The Auburn football's teams BCS national championship celebration that took place at Jordan-Hare Stadium last Saturday will be shown in a 30-minute program Tuesday night on CSS.

Fans will be able to watch the Auburn-Oregon BCS title game on the high-definition video boards at the new Auburn Arena on Jan. 10.

Auburn played in the two most-watched games in the country this season and three of the top six.

Auburn defensive lineman Jeffrey Whitaker was watching ESPN’s SportsNation when he saw something about fellow tackle Nick Fairley being a dirty player.

He begs to differ.

“Nick is like one of the most cool, calm, collect dudes you could meet,” Whitaker said. “That’s why it’s funny. It’s like, dirty? No. That’s not right the right word to describe Nick.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to block out what they say and keep playing.”

Fairley, a Lombardi and Nagurski finalist, in addition to being one of 15 players in contention for Walter Camp player of the year honors, leads the SEC with 18 tackles for a loss and is second with 7.5 sacks.

But he’s come under scrutiny lately for a number of questionable hits against Georgia that led the Bulldogs to speak to the SEC office.

On one play, Fairley speared quarterback Aaron Murray in the back with the crown of his helmet well after he released the ball. Fairley was flagged for roughing the passer.

In the final minutes, Fairley was partially blocked into the knee of Murray, knocking him out of the game. Georgia’s players took exception to the hit and went after Fairley on the next play, causing several scuffles.

Georgia raised concerns to the SEC, which said the matter is being handled internally between the conference and Auburn. No suspension has been handed down.

Fairley was not made available for comment Wednesday.

Asked about Fairley’s reputation for questionable hits during Wednesday’s teleconference, head coach Gene Chizik said he didn’t know how people refer to the lineman.

“I know that certainly no one teaches that,” Chizik said. “He’s a very try-hard guy. He plays with great effort and great passion for the game. And certainly nobody would have any intent to do anything other than the right things in any game.”

Asked about Fairley, Whitaker had a strong opinion about what type of player his teammate is: “He’s a beast.”

Follow the blog on Twitter and Facebook. And join tomorrow's afternoon live chat at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT. I plan to do it as normal to make up for cutting things short last week.

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

• Reserve defensive linemen Michael Goggans and Mike Blanc were both ejected for throwing punches during skirmishes at the end of the Georgia game. NCAA rules say they must sit out the first half of the Iron Bowl as well. That could put Auburn in a bind against Alabama, which averages 177.2 rushing yards per game thanks to the running back duo of reigning Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson. “Anytime you play such a physical football team like we’re getting ready to play, you need all hands on deck,” Chizik said. "But our young guys have got to step in there. They’ve played in a lot of games, played a lot of snaps. They’ve played in a lot of physical games in this league, so I don’t think it’s going to be a lot of difference in that regard, but it’s still going to be an extremely physical game as we know. Like I said, the young guys will have to step up.”

• It could mean a bigger role for reserves like Whitaker, fellow freshmen Kenneth Carter and Corey Lemonier and sophomore Dee Ford, who have worked into the rotation. “I just feel, hey, this is what I was recruited for,” Whitaker said. “I talked to Blanc after the game and he was just telling me how important it was to step it up. And he felt like he shouldn’t make the move like that and regretted it, but at the same time it’s time to step it up.”

• Pretty cutting words from CB T'Sharvan Bell about the fights near the end. "I was trying to be smart. I knew what was at stake," he said. "I knew what they were trying to get us to do at that point in the game. It's being smart. Goggans has to be a better teammate, a better player at that point."

• T-Bell is a former high school quarterback. He said he doesn't know what the big deal is about quarterbacks getting hit. "I got hit after the play, handing the ball," he said. "It's part of the game. When you get back there at quarterback, that's what you sign up for."

• Auburn got back on the field Wednesday with a full-padded practice after three full days away form the complex. It was a welcome break for a team that had gone for 15 straight weeks, including August practice. “We needed it bad,” cornerback Demond Washington said. “Just having a week off to get our bodies back together.”

• Auburn’s coaches realize the break can be a mixed bag, especially for a team that’s been on a hot streak like the Tigers. “Sometimes you have a week off and you play great and you say, ‘Boy that was great,’” Chizik said. “And sometimes you come back and have a week off and you play terrible and you say, ‘Boy that really hurt us.’ I don’t know. I think it came at the right time for us. We came off a very physical game with Georgia, and having gone that many weeks in a row, the time was right.”

• Chizik thinks Auburn's slow start against Georgia can be contributed to being too hyped. "I think that was a little bit of a lesson learned," he said. "We haven’t quite been that way all year. I think we’ve been focused and we’ve been ready to play. I think we’ll take those lessons and hopefully be excited to play, have energy and passion for the game but also play smarter and with a little more self control.”

• If the Tigers were that hyped for the Georgia, how can they expect to settle down for Alabama. "There's a learning process, too," Bell said. "If we go into Georgia and we see on film and coaches tell us: Hey, you were too high. You were playing with great energy, but you weren't focused. Now going into Alabama, it's going to be a completely different environment. We'll be able to come down from it and play within."

• Does that mean they'll ask WR coach Trooper Taylor to stop waving a towel? "We'll let Trooper do what he do," Bell said. "But we know in our heads that we've got to be on a certain level to be able to play where we need to play."

• Quick take from Trooper on offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn: "It's like working with Harry Potter. You never know what you're going to get. The guy will take the salt and the pepper and we're eating lunch and he's drawing up plays with it. And I'm like, 'Coach, I just want to eat my sandwich.' But he's really particular on details. He understands the game and he has an answer for what he sees on tape. For me, just being around the guy, the way he approaches game day, the way that he goes about a game plan, has been really remarkable to watch. He'll call a play based on what's happening with the defense before they're even really lined up, because in that certain area of the field, 90 percent of the time they're lined up that way. And that's impressive to me. To memorize that and be able to have on the top of his head is really impressive.

• Taylor said Gus' sharpness comes through preparation: "We do more walkthroughs than anybody in America, I promise you that, to the point where the guys will say they're probably get a little burned out on it. But we know what to do."

• Chizik doesn't think he'll bring up the last two Iron Bowls much as motivation. "The history is certainly going to be there, but we’re focused on the here and now and the players they have now and what they are doing now," he said.

• T-Bell confirmed he had a partially torn hamstring that kept him out for three games. He he'll still get treatment three times a day until the season is over.

• He said he and Auburn's other cornerbacks worked in and out against Georgia WR A.J. Green, who torched the Tigers in the first quarter. "They just came to us and said somebody has to step up and make plays," Bell said. Auburn eventually figured something out about Green. He only had one catch in the fourth quarter.

• Bell compared and contrasted Green and Alabama WR Julio Jones. He said Jones is more physical, especially at the line of scrimmage. He said Green is shiftier. "He goes along with you, but when it gets to the time to go get the ball he's a different animal," Bell said.

• The punting battle between Ryan Shoemaker and Steven Clark will continue this week. Shoemaker got the nod against Georgia after Clark held the job for several weeks. "Both of them have been better in practice," Chizik said. "Both had some good punts."

• Center Ryan Pugh thinks Auburn's different running styles make it hard to defend. "We try to stretch the field and then we try to pound it inside a lot," he said. "I think you've seen over the past couple of games that there's teams that are trying to figure it out and there's some teams that have caught on to it more than others. But it's not something that you're going to start defending in one week. The misdirection, that's who we are as an offense."

• Pugh doesn't think Auburn's misdirection running game is gimmicky. "Whether people want to say it's gimmicky or not, that's who we are," he said. "I don't think the people we play against would say we're gimmicky. They might want to, but I don't think they would."

• Pugh said it didn't hit him immediately that he had played his last snap at Jordan-Hare Stadium. "They were reviewing it and we were standing out there on the field about to kick the extra point and Neil (Caudle) came up to me and said, 'Hey, you know this is going to be the last play you ever play on this field,'" Pugh said. "The last play score a touchdown, go out like that, that's got to be something you remember forever."

• Pugh on the Iron Bowl: "It's the biggest game of the year every year whether you're 11-0 or 0-11."

• He said it's hard to describe the rivalry to someone. You have to experience it. "It's something that it becomes a part of you after you play in the game one time or you pull up to Tuscaloosa and they get off the bus in Auburn," he said. "People don't understand it until you're on the way to the game on Friday and traffic's backed up all the way down 59 to 459."

• Whitaker said he got a good idea of the Iron Bowl's intensity last year during a recruiting visit. "As I saw it, it was just a game against Alabama. And they called it the Iron Bowl," he said. "I didn't know why, so this was my first time knowing it was the Iron Bowl. I knew all that week just being a recruit it was just, 'Beat 'Bama. Go Auburn.' It was just constantly. Because it's not like that at Georgia and Georgia Tech. It was like, Georgia's going to win it every year. That's how it is in Georgia. But from what I've been hearing and what I know is that it is a personal game. It's one of those games where if you win, you can carry it on your back the whole year. So you're either going to be like, man, I'm going to be talked to the whole year."

The rest of Auburn's regular season schedule is set. Auburn and Georgia will kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Nov. 13. CBS will televise the game.

Auburn will play under the lights again when it goes on the road Oct. 30 at Ole Miss. The Tigers and Rebels will start at 6 p.m. ET., the sixth night game for Auburn this year.

The game time for Auburn and Arkansas' Oct. 16 matchup at Jordan-Hare Stadium won't be decided until next Sunday or Monday.

CBS elected to use its six-day option for choosing football games that weekend. That means the Auburn-Arkansas game will be televised at 2:30 p.m. CT by CBS, at 5 p.m. by ESPN2, at 6 p.m. by ESPNU or at 8 p.m. by ESPN2.

The other games under consideration that weekend by CBS are Mississippi State at Florida and South Carolina at Kentucky. Ole Miss at Alabama is the other SEC game.

For the second time in a month, Auburn quarterback Cam Newton was named the SEC's Offensive Player of the Week.

Newton accounted for 334 yards and five touchdowns in Auburn's 35-27 victory against South Carolina last Saturday, the second time he's been involved in five touchdowns in a game this season.

Defensive tackle Mike Blanc was also honored as the Defensive Lineman of the Week. The senior had a career-high seven tackles (three solos) and a fumble recovery against South Carolina. He was part of the Tigers' defensive line that held the Gamecocks to 79 rushing yards, 119 below their season average.

Newton ran for a career-high 176 yards and three touchdowns. He now has the second- and third-highest single-game rushing totals by a quarterback in school history.

Newton also completed 16 of 21 passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns. He's the first Auburn quarterback to throw for at least two touchdowns in each of his first four games.

He leads the SEC and is 11th nationally in rushing (121.3 ypg) and is atop the the conference and fourth nationally in passing efficiency (182.46). He's also second in the league and 18th nationally in total offense (292.0 ypg).

Newton is the first Auburn player to earn SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors twice in the same season since Kenny Irons in 2005.

(Blog plugs: Twitter and Facebook.)

It's never too early to begin the Heisman hype. Is Newton worthy of that kind of talk? We wrote about that in today's paper. Check it out.

And just for comparison's sake, here's how Newton stacks up through four games against Tim Tebow's Heisman Trophy 2007 season:

• Tebow: 65-95 passing, 1096 yards, 68%, 10 TD; 70 rushes, 368 yards, 7 TD (played Western Kentucky, Troy, Tennessee and Ole Miss, record: 4-0)

• Newton: 43-68 passing, 683 yards, 63%, 9 TD; 75 rushes, 485 yards, 5 TD (played Arkansas State, Mississippi State, Clemson and South Carolina, record: 4-0).

Tebow had a little bit better numbers (especially passing), although he had an extra creampuff opponent in there. The point is, you put up good stats on an SEC team that looks like it's going to finish pretty high in the standings, and you've put yourself in a good position to be a contender. And now that Auburn is in the top 10 -- and if it can stay there -- Newton will get plenty more national recognition than before.

Of course, as Ryan Mallett learned, that also means performing your best when the nation is watching. So Newton will undoubtedly need big games against Arkansas, LSU, Georgia and Alabama to warrant serious consideration, which is asking a lot.

Is this premature? Probably. Then again, it's Louisiana-Monroe week. Got to write about something.

** One scheduling note: Auburn's game at Kentucky on Oct. 9 will start at 7:30 p.m. ET and be televised by ESPN or ESPN2, according to the schools' websites.

For the second straight week, an Auburn player has been honored as SEC Player of the Week.

Defensive tackle Nick Fairley earned the defensive honors this week after his big day at Mississippi State. He finished with five tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2.5 tackles for a loss, a fumble recovery and an interception in Auburn's 17-14 win.

The 6-foot-5, 298-pound junior from Mobile, Ala., is the first Tiger since Karibi Dede in 2005 to recover a fumble and intercept a pass in the same SEC game.

"When Nick wants to play aggressive, downhill football, he can be a force on our defense," Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said. "What we've got to get Nick to do is we've got to get him to do it all the time, every play. You can see that when he decides to do that, he's a really, really good football player."

In two games this season, Fairley has nine tackles, four TFLs, three sacks and three quarterback hurries.

"I think Nick's got a lot of confidence in what he can do," Chizik said. "He needs to open it up and do that every snap. I think you got a taste of what kind of force he can be. He's got to do it every snap."

In scheduling news, Auburn's Sept. 25 home game against South Carolina will be televised by ESPN and start at 7:45 p.m. ET.

Here's the full slate of SEC games that week (times are ET):

• UAB at Tennessee, 12:21 p.m., SEC Network
• Alabama at Arkansas, 3:30 p.m. CBS
• Kentucky at Florida, 7 p.m., ESPNU
• Georgia at Mississippi State, 7 p.m., FSN
• Fresno State at Ole Miss, 7:30 p.m., CSS
• South Carolina at Auburn, 7:45 p.m., ESPN
• West Virginia at LSU, 9 p.m., ESPN2

Auburn and Clemson's football game Sept. 18 will be the fourth college football game to air on ESPN 3D.

Fans interested in viewing the game in 3D must have ESPN 3D service and a 3D television. The game will also be broadcast on regular ESPN. Kickoff is 7 p.m. ET.

ESPN began 3D programming last January after three years of testing. The Auburn-Clemson game will be the third college football game to air on ESPN 3D this year and the fourth ever.

ESPN 3D is available in the United States to approximately 45 million households and has carriage agreements with DirecTV, Comcast and AT&T. For more info about what you need, click here.

Auburn's season opener against Arkansas State on Sept. 4 has been scheduled for a 7 p.m. ET kickoff, the school announced today. It will be televised by Fox Sports South.

That means Auburn's first three games will be at night. The Tigers travel to Mississippi State for a Thursday night game Sept. 9 at 7:30 p.m. ET. Their Sept. 18 game at home against Clemson is also a 7 p.m. start. Both games will air on ESPN.

Auburn also announced a 2:30 p.m. ET start time for the Iron Bowl in Tuscaloosa on Nov. 26. The game will be televised by CBS.

Auburn and Clemson will kick off under the lights at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. ET, the SEC announced Wednesday. The game will be televised by ESPN.

Two of Auburn's game times have been scheduled. The Tigers play Mississippi State in a Thursday night game Sept. 9 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The Tigers open at home against Arkansas State on Sept. 4.

Here's Auburn's full football schedule:

• Sept. 4: Arkansas State, TBA
• Sept. 9: at Mississippi State, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)
  
• Sept. 18: Clemson, 7 p.m. ET (ESPN)
• Sept. 25: South Carolina, TBA
• Oct. 2: Louisiana-Monroe, TBA
• Oct. 9: at Kentucky, TBA
• Oct. 16: Arkansas, TBA
• Oct. 23: LSU, TBA
• Oct. 30: at Ole Miss, TBA
• Nov. 6: Tennessee-Chattanooga, TBA
• Nov. 13: Georgia, TBA
• Nov. 26: at Alabama, TBA

Auburn's game at Georgia on Nov. 14 will start at 7 p.m. ET and be televised by either ESPN or ESPN2. It's the Tigers eighth night game this season.

The network designation will be made following games on Nov. 7.

Here is the full TV lineup for Nov. 14:

• CBS - 12:00 ET - Tennessee at Ole Miss
• SEC Network: - 12:21 ET - Kentucky at Vanderbilt
• CBS - 3:30 ET - Florida at South Carolina
• ESPNU - 7:00 ET - Louisiana Tech at LSU
• ESPN or ESPN 2 - 7:00ET - Alabama at Miss. State or Auburn at Georgia
• CSS - 7:30 ET - Troy at Arkansas

Auburn's Oct. 31 game against Ole Miss will start at 12:21 p.m. ET and be televised by the SEC Network.

It will be the Tigers' second day game this year. That means at least three of their final four games are in the day. The Furman game Nov. 7 is at 1:30 p.m. ET. The Alabama game Nov. 27 is at 2:30 p.m. ET.

The kickoff for the Nov. 14 game against Georgia is still TBA.

There's plenty of college football news out there in the world today, like this: the Auburn-LSU game will be televised by ESPN2 on Saturday, this according to the schedule posted on ESPN.com. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Now for the links:

• LSU's defense has been good, but it wants to get better in the second half of the season, writes Randy Rosetta of the Baton Rogue Advocate.

• Les Miles is 2-2 coming off bye weeks with the Tigers, writes Rosetta.

• LSU has been a "B" movie in the first half of the season, writes Glenn Guilbeau of the The News Star.

• The Tigers are right where they want to be this season in ever facet ... except offense, writes Gary Laney of the Advocate.

• Florida is No. 1 in the BCS standings. Alabama is No. 2. LSU is ninth. (Alabama is No. 1 in the Associated Press poll. I had this wrong earlier.)
  

• Enjoy the current BCS standings as quick as you can. They're bound to change quick, writes Mark McCarter of the Huntsville Times. This is usually where you see the cliched "BC-Mess!" headlines in newspapers and Web sites across the country. I think they're waiting for Boise State to move higher than fourth for that to be the case this time.

• LSU still controls its destiny to make a push in the BCS standings, writes Ted Lewis of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

• Carl Dubois of TigersDroppings.com (nice Web site name) makes a case for Jarrett Lee to be LSU's starting quarterback instead of Jordan Jefferson.

• Jerry Hinnen of the War Eagle Reader says Auburn's offensive numbers earlier this season were not a mirage.

• Auburn would have loved to have won ugly in Saturday's game, writes Ray Melick of the Birmingham News.

• Auburn tumbled to 10th (10th) in ESPN.com blogger Chris Low's power rankings this week:

• "10. Auburn: How different does this Auburn team look now as compared to three weeks ago? The Tigers (5-2, 2-2) have lost two in a row, including the 21-14 setback to Kentucky at home last week. Defense has been the major stumbling block. The Tigers can’t stop anybody, but their offense also let them down in the loss to the Wildcats."

• Low also writes that Auburn is heading in reverse in his things we learned post:

• "3. Auburn headed in reverse: Everybody wondered those first five weeks if Auburn was for real. In retrospect, maybe the Tigers weren’t. More and more, it’s looking like they feasted on a pretty cushy home schedule. It’s no surprise that depth problems are starting to plague the Tigers. Gene Chizik knew that was going to be a problem back in August. But as Auburn grinds away on what will be 11 straight weeks without a bye, the lack of depth on this team will only become more glaring. The 21-14 home loss to Kentucky last Saturday was disappointing on a couple of different fronts. The defense was again exposed, allowing 282 rushing yards to the Wildcats. But now the offense is starting to show some signs of slippage. Quarterback Chris Todd didn’t play well for the second straight week, and Auburn also hurt itself with drive-killing penalties and untimely dropped passes. All in all, this looks like a pretty average team right now that’s just trying to hang on."

• Nick Saban made his team watch a documentary about Lebron James' high school team for motivation, writes Michael Casagrande of the Decatur Daily.

• Steve Spurrier's not superior anymore, writes Kevin Scarbinksy of the Birmingham News.

• Mark Ingram for Heisman? That's the buzz in Bama right now, writes Bill Bryant of the Huntsville Times.

• Georgia faced seven straight BCS-conference opponents to start its season and is thankful for its bye this week, writes David Hale of the Macon Telegraph.

• Florida and Texas failed to impress, but they still control their BCS destinies, writes Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated.

• Notre Dame is taking solace in the fact that it didn't get blown out. Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star finds this humorous.

• Here are several examples of how Arkansas was done in by the refs at Florida, according to The Wizard of Odds. Now THOSE are examples of bad calls. Auburn jumping early on offense? Not so much.

• The stabbing and death of UConn's Jasper Howard at a school-sponsored dance this weekend makes you sick to your stomach. Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant has an account of the incident here.

Auburn's homecoming game against Furman at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Nov. 7 will start at 1:30 p.m. ET and be offered on pay-per-view, the school announced today.

Pay-per-view will be available in Alabama and South Carolina to cable subscribers and small dish owners who subscribe to DirecTV or Dish Network. Fans should contact their local cable provider or small dish provider to order the game.

I tweeted this earlier, but the Auburn-LSU game in Baton Rouge on Oct. 24 will be at 7:30 p.m. ET and televised by either ESPN or ESPN2. The network is waiting to decide whether to show the Throwdown between the Tigers or the Urban Meyer-Dan Mullen reunion when Florida travels to Mississippi State.

Just to give you something to watch this afternoon, I've put together this video from Sunday's interviews. It's got defensive coordinator Ted Roof, linebacker Craig Stevens, defensive end Antonio Coleman, quarterback Chris Todd and running back Ben Tate answering questions leading into the Kentucky game.

Enjoy.

I've got a new video up. It has defensive coordinator Ted Roof, cornerback Walt McFadden, left tackle Lee Ziemba, right guard Bart Eddins and wide receiver Kodi Burns answering questions leading into the Arkansas game.

I tweeted this before, but Auburn's game against Kentucky on Oct. 17 will be at 7 p.m. ET and televised by ESPNU. Follow the blog on Twitter to get instant updates on stuff like that.

Here's the video. Enjoy.

Auburn's Sept. 26 game at Jordan-Hare Stadium against Ball State will start at 7 p.m. ET and be televised by Fox Sports South.

It will be just the third meeting between the two schools. Auburn defeated the Cardinals 30-0 in 2001 and 63-3 in 2005.

The Tigers play West Virginia this Saturday night. The game will be televised by ESPN2 and start at 7:45 p.m. ET.

Auburn's game this weekend against West Virginia at Jordan-Hare Stadium will be televised by ESPN2, the SEC announced today.

It's Auburn's second appearance on ESPN's family of networks this year. The game will kickoff at 7:45 p.m. ET.