It's another busy Tuesday, with Gene Chizik AND men's basketball coach Jeff Lebo set to speak later this morning. I'll have updates throughout. Until then, here are some links ...

• Good news for Mike Hartline: he didn't tear his ACL. Bad news for Kentucky: he's still not going to play this week against Auburn because of an MCL tear, writes Chip Cosby of the Lexington Herald-Leader. Will Fidler and Morgan Newton will compete for the starting job this week.

• Herald-Leader columnist Mark Story has an interesting countdown relating to Kentucky football.

• Here's a really good blog by John Clay that's got plenty of Kentucky-related information.

• Jerry Hinnen at the War Eagle Reader chimes in with his weekly Auburn schedule stockwatch.

• Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News writes that Nick Saban is a better fit at Alabama than Steve Spurrier ever would have been.

• Paul Finebaum reviews the SEC season at its halfway point. He even gives Auburn some dap:

• "--BIGGEST SURPRISE: Auburn. Although the Tigers were derailed in Arkansas and looked utterly woeful in the process, Gene Chizik has done a nice job of turning this program around."

• Georgia's veterans are not happy with their current play, writes David Hale of the Macon Telegraph.

• Mark Richt heard it from fans on his Monday call-in show, writes Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald.

• Dave Climer of the Tennessean relates Richt's situation to former Vols coach Phil Fulmer's. "He has an in-bred coaching staff. He's loyal to his assistants -- to a fault. He's struggling to keep face with a changing SEC, where new coaches bring new ideas and new schemes to the field." Umm, he might as well be describing Fulmer AND Tommy Tuberville there. Bottom line: if you're the dean of SEC coaches, you'd better win or fans are going to get sick of you pretty quick.
  

• ESPN.com SEC blogger Chris Low writes his Hot and Not column for the week. Auburn's defense is not. Richt is ice, ice baby:

• "Georgia coach Mark Richt: From a football perspective, Richt probably hasn’t had many weeks that were any tougher than what he’s enduring right now following that inexplicable 45-19 beating his Bulldogs suffered in Knoxville last weekend. Something isn’t quite right with this program, and it goes much deeper than losing Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno to the NFL. The Bulldogs have continued to recruit at a high level, and they have some good young talent in the program. But the edge is gone. How else do you explain their being outclassed in every way by a Tennessee team that hadn’t won an SEC game and hadn’t been able to score points against any legitimate defense? Of course, when you look at the Bulldogs’ defensive numbers, it’s a stretch to call them a legitimate defense at this point. Unfortunately for Richt, who’s been the epitome of class and has won 10 or more games in six of his eight seasons in Athens, the program has slipped enough in the shadow of what Urban Meyer has done at Florida and Nick Saban at Alabama that he’s probably going to have to make some changes at the end of the season. Otherwise, Richt’s going to be the one who’s in trouble. It’s the world we live in right now in the SEC when half the head coaches are making nearly $3 million or more per year."

• Mark Ingram is The Man for Alabama, writes John Zenor of the Associated Press.

• Erik Campos of The State writes that the ESPN-SEC TV deal is hurting the league's attendance this year.

• The blog Lost Letterman weighs in on the Top 10 most beloved college football players of all-time.