a minute since Auburn played Clemson in the 2007 Chick-fil-A bowl. Or at least it feels it's been a minute. “Yeah, it does seem like a while ago that we played Clemson," said Kodi Burns, who had the game-winning touchdown run in overtime. "The game went the way it did but I’m sure they’ve got some of the same people actually and a lot better now. Some of them were just regular guys. Now, they are All-Americans. It’s definitely a different team coming in here.”

• Burns and Terrell Zachery threw a pair of good blocks that sprung Emory Blake for a first-quarter touchdown Thursday night, the first of Blake's career. The sophomore rewarded them, although it wasn't with a steak dinner. "We got some pizza," Zachery said.
  

• Burns takes pride in his blocking. "It’s kind of ‘want to’ as far as blocking goes," he said. "Obviously, the first two games I wasn’t getting many balls thrown my way. Blocking is a pride thing. After watching film, it’s something I can also improve on. It’s just looking to be aggressive. That’s what football is. It’s my first chance to really get to actually hit somebody without getting hit, so I take pride in it and just want to.”

• Burns said he wasn't nervous to throw the ball across the width of the field to quarterback Cam Newton in a crucial spot during the fourth quarter. “It’s not nerve-wracking at all because obviously he has confidence in me to make those plays," he said. "I told myself I’m not throwing another interception after the bowl game. It’s obvious that he has confidence in me to make those kinds of plays in crunch time. Actually, the guy read it pretty well but I put the right kind of trajectory to get it over his head and give Cam a chance to make a play.”

• Zachery said Gene Chizik told the offense it would have to score 40 points to beat MSU. Not so, apparently. "The defense came to us and said, 'Hey, all you have to do is score three points," Zachery said. "We’re going to take care of the rest of it.’ We scored 17, and they took care of the rest."

• Just like the offensive line has to be aware of Newton's ability to keep plays alive, so do the receivers. "You have to stay alive," Zachery said. "He can scramble around and throw it 80 yards, so you do have to stay alive.The first thing that comes to your mind is just to watch him and see what he’s doing in case he gets in trouble. Then you have to get down field and create some more separation for him."

• Etheridge went down with what appeared to be an injury near the end of the MSU game, which was cause for concern for Auburn fans, considering his history. It was no big deal. "I just had a cramp when I tried to go up," he said. "Everybody blew it up and thought I was hurt again. I just had a cramp."

• Etheridge on Clemson quarterback Kyle Parker: "He's very athletic. He can beat you if you let him. We just have to keep him inside the pocket and don't let him get outside and use his legs. On the back end when he decides to throw the ball, we just have to make plays."

• We'd be remiss if we didn't point out to Etheridge that the defensive line has more interceptions that the secondary at this point. He laughed. "We'll take any turnover we can no matter who get it," he said.

• ESPN GameDay's set will be on the Campus Green east of Jordan-Hare Stadium, adjacent to the Heisman Drive parking deck. It's the same location as GameDay's visit in 2008. It airs from 9-10 a.m. ET on ESPNU and 10-noon ET on ESPN.