Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

It’s Week 6 of the 2010 Southeastern Conference season and at the halfway point a few things stand out.

First off, the league has been playing like it has been hyped — the best football conference in the nation.

Second, the defending national champion Alabama Crimson Tide is at least as good as figured preseason. After five weeks, the Bama defense has looked better and better, while the offense has functioned like a well-oiled machine with movable parts. In fact, the question has become — can anybody stop the Crimson Tide offense? If the defense keeps improving game by game as has been the case, the question will become — can anybody stay on the field with Bama?

A third stand out has to be the Auburn Tigers. The Eagles have turned out to be better than almost anyone thought and AU quarterback Cam Newton looks more and more Tim Tebow-like every week. Behind Newton’s direction, the Tigers lead the nation in passing efficiency and Newton leads the Tigers in rushing. His ability to make a big play out of a broken play and the pressure his running puts on opposing defenses is invaluable. Word is that Newton’s name is going up the Heisman list. Two winners in a row from the state of Alabama?

Week six finds half the league’s teams still listed in the Top 20, a quarter or them in the Top 10, Bama leading the way, followed by Auburn (8), LSU (9), Florida (12), Arkansas (13) and South Carolina (19). The top game of the week probably depends on who is “your” team.

Read the rest of this entry »

TV Lineup and Lines Below

Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

You know, it’s sort of fitting that Week No. 13 of the Southeastern Conference 2009 football season is also Grudge Match Week — where in-state or traditional rivals get together. You know, the “you can throw the record books out on this one” kind of games where a win for one team can salvage a losing season, send the fans home into the long dreary night of no-football with happy memories with which to sustain them.

There are seven SEC games on a long-Thanksgiving Week schedule that begins with one game Friday and has a full slate on Saturday. Four of the seven are league encounters and all of the games are of the traditional type.

Of course, the biggest game of the week, the annual Iron Bowl, where Alabama and Auburn battle to decide state bragging rights for the upcoming year, leads off the action, set for Friday afternoon. And you can say that this year’s edition is special … OK, OK, you are right … every Iron Bowl is special, but for different reasons each time around. (Maybe something will happen this year to inspire a new name for the game, since it hasn’t really been the Iron Bowl since leaving Legend Field in Birmingham).

Read the rest of this entry »

Weekend Football TV Lineup Below…

Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

Looking ahead after Week One, it looks like the 2009 Southeastern Conference football season is going to be both interesting and entertaining … and better in some ways.

Of course, Florida fans, it can’t get any better than winning the national title and thanks to the Gators, the SEC again proudly wears the “Championship League” mantle.

But in some ways, as in competition with other BCS (Bowl Championship Series) teams, ’08 wasn’t a good one for the league — posting a losing (6-9) regular-season record against BSC teams and also finishing with a super-unusual (it may well be the first time ever) losing regular-season mark (4-6) against the Basketball Conference, also known as the ACC.

As part of its awesome 11-1 overall start to the ’09 season, the SEC reached the halfway mark in its victory total against BCS squads overall and the ACC in particular. Alabama beat Virginia Tech and South Carolina nipped North Carolina State to get the league off to a 2-0 start against the ACC. The other win over BCS teams was LSU over Washington, while Georgia posted the lone loss in a close contest against Oklahoma State.

There are four games that can be designed big games this week. Out of seven games on tap, three are league encounters – Mississippi State at Auburn (Line: Auburn by 14), Vanderbilt at LSU (Line: LSU by 14 ½), South Carolina at Georgia (Line: Georgia by 7) — kicking off the conference races.

Read the rest of this entry »

Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

It’s the Third Saturday in October on the fourth Saturday of October. Or whatever you call it, it is Alabama vs. Tennessee Week in the SEC.

Every October — historically on the third weekend of the month — since 1928 (except in 1943 when World War II got in the way) the Crimson Tide and Volunteers have teed it up, with Bama leading the overall series 45-38-7. Of late, it’s been a back-and-forth affair with the Tide seeking to beat Tennessee in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1991-92.

The game is, of course, big for the Tide because it is undefeated (7-0, 4-0) and just needs to keep winning to stay on course for the SEC Championship Game … and beyond. Tennessee (3-4, 1-3) is in the midst of a down year and a “spoiler” win over Alabama would go a long way toward making the Vols and Phil Fulmer feel better about the 2008 season. (Line: Alabama by 6 _).

Alabama’s John Parker Wilson may have to have another good day if the Tide is to roll as expected. Tennessee’s offense had been inoffensive for the most part this season, but does seem to be improved since Nick Stephens was installed as the starting quarterback.

But look for the Tide to do its usual … score first and often and run up a big enough lead that it can withstand a second-half letdown and survive once again. Even without celebrated nose tackle Terrance Cody in the lineup — the big guy is expected to miss two games with a knee injury — the Bama defense will handle the Vols. Josh Chapman will replace Cody at nose and there will not be much letdown. In fact, Chapman already played a good deal of the time and would have been the starter at the spot this year if Cody had not transferred in from junior college.

Alabama has been criticized for not winning pretty, losing style points by not dominating every game, etc. A win is a win and to keep winning, game in and game out, in the SEC is not easy. The reason the SEC is the best league in the land is that every team, from the bottom up, is capable of winning every week. The parity is amazing. No one is going to dominate every game. In fact, having a habit of letting down in the second half because you have run up too big a lead in the first half is probably a pretty good problem to have.

Every game is a big game. That’s something you hear all the time. It’s part of the official coach-speak lexicon. But late in the season, it becomes literally true, especially if you add in the word “conference” to the opening sentence. It’s getting to be late enough in the 2008 Southeastern Conference football schedule (Week that all conference games are huge, make or break for one or both teams involved.

That’s the case Saturday when four of the six games on tap are league matchups. The SEC has just four teams — the least this season — listed in this week’s national top 25 polls. But all four are in the top half … Alabama leading the way at No. 2, followed by Florida No. 5, Georgia No. 9, and LSU No. 11. All four are involved in three of the four conference tilts.

The three other two-league games this week have Georgia (6-1, 3) at LSU (5-1, 3-1) (Line: LSU by 1_), Kentucky (5-2, 1-2) at Florida (5-1, 3-1) (Line: Florida by 24), and Ole Miss (3-4, 1-3) at Arkansas (3-4-1-3) (Line: Ole Miss by 5_). Wins by Florida and Georgia will keep them tied atop the Eastern Division standings. If one wins and the other loses, the winner will take control of the division. A loss by LSU would be the second in conference play and just about guarantee the appearance of the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship Game as the West winner.

The Arkansas-Ole Miss affair is more than your usual matchups of 3-4 teams. It has the old coach-returns-to-old-stomping-grounds soap-opera storyline when Huston Nutt returns to Fayetteville at the helm of the Rebels.

The other games this week have Vanderbilt (5-2) hosting Duke (3-3) in the “Smart Kids Bowl” (Line: Vandy by 10) and Mississippi State (2-5) entertaining Sun Belt Conference member Middle Tennessee (2-5) (Line: Mississippi St. by 10).

A quick word about the game that opened up the SEC schedule last (Thursday) night when Auburn blew a 17-3 lead and continued its downward spiral with a 34-17 defeat at the hands of Big East member West Virginia. The second-half meltdown was in front of a national TV audience, the game being broadcast on ESPN. It seems that both of the teams from the state of Alabama — the Crimson Tide and the Tigers — have the same habit: getting ahead in the first half and then suffering a mysterious letdown after intermission. Auburn, like Alabama, has led at halftime in every game this year. But the now 4-4 War Eagles haven’t been as successful as the Tide, at least, in maintaining their first-half advantage throughout the game.

WEEKEND TV LINEUP

The rest of the weekend television lineup continues tonight (7 p.m. ESPN2) with a game that has BCS implications. BCS-buster wannabe Boise State, currently ranked No. 12 nationally, will take on San Jose State. This is one of just two tough games — games in which the Broncos from the Western Athletic Conference could be seriously challenged — left on the Boise State schedule. Saturday’s television lineup follows (all times CST):
11 a.m.
Boston College at North Carolina (CW), Texas Tech at Kansas (ESPN), Illinois at Wisconsin (ESPN2), Minnesota at Purdue (ESPN Classic), Wake Forest at Miami (ESPNU)
11:30 a.m.
Oklahoma at Kansas St. (FSNS), Baylor at Nebraska (Versus), Kentucky at Florida (Raycom Sports)
2 p.m.
Wofford at Elon (SportSouth)
2:30 p.m.
Virginia Tech at FSU (ABC), Georgia at LSU (CBS), James Madison at Villanova (CSS), Michigan St. at Michigan (ESPN2), Virginia at Georgia Tech (ESPNU)
3 p.m.
Dartmouth at Columbia (Versus)
5:30 p.m.
Colorado at Missouri (FSNS)
6 p.m.
Fla. Atlantic at La. Monroe (CSS), Middle Tenn. at Miss. St. (ESPNU)
6:45 p.m.
Alabama at Tennessee (ESPN)
7 p.m.
Notre Dame at Washington (ESPN2), Penn St. at Ohio St. (ABC)
9:15 p.m.
USC at Arizona (ESPN)

Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

The top game on Week 7 of the Southeastern Conference menu has to be LSU’s visit to The Swamp to take on the Florida Gators (Line: Florida by 6) … but the most interesting game — although the outcome will probably not have any real bearing on who wins the SEC West Division or the national championship — will take place on The Plains where Auburn hosts Arkansas (Line: Auburn by 19).

It’s hard to believe that the Hogs-Tigers matchup is only available on pay-for-view. With the soap opera that has gone on all week in the Loveliest Village, it would have been the most watched game during it’s time slot (4 p.m. start) — in the Southeast for darn sure — if it was available for free.

What am I talking about?

Well, in case you’ve been a coma or out of the country or in Minnesota or somewhere that only Big Ten matters matter to you, there has been a major shakeup — a “major disaster” according to someone who ought to know what he was talking about — at Auburn. You probably won’t see the Auburn offensive team imitating the furry guys that seem to intimating them in the photo accompanying this column. But then again, you might.

It’s not clear at this point just what you might see or not see when the Auburn offense takes the field Saturday. I wonder if anyone knows at this point, even AU head-man Tommy Tuberville. It is kind of funny that on the anniversary of “Jet Gate” when Auburn officials took the school jet to talk to then Louisville-head-coach Bobby Patrino about taking Tuberville’s job — before the season was actually over, it will be Patrino, now the head man at Arkansas, vs. Tuberville.

After the Tigers won the bowl game and the underhanded attempt to find a replacement for Tuberville before either schools were through playing, embarrassed AU officials gave Tuberville a raise and a big contract extension. Since that soap opera, things have gone smoothly at AU.

From one soap to another.

Oh, what happened, you ask?

Well in midweek, after giving him public support on Monday, Tuesday, and early Wednesday, Tuberville announced after practice at his very shortened (five minutes, no questions allowed) daily press huddle with media members that he had fired offensive coordinator Tony Franklin.

At the Tuesday post-practice press get together, Tuberville raved about how practice had gone, how Franklin had picked up the pace. He also gave forceful support to Franklin’s spread offense: “This is what we are going to run. We’re going to run it, we’re going to keep running it, and we’re going to get better at it. Sometimes people will say, ‘Why don’t you go back to doing what you did?’ Well, if you do that — try to change offensive horses in midstream — you are asking for a major disaster.”

Then less than 24 hours after that definitive statement, Tubs reversed himself and fired Franklin.

AU hired Tony Franklin as its new offensive coordinator and the guru of the spread offense was expected to turn the War Eagles into a point-producing machine. After six games it hadn’t worked so well, with Auburn sitting at No. 104 in the nation in total offense. But when Franklin installed his no-huddle, hurry-up spread design at Troy, it took a half year or more before the whole team there caught on. But after they had it down, they scored points in big bunches and pulled off upsets over highly regarded teams.

It may have come down to a lack of patience for Tubs, who knew that changing to such a radically different offensive system would take time. He said on Tuesday, “We’re [the coaches] not panicking and the players aren’t panicking. We knew going into the season there would be growing pains and I prepared the team for that.”

What happened? Did Tubs’s patience grow then? Were those growing pains just too painful?

It isn’t clear, but the fact remains that trying to tinker with and make changes to a new offensive scheme that the players spent fall drills trying to get down, usually just throws more sand into the gears.

The opinion here is that Franklin and Tuberville had a post-practice talk (even though Tubs denies this) and Franklin said something or somethings that were too much for Tuberville to take. Franklin was a media favorite because of his candor and bluntness in answering reporters’ questions. He had an aversion to coach-speak.

In an interview before the season began, Franklin said he would “never want to work for someone who prohibits his assistants from speaking to the media. I enjoy my freedom as an American,” Franklin said. “Our forefathers fought for our right to be able to speak freely.”

After the Vandy loss last week, Tuberville put out a gag order for Franklin. He was no longer to be available to the media for comments or questions. According to the SEC office, there is currently a league rule/policy that requires teams to provide media access to players and coaches after a game. The league official also said that the rule is often not enforced.

I knew that Franklin’s comment would probably get him in trouble after the loss to LSU when reporters asked him why second-string QB Kodi Burns had started the second half. Franklin’s answer was, “Ask the head coach.” That said, without saying it, “It sure wasn’t my idea.” And that could have been the beginning of the end.

My guess is that Franklin told Tuberville he didn’t like wearing a gag and may have even quoted the SEC policy about making coaches available for questions after games. If so, he put Tuberville up against the wall and he felt he had no other choice. Franklin didn’t want to stay if he couldn’t talk and Tubs felt as though he couldn’t afford to let him talk.

Tuberville since the firing has said that the team would still run Franklin’s spread, but “with adjustments” and that they were going to run the ball more, pass less. He also said that he was going to shorten the playbook, letting the offense run only the plays that they had down-pat. But putting in more runs, changing the scheme that was not fully yet understood into a hybrid that certainly won’t be down-pat in less than a week of preparation could be just what Tuberville said it would be — a major disaster.

Auburn is a big favorite at home, 19 points to be exact. But the bet here is that they certainly won’t beat the spread. In fact, Patrino may get his revenge.

Tuberville said on Thursday, “I made a mistake” in hiring Franklin. He may have made a bigger one in firing him mid-season. Auburn (2-2, 4-2) may beat Arkansas (0-2, 2-3), but if they do, it will be a close one and it will be the good AU defense that makes the difference.

No. 2 Alabama is not playing this week, but we can’t just not mention the hottest team in the SEC right now. Head coach Nick Saban has said practices are going good during this off week. And to tell the truth, the open date probably came at a very good time. The Crimson Tide did suffer a slight letdown last week against Kentucky.

Besides that, they also got more bad breaks than good ones. There were several questionable calls that went the other way, while TV replays showed several Kentucky fouls that were missed by the officials. But all in all, it was a good showing for the Tide. Any time you can play not-quite your best and the breaks go against you and you can win anyway, it’s a sign of a good, maybe great, team. And having two weeks to preach to his team about how lucky they were to win and how letdowns can be fatal, look for Bama to come out clicking on all cylinders next week against Ole Miss.

Now, back to this week. Half of the league’s teams are still in the nation’s top 25 teams, although only three are among the top 10. Alabama (6-0) leads the list at No. Undefeated LSU (4-0) landed at No. 4. Georgia (4-1) stands at No. 10. Florida (4-1) is right behind the Dogs at No. 11, followed by Vandy (no. 13) and Auburn (No. 20). Week 7 on the SEC football schedule is a sparse one with just five games on tap — all league contests.

As mentioned before, Florida hosts LSU in a good one — an unusual one in that the higher-ranked team is the underdog. Tennessee, in a big one for the Vols because it could get them back to the break-even point, at Georgia (Line: Georgia by 12) and South Carolina (1-2, 4-2) travels to Kentucky (3-3, 1-2) (Line: None). And Vanderbilt (3-0, 5-0) will be trying to get bowl eligible and stay on top (yes, I said on top!) of the SEC East standings when the Commodores travel to hapless Mississippi State (0-2, 1-4) (Line: Vandy by 2 _).

Auburn’s offensive line looking for next play to be signaled in…

WEEKEND TV LINEUP

Saturday’s boob-tube lineup follows (all times CST):
11 a.m.
East Carolina at Virginia (CW), Oklahoma at Texas (ABC), Minnesota at Illinois (ESPN), Syracuse at West Virginia (ESPNU), Cornell at Harvard (Versus)
11:30 a.m.
South Carolina at Kentucky (Raycom Sports), Colorado at Kansas (ESPN2), Oklahoma at Baylor (FSNS)
Noon
Eastern Michigan at Army (ESPN Classic)
2 p.m.
Nebraska at Texas Tech (FSNS), Chattanooga at Wofford (SportSouth)
2:30 p.m.
Notre Dame at North Carolina (ABC), Tennessee at Georgia (CBS), Purdue at Ohio St. (ESPN), Michigan St. at Northwestern (ESPN2)
2:45 p.m.
Central Fla. at Miami (ESPNU)
4 p.m.
Utah St. at San Jose St. (ESPNU)
7 p.m.
LSU at Florida (CBS), Penn. St. at Wisconsin (ESPN), Oklahoma St. at Missouri (ESPN2)
9:15 p.m.
UCLA at Oregon (FSNS)