Had to cut this extremely short today, but here are a few links anyway:

• Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune asks why Tommy Tuberville hasn't gained more traction in Notre Dame's coaching search. He seems to fit all the criteria that the Fighting Irish want -- a defensive coach who is a proven winner.

• Cincinnati's Brian Kelly remains the frontrunner for the Notre Dame job, but UConn's Randy Edsall appears to be in the mix as well as a backup plan.

• Texas coach Mack Brown got a raise, making his annual salary $5 million through the end of his contract, which runs through 2016. He doesn't seem to be going anywhere soon, which makes you wonder what coach-in-waiting Will Muschamp must be thinking. A commenter asked on a previous post if I think this will trigger a salary race in college football. It always does. Do you think the Crimson Tide will sit idly by with Nick Saban making less than Brown, especially if Alabama beats Texas in Pasadena? Absolutely not.

• Clay Travis at Fan House says Mack Brown deserves some second-guessing after the way he mismanaged the clock at the end of the Big 12 title game.

• Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel is skeptical that Texas can give Alabama a good game in the national championship.

• A House subcommittee approved legislation that would ban the BCS from using the term "national champion" unless it was the result of a playoff. My thought is exactly the same as yours: what a complete waste of time and resources.

• The Knoxville News Sentinel is all over the NCAA's investigation into the schools use of recruiting hostesses. The Orange Pride is not a new concept. John Adams writes that this new scandal is no reason for Tennessee fans to panic.

• At least somebody is capitalizing off of Tim Tebow's tears.

It's quiet on the Auburn football front right now, but there's plenty going on in the rest of the college football world. Let's get to it:

• Former Auburn standout fullback/linebacker Dr. Ed Dyas was inducted into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame last night. Auburn sports information has the story here.

• More Tennessee recruiting shenanigans! This New York Times story says this time it's looking into the Volunteers' use of recruiting hostesses. One accusation said the school sent hostesses to a high school game in South Carolina where at least three recruits were playing. You can't do that. Tennessee has had at least six secondary violations since Lane Kiffin was hired, by the way. Best line of the story: Marcus Lattimore commenting on the influence of the hostesses: “You don’t want to go to a college where they ain’t pretty."

• Cincinnati's Brian Kelly is getting closer and closer to taking the Notre Dame job. It's a strange back and forth right now between Kelly and the school. And now this: Tommy Tuberville's name even surfaced in some talks. I'm not sure how serious that is, but Kelly is still the clear frontrunner.
  

• Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong will be introduced as Louisville's head coach today. All the high-profile jobs appear to be filling up.

• Houston Nutt's wandering eye will not take him to Kansas. Is Turner Gill going to be the man? His daughter recently got a job selling tickets for the Kansas athletic department.

• StiffArmTrophy.com has Mark Ingram leading the pack right now in the Heisman balloting, although it's a tight race with Toby Gerhart and Ndamukong Suh.

• Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News says the media voting for the Heisman Trophy has a credibility problem that can be fixed by Suh winning it this year.

• Alabama is cancelling classes from Jan. 6-8 because so many folks want to travel to Pasadena for the championship game, writes Gentry Estes of the Mobile Press-Register.

• Chris Low of ESPN reviews the SEC season.

• Well now it's obvious we'll have a college football playoff sometime soon. The government is on the case. Something tells me this is nothing but posturing politicians that just want to get their name out there.

• Bobby Bowden's not going to hang around as a Florida State fund-raiser in the future. I always love those post-career titles. As if Tommy Tuberville is really doing a lot of promotion for Auburn after the school subtly forced him out.

• Oh, Bowden's also not apologizing for making the Gator Bowl despite his team's 6-6 record. Can't blame him. It wouldn't be right for him to finish his coaching career somewhere like Boise.

• All that talk by Mack Brown about how Texas knew exactly what it was doing with its clock management at the end of the Big 12 title game? It's nonsense. Colt McCoy said he didn't know the rule about stopping the clock on an incomplete pass.

I wrote a story for today's newspaper about Auburn's opponent in the Outback Bowl, Northwestern. It's a lot of similar stuff to the blog post I had Monday, but here's how it starts anyway:

AUBURN, Ala. — The number of phone calls Northwestern athletics director Jim Phillips made to bowl officials increased dramatically last week — so much so, he called every hour during the days leading up to the announcement of the Big Ten’s postseason lineup.

When he finally got a call back from Outback Bowl officials last Sunday offering the Wildcats a spot against Auburn in their first New Year’s Day bowl since 1997, he had to compose himself.

“I almost crashed my car,” Phillips said. “Got one hand back on the wheel and told them that we would graciously accept. It’s just a tremendous opportunity, not only for our football program but for our entire university.”

As thrilled as Gene Chizik and Auburn are to be heading to Tampa this postseason, Northwestern might be more excited. The Wildcats (8-4), who set a Division I record with 34 consecutive losses from 1979-82, are no longer the Big Ten’s doormat, having put together back-to-back seasons with at least eight wins for the first time since former coach Gary Barnett’s heyday in 1995 and ’96.

Read the rest here. And follow the blog on Twitter.

Defensive end Antonio Coleman, cornerback Walt McFadden and left tackle Lee Ziemba were named to the coaches' All-SEC teams, which were released Tuesday.

Coleman made the first team. McFadden and Ziemba were second-team selections.

It's the second honor in as many days for Coleman, who made the Associated Press first team Monday. His stats are exactly the same as they were in Monday's blog post, as are McFadden's.

Ziemba has started 37 straight games at tackle, every game of his college career. He is part of a line that has paved the way for an offense that is 282 yards shy of breaking the school's single-season mark for total offense. Auburn enters the bowl game with 5,188 yards of offense.

Here's a link to the full first and second teams.

The links are back. Let's get right to them (but first, a quick plug for you to follow the blog's Twitter):

• There are five finalists going to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony -- Texas QB Colt McCoy, Florida QB Tim Tebow, Alabama RB Mark Ingram, Stanford RB Toby Gerhart and Nebraska DL Ndamukong Suh.

• ESPN's Heather Dinich thinks the voters missed out on Clemson's C.J. Spiller. I voted him third, but I could have very easily been persuaded to vote Suh. Either way, McCoy and Tebow probably shouldn't be in the discussion.

• Houston Nutt is at it again. This time he's on Kansas' short list to replace Mark Mangino, writes J. Brady McCullough of the Kansas City Star. I can't believe Auburn ever seriously put up with this guy during its coaching search last December. Seems like such a headache.

• Nutt can't allow the talks to drag out, writes ESPN.com SEC blogger Chris Low.

• Buffalo has granted Turner Gill permission to speak to Kansas about its vacancy. Now that sounds like a good fit.

• Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate aren't waiting around to see how Notre Dame's coaching search turns out. They're NFL bound. And whoever takes the Fighting Irish position just saw his first season get all that much tougher.

• Cincinnati's Brian Kelly will listen to what Notre Dame has to say. If I'm Kelly, I don't pass up this opportunity. Stanford's Jim Harbaugh doesn't sound interested. Of course, all coaches have to say that.

• Cincinnati fans apparently don't want Kelly to leave.

• Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong will meet with Louisville about its coaching vacancy today in Florida, writes Eric Crawford of the Louisville Courier-Journal.

• Virginia moved quickly to hire Richmond's Mike London to replace Al Groh, and apparently there wasn't a Plan B, writes Doug Doughty of the Roanoke Times. I used to cover Virginia and think this a great hire. London has UVa ties. He can recruit the valuable Tidewater area (where Groh got slaughtered) and brings some energy back to a program in need of a lot.

• London's hiring brings the number of minority coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision up to 12. That's still only 10 percent, but considering where it was a couple years ago, that's good progress.

• Why did the Gator Bowl take a 6-6 Florida State team over many more worthy candidates? Oh, it's sold 77,474 tickets in already. Apparently Bobby Bowden is still a draw in Florida.

• The USA Today has a really cool chart showing how all the coaches in the USA Today Coaches Poll voted. Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News breaks down some oddities in the voting, most notably Kelly voting his Cincinnati team No. 1 (he's a confident guy).

• Rob Thamel of the New York Times writes about what a shame the BCS is.

• Clever, Jacksonville Jaguars. Clever. I'm sure the 12,000 fans in attendance thought this Tiger Woods spoof was funny.

• Deadspin has a list of people Charlie Weis has ticked off on his way out the door at Notre Dame.

• And lastly, a public service announcement. OK, folks. It's football. Never take it as seriously as these two marines who argued about the outcome of the Big 12 title game.

Quite a finish tonight at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum. Here's how tomorrow's story starts:

AUBURN, Ala. — Brendon Knox simply wanted an opportunity to atone for his brutal night from the free throw line.

The Auburn forward knew that if he had made one or two more of his many attempts that the Tigers wouldn't be in a predicament during the final seconds Monday night.

He got his chance on the offensive glass, tipping in DeWayne Reed's missed runner with 1.4 seconds left to lift Auburn to a thrilling 68-67 win against Virginia at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

"I saw an opportunity," Knox said. "I said, I better finish this one."

Read the full thing here. And follow the blog on Twitter.

Defensive end Antonio Coleman was the only Auburn player selected to the Associated Press All-SEC first team, which was released Monday. Three other players -- running back Ben Tate, center Ryan Pugh and cornerback Walt McFadden -- were second-team selections.

Coleman, who returned to Auburn for his senior season, led the SEC with 15.5 tackles for a loss and nine sacks. He finished with 45 total tackles and an interception he returned for a touchdown against Mississippi State. He is third in school history with 23.5 career sacks.

Tate, a senior, finished fourth in the SEC in rushing and 23rd nationally, averaging 104.5 yards per game. He finished with 1,254 rushing yards, the eighth-best single-season mark in school history.

Pugh, a junior, started all 12 games at center for an Auburn offensive line that ranked 13th nationally in rushing offense (213.8 ypg).

McFadden, a senior, led the team with four interceptions, tied for fifth-most in the SEC. The four picks were the most by an Auburn player since Junior Rosegreen had six in 2004.

Left tackle Lee Ziemba was an honorable mention.

Here are the full teams:

FIRST-TEAM OFFENSE

• WR — Shay Hodge, Mississippi, 6-2, 207, Sr.
• WR — A.J. Green, Georgia, 6-4, 207, So.
• L — Mike Johnson, Alabama, 6-5, 303, Sr.
• L — Ciron Black, LSU, 6-5, 322, Sr.
• L — Mike Pouncey, Florida, 6-5, 315, Jr.
• L — John Jerry, Mississippi, 6-6, 335, Sr.
• C — Maurkice Pouncey, Florida, 6-5, 310, Jr.
• TE — Aaron Hernandez, Florida, 6-2, 250, Jr.
• QB — Tim Tebow, Florida, 6-3, 240, Sr.
• RB — u-Mark Ingram, Alabama, 5-10, 212, So.
• RB — Anthony Dixon, Mississippi St., 6-1, 235, Sr.
• K — Leigh Tiffin, Alabama, 6-2, 212, Sr.
• All-Purpose — Dexter McCluster, Mississippi, 5-9, 170, Sr.
• All-Purpose — Randall Cobb, Kentucky, 5-11, 188, So.

FIRST-TEAM DEFENSE

• E — Antonio Coleman, Auburn, 6-3, 261, Sr.
• E — Carlos Dunlap, Florida, 6-6, 290, Jr.
• T — u-Terrence Cody, Alabama, 6-5, 354, Sr.
• T — Dan Williams, Tennessee, 6-3, 327, Sr.
• LB — u-Rolando McClain, Alabama, 6-4, 258, Jr.
• LB — u-Eric Norwood, South Carolina, 6-1, 252, Sr.
• LB — Rennie Curran, Georgia, 5-11, 225, Jr.
• CB — Javier Arenas, Alabama, 5-9, 195, Sr.
• CB — Joe Haden, Florida, 5-11, 190, Jr.
• S — u-Eric Berry, Tennessee, 5-11, 203, Jr.
• S — Mark Barron, Alabama, 6-2, 214, So.
• P — Drew Butler, Georgia, 6-2, 203, So.

SECOND-TEAM OFFENSE

• WR — Joe Adams, Arkansas, 5-10, 182, So.
• WR — Riley Cooper, Florida, 6-3, 215, Sr.
• WR — Brandon LaFell, LSU, 6-3, 206, Sr.
• L — Clint Boling, Georgia, 6-5, 297, Jr.
• L — Chris Scott, Tennessee, 6-5, 346, Sr.
• L — James Carpenter, Alabama, 6-5, 300, Jr.
• L — Mitch Petrus, Arkansas, 6-4, 315, Sr.
• C — Ryan Pugh, Auburn, 6-4, 289, Jr.
• TE — Colin Peek, Alabama, 6-6, 255, Sr.
• QB — Ryan Mallett, Arkansas, 6-7, 238, So.
• RB — Dexter McCluster, Mississippi, 5-9, 170, Sr.
• RB — Montario Hardesty, Tennessee, 6-0, 215, Sr.
• RB — Ben Tate, Auburn, 5-11, 218, Sr.
• K — Blair Walsh, Georgia, 5-10, 185, So.
• All-Purpose — Derrick Locke, Kentucky, 5-9, 190, Jr.
• All-Purpose — Javier Arenas, Alabama, 5-9, 195, Sr.

SECOND-TEAM DEFENSE

• E — Jermaine Cunningham, Florida, 6-3, 257, Sr.
• E — Justin Houston, Georgia, 6-3, 259, So.
• E — Pernell McPhee, Mississippi St., 6-4, 275, Jr.
• T — Geno Atkins, Georgia, 6-1, 290, Sr.
• T — Corey Peters, Kentucky, 6-3, 295, Sr.
• T — Jerrell Powe, Mississippi, 6-2, 330, Jr.
• T — Malcolm Sheppard, Arkansas, 6-2, 291, Sr.
• LB — Brandon Spikes, Florida, 6-4, 255, Sr.
• LB — Sam Maxwell, Kentucky, 6-3, 248, Sr.
• LB — Rico McCoy, Tennessee, 6-1, 220, Sr.
• CB — Patrick Peterson, LSU, 6-1, 211, So.
• CB — Myron Lewis, Vanderbilt, 6-2, 205, Sr.
• CB — Walt McFadden, Auburn, 6-0, 175, Sr.
• S — Chad Jones, LSU, 6-3, 231, Jr.
• S — Chris Culliver, South Carolina, 6-0, 190, Jr.
• P — Chas Henry, Florida, 6-4, 222, Jr.

HONORABLE MENTION OFFENSE

Zipp Duncan, T, Kentucky, 6-5, 291, Sr.; Trindon Holliday, All-Purpose, LSU, 5-5, 161, Sr.; Lee Ziemba, T, Auburn, 6-8, 308, Jr.

HONORABLE MENTION DEFENSE

Ahmad Black, S, Florida, 5-9, 185, Jr.; Chris Marve, LB, Vanderbilt, 6-0, 230, So.; Cliff Matthews, E, South Carolina, 6-4, 249, Jr.

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Mark Ingram, Alabama

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Rolando McClain, Alabama

COACH OF THE YEAR

Nick Saban, Alabama

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR

Warren Norman, Vanderbilt

I put off voting for the Heisman as long as possible just to let everything that happened last weekend soak in and it still wasn't an easy choice. Nobody ran away with the thing this year and Saturday's games only muddled the situation further. Nevertheless, I had to supply a vote today and here's what I came up with.

First, some guys I considered but ultimately did not put near the top of my list (in no particular order):

Casey Keenum, Houston QB

• Pros: Put up video game numbers (5,449 passing yards, 43 touchdowns) all season
• Cons: He faced two defenses all season that were ranked in the top-50 nationally and eight that were 75th or worse
• Decision: Have to do it against better competition to get my vote

Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame QB

• Pros: Led nation in passing efficiency; threw for 3,722 yards and 28 touchdowns to 4 interceptions against decent competition
• Cons: Fighting Irish went 6-6 this year
• Decision: I'm not a big believer in the idea that your team needs to succeed for you to win the Heisman, but I don't remember too many moments this year where Clausen simply put Notre Dame on his back and will it to a win.

Kellen Moore, Boise State QB

• Pros: Undefeated season; 3,325 passing yards, 39 touchdowns and 3 interceptions; 2nd nationally in pass efficiency
• Cons: Cake schedule
• Decision: Like Keenum, Moore didn't face the best the country had to offer

Colt McCoy, Texas QB

• Pros: Got team to national championship, 3,860 passing yards, 27 touchdowns, 348 rushing yards, 3 touchdowns
• Cons: Did not play at a Heisman level the first half of the season and put up stinkers in Texas' two biggest games, throwing for 127 yards against Oklahoma and 184 against Nebraska last week with three interceptions
• Decision: A Heisman winner needs a Heisman moment in my mind. Doing it against Texas A&M's sieve defense doesn't count.

Tim Tebow, Florida QB

• Pros: He continued to win; 2,413 passing yards, 18 touchdowns, 859 rushing yards, 13 touchdowns
• Cons: Didn't light up the scoreboard the weeks after he was concussed against Kentucky
• Decision: If this were a career award, Tebow would certainly be up there, but he didn't have as spectacular of a year as other players.

Danario Alexander, Missouri WR

• Pros: Led the nation with 107 catches and 1,644 receiving yards, was fifth with 13 receiving touchdowns; was sick down the stretch, putting up receiving totals of 123, 214, 200, 173 and 233 in the last five games with eight touchdowns.
• Cons: Had stinkers in Missouri's two biggest games, finishing with 12 total catches against Nebraska and Texas for 43 and 74 yards, respectively, and no touchdowns.
• Decision: It's tough for a receiver in this debate, but you've got to come up big in the biggest games to be considered.

As for the actual Heisman, I had four guys that I considered. You could only vote for three. Here were the last four in descending order:

4. Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska DT

His position makes him a tough candidate to compare to others. He does so much dirty work at the tackle position that his stats probably suffer, but he had great stats. His 19.5 tackles for a loss were 11th among defense lineman and his 12 sacks were ninth. But if you look at other defensive tackles, he's second to UCLA's Brian Price in TFLs and first in sacks. And there's no denying he's a great player after he nearly single-handedly beat Texas with a 12-tackle, 4.5-sack, 6-TFL performance in the Big 12 title game. In the end, I kept him out of my final three by a hair. It was really almost a coin flip between him and the No. 3 pick.

3. C.J. Spiller, Clemson RB/KR/PR

Spiller helped his cause as much as anyone last Saturday with his performance against Georgia Tech (233 rushing yards, 4 touchdowns). People will point out that he needed those yards just to top 1,000 for the season, but I think Spiller is so much more valuable than just as a running back. In addition to his 11 rushing touchdowns he had 36 receptions for 445 yards and four touchdowns. He returned four kickoff returns for scores and was fourth nationally with a 33.7-yard average. He returned a punt for a touchdown. And he even threw for a score. That's five different ways he accounted for touchdowns this year, and he was in on at least one score in every game. Spiller had some games where he didn't get much going on the ground, but what stood out to me was the way he found other ways to contribute, whether it was catching the ball or on special teams. That was good enough for him to get on my ballot.

2. Mark Ingram, Alabama RB

One of the most consistent running backs in the country, Ingram cemented his place in my top-3 with a fantastic SEC title game performance against Florida in which he ran for 113 yards and three touchdowns and added another 76 yards receiving. He was the No. 1 team in the country's workhorse all year and had some memorable games (176 yards against Ole Miss, 246 against South Carolina, 144 against LSU) that were certainly Heisman worthy. He probably lost some points in my eyes because the one game where I saw him in person, he did absolutely nothing. Auburn's porous defense held him to 30 rushing yards and a 1.9-yard per carry average. But overall, the consistency of Ingram's play all season long got him up to No. 2.

1. Toby Gerhart, Stanford RB

OK, I'll start with his stats, just to get them out of the way. His 1,736 rushing yards led the nation, as did his 26 rushing touchdowns. This is usually where someone brings up the argument that he did it against inferior Pac-10 defenses. But the rankings don't necessarily back that up. Gerhart stacks up very nicely with Ingram in terms of the kind of rushing defenses they faced this year. In seven games against a rushing defense ranked 60th or higher (in the top half of the FBS), Gerhart ran for 1,015 yards (145.0 ypg) and 18 touchdowns. Ingram ran for 924 yards in six of those games (154.0 ypg) with six touchdowns. But despite the SEC's reputation for being the elite defensive conference nationally, Gerhart played against four Pac-10 rushing defenses ranked 30th or higher, finishing with 480 yards (120.0 ypg) and nine touchdowns in those games. Ingram only faced one rushing defense ranked in the top-30 (Florida at No. 13) and obviously had a big game. So the idea that Gerhart didn't face any decent defenses is a fallacy. He had several standout games, especially down the stretch, when he ran for 223 (Oregon), 178 (USC), 136 (California) and 205 yards (Notre Dame) with 13 touchdowns as Stanford finished 3-1. With a slight rushing advantage and an overwhelming touchdown advantage, I felt Gerhart was the choice.

Unfortunately, I was unable to cover all of the bowl dealings last week, including Sunday's teleconferences with the involved parties (read the post below for more details). But that's in the past and as Mark McGwire would say, I'm not here to talk about it. Let's look forward, shall we? Auburn will play Northwestern in the Outback Bowl (purchase tickets here) on Jan. 1 at an early hour. Let's take a closer look at the matchup.

So just who are the Northwestern Wildcats?

First, the facts. Northwestern is the only private school in the Big (11) Ten. It's a fine academic institution but doesn't necessarily keep up with the conference's big shots in terms of recruiting (for an SEC comparison, think Vanderbilt).

The Wildcats were once the perennial doormats of the conference. From 1979-82, Northwestern set the record for the longest losing streak in Division I history with 34 straight losses. Former Vikings and Cardinals coach Dennis Green was actually the one who broke the streak. And look how svelte Denny was back then.

Things changed under Gary Barnett, who, when he was not belittling female kickers in Colorado, was once a pretty good coach. Barnett did the unthinkable when he led the Wildcats to the Rose Bowl after the 1995 season. Current head coach Pat Fitzgerald was an All-American linebacker on that team, playing along with quarterback Steve Schnur and running back Darnell Autry. It was the team's first Big Ten championship since 1936. The Wildcats ended up losing to a Keyshawn Johnson-led USC squad in the Rose Bowl that year. They would be Big Ten co-champs the following year.

After the 1998 season, Barnett bolted for Colorado, where he faded into oblivion. Northwestern hired Randy Walker from Miami of Ohio (I was a student sports reporter at Wisconsin at the time; Walker humorously referred to himself as "Johnny off the pickle boat" at the Big 10 media day, endearing himself to everyone immediately). Walker brought the spread to Northwestern at a time when Joe Tiller was introducing it to the rest of the conference at Purdue. (This article suggests Walker should really be given a lot of credit for the proliferation of the spread nationwide.) Walker had some good success despite having inferior talent, going 9-4 in 2000 with a trip to the Alamo Bowl, where NU was clobbered by Nebraska.

Walker was 37-46 in seven seasons before he died of a heart attack at age 52 prior to the 2006 season. Fitzgerald, who was a linebackers coach at the time, was promoted to head coach, a move that many thought would happen many years down the line once Walker retired. Fitzgerald was 31 at the time of his hiring, making him the youngest coach in Division I-A by five years. Only Tennessee's Lane Kiffin is currently younger, by about six months. Fitzgerald has since gone 27-22 at Northwestern, leading the Wildcats to 9-4 and 8-4 records the last two years.

Despite Northwestern's recent relative success, it is still 1-7 all-time in bowl games, with its only victory coming in the 1949 Rose Bowl.

Enough of the history lesson, though. How about some info about this year's team (for more, read this full scouting report by the USA Today):

• Northwestern was beaten out by Iowa in last year's bowl pecking order despite having the same record. This year, the athletics department put in a lot of work to be considered for the Outback Bowl, according to this Chicago Tribune article by Teddy Greenstein. The bowl took the 8-4 Wildcats over 9-3 Wisconsin, a team Northwestern beat late in the season.

• The Wildcats have had some weird games this year. They lost at Syracuse 37-34 and to Minnesota 35-24. The Orange finished 4-8. The Gophers limped to a 6-6 finish. But Northwestern finished strong, handing then-No. 4 Iowa its first loss, a 17-10 win in Iowa City. Two weeks later, the Wildcats knocked off then-No. 16 Wisconsin 33-31 in a wild game. They won four of their last five to finish 8-4 overall. It was the first time since 1995 and '96 that the school won eight games in consecutive seasons.
  

• Northwestern's got a weird offense. It's almost entirely pass-based, it's out of the spread and like Auburn, it's up-tempo (read: FAST!), meaning this could be a really entertaining game to watch. Quarterback Mike Kafka, a second-team All-Big Ten selection, has thrown for 2,898 yards this season, topping the 300-yard mark five times. He has 12 touchdowns to seven interceptions. Northwestern is all about quick, high-percentage passes, and Kafka completes them at a 66 percent clip. (He can run it too, with 265 yards and seven scores on the ground.) As a team, the Wildcats are 29th nationally in passing offense, averaging 266.1 yards per game. They'll spread it around too. Zeke Markshausen leads the team with 79 receptions for 774 yards and three touchdowns. Andrew Brewer has 49 catches for 792 yards and seven scores. (As a side note, I'm delighted to have a quarterback named Kafka being pursued by Auburn outside linebacker Eltoro Freeman, a philosophy major.)

• The Wildcats have struggled to run the ball. Their leading rusher, freshman Arby Fields, averages 24.5 yards per game. They're 93rd nationally in rushing offense, averaging 119.9 yards per game. This seems like a perfect matchup for an Auburn defense that has struggled to stop the run.
  

• Northwestern has a decent defense that's ranked 43rd nationally, allowing 344.3 yards per game. The Wildcats are 36th nationally against the run, giving up 123.5 yards a game. Their only first-team All-Big Ten selection is on defense. That would be safety Brad Phillips, who leads the team with 84 tackles. (DB Sherrick McManis was a second-team pick.)

• Place-kicker Stefan Demos was a second-team All-Big Ten selection. He's 18-for-23 this season.

• Northwestern isn't strong on the rest of its special teams. It's 99th nationally in punt and kick returns and 115th in net punting. Of course, that shouldn't be a problem against Auburn.

• As of now, there's not too much analysis of the bowl matchup. (I'm sure there will be more in depth stuff later Monday). But here's what ESPN.com SEC blogger Chris Low had to say about the game from Auburn's perspective. Big Ten blogger Adam Rittenberg chimed in with a Northwestern perspective.

It's been a week. My furlough is officially over. I am no longer unemployed, sitting on my front step listening to Biz Markie's "Just a Friend" on a continuous loop. (And if you don't get that reference, I started Netflixing "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" this week. It's phenomenal. Makes me wonder why I never watched it earlier.)

ANYWAY, not a whole lot happened while I was gone. That is a complete lie. LOTS happened. And quite honestly, it makes me feel good that it did. It justifies my existence as a sports reporter. So let's get caught up, shall we?

• For starters, Auburn somehow finagled its way to the top of a 7-5 heap in the SEC into the Outback Bowl, much to the chagrin of a bunch of SEC Eastern Division teams who traditionally go to Tampa. My take? Why not Auburn? It's not like Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia were jumping off the page as can't-miss invitees. And the SEC is such a jumble that taking a team that went 3-5 over a bunch of teams that went 4-4 is not that ridiculous. And Auburn looks that much better after the way Alabama punked Florida on Saturday. Only Tennessee can say it played Alabama as well. And the Vols never led that game. That should count for something.

• About Northwestern, that should be an interesting matchup. Full disclosure: I'm a Wisconsin graduate and would have been very interested in seeing a Badgers-Tigers matchup in the Outback (even if nobody is really fond of Wisconsin's three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-tire-bits offense). But Northwestern is an interesting team. Pat Fitzgerald has that program doing good things. It's not as conventional of a Big Ten team in that the Wildcats like to pass the ball (266.1 ypg, 29th nationally). And they're not afraid to spread things out to level the playing field in terms of athleticism, since they can't recruit the kind of athletes that Ohio State and Penn State get on a regular basis. It's tough to tell what you're going to get when Northwestern takes the field. This is a team that lost to Syracuse and Minnesota earlier this year but finished with wins against then-No. 4 Iowa and then-No. 16 Wisconsin. Like Kevin Garnett says, anything is possible.

• There was finally some resolution on the long-awaited punishments from the ill-conceived "Big Cat" recruiting weekend at the end of May. Some colleagues of mine have great recaps here, here, here and here (scroll down a little). The most interesting development was that the SEC added some additional penalties beyond what Auburn had suggested (most notably keeping Trooper Taylor off the road until the end of November). So maybe the conference takes those "secondary violations" seriously after all. Also interesting, there were six recruits Auburn was not allowed to contact until the middle of September (about six weeks). Two of them -- Jessel Curry and Trovon Reed -- are Auburn commits. And the Tigers remain the picture to varying degrees with a few others. So maybe it wasn't the worst idea ever.

• Freshman Tyrik Rollison, the presumed quarterback of the future at Auburn, is currently serving a team-imposed suspension. Weird timing on this. It comes at a time when we reporters have virtually no access to Gene Chizik and we can't watch practice anyway (whereas suspensions to Eric Smith and Byron Isom were obvious because one was not at practice and the other was not active during a few games). So I'm curious if this news would have gotten out if not for the press release Auburn issued. Makes me think Chizik is trying to send a message to Rollison to get his head on straight. That seems to me to be the only reason for going public with it right now.

• Auburn hoops has not looked so hot. It's not an auspicious start if you lose to Troy at home. I'll be interested in Monday's game against Virginia, since I covered the Cavaliers for 4 1/2 years before coming down to Auburn. Tony Bennett is a brand new coach there but some of the players remain that I covered during my time there. The cupboard's not bare there, but the Cavs have some work to do to right the ship. That said, Auburn ain't exactly a world beater right now. Should be a close game.

• Watched a ton of football this week in between playing more video games than a grown-up should legally be allowed to play (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and NHL '10 on the PS3 kept me busy for most of the week). Some quick thoughts:

• Alabama looked dominant. There's no question who is the No. 1 team in the country. It makes Auburn's performance against the Tide look all the better.

• Am I a bad person if I took some delight in watching Tim Tebow cry after the game? Not a whole lot of delight, but some.

• Best game of the weekend was Cincinnati beating Pittsburgh. Back and forth, up and down the field. Snow. Missed extra points. Last-second touchdowns. Dave Wannstedt's mustache. It had everything.

• Best performance of the weekend: Ndamukong Suh of Nebraska. Simply dominating. 12 tackles, 6 tackles for a loss and 4.5 sacks to nearly help the 'Huskers upset Texas. I don't think I've seen as dominating of a defensive performance in a while.

• Worst performance of the weekend: Nebraska's offense. Seriously, JV high school teams look more competent with the ball. The Cornhuskers would have been better off quick-kicking on first down and hoping their defense could score points or force a turnover close enough that they could kick a quick field goal. Embarrassing.

• Biggest travesty of the weekend: That Texas, following a narrow win in which a second was put back on the clock so it could kick a field goal, was just assumed to be in the national championship after beating Nebraska. TCU and Cincinnati have just as legitimate arguments of being in the national title game. The Big 12 flat out stunk this year. Nobody seems to be saying this. Nebraska and Oklahoma had no offenses. Oklahoma State was mediocre. Nobody else was any good. I'd put TCU's wins against Clemson, BYU and Utah and Cincinnati's wins against Oregon State, West Virginia and Pittsburgh up against anything the Longhorns have accomplished this year. And what does Boise State have to do to ever get some respect? What a joke of a postseason setup. This would be the perfect year for an eight-team playoff. Perfect! But alas, we're stuck with a bowl system that will, bare minimum, leave us with two undefeated teams (possibly three) at the end of the year. It's the only sport that does this and there's no rational reason for not having a playoff. It's stupid and college football fans like myself are cheated of a legitimate conclusion to the season. [end of rant]

• As mentioned before, I have a Heisman vote. It's due tomorrow, so I'll have to pore over the candidates one last time before submitting it. I have a pretty good idea of who I'll be voting for but that could still change. I'll post my reasoning for who I selected tomorrow.

• While I was out, I went over 300 Twitter followers. I'd like to thank everyone who has decided to do so. And I'd like to encourage anyone who is not to follow the blog on Twitter by clicking here. The march to 400 begins!