Auburn and Arkansas play this afternoon, but I wrote about somebody who won't even be dressing up for the game -- point guard Varez Ward, a transfer from Texas. Here's how the story starts:

AUBURN, Ala. -- Auburn guard Varez Ward has perfected the waiting game.

His college debut was delayed a year for prep school. His first chance to shine was delayed because of a bad attitude. And his opportunity to start has been delayed by a quad tear and transfer from Texas to Auburn, where he won’t be eligible to play until next season.

But patience is exactly what is needed by the Tigers (9-18, 2-11 SEC), who continue to play out the stretch today against Arkansas (17-10, 6-7) at the Auburn Arena starting at 1:47 p.m.

“It’s hard to sit there and watch because I know I can be out there helping out my teammates get wins,” Ward said. “I think I’ll be able to come in and compete.”

With Ward, 6-foot-6 Clemson transfer Noel Johnson and injured guard Frankie Sullivan all joining the rotation next season, there appears to be brighter days on the horizon for Auburn, which needs to win one of its final three league games to avoid its worst conference mark since going 2-16 in 1988-89.

I wrote today's newspaper story on the Tigers' struggling secondary. Here's how it starts:

AUBURN, Ala. — The standard mention of Auburn by any national media outlet usually includes two things — quarterback Cam Newton’s Heisman Trophy candidacy and the defense’s vulnerability, especially in the secondary.

“You hear the defense, basically the secondary, is making us weak,” safety Ikeem Means said. “We’re fed up of hearing that talk on ESPN, and that we’re weak links. We want to improve.”

There’s plenty of room to do so. After being torched for 428 passing yards by Arkansas, the majority of damage being done by backup Tyler Wilson and not Heisman candidate Ryan Mallett, the Tigers’ secondary is trying to get back to the basics.

“You note the positives, which there were some. You note the negatives, which there were many, and proceed to move on,” Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said. “You don’t belabor any of the points.”

2010

• Auburn — 63rd overall, 367.86 — 108th pass, 266.1

2009

• SEC/NCAA: Alabama — 2nd, 244.14 — 10th pass, 166.0

2008

• SEC/NCAA: Florida — 9th overall, 289.29 — 20th pass, 179.9

2007

• SEC/NCAA: LSU — 3rd overall, 288.79 — 9th nationally, 182.7

2006

• SEC/NCAA: Florida — 6th overall, 255.43 — 33rd pass, 182.9

2005

• SEC: Georgia — 18th overall, 313.46 — 7th pass, 169.6
• NCAA: Texas — 10th overall, 302.92 — 8th pass, 172.0

2004

• SEC: Auburn — 5th overall, 277.62 — 10th pass, 173.5
• NCAA: USC — 6th overall, 279.31 — 34th pass, 199.9

2003

• SEC/NCAA: LSU — 1st overall, 252.0 — 18th pass, 185.0
• NCAA: USC — 30th overall, 336.38 — 110th pass, 276.2

2002

• SEC: Georgia — 15th overall, 303.50 — 31st pass, 189.5
• NCAA: Ohio State — 23rd overall, 320.86 — 95th pass, 243.1

2001

• SEC: LSU — 75th overall, 396.08 — 108th pass, 279.4
• NCAA: Miami — 6th overall, 270.91 — 2nd pass, 138.2

2000

• SEC: Florida — 42nd overall, 346.0 — 57th pass, 212.9
• NCAA: Oklahoma — 8th overall, 278.92 — 9th pass, 170.7

Here's a video I put together from tonight's interviews. It's got quarterback Cam Newton, linebacker Josh Bynes and defensive coordinator Ted Roof. Enjoy.

Auburn came in at No. 4 in the initial Bowl Championship Series rankings, which were released Sunday night.

The top three teams were Oklahoma, Oregon and Boise State. TCU was fifth, followed by LSU, Michigan State and Alabama.

Tigers players, who were getting out of practice as the rankings were unveiled, brushed off the Auburn's lofty position.

“That’s music to my ears, but at the same time we can’t dwell on anything like that,” quarterback Cam Newton said. “That’s not really important right now. We just have to continuously do our job and execute and play good football.”

The Tigers were fifth in both the coaches' and Harris polls. Their average computer rankings was third, behind Oklahoma and LSU.

Auburn, which has a chance to boost its standing with a win against LSU this weekend at Jordan-Hare Stadium, isn't concerned about making believer out of the doubters.

“We’re not trying to convince nobody,” linebacker Josh Bynes said. “As long as the 150 guys and the coaches in the room believe that we can handle it, that’s all that I really care about.”

Follow the blog on Twitter and Facebook.

Here are some more notes and quotes from later interviews Sunday:

• Auburn has been pretty highly-ranked this late in the season not too long ago. Left guard Mike Berry was on that team. Now an elder statesman, he's trying to keep the younger players level-headed. "Being here in '06, we were undefeated going into the Arkansas game, we were undefeated and we had beaten a real good LSU team," he said. "Being a young guy myself, I was on the bandwagon. I was like, 'We're going to the national championship. We can do this.' It's one of those things where you can't talk about it too early, because you can get beat any game. You've got to stay focused and humble."

• A lot of folks like to say Les Miles has been lucky this year. Newton turned it around. "You also could turn that on us and say: What if this wouldn't have happened in our game?" he said. "Luck is such a big word we use in the game of football."

• Newton said he watches a lot of ESPN. He claims not to see any highlights of himself on there. "No, I don't. I catch it on the wrong time," he said. "I catch it on Baseball Tonight or First Take."

• He finally admitted maybe he has seen a highlight or two of himself. "A couple times," he said. "I really don't want to see it because I'd be blushing a little bit too much."

• Newton on his first touchdown run Saturday, when he ran over Arkansas linebacker Jerico Nelson. "I didn't know I did that," he said. "I was just trying to score a touchdown by any means necessary. I was just doing my job." (Did not know this until now, but Nelson is the player who crushed Mario Fannin last year, getting his facemask entangled with Fannin's.)

• Newton took the blame for the delay of game penalty third quarter, right after Onterio McCalebb's 99-yard kick return to the 1. "I didn't see the game clock," he said. "It was a lack of clock management, but I was unaware of the clock at the time. I cost the team five yards. I'm the quarterback; I say 'hut.' I had the play. It was a bad quarterback play, so to speak."

• Newton's scooter gang is growing. DE Joel Bonomolo has one now. "His is faster," Newton said. "I think I need to invest in something. I caught him at the stoplight. I didn't know it was him at first, but then he lifted up his shield. Then we looked at each other. Then he beat me. What did he do to his that I didn't to mine? I've got to get that turbo."

• Auburn has rushed for 300 or more yards in its last three SEC games. That's the first time its happened since the school began keeping accurate date in 1967. "Not even when Bo was here?" Berry asked. Umm ... no. "That's real big, putting up these offensive numbers like that is definitely big. We're definitely proud of it."

• LSU will challenge that number. The Bengal Tigers lead the SEC and are third nationally, giving up only 83.6 yards per game. Auburn leads the SEC and is sixth nationally in rushing offense at 283.7 yards per game. (That is what we in the business call a "key matchup.") "I know they've got a good defense. I know they're ranked in the top of just about every defensive stat you can have," Berry said. "I know we've got our hands full, I know they have great players. It's just one of those things where you've got to go out and have great practices and get yourself prepared."

• Last year's LSU game did not go well. Auburn finished with 193 yards of total offense in an ugly 31-10 loss. "It just seemed like we couldn't get things clicking," Berry said. "It was just one of those things where the offense wasn't hitting on all cylinders. It definitely puts an emphasis on this game that we've got to bring our A-game and we've got to come prepared to work."

• Defensive coordinator Ted Roof's assessment of the Arkansas game: "I was disappointed in some of the things we did. There are a lot of things we’ve got to get better at to have a chance against LSU. That’s an Arkansas team that made some good throws that stretched us. We had a couple quarters back to back where we struggled. I was proud of the way we snapped back and made some plays that puts us in position to score points."

• With Aairon Savage set to undergo surgery Monday and T'Sharvan Bell dealing with a hamstring injury, Auburn is running out of experienced players in the secondary again. "We are what we are and we are who we are," Roof said. "That’s not going to change. Regardless of what, we’ve got to make sure everybody has a sense of urgency to improve. That’s part of being a team. Next man up. By this time of the year, most teams have issues somewhere. Most teams across the country and whatever level, after you play seven games you start to get beat up and the nicks and the bruises start to add up. That’s football and the next man has to step up. That’s what we’ve been able to have so far. The chemistry that we have is good. Now we’ve got to continue to work to get better with our performance.”

• Mike McNeil will likely start in Savage's place, but Auburn had a good three-man rotation going with Savage, McNeil and Zac Etheridge. Walk-on sophomore Ikeem Means said he might get in a new three-man rotation. "I’m deeply sorry seeing that," Means said. "I just hope to, not exactly fill his shoes, but to improve. I know my playing time will increase a little bit, but I’m deeply sorry for the incident that happened."

• Means has heard all the stuff being said about the secondary: "You hear that our defense, and basically the secondary, is making us weak. We just really feel all that talk on ESPN that we’re the weak links. We’re just going to improve that. ... I always wanted to be in a big game, and I think I’ll get my shot. It’s up to me to do what I want to do."

• Asked if anyone played well defensively Saturday, Roof said, “Well when you give up 43 points, you don’t hand out a lot of superlatives."

• He did say that Mike Blanc, Craig Stevens and Daren Bates did a good job on the play that resulted in a fumble that Etheridge returned for a touchdown. He also gave defensive tackle a nod. "A guy who is playing well and not getting a lot of recognition is Zach Clayton," Roof said. "He’s a guy who has played really good.”

• Defensive tackle Nick Fairley put the hit on Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett. He says it's not something he tries to do. "I try to take advantage of my three seconds after they (snap) it," he said. "Sometimes they throw the flag, sometimes they don’t.” Fairley didn't know how hard he hit Mallett. "I knew I had got a hold of him, but I didn’t know until we watched film," he said.

• Fairley knows the defense can't play like it did Saturday the rest of the way: "We aren’t going to win every game if we give up 43 points."

• 'What went wrong on the defensive end? "We've just got to make better plays on the ball," linebacker Josh Bynes said. "We'd be in position right there. We just need to make plays on them, be football players out there. They've got the right technique, they just need to make plays on the ball. We give up too many long passes down the field. It was heartbreaking because we didn't do that all year."

• Bynes' two interceptions against the Razorbacks give him three this season, tops on the team. Some players got on him about it Sunday, but he reminded them of a forgotten fact. "I'm like, you need to remember I led the team in interceptions two years ago, my sophomore year," he said. "So it ain't like it's something new to me." Bynes said he dropped four or five interceptions last year because he got too anxious.

• LSU runs a more traditional offense than Arkansas, meaning a healthy dose of running plays should be in the game plan. "I look forward to running," Bynes said. "A lot of these teams we've played so far have gone with outside stuff. I don't even have too many tackles. I've been missing the action a little bit. They're making me run all the way across the field to make a tackles now, but it's all good."

Safety Aairon Savage's injury-laden Auburn career just took another blow.

Savage, who left the fourth quarter of the Arkansas game with a right leg injury, is scheduled for surgery today and will be out for a considerable amount of time.

"He is obviously going to be out for a while, depending on how that goes," Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said, not going into specifics. "I don't know what that means yet in terms of length of time. But he will be out for a while."

Savage, a sixth-year senior who had started all six games this year, went down against Arkansas on the play that changed the game, when fellow safety Zac Etheridge scooped up fumble and returned it 47 yards for a touchdown.

He was helped off the field by the training staff, keeping all weight off his right leg. He was later carted to the locker room.

Savage has already missed two entire seasons with leg injuries. He tore an ACL in 2008 and tore his Achilles' last year, needing to get a waiver from the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility.

He was third on the team with 37 tackles this season.

"Seeing him last night, talking to him today, the only thing I can say is your heart goes out to him," Chizik said. "Just what he's been through. But he's a tough guy and he'll move past this like he has all the other things. ... That one was a hard one to look at."

Junior Mike McNeil, the third safety in the rotation this year, will likely start in Savage's place. McNeil has 18 tackles.

Chizik said walk-on sophomore Ikeem Means and junior Drew Cole will get increased reps, as well as true freshmen Demetruce McNeal and Ryan Smith.

Chizk said cornerback T'Sharvan Bell (hamstring) is day-to-day.

He also said the team will monitor the status of running back Mike Dyer, who battled a knee injury last week. Dyer ran for a 38-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, showing a significant limp.

"I really didn't feel like he was to the point where it was hindering him that much," Chizik said. "He's a guy who can tolerate a lot of pain and he wants to get in there and carry the ball."

Some other notes and quotes from Chizik's teleconference:

• On how to rate the defense after it gave up so many yards: "You note the positives, which there were some. You note the negatives, which there were many. And proceed to move on. You don't belabor any of the points. They know what they did well, they know what they didn't do well. So you just move on to the next week. There were some guys that really, really played hard and did play well. Overall, there was times — whether it was a technique or a guy out of position — we didn't do it well, so we've got to get that corrected."

• Had good things to say about LSU, naturally: "All around a very talented team. No different really than anybody else in the league, that they're extremely talented and extremely deep."

• He did not bit on a questions about the perception out there that LSU coach Les Miles has a horseshoe in his back pocket. Here's his whole answer to that question: "I think they're a great football team."

• Chizik won't be going out of his way to find a television to watch the release of the initial BCS rankings tonight. "You can assume that," he said. He has been on teams where eventually it has come to play. Chizik said he doesn't know when he'll start paying attention to it. "That’s a good question," he said. "If it ever happens where it becomes what we’re focused on, it’s going to be later in the year. We just got to continue to do the things that we’ve been doing every week. Trying to get better at every position which, as you saw yesterday, I know I say it every week, but it’s true: We’ve got a bunch of room for improvement at every position out there. And that’s how we’ll carry on.”

• Cam Newton reminds a lot of people of Vince Young. Chizik was on the Texas staff when Young was there. He sees some similarities in how the team had confidence in their quarterback to make a play. "I think that it's big for any team to believe in their quarterback that much," he said. "But more importantly, as we just spoke a minute ago to the team, I think it's more important for everybody else to understand that they need to raise their level of play. I mean, they know that they've got a guy back there who is a competitor and he wants the ball in his hands. He wants to win games. That ought to mean that everybody else around him raises their level of play, because they know that's what they have back there at quarterback. And that's how I feel about it."

• Chizik is thankful he doesn't have to come up with a game plan to stop Newton. "Some of the things that he does, quite honestly, you don't have an answer for him," Chizik said. "I mean, you could have an answer, your guy vs. my guy, and he can't make the tackle. And that's just the fact of the matter. He's just athletically gifted enough and blessed enough to be able to make some plays when it's one-on-one, him versus somebody there in the open field. I don't know that you can always have an answer for that."

• Asked if Auburn would try to recruit similarly talented quarterbacks in the future, Chizik had a witty response: "I wouldn't turn one down. We'll be looking under every rock from here on out to find another one like that. A big rock. But he's unique for sure."

Auburn coach Gene Chizik has spoken. Here's what he said:

• Chizik looking very coach-like today. Wearing blue Auburn sweatshirt, windbreaker pants.

• S Aairon Savage will have surgery tomorrow. Chizik wouldn't say it's a season-ender, but it can't bode well.

• CB T'Sharvan Bell is day-to-day with what we believe is a hamstring injury. Chizik didn't specify it.

• Said Anthony Morgan and Chris Davis will get more work at cornerback. Ryan White is still looking at a redshirt.

• At safety, it will be Ikeem Means, Drew Cole, Demetruce McNeal and Ryan Smith getting more looks.

• On if anyone stood out to him on defense: "I wouldn't be comfortable saying anybody."

• "As a group, we obviously need to play much better next week."

• On LSU: "Their talent is off the chart." Said running game is starting to click. Thinks it is getting better offensively every week.

• Have some big receivers too: "It's the same every week."

• On No. 5 going against No. 6 this week: "I think once they watch the film today that it will all come to reality that we are highly looking in search of a four-quarter game, because we haven't played it yet."

• Said Steven Clark hasn't given the team the distance it wants on punts, but the hangtime has been good. Praised Wes Byrum for kickoff distance.

• On the o-line: "I thought they played well. To me, there's still a lot of room for improvement in the physicality of it up front."

• "Defensive line-wise, we have not faced one like this."

• On the notion that LSU coach Les Miles has been lucky this year: "I think they have a great football team."

• More on Savage: "Seeing him last night, talking to him today, the only thing I can say is your heart goes out to him. But he's a tough guy and he'll move past this like he does other things. ... That one was a hard one to look at."

• Said Savage means a lot to his team, for his journey back from two years worth of injuries.

• Chizik hopes Mike Dyer's leg injury doesn't go on for a few weeks. Will continue to monitor his practice this week. "I didn't feel like it was to the point where it was hindering him that much."

• Said there are bunch of ways to run the zone read, which makes it so effective.

• Everybody in the league other than LSU has given up at least 30 points in a game this year. What's change? "Sometimes it's those years." Mentioned Big 12 example from a couple years ago.

• On the BCS rankings, a predictable response. Not worrying about it right now: "We've got to continue to do what we do every week. We've got a bunch of room for improvement at every position out there."

• Didn't have an opinion on a playoff vs. the current BCS setup. Not surprising.

• Chizik was at Texas when Vince Young was there. Cam Newton is similar. "I think it's a big thing for any team to believe in their quarterback that much. But I think it's important for everyone else to raise their level of play."

• "They all need to raise their level of play. That's how I feel about it."

• More on Newton: "He's played well. Some of the things he does, quite honestly, you don't have an answer for."

• Called Auburn move to a QB run-first offense has been "and evolution." He added: "He's different form anyone we've been around." Said everything is withing the framework of what the Tigers already do.

• On when he first saw Newton on film: "When I first saw him at Blinn, I said, 'He looks really good.' ... When you see him in person is when you realize how different athletically he is."

• Is that the kind of QB he'll recruit in the future: "I wouldn't turn one down. We'll be looking under every rock trying to find one."

• No real update on LB Eltoro Freeman. Still slowly improving.

• Said it'd be nice to have an open date a little earlier in the season.

And that's a wrap.

Well, I don't think I've ever covered a game quite that crazy. Not even last season's Outback Bowl. Here's how tomorrow's game story starts:

AUBURN, Ala. — Injured, exhausted and exposed, the Auburn defense looked overmatched Saturday, giving up 43 points and 566 yards to an impressive Arkansas offense.

Somehow, that defensive group was also the difference in the game.

The No. 7 Tigers forced turnovers on three straight fourth-quarter possessions, each leading to a touchdown to turn a tightly-contested track meet into, strangely, a runaway 65-43 win against No. 12 Arkansas before a sellout Jordan-Hare Stadium crowd.

"I sound like a broken record, but we refuse to lose," Auburn quarterback Cam Newton said. "The closer the game gets, the closer the team gets."

It was the most points Auburn (7-0, 4-0 SEC) had ever scored in an SEC game, topping the 63 it put up in a win against Florida in 1970.

The Tigers, who should move up in the national polls following losses by Nebraska and Ohio State, remain one of two unbeaten teams in the SEC. The other is another imperfect unbeaten: LSU, which comes to Jordan-Hare Stadium next Saturday with the Western Division lead at stake.

"We know we didn't play well all night," Auburn coach Gene Chizik said. "For all of the things that we didn't do well as a team, we beat an extremely good football team tonight. That's the bottom line."

I've already missed all of Wisconsin's upset of Ohio State tonight with all the stuff I had to write, so I'll try to sum things up quickly:

• Newton? What can you say? He added to his SEC rushing lead by carrying it 25 times for 188 yards and three touchdowns. He added 140 passing yards and another score. He's a bona fide Heisman contender and is now starting to draw comparisons to Tim Tebow. "The Heisman Trophy? You can throw that out the window," he said. "The Tebow comparison, I'll take that any day. Tebow's an excellent player, an excellent leader, an excellent individual. So to be compared to somebody like that. I'll take that. But we're two different players, two different people. Tebow is Tim Tebow, and I'm just Cam Newton."

• Great Newton stat: He's played seven games and already has four of Auburn's top-50 single-game rushes performances.

• The other Heisman contender didn't get a chance to show his stuff. Ryan Mallett left with a concussion after taking a hard hit from Nick Fairley in the second quarter. "To me it's just a normal hit I put on any quarterback," Fairley said. "It just so happened he landed awkward on something."

• Arkansas didn't miss a step with Mallett's backup. Sophomore Tyler Wilson, who got plenty of reps in the spring when Mallett had a foot injury, threw for 332 yards and four touchdowns as a replacement, shredding an Auburn defense ranked ranked 91st nationally against the pass.

• Tigers defensive coordinator Ted Roof has experienced something similar in the past. "One year we knocked the guy at Clemson out and in comes a guy named Woody Dantzler," the former Georgia Tech defensive coordinator said. "So yeah, I've had experience with backup quarterbacks."

• Obviously, the game turned with the three turnovers Auburn forced late. Zac Etheridge scooped up a fumble and returned it 47 yards for a touchdown to give the Tigers some breathing room. Josh Bynes intercepted passes on two straight drives to seal the win. "I felt like once we got the fumble, that just turned the momentum over and strengthened our defense, gave us a little bit of confidence out there," linebacker Craig Stevens said. "You know, we were able to turn one turnover into two, two into three. I just felt like that helped get the ball rolling for us."

• Bynes has taken some guff from teammates for dropping some sure interceptions earlier this year, but he has three of Auburn's six picks this season and seven for his career. "Oh my goodness," Newton said. "We need to try him at tight end."

• Not the best day for Auburn's defense, which gave up a ton of passing yards, but Chizik was impressed with how the group persevered. "We try not to let how we play be based on the circumstances around us," he said. "You can be playing very poorly, but if you let that beat you twice then you are going to have a problem. We just felt like if we kept playing, kept playing and just keep chopping wood, something eventually has to happen good."

• Combined, the SEC's top two offenses put up and 108 points, the most ever in a regulation SEC games, and 1,033 yards. The wild game prompted a similar question to many players: have you ever played in a game quite like this? Newton flipped the query around: "The question is, have y'all ever seen a game like that?"

• Auburn ran for for 330 yards on 49 carries, the fourth time this year they've topped 300 yards on the ground. Three of those have been against SEC opponents. "The honor goes to the offensive line," Newton said, rattling off the lineman's names one-by-one. "Those guys come in every single day, don't complain, don't do nothing but their job and ever since they took that challenge early in the season, they really haven't looked back."

• Auburn went 9-for-9 on its red zone opportunities, coming away with six touchdowns and three field goals. "I think it is probably one of the most important things that an offense can do," Chizik said. "Going 9-for-9 down there is pretty special. It is hard to do. I think our guys have a lot of confidence down there."

• Big special teams day for Auburn, which got blocked punt from Antonio Goodwin, a 99-yard kick return that nearly went for a touchdown by Onterio McCalebb and great kickoff coverage all around. "They were spectacular," Chizik said.

• Not sure what to make of safety Aairon Savage's injury. He went down with an apparent ankle injury in the fourth quarter. Chizik did not have a status update on him after the game, but any leg injury is a concern for a player who has missed two full seasons with ACL and Achilles' injuries. "We will know more tomorrow, but it breaks my heart," Chizik said. "When I went out on the field and he is laying there and he is crying and he has tears in his eyes, that hurts me. This guy has done everything we've asked him to do to come back and be a football player at Auburn because he loves Auburn and he loves football, and that hurts."

• Offensive leaders:

• RB Mario Fannin: 14 carries, 60 yards, 1 TD, 3 catches, 36 yards
• RB Mike Dyer: 6 carries, 53 yards, 1 TD
• McCalebb: 4 carries, 29 yards, 1 TD

• Defensive leaders:

• Stevens: 12 tackles, 1 FF
• CB Neiko Thorpe: 10 tckles, 1 pass breakup
• Fairley: 8 tackles, 1 TFL, 2 QBH
• Bynes: 8 tackles, 2 INT, 1 QBH
• DT Mike Blanc: 3 tackles, 2 sacks, 2 QBH

• Last quote goes to Chizik: "This football team amazes me in different ways every week. That was an extremely good football team tonight, and I guess it was another way that we found how to win a game."

AUBURN, Ala. — The battle of Heisman-worthy quarterbacks at Jordan-Hare Stadium has one less participant after one half.

Cam Newton has helped Auburn build a 27-21 halftime lead against Arkansas, which watched quarterback Ryan Mallett head to the locker rooms with an injury.

Newton, the SEC's rushing leader, has 143 rushing yards, 88 passing yards and a rushing touchdown for the No. 7 Tigers.

Mallett, the league leader in passing yards and total offense, went to the locker room after taking a hard hit from Auburn defensive tackle Nick Fairley in the second quarter. Head coach Bobby Petrino said Mallett was hit in the head. There was no word on whether he would return.

It happened one play before Broderick Green scored a 1-yard touchdown un to give the Razorbacks a 14-10 lead.

The Tigers came back with 14 unanswered points. A 3-yard touchdown run by Mario Fannin was upheld by replay when he lost his handle on the ball at the goal line.

Freshman Antonio Goodwin followed by blocking an Arkansas punt, setting up Onterio McCalebb's 13-yard touchdown run on a speed sweep that gave Auburn a 24-14 lead.

Arkansas managed to score just before halftime, however, moving 80 yards in just over a minute before backup quarterback Tyler Wilson hit Greg Childs on a 34-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to three.

Auburn got a 26-yard field goal by Wes Byrum as the halftime clock expired to make it 27-21.

The teams, who rank first and second in the SEC in total offense, combined for 529 yards in the first half.

You're looking LIVE at a slowly filling Jordan-Hare Stadium. It's about two and a half hours before kickoff and I'm kind of surprised at how filled the student section is at this point. Seems like folks are eager to get good seats for this one.

As they should be. If you read my game advance today, you'll know why.

It's a gorgeous day out. Perfect for football. I say that every week, but this time it seems like it's true.

Anyway, I'll be posting pertinent updates leading into the game on this blog post, so check back periodically. I'll also be updating things on Twitter, so follow me there. You too can take part in what seems like is the weekly Eltoro Watch. I'll also be tweeting throughout the game with witty repartee (at least I think it is) and information that might not get out there on the TV broadcast.

Here's your usual pre-game minutia:

• This is the first time in the series that both teams enter the game ranked. Auburn is 7th; Arkansas 12th.

• Auburn leads 10-8-1 but Arkansas has won three of the last four, including two straight.

• Arkansas won 44-23 in Fayetteville last year and 25-22 in 2008 in Auburn, the first game after Tommy Tuberville fired offensive coordinator Tony Franklin.

• Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino was Auburn’s offensive coordinator in 2002, when Gene Chizik was the Tigers’ defensive coordinator.

• The game features the top two offenses in the SEC (Auburn 483.0 ypg; Arkansas 462.8 ypg).

• That's not the case in scoring offense. Auburn is is second, averaging 36.7 points per game. Arkansas is eighth at 30.0 ppg. (Ever think an SEC team averaging 30 points a game would be eighth in the league?)

• Auburn QB Cam Newton? He's good. He leads the SEC in rushing (672 yards), pass efficiency (180.73) and touchdowns accounted for (21).

• The Razorbacks, who finished last in the SEC in total defense in Petrino's first two years, are third this year and 19th nationally, giving up 302.48 yards per game.

• Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett has put up video game numbers this year, with 1,748 yards and 13 touchdowns in five games this season.
  

• The Razorbacks have thrown for 300 or more yards 14 times since Petrino took over in 2008. Before his arrival, they had done it only 16 times.

• Auburn has given up more passing yards (1,435) than any team in the SEC.

• Arkansas has the worst rushing offense in the SEC (108.8 ypg). Auburn has the second best rushing defense, giving up 95.7 yards per game. That number puts the Tigers 14th nationally.

• Getting this stat out there because it might be challenged today: Auburn has won 60 straight games when scoring 30 or more points, a streak dating back to 1996.

• Arkansas DE Jake Bequette has four sacks in five games, leading a Razorbacks defense that has the third-most sacks (17) in the SEC. The Tigers have allowed only seven sacks this year, tied for third-fewest in the league.

UPDATE, 12:52 p.m.: Two points of order from the pre-game prayer circle at midfield today. 1) WR DeAngelo Benton has his left foot in a walking boot. Looks like he'll be out today. 2) LB Eltoro Freeman is out there with the team. Looks like he'll dress today.

UPDAET, 1:35 p.m: Here is today's game program cover, featuring a bunch of hard-looking offensive linemen. I think they are extras for a remake of "The Outsiders."
UPDATE, 1:49 p.m.: WR Trovon Reed (knee) is in street clothes. You can pretty well book that medical redshirt. Also, WR/HB Shaun Kitchens is dressed and has a brace on his right knee. We'll see what that means for playing time for him today.

UPDATE, 2:02 p.m.: Freshman Steven Clark announced in pre-game introductions as the starting punter.

Hey, everybody. Much more in a bit, but here's how today's game advance starts:

AUBURN, Ala. — You won’t find bigger names or bigger bodies at the quarterback position than Auburn’s Cam Newton and Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett.

But the two quarterbacks insist this afternoon’s showdown at Jordan-Hare Stadium, which should be on every Heisman voter’s must-watch list, won’t be a game of one-upmanship.

“It’s an extra incentive that we’re playing an SEC West team that is undefeated and ranked high,” Mallett said. “But he plays on their offense, and I play on my offense. It’s not me versus him.”

“It’s just do your job and win the football game,” Newton said. “That’s it.”

Seventh-ranked Auburn (6-0, 3-0 SEC) and No. 12 Arkansas (4-1, 1-1 SEC) will face each other as ranked teams for the first time in the schools’ histories.

I wrote a story for today's newspaper about how Gus Malzahn has tailored Auburn's offense to quarterback Cam Newton's strengths. Here's how it starts:

AUBURN, Ala. — Gus Malzahn’s dwindling detractors often point to his not-so-distant past as a high school coach as the crux of their criticisms of him.

But that background has helped Auburn’s coordinator be amenable to tailoring the Tigers’ offense to quarterback Cam Newton’s strengths this year.

“I’m used to building the offense around the strengths of the quarterback,” Malzahn said.

The result is something different from anything he has had in his five years as a college coordinator.

Thanks to the dual-threat capabilities of the 6-foot-6, 250-pound Newton, Auburn is more run-based this season than any of Malzahn’s previous offenses. The Tigers have run the ball on 70.8 percent of their plays, getting 57.1 percent of their yards on the ground.

The first figure is higher than any of Malzahn’s previous four offenses. The second is beaten by only the 2006 Arkansas team that featured running backs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones and was only marginally controlled by Malzahn.

2007: Tulsa

Auburn’s rushing offense has thrived this year, thanks to quarterback Cam Newton’s contributions.

Running backs coach Curtis Luper issued strong criticism to his group, however, insisting it hasn’t played “well enough.”

“We’ve got to do better,” Luper said. “We’ve got to be more productive. I’m looking for us to contribute and help this football team more.”

Newton leads the Tigers with 672 rushing yards and nine touchdowns. The tailbacks have combined for 899 yards and five scores.

Freshman Mike Dyer has 390 yards, but he’s fumbled twice in the last three games.

“He’s improved some but not as much as I want him to improve,” Luper said. “My expectations for him are high. His expectations for himself, they’re high. But I’m expecting more. Maybe Saturday.”

Senior Mario Fannin is back from a shoulder injury and has run well, carrying 18 times for 139 yards the last two weeks.

“He’s moved the chains, but I need more than just the chains moving,” Luper said. “I need touchdowns. I need them in the end zone. It will take some pressure off Darvin (Adams) and Cam.”

Luper said 165-pound speedster Onterio McCalebb (345 yards) is a good option on the perimeter but that Auburn will “leave that inside, tough stuff up to Mario and Mike.”

“We need two or three more play-makers,” Luper said.

Follow the blog on Twitter and Facebook. And join Thursday's live chat at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT. I'll put up a link a little later.

Here are some more notes and quotes from Wednesday's interviews:

• Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino served as Auburn’s offensive coordinator in 2002,. Tigers cornerbacks coach Phillip Lolley remembers many late nights sharing cups of coffee in the athletic complex. “He’s like the guy that we’ve got,” Lolley said, referring to Gus Malzahn. “He’s relentless around the clock. He’s going to work at the game all the time.”

• Lolley remembers trying to pick Petrino’s brain for some insight as to how he operates an offense and what might give him trouble. He had little luck. “He’s not the kind of guy who offers a whole lot,” Lolley said. “He figures he might play against you one day. He thinks ahead on that too.”

• Head coach Gene Chizik, who was Auburn’s defensive coordinator at the time, said there was nothing remarkable about he and Petrino’s friendship. “We have professional relationship, like I do with everybody else in the league,” Chizik said.

• Two Tigers were added to midseason watch lists for national awards: Newton and defensive tackle Nick Fairley. Newton, the SEC leader in rushing and pass efficiency (180.73) was named to the watch list for the Maxwell Award, given to the most outstanding college player. Fairley, who leads the SEC in sacks (5) and tackles for a loss (12.5), is in contention for the Bednarik Award, given to the nation’s top defensive player.

• Devin Gaulden, a cornerback from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is no longer an Auburn commit, according to AuburnUndercover.com. Gaulden, a 2011 recruit, gave his verbal commitment to the Tigers on July 22 but recently took an official visit to Boston College, according to Rivals. Auburn has 14 commitments for 2011. Teams can sign up to 28 in February and admit as many as 25 each year.

• Chizik said it looks like freshman Steven Clark will handle the punting, but the coaches won’t decide until after tomorrow’s practice.

• Freshman WR Trovon Reed (knee) is “getting to the point now where it’s going to be redshirt time," Chizik said. Because Reed has played in one game, Auburn would need to seek a medical hardship waiver for him to redshirt.

• LB Eltoro Freeman remains “day-by-day” with various bumps and bruises.

• LOTS of good stuff about Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett, which is disappointing, because it was too late to get any of it into my story about Mallett for tomorrow's paper. Here's a sampling, though:

• Defensive line coach Tracy Rocker, who first met Mallett at a few Arkansas camps when he was assistant there for Houston Nutt: "I think we’re playing against another great SEC quarterback. No doubt, big arm, big target, big NFL prospect. He looks like the typical NFL guy. Quick release. He’s very hard to tackle. He’s not that fast of a guy, but he doesn’t let you sack him. He doesn’t let you tackle him. He does a great job of running the offense. He’s up there as one of the top ones in this league. We’re going to have our hands full. ... He’s a sight to watch. He’s got everyone around here awake thinking about what we’re going to do."

• Lolley: "It’s a tremendous challenge. You’re facing a quarterback that’s best in the SEC as far as passing yards. He’s an experienced quarterback, been in some football games. He’s big, strong, throws the ball very well. I’ve been in this conference a long time and he throws it as good as anybody when he’s on in this conference."

• Safeties coach Tommy Thigpen: "He's the best quarterback in the league. He has the biggest arm in the league. And they do a tremendous job of reading coverages. He's a definite prototypical type of kid. You see us as safeties and we're trying to see exactly what he's looking at and the things that he does on the pre-snap and then even when the ball is snapped, he is seeing how you're rotating on the back end. Tremendous player. Smart player."

• Mallett can apparently scramble, too: "If you look at the play against Texas A&M, the one they threw the 70-yard touchdown, there were two guys there that just fell off of him. He's got that Cam Newton-strength where you kind of underestimate how strong the kid is. And we learned it last year on the goal line where he ran over one of our defensive backs for a first down and then he ran for a touchdown. So you kind of underestimate him because he's a big kid, you don't think he can run. But he's a long strider who covers a whole lot of ground."

• That's not to say the coaches aren't impressed by the receivers. Thigpen said they get you when they're out in space and "you've got to tackle them on a dead run." He was impressed by their depth. "It's not just one guy that can beat you," he said. "You've got a quarterback who can throw it anywhere on the football field and then if you're trying to play man-to-man coverage, you're basically isolated."

• Lolley said the type of defenses Auburn has called haven't been conducive for a lot of interceptions. "Down the stretch here, we’re going to start having to tighten things up and play a little tougher on the teams we’re fixing to play as far as the receivers," he said.

• Lolley said he's been avoiding certain matchups for Demond Washington, who is 5-foot-9. "Demond is very quick, very instinctive about certain things," he said. "But I think his size in certain matchups, I don’t want him involved in."

• He said he's been putting Neiko Thorpe on an opponent's bigger, more physical receivers lately. "Normally we don’t like to do that because in the speed-up offenses today, they’ll run you to death," he said. "We train them to be right, left, learn each and every position. But now as the season’s rolling on, we’re trying to get more matchups with the corners. We’ll do the same this week." Lolley said Arkansas usually doesn't try to wear teams down with its tempo.

• Rocker said he could sense some frustration in his linemen last week after they couldn't get to the Kentucky quarterbacks, who got the ball out quickly most of the time. The Tigers had one sack and no hurries. "As a player it was frustrating," he said. "Guys would come to the sidelines and say, 'It’s coming out.’ Hey, there’s nothing we can do about that. We’ve got to find a way. We’ve got to be faster. We’ve got to be better getting there. It’s going to be the same this week. It’s going to be hard to get there, but we’re preparing a way to get there. We’ve got to be competitive all day."

• Rocker said not to discount Arkansas' running game, especially when the focus is on Mallett. "They want to see if they can run the ball and, after that, the big man throws it over the top," Rocker said. "He’s got a pro coach over there. They’ve got the answer."

Here's a video from tonight's late interviews. It's got offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and linebacker Josh Bynes. Enjoy.

When he was being recruited, Fort Smith, Ark., native Kodi Burns felt some pressure to attend his homestate school.

He picked Auburn, but every year’s matchup with the Razorbacks is a special one for him.

“It’s pretty important to me being from there,” the quarterback-turned-wide receiver said. “I always love to beat them, but I love to beat any team. It would be good to go out with a win my senior year.”

Four current Tigers hail from the Natural State: Burns, left tackle Lee Ziemba, running back Mike Dyer and tight end Dakota Mosley.

Dyer, the No. 1 recruit in the state last year out of Little Rock, whose decision came down to Auburn and Arkansas, said he knows “probably the whole (Razorbacks) team.”

“It’s a big game, but you play normal,” he said. “It’s always fun to play against someone that you know, and it’s, ‘I grew up with him.’”

Ziemba, a Rogers, Ark., native, doesn’t have many ties to the state anymore. His parents moved to Nashville after he graduated high school, so he rarely goes back.

“I know just as many people who play for Georgia or LSU as at Arkansas,” he said. “Coaches have changed up there. It’s not like it was.”

Auburn continues to make inroads in the state where offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn gained his reputation as an up-tempo guru.

Kiehl Frazier, a dual-threat quarterback from Springdale, Ark., committed to Auburn in May. He is the No. 2 recruit in the state.

Follow the blog on Twitter and Facebook.

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

• Malzahn didn’t sound thrilled with Tuesday’s practice, calling the effort OK. Perhaps that only applied to the offense. “He’s on the offensive side of the field, so I don’t know how his practice went over there,” linebacker Josh Bynes said. “But defensively, we did pretty good.” Bynes said the defense did “better at communicating and trying to pick up their routes and trying to dictate how they run their routes in this space or that space,” things that will be crucial when the Tigers face Arkansas’ offense, which ranks second in the SEC to Auburn’s.

• Malzahn, meanwhile, thinks there was some carryover on the offensive side from Saturday’s last-second win against Kentucky. “I have extremely high expectations,” he said. “We took a lot of emotional energy out of Saturday’s game, so we got to find a way. And our guys will. We’ll come back tomorrow, ready to go.”

• Interesting stuff today from Gus on Cam Newton, which I plan to turn into a story later this week. Malzahn has had five different quarterbacks in five years as a college coordinator, but none quite like Newton. He's catered the offense to Newton's specific skills, something he started doing in the spring after first seeing his abilities. "You recruit someone on film and all that and you get them in person and compete for the job, and then they win the job and I guess it goes back to my old high school background," Malzahn said. "I'm used to building the offense around the strengths of the quarterback, so we knew a bit coming out of the spring and the fall camp. We kind of had a good idea of what we were going to do. And we learned each week. I think we learned a lot about him. And like I said, I think we've got a good grasp of his strengths and what he does well and trying to build around the things he does well."

• This will be in the story too: Malzahn said he always strives for a 50-50 split in pass-run. The Tigers have run the ball 284 times this year to 117 passes (70.8 percent). They have 1,656 rushing yards to 1,242 passing (57 percent). So they're not quite there yet. It'll be interesting to see how the offense plays out the rest of the year. "I really feel like at the end of the year that we'll be pretty balanced," Malzahn said.

• Malzahn, like Newton, was disgusted by last year's Arkansas game, comparing it to last year's Kentucky game. "I think they're very similar," he said. "Both of those were very bad days offensively, and they played well, we didn't play well. It's good to see that and try to correct it."

• Arkansas' defense is improved, ranking third 19th nationally by giving up only 302.4 yards per game. "You can tell that they've been together with that defensive coordinator for three years," Malzahn said. "You can tell they really understand what they're doing. They play extremely hard. I think they're very good tacklers in open spaces. I think they're safeties really do a good job in run fitting and doing the things they need to do."

• Malzahn's take on Auburn long, game-winning touchdown drive against Kentucky: "We're trying to win the game. Whatever gives us the best chance of winning. At the first of it, we were just trying to make first downs. We were trying to get first downs and get out of that hole. Once we got a few, then you start thinking, hey the clock's running down. We were in field goal range with about three minutes left, so the thinking kind of changed a little bit. Our offensive line did a good job opening up some holes, and Cam did a good job protecting the football."

• Gus had a nice reaction to Newton's off-balance pass while going out of bounds. "We teach our guys to throw it where our receivers can catch it or nobody can catch it," he said. "It was one of those plays that ... you know ... it was ... I was right there by it, it was pretty ... unusual."

• WR Emory Blake was similarly impressed: "On the sideline I didn’t notice he actually left his feet before he threw the ball. I saw on SportsCenter right when we got on the bus, and I and was like, 'Dang, I don’t know how he made that throw. It was all with his wrist. It was pretty amazing.’"

• Redshirt freshman Clint Moseley is mimicking Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett on the scout team this week.

• WR DeAngelo Benton was seen on a crutch at the athletic complex Tuesday. Benton injured his left ankle late in the Kentucky game. Head coach Gene Chizik called him “day-by-day.”

• Bynes knows what Auburn's defense is up to this week against Arkansas' defense, calling it one of the toughest one they've face. "You have an outstanding quarterback, but you got receivers that go full speed each and every down," he said. "You watch film, those guys are running all over the place. There ain’t not one of them jogging or trotting, they’re running full speed. We were talking today about how on the crossing routes, it seems like it takes their receivers one second to get from one side of the field to the next side, that’s how fast they were running. We see that we have to get our pass defense down pat. Of course, we have to be efficient stopping the run, making them one-dimensional, things like that. But we know that the quarterback is going to be the man to beat.”

• Bynes called Mallett "7-feet tall," [Note: he's actually 6-6], adding, "You let him stand back there like he’s a Statue of Liberty, he’s going to make it happen." Pass rush will be key. "We’re just going to go out and play football, try to rile him maybe," Bynes said.

• Despite that, Bynes said stopping the run is still the defense's primary focus. “It ain’t even about last year," he said. "It’s about every game you play in the SEC. If you can’t stop the run, it just leaves them the opportunity to do play-action, do this, do that, and that’s how you lose games. If you can’t stop the run at all, you ain’t going to win in this league. Towards the end of the season, like we’re at midseason now, it’s about running that clock, being efficient with the ball, clock management, pounding the football. If you can’t pound the football and you have to try to survive with passing, you ain’t going to win no games like that in the SEC. This is a downhill league. At the end of the season, you’ll see how many runs everybody does and how many passes and I bet you it’ll be more runs than passes.”

• Bynes owned up to missing a sack on Kentucky quarterback Randall Cobb, but gave credit where credit is due. "Obviously, I can’t really knock it," he said. "I can’t just say it was our fault, because he made a play out of nothing."

• An outspoken critic of Auburn's tackling lately, Bynes couldn't help but give himself a demerit for the play. "Yeah, I don’t want to say all this about missed tackles and not say nothing about myself," he said. "He had a nice little fake going and I just didn’t want to miss him, miss the tackle. But he had some speed on him, he knew what he was doing. I missed the tackle. I ain’t finna say I didn’t.”

Had time to put together a brief video from today's pre-practice interviews. It's got quarterback Cam Newton (in the auditorium, so the quality isn't great), left tackle Lee Ziemba and linebacker Craig Stevens. Back with more football news a little later.

Auburn's players think this year's team is a close-knit group.

Playing in four close games this year that have come down to the wire have helped forge that bond.

"You can't go to Walmart and buy team chemistry," quarterback Cam Newton said. "Just being in the tough games and being in tight situations, that can build a team or it can separate a team. Right now, some guys have really been stepping up as leaders and that's going to be something we're going to need."

The Tigers beat Mississippi State, Clemson and Kentucky by three points. They needed a furious fourth quarter rally to come back against South Carolina for a win.

"It's definitely given us great confidence," wide receiver Kodi Burns said. "Because the thing about being in a close game is that you can think that you're going to win it and then really don't believe it and you can look in people's eyes and know that, 'Hey, we can do this.'"

Auburn hasn't won three games by three or fewer points in the same season since 2007.

"We all want to know who we are when everything's going good," Burns said. "It's about what kind of character you've got when things go bad, and we've had several things go bad these last few games, but we stuck together and weathered the storm.

"Now, the key is to try to find a way to stay out of those situations."

Follow the blog on Twitter and Facebook.

Here are some more notes and quotes from today's early round of interviews:

• Newton didn't sound happy that Auburn keeps putting itself in position to play so many close games. "We've been on the verge of being very lucky, in my opinion," he said.

• Something seems to go wrong for the Tigers at some point during the game that allows other teams to stick close. "The biggest thing is putting a whole game together," Burns said. "We can't just come out flat in the first half and finish in the second or vice versa. We've got to put a whole game together, and that's when we'll go from good to great."

• Linebacker Craig Stevens said it comes down to focus. "We just have to be more mentally focused every play, not just take plays off and just be honed into the game from snap 1 to the last play of the game," he said. "I think if we do that, we should be able to come out with the win."

• Asked why that's the case for a defense with so many veteran guys, Stevens said some players are still adjusting to new spots. "Like (Daren) Bates moving down to linebacker, he's still getting used to the position," he said. "Me moving to Will, I'm still getting adjusted to playing in the box. It's little things like that. I wouldn't say it's overall a breakdown on the play. It's just about feeling comfortable with where you are on the field."

• Expectations are growing for the No. 7 Tigers, who are one of two unbeaten SEC teams remaining (LSU is the other). "Coach (Gene) Chizik always stresses that each week the target gets bigger on our back, or the expectations are raised," Newton said. "As far as how we attack our opponent or how we go into each week mentally, it's very simple: We do what we're coached to do and everything else will take care of itself."

• Chizik, as you can imagine, agreed. "For me personally, there's no more pressure than there is every week, because our team expects to win, our coaches expect to win, our fans expect us to win. That hasn't changed. As a football team, do they feel the pressure? I hope not. I hope that it's business as usual in their mind. We don't talk about rankings. We don't talk about records. We don't talk about it. We just try to proceed."

• Saturday's game will mark the first matchup between the teams while they are both ranked. Arkansas is No. 12 in the latest AP poll. "Growing up in Arkansas, I've seen them have some pretty good teams that were ranked really high as well as Auburn," Burns said. "I'm really surprised this is the first time we've both been ranked going into a big game like this."

• Although Arkansas can pass the ball as well as anyone in the country, Chizik still thinks everything starts with stopping the run. It's something the Tigers didn't do last year in Fayetteville, when the Razorbacks ran for 221 yards in a 44-23 win. "That's what you start every game with," Chizik said. "They've got big, physical tailbacks. The numbers that you look at might be a little bit misleading. They can run the football, and I know coach (Bobby) Petrino wants to run the football. That's something that's a huge part of their offense. That's still got to be the first thing that we aim to do. It doesn't mean we're going to neglect the potency of their passing game. We'll start every week with everybody we play focusing on what we've got to do to stop the run."

• Revenge is not on Auburn's mind. At least that's why the Tigers are saying publicly. "We don't operate off the word revenge," Chizik said. "2009 is 2009 and 2010 is a different year. This is a very important game to us obviously. Every one of our players would tell you that."

• Burns on Newton's off-balance pass to him while falling out of bounds: "I'm speechless."

• Stevens knew Newton would be this good. "Oh yeah," he said. "I knew it from the time he stepped on campus. You can just tell from the scrimmages and things like that that he'll break runs here and there. You could just tell he would transfer it to a game."

• As for Newton's runs into the secondary, Stevens thinks it's a mismatch. "It's not too hard for him, knowing once he gets into that secondary he's the biggest guy by far back there," he said. "He doesn't hesitate to drive his shoulder back there."

• LT Lee Ziemba stepped up to make a speech in the huddle prior to Auburn's 19-play, 7-minute game-winning drive against Kentucky. "I just said what everybody was thinking," he said. "Usually, I don't have speeches like that. Speeches like that, I don't like to say because we all know what the speech is going to say. I'm like: Don't just say it, do it. This time, nobody was saying anything. I felt like I needed to say something. It wasn't nothing that anybody else was already thinking. It wasn't a big deal."

• Ziemba, like Burns, is from Arkansas. He said it's not a big deal to being playing the Razorbacks, though. "I know just as many people who play for Georgia or LSU than at Arkansas," he said. "My folks live in Tennessee now. I rarely even get to go back up there (to Arkansas). Coaches have changed up there. It's not like it was."

• More chemistry talk, courtesy of Ziemba: "That's something you can't put a price on. We've put ourselves in these positions, different types of positions. Down 17, driving the length of the field to score, get a turnover like we did against South Carolina. It becomes second nature. You're expecting the game to go down to the wire and when it does get there, you know how to win 'em. It's not a shock. It's definitely valuable because this next stretch of games coming on, there's going to be some close ones."

• Auburn hasn't had a holding call against it since the Clemson game (when it had a season's worth of holding calls). Told of this fact, Ziemba knocked on the arm rests of the wooden chair he was sitting in. It's not a conscious thing. "We don't think about it like that," Ziemba said. "What you do is you know how to block somebody, you've been doing it every day of your life since you showed up on campus, and you just try to put yourself in position. If you're in good position and you take the right step and you put your hands where they're supposed to be like you're taught so you can get leverage and movement, you're not going to get called for holding. That's the way things are. When you take a bad step and a guy beats you, or you get your hands outside and the guy gets his hands in your chest, that's when you get called for holding. We're trying to not get beat; we're not trying to not get called for holding. That's not the way it happens."

Gene Chizik talked for about 20 minutes. Here's what he said:

• "Obviously Arkansas is one of the best teams in the country."

• Very complimentary of Ryan Mallett and Arkansas' receivers are great. Thinks the competition Auburn has played has helped it. "We've got to play better. If we are going to win Saturday, it's going to have to be our best day defensively to this point."

• "It's good that we're finding ways to win at the end, but I'd like us to be more consistent throughout."

• Thought there was a letdown on special teams Saturday at Kentucky. Two kickoffs got to the 50 or close to it. "We can't play defense there all night."

• On Arkansas' defense: "I think their defense is playing well. I think they're extremely aggressive." Says Hogs' improvement on defense compared to last year is "night and day."

• Said Arkansas' rushing numbers are misleading. "They can run the football." Said stopping the run is still the priority of the defense.

• At punter, there's still competition. Wouldn't commit to Steven Clark, necessarily, although it seems like he'll be the guy this week.

• Scoring is up across the board in the SEC. "I think it's a unique year. It's hard to explain. It seems like this year is a little bit different year in terms of explosiveness." Didn't have an explanation.

• Revenge game after last year? I know where this answer is going. "We don't operate off the word revenge. 2009 is 2009 and 2010 is 2010."

• Pressure on being one of two undefeated teams left in the SEC? "For me personally, there's no more pressure than every week, because we expect to win every week. ... For the team, I hope not. I hope it's business as usual in their mind."

• "We don't talk about rankings, we don't talk about record."

• Mallett likes to throw the deep ball. Auburn hasn't had too many thrown on it like that this year. Chizik said that's because the Tigers have been playing a lot of zone coverage to discourage those kind of passes.

• WR DeAngelo Benton (ankle) is "day-by-day." Craig Sanders, Shaun Kitchens the same. Decisions clearer at end of week.

• Key against any quarterback is pressure. "That's what makes the world go around on defense." Said that applies for every quarterback.

BONUS! Cam Newton's here:

• "Mentally, it's very simple. Do what you're coached to do and everything will take care of itself."

• On Auburn in the rankings: "I don't feel like it's pressure. I feel like it's special to bring so much joy to this city as a whole."

• "Ryan Mallett is a special guy. He plays very smart. As far as how he's taking on leadership on the team, I think he's done an excellent job of doing that."

• On Auburn winning so many close games: "You can't go to Walmart and buy team chemistry."

• On the need for long drives: "We don't even look at it. We just try to go out there and do our job. If you listen to the coaches, everything else will take care of itself."

• On the Heisman talk: "That's an individual award that I don't think this team nor me should be talking about right now."

OK, that's a wrap.