SEC offenses finally having their moment in sport history

This season, the SEC leads all FBS conferences with an average of 31.1 points per game. The Pac-10 and Big 12 are tied for second (30.2 ppg), familiar ground for leagues known for high scores.
The SEC days as an offensive superpower are relatively new. The conference was tied for first with the Big 12 last season at 28.4 points per game, but it was ninth as recently as 2008 at 25.6. Before that, the conference hadn’t finished higher than fourth in the decade, finishing 10th twice and ninth another time. "The thing that I’ve always believed about our league, and I don’t know that it’s changed a whole lot, as an offensive coach you’re always looking for a match or a mismatch," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "Offensively it is very difficult to say, ‘I’m going to pick on this guy’ because athletes are just as good on the defensive side. "It is a time now that it’s swinging a little bit? I don’t know that I can say for sure. That’s kind of the debate." The most obvious example of the shift is No. 2 Auburn. The undefeated Tigers, led by dual-threat quarterback Cam Newton and second-year offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, lead the conference in scoring at 42.8 points per game. They also allow 24.9, only eighth-best in the league, Auburn coach Gene Chizik was asked how important a dominant defense is in the SEC. "Offenses are very explosive these days," Chizik said. "We’re trying to contain some of these high-powered players and high-powered offenses. Week in and week out in this league, you’re seeing the offenses scoring a lot of points and accounting for a lot of yards. Our goal and objective at the end of the day is to win."
Oh yeah, by the way, we have failed lately to mention this...'The SEC Rocks!'

SEC Football Online's free sportbook pick

Alabama Crimson Tide will get their final tune-up before next week’s Iron Bowl, playing upstart Georgia State.

Thursday, November 18: 7:30 p.m. ESPNU

Georgia State Panthers (6-4 SU) at No. 11 Alabama Crimson Tide (8-2 SU, 6-4 ATS) Alabama Crimson Tide’s National Championship defense is just a few games from ending. This is a team that came into 2010 with high expectations, but will finish with no less than two losses. One team that had no expectations were the Georgia State Panthers, who are playing the first year of football in the school’s history. No one knew exactly what to expect from them, but coach Bill Curry has done as good a job as anyone nationally, as he’s gotten the Panthers to 6-4 on the season. While not much is known about Georgia State, credit needs to be given to quarterback Drew Little. The freshman has stepped in and been spectacular this year, as he’s thrown for 18 touchdowns on the year, including four in his last two games. Wide receiver Danny Williams has had several big games, including an 11 catch performance a few weeks back.

What Curry has done to get this team competitive in Year One is phenomenal. Georgia State is coming off a big win against Lamar last week, and has somehow won five of their last seven. But none of those wins has come to a team with even 1/100th the talent of the Crimson Tide.

This may not be a great Alabama team, but they’re still one of the Top 15 teams in the country. Expect them to cruise to a comfortable win.

Sports Betting Pick: Alabama

SEC has 3 Nagurski Trophy Finalists...LSU, Auburn, and Georgia

Five finalists for the 2010 Bronko Nagurski Trophy were announced on Wednesday by the Football Writers Association of America and the Charlotte Touchdown Club.
The Bronko Nagurski Trophy: Clemson end Da'Quan Bowers, Auburn tackle Nick Fairley, Georgia linebacker Justin Houston, Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly and LSU cornerback Patrick Peterson are vying for one of the FWAA's highest honors, its National Defensive Player of the Year award.
The winner will be announced on Dec. 6 and presented the Bronko Nagurski Trophy at a gala banquet at the Westin Hotel in Charlotte, N.C., where Clemson coach Dabo Sweeney will be the keynote speaker.
In addition, the FWAA and Charlotte Touchdown Club will present the fourth Bronko Nagurski Legends Award, presented by CSX Intermodal, to Mike McCoy, a standout tackle at Notre Dame and a member of the 1969 FWAA All-America team.
The FWAA's National Defensive Player of the Year Award is named after Bronko Nagurski, who dominated college football at the University of Minnesota as a bruising fullback and defensive tackle from 1927-29. He could have been an All-American at any position, playing 60 minutes as the best player wherever he lined up.

Georgia contacts SEC office regarding Fairley

Georgia athletics director Greg McGarity confirmed that his program spoke to the SEC office about the hits made by Auburn’s Nick Fairley during Saturday’s game. "We exhausted all avenues of communicating to the conference office," McGarity said."“And then it’s up to the SEC to make the decision. There’s really nothing more that we could’ve done. We just followed SEC protocol in how you communicate and how you deal with questions."

The SEC announced late Tuesday that Fairley would not be suspended. Spokesman Charles Bloom said any discipline would be dealt with 'internally.' McGarity was asked if that surprised him. "I probably better not comment on that," he said. "I need to stay away from that. I don’t want to get into any type of trouble or conflict with the conference office." Fairley’s helmet-to-back hit on Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray drew a 15-yard penalty. Fairley also delivered a late hit to Murray’s knee, which was not called a penalty, that caused the quarterback to leave the game. Murray did not practice Tuesday and his status is day-to-day. Georgia head coach Mark Richt has declined to comment on the Fairley issue. The furthest he went was on his radio show Monday, saying that he does 'believe in standing up for our boy.' Last month Georgia center Ben Jones was suspended for one half for a chop block he made at Mississippi State. McGarity said that suspension was decided after the SEC notified Georgia, which then reviewed the play and agreed that discipline was warranted. "Coach Richt was bothered by it," McGarity said. "He was disappointed in our student-athlete and took appropriate action, and felt like it was the appropriate consequence. And I have to give Mark a lot of credit for taking that position to do the right thing. And the young man paid the consequence and missed the first half of the Colorado game. And since that time he’s learned a lesson." McGarity then declined to comment on Auburn not disciplining Fairley.

Football fun for Vols now

The Volunteers, after winning just two of their first eight games, outscored Memphis and Ole Miss by a combined 102-28 score the past two Saturdays. Which they’ve enjoyed nearly every second of it. "You work hard to win, and you celebrate when you win," senior defensive end Chris Walker said. "It’s great to have a little fun after everything we’ve been through the past few years, especially us older guys." The Vols’ primary dancing weapon of choice has been a simple circling of their fingers around their temples. It’s called going 'loco,' the Spanish word for 'crazy,' and it means just that. They’re going crazy. Even first-year UT head coach Derek Dooley displayed the move to gathered media Monday afternoon, albeit with a different meaning of 'crazy.' "I never know if they tell me the truth," Dooley said when asked what players told him about the dance. "They say they’re just going crazy, you know, out there. I told them I do that in the office when I watch the film and I see them line up wrong." "In October, I spent a whole month doing this." Dooley then displayed the dance. "I may do it when they mess up, and they can do it when they do well; then we’re even," Dooley said. "I don’t know. If that brings them juice, then I’m all for it."

No. 10 Alabama hosts fledgling Georgia State

The Crimson Tide (8-2) hosts former ‘Bama coach Bill Curry’s first-year program Thursday night in a game that is literally a historic mismatch. As for Alabama, it’s the game before The Game. Eight days later, the Tide will face No. 2 Auburn aiming to knock its in-state rival out of national title contention. Realistically, the primary goals for this one are probably along these lines: avoid injuries and get backup quarterback A.J. McCarron and other youngsters some playing time. Coach Nick Saban and Alabama’s players insist they’re not approaching it that way. "We don’t want to not look at Georgia State and let them have the advantage because if we’re so worried about Auburn, Georgia State will have a good chance to come in and upset us," safety Robert Lester said. The Panthers (6-4) have enjoyed success in their debut season but it’s come against teams like Shorter, Campbell and Savannah State. Now, the independent Championship Subdivision team faces one of the biggest names in college athletics. It’s one that Curry is intimately familiar with since he was the Tide’s coach from 1987-89, winning a Southeastern Conference title in his final season. If starting a program from scratch was his biggest challenge this year, facing the defending Bowl Subdivision national champions is No. 2. "The bottom line is when you have a chance to do something like this with your football team you do not walk away from it out of fear of somebody whipping you badly or anything else that might happen," Curry said. "What you do is you take advantage of the privilege of going to play in one of the great football venues ever in intercollegiate athletics." Curry does have firsthand experience with a huge upset of Alabama. He led his 1981 Georgia Tech team, en route to a 1-10 season, to a 24-21 upset of the fourth-ranked Tide in 1981.

His players have heard plenty about that this week.

Arkansas could have TE, DT back against Mississippi State

Arkansas tight end D.J. Williams and defensive tackle Byran Jones are both probable for Saturday’s game at Mississippi State, Razorbacks coach Bobby Petrino said Monday. Williams left in the third quarter of Saturday’s 58-21 win over UTEP with a shoulder injury. The senior had five catches for 58 yards and two touchdowns prior to the injury. "I think he’s going to be OK," Petrino said. "He was better yesterday. He was in this morning for treatment and better this morning." "It’s a day-to-day deal. He just got a bruise on his shoulder." Jones, a freshman, has missed the last two games with an ankle injury suffered in the first quarter of the Razorbacks’ win over Vanderbilt on Oct. 30. Jones was in uniform and went through pregame drills Saturday night, but was held out as a precautionary. "It was a situation where if we really needed him we could have put him in," Petrino said. "He was healthy enough to play, but we felt like we shouldn’t risk it. We wanted to make sure he was 100 percent ready for the Mississippi State game." The No. 13 Razorbacks (8-2, 4-2 SEC) will face the No. 21 Bulldogs (7-3, 3-3) Saturday at 6 p.m. The game will be televised by ESPN.

Trent Richardson’s status for Tide’s game Thursday vs Georgia State, uncertain

Trent Richardson did not play Saturday in Alabama’s comfortable 30-10 win over Mississippi State. Whether the same thing occurs in two days remains to be seen. The Tide running back injured his knee in the loss to LSU the weekend before last, but head coach Nick Saban seemed somewhat optimistic he’ll be available this weekend against Georgia State "He actually wanted to play in the last game, but we didn’t feel like he’d practiced enough or he was ready enough," Saban said. "I still think we have to evaluate that day-to-day. It will be interesting. He really didn’t do anything on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, so he’s had three recovery days as well as rehab days to see where he is today, and that will determine a lot as to how ready he will be to play in this game and what contribution he’ll be able to make." Now, wait one minute, not to disrespect head coach Bill Curry in his first-year program at an impressive 6-4, but it’s Georgia State. Saban, save Trent for the Iron Bowl which is coming up only 8 days after this game, with Auburn, why would you possibly risk losing Richardson in this game?

Newton and Fairley named players to watch for Walter Camp Player of the year award

Auburn junior quarterback Cam Newton and junior defensive tackle Nick Fairley are two of 15 players nationally that were named as "Players to Watch" for the 2010 Walter Camp Player of the Year award, the Walter Camp Football Foundation announced Tuesday. Newton is one of nine quarterbacks on the watch list, while Fairley is one of just two defensive players named to the list. The others include three running backs and a wide receiver. Newton is ranked second in the nation in passing efficiency (183.58) and is eighth nationally in rushing (117.9 ypg), while accounting for a nation-leading 37 touchdowns. He became the first player in SEC history and the eighth in FBS history to pass for 2,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in a single season this year. Fairley leads the SEC with 18.0 tackles for loss, which is tied for fourth most in the nation. He also leads Auburn with 7.5 quarterback sacks and ranks fourth with 47 total tackles. He has been named SEC Defensive Player of the Week or SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week four times this year.

SEC office will not suspend Nick Fairley for Iron Bowl

The Southeastern Conference office has reviewed the tape of the Auburn-Georgia game and has decided it will not suspend Auburn defensive tackle Nick Fairley for the Iron Bowl against Alabama. That news comes today from SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom.

"We're handling the matter internally with the institution," Bloom told The Birmingham News. One play in particular drew the attention of the SEC. It was Fairley's third-quarter late hit on Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray. On that play, two steps after Murray released a pass, Fairley drove his helmet into Murray's back. Fairley was called for a 15-yard roughing-the-passer penalty on the play. The SEC has the power to add additional penalties after a game, and those penalties can range from a public or private reprimand to a suspension. There's precedent from earlier this season. The SEC suspended South Carolina linebacker Rodney Paulk for the first half of the Vanderbilt game the week after Paulk put a helmet-to-helmet hit on Kentucky's Randall Cobb. The SEC also suspended Mississippi State linebacker Chris Hughes for the entire Kentucky game the week after Hughes was called for a flagrant hit on UAB's Frantrell Forrest. Forrest was a good 40 yards away from the play when Hughes charged from behind and leveled him.

Auburn DL duo to serve half-game suspension

Gene Chizik said Sunday that he was hoping to get some clarification Monday from the SEC on the status of his two defensive lineman who were ejected from Saturday’s win over Georgia for throwing punches. As far as the conference is concerned, there’s nothing to clarify. The lineman will sit out a portion of the Tigers’ next game. SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom told the Birmingham News Monday that there’s no appeal available to Auburn, and Mike Blanc and Michael Goggans will be suspended for the first two quarters of the Nov. 26 Iron Bowl against Alabama. NCAA rules state that any player that throws a punch is to be suspended the first half of a team’s next game. Too bad there’s not a similar NCAA or SEC rule against putting the crown of a helmet into the back of a quarterback a couple of seconds after he’s released the ball.

Dooley says key is Vols are finishing drives, scoring points

Even after Tennessee's carefree romp at Memphis, Derek Dooley expressed some disappointment that the Vols missed some opportunities to really bury the Tigers in the second half. One week later, after UT kicked Ole Miss while it was down with 21 unanswered points in the second half of Saturday's 52-14 victory, the coach had few gripes. "The team stayed focused," Dooley said on his Sunday teleconference. "I told them in the second half I didn't want anyone looking at the scoreboard. It was 0-0 and we were going to go out and play as hard as we did in the first half. "And they did that." It just hadn't happened in that fashion since the Vols' season opener against UT Martin, when they outscored the Skyhawks by 30 in the final 30 minutes. In between that game and Saturday's, UT (4-6, 1-5 SEC) was outscored 158-52 in the third and fourth quarters, a stretch that included three scoreless second halves. The term "second-half meltdown" came up more than once in Dooley's news conferences throughout the rough patch. And each time it did, he bristled at the notion that UT was exclusively an underachieving team after halftime. In hindsight, now that it appears UT's second-half woes have been temporarily remedied heading into Saturday's game at Vanderbilt (TV: CSS, 7:30 p.m.), Dooley said he felt the same way. "I've always felt like there were problems that were happening in the first half and over time it was a cumulative effect," Dooley said. "It wasn't that we played great in the first half and it was a disaster in the second half. "What it comes down to is we're not giving up as many big plays on defense and we're finishing drives on offense, scoring points."

LSU Tigers still have BCS title game hopes

The battle is lost, so, win the war. That is LSU's Bowl Championship Series predicament after Auburn clinched the West on Saturday with a 49-31 victory over Georgia. Even if Alabama beats Auburn on Nov. 26 and LSU wins its remaining two SEC games to finish 7-1 in conference, Auburn would still win the West at 7-1 by virtue of its tie-breaking win over LSU. Auburn and first-time SEC East champion South Carolina (7-3, 5-3) play in the SEC title game in Atlanta on Dec. 4. The Tigers (9-1, 5-1 SEC), who defeated Louisiana-Monroe 51-0 Saturday night, remained No. 5 in the BCS Standings released Sunday night, however, and if the right teams lose and they get some luck, it is not inconceivable that LSU could make the Jan. 10 BCS title game in Glendale, Ariz. "It's conceivable, but not likely," BCS expert Brad Edwards of ESPN said. "The likelihood of a non-conference champion getting to the game is remote since the BCS formula was changed." Non-conference champions Nebraska and Oklahoma made the BCS title games in the 2001 and 2003 seasons, respectively, but since then the human vote has been made significant enough to guard against the computers blindly putting non-conference champion teams in the title game because of better or similar records. "But knowing how LSU got in back in 2007, if ever a team could do it, it would be LSU," Edwards said. The Tigers and their fans thought their hopes of a BCS championship appearance were even more remote three years ago after a regular-season finale loss at home to unranked Arkansas than they do now. But after BCS national championship game-bound West Virginia was upset by Pittsburgh on the night LSU won the 2007 SEC Championship Game, the 11-2 Tigers leapfrogged five teams to No. 2 in the BCS from No. 7 and went on to beat BCS No. 1 Ohio State for the national title.LSU's best chance this time might be for Auburn to lose to Alabama and to South Carolina while the Tigers win at home Saturday against Ole Miss (4-6, 1-5) and on Nov. 27 against Arkansas (8-2, 4-2) in Little Rock, Ark. That would likely make LSU the highest-ranked SEC team in the BCS at 11-1 with Auburn at 11-2 but on a two-game skid with a loss to BCS second-tier South Carolina. Then if enough other teams, such as TCU, Boise State and maybe the highest ranked Big 12 and Big Ten champions, lose, who knows? Maybe it could be LSU versus Oregon for everything.

Should top-ranked SEC team get title shot regardless

The Associated Press ran with a story Monday that, during his press conference today, LSU head coach Les Miles intimated that the top-ranked team in the SEC should get a shot at the BcS title because of the year-long grind the conference slate has become.

Here’s what Miles had to say, and what the Baton Rouge Advocate thinks Miles was inferring:

LSU is behind four undefeated teams, including two (Boise State and TCU) from non-automatic qualifying conferences. Miles seemed to argue that BCS conference teams like an SEC champion should get the nod over similar mid-major teams. But he did it in a rather indirect way and admitted he was “being as evasive as I can be.”

“There’s no doubt that great teams can come from any conference, there isn’t any question,” Miles said. “But it’s that team that can prove over a length of schedule that it has played the best and deserves the opportunity to represent all of college football in that BCS championship game.”

The implication is that a team playing an SEC schedule should get the benefit of the doubt against teams that don’t play a schedule that puts a team in the same jeopardy.

Auburn to play in SEC championship game Dec. 4; Newton solidifies Heisman candidacy

After much discussion and debate surrounding allegations about the quarterback’s recruitment last year, Newton played Saturday, as expected, leading Auburn to an SEC West-clinching 49-31 win against Georgia.

Afterward, Auburn wasn’t talking about Newton’s off-the-field matters. "Any questions that I’m going to entertain about Cameron Newton will only be solely pertaining to the game he just played," Tigers head coach Gene Chizik said, stonewalling two attempts by reporters asking about allegations surrounding the quarterback’s recruitment at Mississippi State last year. Newton, who solidified his Heisman Trophy candidacy with 151 rushing yards, 148 passing yards and four total touchdowns, was not made available in the post-game news conference, a first this season. Auburn came to its decision to play the quarterback after a set of preliminary interviews with the NCAA last week, according to the Birmingham News. Those sessions centered on Newton’s father, Cecil, talking about money with a former Mississippi State player during the quarterback’s recruitment by the Bulldogs last year. He said his son never knew about the discussions. Cecil Newton told an unnamed source that no money ever exchanged hands and Mississippi State never made such an offer, according to an Atlanta TV report Friday by WSB’s Mark Winne. The NCAA spoke with Cam Newton and his parents last week, according to The News, before Auburn decided not to sit him out of Saturday’s game. Auburn has not been accused of any wrongdoing. The school did not have a comment regarding Newton’s eligibility, continuing its stance. Earlier Saturday, Yahoo Sports reporter Charles Robinson tweeted that Auburn has hired Gene Marsh, who spent nine years on the NCAA Infractions Committee, including two as the chairman. Marsh, who retired as an Alabama law professor this year, now works in counsel to the Birmingham-based law firm of Lightfoot, Franklin & White. The firm specializes in helping universities with NCAA compliance and academic issues. It helped Auburn in its most recent NCAA infractions cases in football and basketball.

Gamecock's Lattimore leads USC to SEC East title

The game had long been decided Saturday night as the final seconds fell off the clock, but Steve Spurrier was coaching until time expired. South Carolina’s sixth-year coach spent those last minutes orchestrating the celebration, tutoring his players on the proper way to hoist him onto their shoulders and carry him to midfield at The Swamp, site of so many of his previous triumphs. His players, he knows, are new to this. "We haven’t had many championships so we have to coach them up a little bit," Spurrier said. "But we didn’t talk about it obviously until the game was over."

The No. 22 Gamecocks can be forgiven for getting carried away. They had long since put away No. 24 Florida, 36-14, and had moved on to enjoying their first SEC East title.

"Me and some of my buddies thought we could come in and move the ball on them, but we had no idea it was going to come down like that," said senior captain Spencer Lanning, who hit field goals of 49, 47 and 41 yards. "It’s just a credit to coach Spurrier and all our coaches for getting us ready."

Not to mention Marcus Lattimore. The freshman tailback gained a career-high 212 yards and had three touchdowns on a school-record 40 carries, allowing the Gamecocks (7-3, 5-3 SEC) to play a punishing game of keepaway with the No. 24 Gators. Spurrier’s best bit of coaching this week and was not at the chalkboard.

"I saw Marcus Monday or Tuesday of this week and I said, ‘Have you got about 40 carries in you this weekend?’ and he said, ‘Yes, sir,’" Spurrier said. "That was the plan, and that’s how we beat them, running Marcus Lattimore and playing great defense."

By JOSH KENDALL

Boise State jumps TCU to No. 3 in AP's Top 25

Boise State jumped back ahead of TCU in the AP college football poll after the Horned Frogs played their closest game of the season. No. 1 Oregon and No. 2 Auburn also held their places, though the Ducks' narrow escape in a 15-13 victory Saturday night at California cost them 11 first-place votes and left them with 38. Auburn, which erased an early 14-point deficit and beat Georgia 49-31, picked up 10 first-place votes for a total of 12.

The Top 25 teams in The Associated Press college football poll, with first-place votes in parentheses:

1 Oregon (38) 10-0
2 Auburn (12) 11-0
3 Boise State (9) 9-0
4 TCU (1) 11-0
5 LSU 9-1
6 Wisconsin 9-1
7 Stanford 9-1
8 Ohio State 9-1
9 Nebraska 9-1
10 Alabama 8-2
11 Michigan State 9-1
12 Oklahoma State 9-1
13 Arkansas 8-2
14 Virginia Tech 8-2
15 Missouri 8-2
16 Oklahoma 8-2
17 South Carolina 7-3
18 Texas A&M 7-3
19 Nevada 9-1
20 USC 7-3
21 Iowa 7-3
22 Mississippi State 7-3
23 Arizona 7-3
24 Miami (FL) 7-3
25 Utah 8-2

Injury to UGA QB Murray’s doesn’t appear to be serious

Aaron Murray was injured Saturday when Fairley’s helmet connected on a borderline hit with the QB’s knee on a pass attempt. That play was preceded by the ultimate in cheap-shot thuggery, with the Auburn defensive tackle planting his helmet into Murray’s back well after the ball was released, and led to the end-of-the-game ugliness that resulted with two Auburn defensive lineman ejected for throwing punches. Head coach Mark Richt said after the game that there doesn’t appear to be any structural damage to Murray’s knee, although the QB was not permitted to return to the game. His status is officially “unknown”. "I really don’t know how he is," Richt said. "When he came out, he took a shot on his knee. We don’t think it was any kind of structural damage, it was more of a blow to the knee or the bone. He asked if he could go back and play. He was up and able to but I told him no." Fortunately for UGA, they are off this weekend before their in-state rivalry game with Georgia Tech Nov. 27.