Another week, another award for Auburn. Defensive tackle Nick Fairley was named SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week for his performance against Louisiana-Monroe.

It's the second time Fairley has won an SEC award. He won SEC Defensive Player of the Week after Auburn's victory against Mississippi State.

The Tigers have been honored by the SEC on offense or defense six times in five weeks (Cam Newton twice, Fairley twice and Josh Bynes and Mike Blanc once each).

Fairley, a junior, dominated the Warhawks, despite playing barely any snaps in the second half. He had four tackles, getting three tackles for a loss of 16 yards. One was a sack of eight yards.

Fairley leads the SEC in sacks (5) and tackles for loss (11.5). He is tied for sixth nationally in sacks and tied for third in TFLs.

Asked yesterday if he had taken his game to another level this year, Fairley said, "A little bit. I'm not saying I've gotten all the attention. The guys around me have helped me, for real. If it weren't for Antoine Carter a couple of times, the quarterback would have been stepping out of the pocket. ...

"Working together as a unit. A unit thing. That's basically helping me out, allowing me to make plays."

Let's get right to the links. We'll be back with press conference information this afternoon:

• I will be doing a LIVE chat tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET/noon CT on our main sports Web site. Here's a link to join the fun. I appreciate any and everyone who will come and ask a question or two.

• And if you have interest in Georgia, David Hale of our sister paper the Macon Telegraph will have a chat right before mine at noon ET/11 a.m. CT. Here's a link for that.

• Auburn RB Eric Smith countered last week's third-degree assault charges with a harassment claim of his own, writes Andrew Gribble of the Opelika-Auburn News. Police have made arrangements for Decari Jenkins, the alleged victim of the assault, to surrender this week.

• Eight freshman, including Louisiana Tech's kicker and punter, will play Saturday against Auburn, writes Jimmy Watson of the Shreveport Times.

• This is from a few weeks ago, but it still applies. Bulldogs RB Daniel Porter wants to be a complete back, writes Joseph Schiefelbein of The Advocate in Baton Rouge, La.

• The betting line for the Auburn-Louisiana Tech game looks like it's right around 13. Of course, this would only matter if gambling were legal.

• It's about halfway through, but La. Tech coach Derek Dooley says he's not trying to mimic the Boise State model, writes ESPN.com's Graham Watson. Honestly, Boise State is pretty dang good. That's not a bad model to follow.

• Alabama defensive lineman Brandon Deaderick was shot after an apparent robbery attempt last night. Michael Casagrande of the Decatur Daily has been following the story all day on his blog. Good news: Deaderick is in "good condition" and could be released today.

• ESPN.com's Chris Low ranks the SEC's special teams. Auburn is 9th, much to special teams coordinator Jay Boulware's chagrin, I'm sure. That seems pretty low for a team that returns the preseason second-team All-SEC punter, a returner as dynamic as Mario Fannin and a few coverage units that ranked among the best in the conference and country last year. I guess Wes Byrum's struggles last year are the trump card in this equation.

• The Browns released former Auburn cornerbacbk Rod Hood.

• And lastly, I'd like to thank the visitors to this blog for making August the best month we've had so far. We finished with 86,666 page views last month. Our previous high was 43,766. That's quite a jump, as this graph captured right before the end of the month indicates. So thank you and keep coming back for your Auburn coverage, and, as one more reminder, don't forget about tomorrow's LIVE chat.
  

Just got my college football preview issue of Sports Illustrated in the mail, with a big ol' picture of Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead and center Daverin Geralds on the cover, touting the Rebels as a potential party crasher to the BCS and the sixth (sixth!) ranked team in the country. That in itself is a different conversation for a different time (I, for one, don't think Ole Miss will live up to expectations this year).

ANYWAY, Sports Illustrated doesn't give Auburn too much credit.

First, the good things it had to say about the Tigers: it lauds DE Antonio Coleman as one of the first players to watch from SEC teams that didn't make the top-20.

But the magazine had plenty of not-so-great items about Auburn. For starters, it ranks the Tigers as the 65th-best team in the country. Here's where they stand in the rankings:

• 62. Stanford
• 63. Mississippi State
• 64. Connecticut
• 65. Auburn
• 66. Vanderbilt
• 67. Maryland
• 68. Air Force

It should also be noted that Ohio, the alma mater of friend of the blog Andrew P. Gribble, is ranked 59th. Those are the same Bobcats who won four games last year.

The magazine also picks the Tigers to go 6-6 overall and 2-6 in the SEC, finishing in sole possession of last place in the SEC West. It predicts Auburn will play in the Liberty Bowl against UTEP. I don't think the overall record is too far off. I've gone on record as saying 7-5 and a bowl game would be a major accomplishment for a team undergoing a coaching transition and struggling in scholarship numbers.*

(* - I don't think Auburn's going to sweep its non-conference games like SI does. I think there's a very good chance the Tigers lose to West Virginia in the third week and win at least three SEC games)

But the most interesting part of SI's SEC preview page is it already lists Gene Chizik as the coach on the hot seat. "His 5-19 record at Iowa State made him an unpopular choice, but he has recruited well in the new job. Will Auburn fans give him time to turn things around?"

Now that's pretty unforgiving. The coaches on the hot seats from other BCS conferences certainly seem deserving. Here they are:

• ACC: Al Groh, Virginia: Ahh, a coach I know well, having served as a beat writer there for four-plus years prior to moving to Auburn. Al's prickly demeanor certainly doesn't help him get any slack from boosters and fans when the team's not doing well. Neither does his 82-84 record in eight seasons.

• Big East: Steve Kragthorpe, Louisville: He's 11-13 in two seasons, running former coach Bobby Petrino's successful program into the ground.

• Big Ten: Bret Bielema, Wisconsin: My proud alma mater has gone from 12-1 in Bielema's first season to 9-4 and then 7-6 last year. Even though I like Bielema, that's a terrible trend.

• Big 12: Dan Hawkins, Colorado: He's 13-24 in three years in Boulder, hardly recreating the success he had at Boise State.

• Pac-10: Paul Wulff, Washington State: He walked into a pretty untenable position and went 2-11 in his first year.

Now, Chizik doesn't really seem like he belongs on this list. Whatever you think of his time at Iowa State -- and despite the varying opinions, 5-19 is a cold, hard stat -- it would seem to me that coming to a new situation like Auburn and overhauling the staff would mean he gets a little leeway this season. Regardless of Chizik's past, already putting him on the hot seat (and I would define that as a coach who has to worry about being fired) seems a tad unfair, even at a school as demanding about its football success as Auburn. Thoughts?

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

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



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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

Yes, I'm in the press box 2 1/2 hours early for the Auburn-West Virginia (would have been four hours if the fine folks at West Virginia media relations had provided a map for parking). I will try to post what I can during the game tonight, but a 7:45 p.m. start is going to make things very tight on deadline.

This seems like a quintessential fall college football game. Plenty of different colored leaves on the trees and a pretty good nip in the air. It's expected to dip down into the 30's tonight. Fortunately I am in a heated press box for most of the night (I know you were all worried).

Anyway, not much to report so far from up in the box of Milan Puskar Stadium, which has to be the only stadium in the country named for a pharmaceutical magnate.

Lots of tailgating in the parking lot. From the amount of beer being purchased at a Sheets on my way in, I'm assuming West Virginia fans know how to "prepare" for a football game with the best of them.

Have a few observations about my flight from Atlanta to Pittsburgh this morning:

• First of all, I saw not one, but TWO people in the concourse of the Atlanta airport on Segways. I've ridden one before. They're fun when you're doing a tour of some area or have an afternoon to kill. But who actually uses one of these while traveling? What do people do with them when they get to where they're going? I'm pretty sure it doesn't fit in the overhead compartment. Truly strange.

• Secondly, the Pittsburgh airport has lifesize replicas of two great American icons: One, a young George Washington, who apparently fought to claim the fort that became Pittsburgh. The other? Steelers running back Franco Harris making the Immaculate Reception. Yup, I'd say Pittsburghers take their football seriously.

Since I already got a couple of comments about it this morning, I guess now's as good a time as any to say farewell. Today's my last day covering Auburn. I accepted a job as sports editor of the Athens Banner-Herald and will start there on Friday. I'm a bit nervous about moving into a management position, but it will be beneficial for me professionally and financially. Probably personally, as well, because I felt like I'd been in a bit of a rut lately.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who sent encouraging e-mails and posted comments. The vast majority of folks have been excessively nice to me and I enjoyed interacting with most of you, as well as the kids on the football team. I think they're going to be very good this season.

If you're ever so inclined, you can catch me at the Banner-Herald's Web site in the future. I'm sure I'll be doing some form of a blog at onlineathens.com with general musings. Would love to hear from you.

Thanks again for reading.
dc

I can't say anything terribly earth-shattering came out of today's post-practice interviews. You know what the neatest thing I heard today was?

I asked Antonio Coleman if he had any big plans for the team's day off on Saturday. I figured I'd get a little quote on taking it easy on the day off to do a note on that in a story tomorrow. But he said he's planning to go with the freshmen (who unlike the veterans will be required to go) to visit kids at Opelika's Storybook Farm. He doesn't have to do it. He said he just wants to and enjoys it. I thought that was something. You know what I do on my days off? Not a damn thing.

Here's the description of Storybook Farm from its Web site: "Storybook Farm, Inc. is an equestrian-based program offering free therapeutic care to children with chronic or terminal illnesses, disabilities and those learning to live with a loss."

That's a good thing the kids from Auburn do in going over there to visit those kids. Good for them.

* Tuberville said Tristan Davis again did not practice, but Brad Lester did.
* DL coach Don Dunn said Zach Clayton has a sprained neck, but he doesn't expect it to keep him out for an especially long period. He said he hopes Clayton will be back by the first game.
* Dunn said Jake Ricks is back practicing and had a great day today.
* WR coach Greg Knox said Mario Fannin's hamstring and shoulder are pretty much healed and he's back practicing and moving around well.
* Tuberville said Jomarcus Savage and Bart Eddins should be back to work shortly. Both ran on the side today, he said.
* Tuberville said he will host the seniors at his house tonight to talk about their time at Auburn and what they're expecting for the year. He said they'll eat steaks that he estimated to be about 2 inches thick. Said it would give them a chance to vent a little bit.

I wasn't aware of this until another writer mentioned this a few minutes ago, but Samford announced today it will play Auburn in 2011 and Florida State in 2010.

You might recall that former Auburn quarterback and coach Pat Sullivan -- the 1971 Heisman Trophy winner -- is the head coach at Samford. According to the release, it will be the first time he coaches against Auburn. I thought he'd coached against Auburn while at UAB, but I guess that's not the case.

The FSU matchup will have some interesting angles, too, since Bobby Bowden went to school there (you think he'll still be the coach there in 2010?) and coached there, as did his successor-in-waiting, Jimbo Fisher.

Anyway, here's the link.

One of the other writers was talking on Sunday about one of the crazier ballots in the Associated Press preseason poll. Didn't rank Auburn, Tennessee, West Virginia, Illinois or Kansas, yet ranked Alabama and Notre Dame and had Cal at No. 6. Turns out I went to high school with the guy at St. Paul's in Mobile. His name's Taylor Zarzour and he's on the radio in North Carolina now. I think we actually worked on the high school paper together many years ago and from what I remember, he was a pretty good guy.

Yeah I think his ballot's kind of out of left field, but I came across a Web site that asked him to explain it and his response seemed pretty reasonable (basically, he picked teams based on what he thinks the outcome of their season will be, not where they stand going in). I think he's wrong, but he's as entitled to his opinion as I am to mine. I trust that once the games start, he'll rank the teams where they deserve to be ranked. This controversy is yet another reason why I hate preseason polls. They serve absolutely no useful purpose other than water-cooler conversation.

I've especially started thinking in the last couple days about how it seems like many of Auburn's special teams battles are still up in the air. It was a good day for Eddie Gran to come in and talk to the beat writers this afternoon, after Auburn's morning workout. They'll practice again later this afternoon -- the last two-a-day of preseason -- and we'll talk to Tommy Tuberville.

It sounds like tomorrow's scrimmage might help in some regard, but I don't know that Gran, Auburn's special teams coordinator, thinks it will decide things in every race.

P -- They give off the impression that the closest race is between Ryan Shoemaker and Clinton Durst at punter. Several times one of the coaches has made that comment.

K -- It sounds like Wes Byrum's got the lead on Morgan Hull

PR -- I think Gran would probably use Robert Dunn first, but he said he's been pleased with Philip Pierre-Louis and Chris Slaughter there as well. Watching those guys return punts in practice has been fun, especially when they find their hole and get to accelerate.

KOR -- First guy Gran mentioned was Tristan Davis. In no particular order, I believe the other names he mentioned were Ben Tate, James Swinton and Pierre-Louis.

Obviously not a big news day. Here are some good examples of just how not newsy it has been thus far:

Pierre-Louis came and spoke to the pack after practice. He sort of settled the beat writers' debate about how to pronounce his last name, but not really. He said his dad says it Pierre-Lou-wee. Philip said he usually says Pierre-Lou-Iss. He said we should probably go with Lou-wee like his dad says it. I think I'll just call him Philip. I guess I was kinda rambling there. These are the things you really need to know.

Someone asked Philip, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., native if it has been difficult adjusting to life in Auburn. I believe he said it took some getting used to. I asked him if he'd ever seen a cow. Seemed like a perfectly legitimate question. He assured me that they do have cows in South Florida. Dang. That's not the way I pictured Fort Lauderdale at all.

We'll have some stuff from Tommy Tuberville later. Might have some injury rundown to discuss entering the scrimmage. Back later...

I saw where Rivals upgraded Auburn commit Raymond Cotton's rating to four stars today. They also rate him as the No. 12 dual-threat QB prospect. I was thinking about how rare it was for an Auburn commit to receive a bid to the Elite 11 quarterback camp and I actually dug up a list of all 10 Elite 11 classes thus far. Auburn has had one player go to the camp -- Neil Caudle in 2005.

For whatever reason, Auburn has rarely gotten the huge QB signees in my 20-something years of keeping up with the Tigers. I've always wondered why that is. I guess it's because Auburn has so often been close to the vest in its offensive approach -- which might be why they always seemed to bring in great running backs. In contrast, Georgia has three former Elite 11 QBs on its current roster -- Matthew Stafford, Joe Cox and Logan Gray -- and two more commits out of this Elite 11 class in Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger.

Obviously if you look at some of the names on there, it's not a rock-solid predictor of collegiate success. But there are some pretty stinking good players who have participated in that thing since it started a decade ago. If my count is right (and if Jarrett Lee winds up as LSU's QB) it looks like four starters for Auburn's 2008 opponents are former Elite 11 QBs -- Stafford, Lee, Jevan Snead and Jonathan Crompton.

Here's the list. I'd acknowledge where I found it if I could only remember:

1999
Brock Berlin
Jeff Smoker
Chris Rix
Casey Clausen
Matt Cassell
Roman Ybarra
Matt Lovecchio
Chance Mock
Jon VanCleave
John Rattay
Zac Wasserman

2000
Derek Anderson
Nic Costa
Kellen Clemens
Brodie Croyle
Billy Hart
Matt Leinart
Ingle Martin
Adrian McPherson
Kyle Orton
Casey Paus
D.J. Shockley
Paul Troth

2001
Ben Olson
Chris Olson
Drew Olson
Justin Zwick
Tyler Palko
Trent Edwards
Vince Young
Reggie McNeal
Gavin Dickey
Evan Kraky
Will Proctor
Ryan O'Hara

2002
Michael Affleck
Dennis Dixon
Tommy Grady
Robert Lane
Chris Leak
Justin Midgett
Blake Mitchell
T.C. Ostrander
Clayton Richard
Jamarcus Russell
Andre Woodson
Kyle Wright

2003
Rhett Bomar
John David Booty
A.J. Bryant
Kirby Freeman
Brian Hildebrand
Cornelius Ingram
Nate Longshore
Tony Morelli
Chase Patton
Bobby Reid
Matt Tuiasosopo
Drew Weatherford

2004
Harrison Beck
Jake Christensen
Joe Cox
Jonathan Crompton
Jonathan Garner
Ryan Perrilloux
Kyle Reed
Mark Sanchez
Rob Schoenhoft
Willie Tuitama

2005
Matthew Stafford
Tim Tebow
Kevin Riley
Cody Hawkins
Jevan Snead
Josh Freeman
Mitch Mustain
Pat Devlin
Jake Locker
Isiah Williams
Neil Caudle
Zach Frazer

2006
John Brantley
Stephen Garcia
Willie Korn
Ryan Mallett
Rontrell Bailey
Aaron Corp
Logan Gray
Peter Lalich
Jarrett Lee
Brock Mansion
Keith Nichol
Tyrod Taylor

2007
Nick Crissman
Dayne Crist
Blaine Gabbert
Mike Glennon
Jacory Harris
Star Jackson
Landry Jones
Andrew Luck
E.J. Manuel
Kyle Parker
Sean Renfree
John Wienke

2008
Tajh Boyd
Richard Brehaut
Allan Bridgford
Raymond Cotton
Garrett Gilbert
Andrew Maxwell
A.J. McCarron
Zach Mettenberger
Aaron Murray
Bryn Renner
Tom Savage
Eugene Smith

Y'all see where Josh Jarboe is going to Troy? He was one of the top high school receivers in the country last year and signed with Oklahoma, but got himself in a little trouble before he got there. A little more after he got there, including a freestyle rap on Youtube that became a little Internet sensation. He was kicked off the team not long after that thing began making the rounds. I started to embed it in a post, but after watching it I realized my boss would have a coronary (it's got a little bad language).

Instead, here's a highlight reel of Jarboe. He's a very talented player. I know Georgia fans were excited about the possibility of him going to UGA last year before he committed to Oklahoma. I'm guessing they're glad he opted to go elsewhere, especially in light of the other disciplinary issues they've had this year. Besides, they signed two super-talented receivers this year in A.J. Green and Tavarres King anyway.

Our columnist, Troy Johnson, spoke with DeRon Furr Sr. today about his son's decision to transfer to Memphis. I'm glad to see that's sorted out and that he's excited about playing football again. It was a shame the way things ended up here for him because, as I said on here before, I liked DeRon in the handful of times I dealt with him. A fresh start is exactly what he needs. Good luck to him.

I'd imagine you're going to read a lot more about practice fights in the near future, because of the participants in today's scrape. It started out between Ryan Pugh and Antonio Coleman in pass-rush drills, but Lee Ziemba ran up in there as it continued and I don't believe it was to break it up. There were a lot of people trying to end it, including players, coaches and trainers, but it turned into a big mess and they crashed over a water cooler. When they cleared it out, Coleman was initially lying face down on the ground and was attended to by trainers. After a minute or so, he rolled over and eventually got up and was fine. He was back out practicing soon afterwards, but I know everyone watching was thinking back to the spring, when an after-the-whistle fight between Ziemba and Coleman left Coleman with a sprained neck.

Tommy Tuberville was flippant when asked about it after practice, saying he wants them ornery every day. That's not the attitude he or the coaches showed immediately after the fight cleared, though. Like Paul Rhoads said after practice, there's a good kind of aggression -- and fights sometimes happen because of that -- and then there's going over the line. I guess that's the fine line they walk every time one of these things happens. Eight times out of 10, nothing comes of it. But then you occasionally run into the broken leg or the nearly broken neck and you have to answer questions about it. What's the proper reaction to it? I'm not sure.

* Talked with Harry Adams today. He didn't get his wind knocked out the other day. He had a bruised lung and was spitting up blood -- lots of it -- after taking a hit from Antoine Carter in a tackling drill. After his ride in the ambulance, he said, he spent about five hours in the hospital, but he's OK now. He came back out to practice today after it had started and rode the stationary bike and did some light running. He expects to be back at practice soon.

* Jason Bosley was back at practice today. He did most everything except pass-rush drill, so he had a ringside seat for the brawl. Bosley, by the way, said he doesn't think there's any animosity between the offensive and defensive line and didn't think the brawl was a big deal. He said he doesn't think the back problem he had will be a continuing thing.

* Ben Tate came out after taking a big hit from Chris Evans while catching a screen pass in 11-on-11. Tate was kind of hung out to dry on that play. Evans gave him a good thud, but if he was going full-bore, he'd have taken Tate's head off. Tate and Bosley rode back to the football building in a university van after practice -- which has to be one of the top benefits of being injured.

* Robert Dunn and Mario Fannin, both with shoulder injuries, wore non-contact jerseys in practice.

* I thought Carter, Jomarcus Savage and Zach Clayton had some good reps in pass-rush drill before the brawl. Clayton's a big bull. He's been extremely impressive in those one-on-one matchups.

* This just in, Cameron Henderson is fast. Can't see him playing this year because he's way too skinny, but he's gonna be good.

* Somebody asked Tony Franklin which freshmen he sees playing this year, and he actually rattled off a couple. His responses: Eric Smith (probably), Philip Pierre-Louis (probably), Derek Winter (question mark), Darvin Adams (probably).

I've barely interacted with him, but I like Tony Franklin. You always appreciate a coach, especially a coordinator, who gets it and he does. Same thing with Paul Rhoads. Both of them spoke with the pack after practice. I think I'll probably post the Q/A with Franklin later.

Missed a good bit, but here are a couple of quick things from this evening's practice.
* The defense had completely dominated the last couple of 11-on-11s I watched, but I thought the offense fared a little better just now. I might have scored that one a draw.
* The biggest news from the press conference was that Marcus Jemison had surgery today to repair a broken leg. In my professional medical opinion, I'd say he's probably redshirting this season.
* Sen'Derrick Marks had a nice pass breakup at the line.
* One of the QBs threw a screen right into Raven Gray's stomach, but he dropped it.
* The players and Tommy Tuberville were available after the morning practice, so nothing new there. But LB coach James Willis and OL coach Hugh Nall spoke with reporters after the evening workout. Got a couple interesting things out of that, including that Willis thinks Tray Blackmon has the most special combination of skills of any LB he's worked with. I assume that's only as a coach, but he didn't specify. He brought up Dontarrius Thomas and Karlos Dansby and said Tray has the ability to be that kind of special player.

Obviously most of us agree with that assessment. It's a matter of him staying healthy and out of trouble. When I covered high schools several years ago, I knew some coaches whose team was in the same region with LaGrange (Blackmon's school). When their team was coming to the line for a running play, the QB was supposed to come to the line and then audible into a run in the opposite direction of wherever Blackmon was lined up. Of course that meant running toward Wesley Woodyard, who went on to be one of the top LBs in the SEC for the last couple years, but they looked at that as a preferable option. In other words, Tray's pretty good.

Didn't make it to Auburn's practice this morning, but I'll have post-practice updates after this evening's workout. I'm in the process of selling my house in Columbus and had to stay around to let the appraiser in to do his thing. Will be glad to get this over with and move closer to where I'm working. A lot of different things -- not the least of which is commuting back and forth every day while trying to get this house sale done AND trying to find somewhere new to live -- have combined to make this a really stressful experience thus far. If I got snippy with you in an e-mail or a response to a comment, sorry about that. I'm kinda having a tough time right now.

Look back here tonight and I'll have some stuff from practice and some quotes on the proceedings.

Auburn practiced for approximately three hours this morning in what became oppressive heat. Lordy, I'm too fat to be out in the sun that long. It was a largely uneventful practice. Watched a lot of quarterback stuff, as I'd seen only a little of Kodi Burns and had never seen Chris Todd throw a pass until today. They both had their moments. Both completed some nice deep throws in 11-on-11. Also talked to them for the first time. They're good interviews -- express themselves well and aren't real dry. I always appreciate it when someone doesn't go straight into cliche mode, which you'd think might be tough considering how many of these interviews they've had to do, and will continue to do.

Anyway, some quick observations:
* For those of you who enjoy the practice scraps, the defensive backs gave us one today. I think Luke Brietzke from Auburn Undercover and I might have been the only media folks to have seen it...and we didn't really see much of it. All of a sudden there was a pileup during a DB-only drill of about six or seven people. You could see arms wailing but couldn't tell exactly who they belonged to. Well, freshman safety DeRon Furr was on the bottom of the pile and got his bell rung pretty good. After they broke it all up, he was on his hands and knees for a couple minutes before needing major assistance from a trainer to walk back to a nearby tent set up for the players' water breaks. Furr spent the rest of practice sitting in the tent, but seemed to be OK by the end. He eventually put his jersey back on and jogged out to the team grouping when Tuberville addressed the team at the conclusion of practice. Someone requested him for post-practice interviews, but they never brought him to the media tent, so we'll have to find out more about that later. Not a big deal, really, I wouldn't think. Fights happen in practice, especially in the preseason.
* Ryan Williams did practice and Tuberville said he appears to be OK academically, although he said he's not in great shape right now.
* Antonio Coleman and Tez Doolittle both worked on the side with what Tuberville said were hamstring injuries. I'm not sure whether Doolittle is fully recovered from that Achilles injury, either. We'll see about that.
* Freshman DB T'Sharvan Bell spent a lot of time during practice on the side riding an exercise bike. Joining him was No. 40, which is either Justin Albert or Anthony Jemison (they're both listed as No. 40). I didn't ask which one it was.
* Chaz Ramsey and Andre Wadley did not practice.
* While everyone else practiced in shorts and helmets, Mario Fannin practiced in shoulder pads. Tuberville said it was protect his previously injured shoulder.
* Talked to Neiko Thorpe (formerly Lipscomb) about the name change deal. He said he's always gone by Lipscomb, his mother's name. He said his parents have been married for several years and he decided he'd start going by his dad, Glenn Thorpe's, surname when he started college. He's had it legally changed and everything. So there you have it.

Hi everybody. I guess today's my last day of relative peace for the next four months. I spent it driving around Auburn between introductions with members of the football coaching staff, trying to find a halfway decent rental property that isn't already spoken for this fall. (No luck so far. Feel free to make any suggestions because I could use all the help I can get).

Anyway, I met the entire coaching staff today. Got to sit down with Tommy Tuberville and his son Tucker in his office for a good while and get to know him a little bit. It's nice to put the introductions behind you so you have at least met these guys before you start asking them questions. I'm looking forward to getting started with practices, and you can tell they are too, although I'm betting my enthusiasm will be dampened a bit by about Day 15 of the 17 consecutive days of practice they're about to start Saturday without a break.

Couple notes from the day and then I'm going to post a couple of amusing pictures a friend e-mailed me today at the bottom from the coaches tour in the Middle East.
* Tuberville said they still haven't heard back from the NCAA Clearinghouse on Daphne RB Reggie Hunt. He said they otherwise expect smooth sailing when everyone reports Friday. I'll be writing something from that and will post some extra quotes from the new guys on here sometime tomorrow night, so look for that.

* Auburn basketball forward Josh Dollard has been kicked off the team for breaking team rules. They put out a press release on it today. I'm not sure if that's part of why Jeff Lebo seemed so unsure over whether Dollard would be ready for the start of the year on the SEC coaches summer teleconference a couple weeks ago. But it doesn't matter. He's done at Auburn now.

Lebo's statement in the press release:
"Josh understood his requirements and responsibilities to be an Auburn student-athlete, and he has fallen short in fulfilling what was clearly communicated to him."

* Also, the official Auburn site has a new page up and running detailing all 25 of the current and former Auburn folks who will be participating in the Beijing Olympics. It's got what they'll be competing in, when, all that good stuff. Check it out here.

* Now onto the pictures from the Middle East. I'm sure these have been making the rounds among Auburn fans, so they may or may not be new to you. I'd hope nobody minds me posting them here (if they do, I'll take them down). According to the e-mail I received, they were sent by Lt. Justin Cobb, who is stationed in Bahrain. I assume he's the guy in the pictures with the coaches. I thought a couple of them were neat and a couple of them were funny.

It's crazy to me how much was being made of Tuberville's seven-finger thing after their touch football game. If it wasn't obvious to you before, it should be obvious when you see a picture of Mark Richt posing with a guy hoisting an Auburn flag -- these guys didn't have to play up team loyalty over there, they were just there to visit the soldiers. If somebody asked Richt to pose with an Auburn flag, obviously he did it. If some Auburn fan asked Tuberville to throw up seven fingers while they carried him off the field, he just wanted them to have a good time while he was there. Even when one of them held up a sign mocking how Nick Saban wasn't there and Tuberville posed with him, who cares? I mean, really...who cares? (And I guess I should point out you could photoshop whatever you want that sign to say on there. I didn't take that picture, so I'm not 100 percent sure it's legit). Either way, it's a good thing those coaches did to go over there and visit those guys. There's nothing wrong with a little good-natured fun, no matter what you might read to the contrary in some anonymous mongoloid's message board rants.

Also included in the e-mail forward were photos of the front and back sides of a coin Tuberville was handing out to those guys over there. Apparently he was the king schwag distributor over there.