This wasn’t how Trevard Lindley’s senior season was supposed to go.

Lindley bypassed the NFL Draft, where he was projected to be a second-round pick, to return to Kentucky in 2009. He received pre-season accolades as an All-Southeastern Conference and All-America candidate.

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1.  You know that line in the trailer for “The Blind Side” where Sandra Bullock’s character says she finds Nick Saban to be handsome?  Saban says that really happened.

2.  Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Georgia and South Carolina are starting more young players than any other teams in the conference.

3.  Tony Barnhart of The AJC has posted his weekend predictions.

4.  Barnhart’s AJC mate Jeff Schultz makes his predictions, too.

5.  There’s nothing normal about Les Miles’ football decisions.

6.  Tommy Hicks of The Mobile Press-Register is the latest writer to tackle Urban Meyer’s initial half-game suspension of Brandon Spikes.

7.  Charles Hollis of The Birmingham News has made his weekend picks.

8.  Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com writes that this year’s Alabama-LSU game has a lot more at stake than just bragging rights.

9.  The name of the game in the SEC?  Defense.

10.  Pat Dooley of The Gainesville Sun makes his predictions for this weekends games AND the SEC’s bowl bids.

11.  Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News has as in-depth one-on-one with excellent CBS analyst Gary Danielson.  (Seriously, name me another announcer who so routinely predicts game action before it occurs.  The guy is good.)

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1.  Kentucky’s defensive line wants to redeem itself for a shoddy performance against Mississippi State last weekend.  No offense, but I don’t think beating Eastern Kentucky will do the trick.

2.  An EKU receiver will have extra motivation going against the Cats.

That’s it for football…

3.  In basketball news, John Calipari is challenging his Wildcats to improve.

4.  “I got on Patrick (Patterson).  You took seven shots.  You kidding me?”

5.  Former walk-on Mark Krebs is drawing praise for driving to the basket aggressively.

6.  DeMarcus Cousins says Calipari is through playing games.  “Intense and focused.  It’s a whole new Cal.  He’s not the laid-back, chill Cal anymore.  You’ve got to get with the program.”

7.  John Wall will make his Kentucky debut in tonight’s exhibition against Clarion, but Eric Bledsoe may be out with a sprained ankle.

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Just wanted to do a little pimping for Josh Ward and the great work he does over on our Recruiting page.

For those of you who like to keep track of what’s being written about each SEC school’s recruiting, our Recruiting page is the perfect place hang out.

Josh has a number of new stories, bits, blurbs and links up today as a matter of fact.

Check it our right here.

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1.  Tony Barnhart of The AJC wonders what the fallout will be for Brandon Spikes… and for Urban Meyer.  He also says that last week’s suspension/fine plan was put in place to stop coaches from questioning officials’ integrity, not their judgement.

2.  Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News writes that Mike Slive must suspend Meyer of else undermine his own tough guy policy.

3.  Jeff Schultz of The AJC says that Spikes has more of a conscience than Meyer.

4.  Good luck finding an Alabama-LSU ticket.

5.  Gentry Estes of The Mobile Press-Register writes that schools like Alabama are correct in honoring tradition and not switching to black helmets, jerseys and pants.  (He also includes a MUST SEE Photoshop image of Bama wearing Houndstooth jerseys against Tennessee.)

6.  Pat Dooley of The Gainesville Sun writes that postgame handshakes are getting shorter and colder in the SEC.

7.  Here’s yet another look at this week’s LSU-Bama game.

8.  Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com writes that Rolando McClain’s “football smarts” are “off the charts.”

9.  Jevan Snead might have fallen from the top of the first round to the top of the second round in next year’s NFL draft (if he comes out).

10.  Chris Low of ESPN.com tells you who’s up for the SEC’s Freshman of the Year award…

11.  What to watch for in this weekend’s games…

12.  And who’ll win this weekend’s games.

13.  Ron Higgins of The Memphis Commercial-Appeal brings the high, hard one and dares critical fans to do a better job than the SEC’s officials.  (You should read this one.)

14.  Finally, here’s the weekly look around the conference from Travis Haney of The Charleston Post & Courier.

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1.  Morgan Newton’s first three games have yielded the up-and-down moments that one would expect of a true freshman quarterback.

2.  Cornerback Trevard Lindley will finally return from a high ankle sprain this week, but tailback Derrick Locke will be out.

3.  Receiver La’Rod King is catching the attention of the UK coaching staff.

4.  In basketball news, the Wildcats will face John Calipari’s tiny alma mater tomorrow night.

5.  A pair of ESPN analysts are interested to see how successful Patrick Patterson will be in Calipari’s new offense.

6.  Those same analysts believe regular season losses will strengthen UK in time for postseason play.

7.  The Kentucky-Louisville rivalry should only get hotter with Rick Pitino now having to go against John Calipari.

8.  Calipari says that in his offense, “you’ve got to be aggressive, confident and skilled.  We just had a lot of guys that were a little bit tentative (in their exhibition opener), which surprised me.”

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1.  I’m not a big follower of the college football awards scene, but here are the semifinalist lists for the Bednarik Award, the Maxwell Award, and the Thorpe Award.

2.  Mark Wiedmer of The Chattanooga Times Free Press wonders if Mark Richt will step down soon at Georgia. 

3.  David Ching of The Athens Banner-Herald makes his bowl projections for the SEC.

4.  Auburn’s Zac Etheridge — wearing a bulky neckbrace — had an emotional reunion with his team yesterday.

5.  Jim Kleinpeter of The New Orleans Times-Picayune has posted his weekly SEC power rankings.

6.  Pat Dooley of The Gainesville Sun ranks the SEC, too.

7.  Tony Barnhart of The AJC lists five questions that Richt should ask himself during the offseason.

8.  Mike Griffith of The Knoxville News Sentinel got a coach from one of Tennessee’s future opponents to (anonymously) break down Lane Kiffin’s offense.

9.  Doug Segrest of The Birmingham News looks at which SEC teams have overachieved and underachieved based on their recent recruiting classes. (Take a look at Ole Miss’ recruiting and tell me how they were picked to finish in the Top 10 this year.)

10.  And Jon Solomon — also of The Birmingham News — tells you what to watch for this weekend.

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Notes from Rich Brooks’ teleconference:

* UK is “coming off a tough loss to Mississippi State.”  Derrick Locke hasn’t practiced this week and is doubtful for this weekend.  Seven guys were out with the flu yesterday — not the swine flu — but three were back today.

* Kentucky has never won 18 consecutive non-conference games before… and they can do that on Saturday against Eastern Kentucky.  UK has the second longest non-conference winning streak in the country behind LSU.

* Asked about MSU, Brooks said they are a more productive offensive team than they have been in recent years.  He was impressed by State’s offensive line play.

* Asked about Chris Todd and stopping Auburn’s offense, Brooks said his defense played “sounder” than it has all year.  Last week, against State, they gave up a lot of yards on some of the same plays that they stuffed against Auburn.  UK didn’t allow Todd to complete any deep balls.  The weather also helped defend the passing game on that night as well.

* That’s it.  Very few questions for Brooks.

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He has kept a low profile for most of the season, but former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville has now opened up on a number of topics with David Ching of The Athens Banner-Herald.

Some of the highlights:

* Tuberville has watched every Auburn game on TV or delay, but he has turned down offers to attend.  “I don’t want to be a hindrance.  A lot of people will say, ‘Come on, let’s go to a game,’ but I’m of the opinion that you just kinda stay out of the way.  These guys are in a different situation.  Let them take full control — not that I would interfere, but just being around (would) — so I just try to stay away.”

* He thought Auburn had a chance to win eight or nine games when the season started.  “… I still think they have a chance.”

* On Gene Chizik’s first season: “It’s been good.  Anytime you have a transition — you put in a new offense and defense and they got off to a great start — but every year, no matter whether you’re a new staff or an old staff, there’s a lull that your players hit for some reason in the SEC.”

* On wanting to coach again: “I’ve totally stayed out of it.  I know there are some people whose seats are getting pretty hot right now.  I’ll just let happen what happens and if it does, it does and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

* On Georgia’s season: “They haven’t made excuses.  Defensively, obviously they haven’t played very well.  But you’ve got to look back and realize that you can’t lose a running back like Knowshon Moreno and control the ball as well as you did the year before, so you put your defense out there that much more.”

* On Mark Richt’s situation: “Mark knows as well as anybody that drastic changes don’t help anything.  Players win games.  They’ve got a lot of young players on this team.  A lot of times you learn more from failure than you do from success — and a lot of the young guys that are playing now are gonna be around a couple more years. … So you’ve got to understand, when you play in this conference, every year is not gonna be perfect.  You’re gonna have years that you’ve got to start new quarterbacks and new running backs, and things aren’t going to work out well.”

* On Tennessee: “… They’re getting better.  New staff, new stuff.  They’ve been able to weather some of the storms.  They’re still not a really good team, but (the night they played Georgia) they were.  They’re gonna have their ups and downs just because it’s a new group.”

* On how UT has handled Jonathan Crompton: “In the Auburn game, they tried to drop back and throw it — and in this league, you don’t have that much time.  The defensive linemen are much better.  So they’ve started using play-action and throwing the ball to one or two receivers and he’s looked like a totally different guy.”

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1.  Kentucky’s football team is the latest SEC team to have to deal with a flu outbreak.  Seven Wildcats were sent home from practice yesterday.

2.  “Injuries are one thing, but the sickness bug has really hit us good right now,” Rich Brooks said.  “That usually means there’s going to be a lot more to follow.”

3.  John Clay of The Lexington Herald-Leader believes UK fans need “a reality pill” when it comes to dealing with their football and basketball teams.

4.  Speaking of basketball, John Calipari’s new dribble-drive offense requires players to actually drive to the hoop… something they were reluctant to do in their exhibition opener.

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Pat Forde of ESPN.com his posted his weekly “Forde Yard Dash” college football wrap-up column.

In his latest installment he covers:

* Brandon Spikes’ eye-gouge

* Urban Meyer’s punishment of Spikes

* Georgia’s switch to Grambling-esque black helmets and pants (Forde suggests that the Dawgs have worn their “silver britches” for nearly half a century, but in fact Herschel Walker’s famed debut run over Tennessee’s Bill Bates in 1980 featured the Goalline Stalker in bright red pants.)



* Tennessee’s black jerseys

* The fact that Alabama would never trot out a black jersey

* LSU at Alabama

* Florida at South Carolina (in two weeks)

* The fact that Steve Spurrier and Carolina haven’t scored 40 points in a game for 34 consecutive outings

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Just a few more news items for you at lunchtime today:

1.  Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com believes Brandon Spikes should have gotten a stiffer punishment.

2.  Mark McCarter of The Huntsville Times believes the SEC should have upped the penalty on Spikes.

3.  Jay Greeson of The Chattanooga Times Free Press makes his SEC bowl predictions.

4.  Pat Dooley of The Gainesville Sun writes that things can’t get much worse for Georgia.

5.  FoxSports.com ranks the nation’s 10 most disappointing teams and Ole Miss ranks #7 while Georgia ranks #6.  Ole Miss was a Top 10 team to start the season and they’re not as disappointing as Georgia?

6.  Don Borst of FoxSports.com writes that Florida and Texas finally looked like national champoinship contenders on Saturday.

7.  Jeff Goodman, also of FoxSports.com, tells you why Kentucky will be in the Elite Eight at year’s end.  (And why they won’t be.)

8.  Ron Higgins of The Memphis Commercial-Appeal looks at the Alabama-LSU game.

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1.  Rich Brooks wants his team focused on Eastern Kentucky, but his assignment is to salvage the season.

Hope that’s all the football coverage you wanted from the Bluegrass State, ’cause it’s on to basketball…

2.  More than 21,000 fans showed up for UK’s 74-38 exhibition win over Campbellsville last night.

3.  This writer has some first-game observations from last night’s opener… including the fact that “Kentucky is looo-ooooooo-nnnng.”

4.  Another observation: the Cats’ offense was sloppy and showed some confusion.

5.  Freshman John Wall will be eligible to play against Clarion on Friday.  I didn’t realize hotel chains had basketball teams.

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I’m not a big fan of awards.  There are just flat too many of them if you ask me.

Therefore I’m really not a fan of preseason awards.  It’s not so much an honor as a guess and I don’t know what those guesses are worth.

That said, everyone hands out preseason awards and the SEC is no different.

Below are the SEC coaches’ preseason all-conference teams:


FIRST TEAM

Devan Downey, G, South Carolina
Tasmin Mitchell, F, LSU
AJ Ogilvy, C, Vanderbilt
Patrick Patterson, F, Kentucky
Tyler Smith, G/F, Tennessee
Jarvis Varnado, F, Mississippi State
Michael Washington, F, Arkansas
Terrico White, G, Ole Miss


Yep, nothing like an eight-man team.  Below are the eight players named to the coaches’ second team.


SECOND TEAM

Dominique Archie, F, South Carolina
Wayne Chism, F/C, Tennessee
JaMychal Green, F, Alabama
DeWayne Reed, G, Auburn
Trey Thompkins, F, Georgia
Alex Tyus, F, Florida
John Wall, G, Kentucky
Chris Warren, G, Ole Miss.


It’s interesting that the SEC coaches voted John Wall to their second team all-conference team.  He’s already been named the preseason national player of the year by CBSSports.com.

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Black jerseys.  Black pants.  Black helmets. 

We had a whole wave of new black fashion in the SEC on Saturday.  And it all started two years ago.

In 2007, Mark Richt broke out black jerseys for a nationally televised game against Auburn.  The Bulldogs took the Tigers behind the woodshed for a 45-20 victory.

Players loved the black duds.  Fans loved the black duds.

So Georgia pulled the jerseys out again for a Sugar Bowl dismantling of Hawaii to close that season.

Ah, but then came Georgia’s 2008 blowout loss to Alabama in a “blackout” game at Sanford Stadium.  Suddenly, the black look wasn’t so popular anymore.  It had become a jinx.

So on Saturday in Jacksonville, Richt went in another direction to inspire his team: black pants and black helmets.  Both looked somewhat cheap, if you asked me.  The Dawgs were throttled.  And now folks across the Peach State (including Tony Barnhart of The AJC) are asking UGA to ditch the black attire altogether.

Win = black is good.

Lose = black is bad.

Up the road from Athens, Tennessee pulled out black jerseys for the first time since the 1920s for their Halloween game with South Carolina.

Athletic director Mike Hamilton had said black jerseys would be a no-no on his watch, but he just couldn’t tell his new coach and two football players “no” when they asked for the duds this week.

Tennessee rolled to victory in their new uniforms, 31-13.

Not surprisingly, Vol fans loved the look by a 10-1 margin according to most media polls, though in my opinion, the jerseys looked like a cross between Vanderbilt practice jerseys and Burt Reynolds’ old Mean Machine unis from “The Longest Yard.”

Win = black is good.

Lose = black is bad.

Now, after Hamilton said on Saturday that the black uniform was a one-time deal (yeah, right), basketball coach Bruce Pearl says he’s eyeballing some black uniforms for his Tennessee basketball team. 

Apparently once you go black, it’s tough to go back.

Could it be that Pearl had asked about black unis in the past only to be rebuffed by Hamilton?  Now, seeing that UT’s new football coach got his way, could Pearl be taking his push for black unis to the media and fans?

It’s possible.

Either way, it’s safe to say that Volunteer fans will like black uniforms… right up until the point their team loses in black uniforms.  Just like Georgia fans.

Tennessee fans have been down this road before, after all.  With orange shoes.

Back in 1986, Tennessee broke out orange shoes for their annual battle with Alabama.  Following a 56-28 home beatdown by the Tide, the shoes were boxed up and shelved.  Four years later they were sent to a group trying to start American-style football in Russia.

While other seems to be embracing the black look, Rich Brooks said before last week’s Kentucky game that his team would NOT come out dressed in black.  According to Brooks — a self-proclaimed traditionalist — black isn’t one of Kentucky’s official colors and therefore would not be featured prominently on a jersey.  (UK did wear some hideous black basketball uniforms last year and look where that got Billy Gillispie.)

Had the Cats worn black on Saturday, their 31-24 loss to MSU would have no doubt resulted in those new black jerseys being trashed or burned.  That’s how it goes with faddish uniforms.  They’re great.  Until you lose in them.

(Now if someone can just talk Brooks out of wearing those full-body blueberry threads that he likes so much.  The all-blue Wildcats look like they need to be rolled to Willy Wonka’s juicing room.)

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1.  Here are the SEC’s Players of the Week for Week Nine.

2.  Chris Low of ESPN thinks Brandon Spikes should have been suspended for a full game and he takes Mike Slive to task for being willing to suspend officials and coaches, but not a player.

3.  Paul Gattis of The Birmingham News offers up his weekly SEC Rewind column and opens it by asking to hear from ANYONE who like Tennessee’s black jerseys on Saturday.  (I’m guessing his mailbox is already full from folks in Knoxville.)

4.  Tony Barnhart of The AJC covers a number of points in his daily blog:

* Florida (or the league) should have suspended Spikes for at least one game.

* Georgia should never, EVER, EVER wear black helmets, black jerseys or black pants again.

* LSU is still in the hunt for the national championship.

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1.  Rich Brooks is worried about his team’s “mental frame of mind and focus.”

2.  The loss to Mississippi State at home was a big one.

3.  Tailback Derrick Locke is questionable/doubtful for Saturday’s game against Eastern Kentucky due to torn scar tissue from a previous knee injury.

4.  In basketball news, John Calipari isn’t saying who chose the two games John Wall will have to sit out as part of an NCAA punishment.

5.  Calipari is taking the time to teach “everything” to his young team.

6.  The Cats open their season tonight with an exhibition against Campbellsville tonight… sans Wall.

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Former Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie pleaded guilty today to driving under the influence of alcohol in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.

Gillispie was given the maximum penalty for a first-time offense in Anderson County — a fine of a little more than $1,000, a 30-day suspension of his license and order to complete an Alcohol Drivers Education Program.

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Every Monday we provide you with a printable rundown of the week’s SEC action, complete with television listings and early odds on each games.

All times are Eastern.

Here are your Week 10 matchups:


SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7TH


South Carolina at Arkansas
12:21pm
ESPN Regional Syndicated Package
Arkansas -6


Tennessee Tech at Georgia
1:00pm
Pay-Per-View
None


Eastern Kentucky at Kentucky
1:00pm
Institutional Point-to-Point
None


Furman at Auburn
1:30pm
Pay-Per-View
None


LSU at Alabama
3:30pm
CBS
Alabama -9


Memphis at Tennessee
7:00pm
ESPNU
Tennessee -25


Vanderbilt at Florida
7:15pm
ESPN or ESPN2
Florida -32.5


Northern Arizona at Ole Miss
7:30pm
CSS
None

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We’re 2/3rds of the way through the 2009 football season and already fans are starting to look ahead to next year and beyond.

Since everyone and their brother does SEC power rankings each week, we’ll nix ours this week and instead grade each program based on its overall health.

We’ll provide a reason for optimism and a reason for concern for each program moving forward. 

Enjoy.  And I look forward to receiving your angry emails.



1.  Alabama

Health Equivalent:  Jack LaLanne (at left)

The likelihood of Nick Saban leaving Tuscaloosa is slim.  He’s tried the NFL and there’s no college job better than Bama.  With Saban (and his coaching ability) on hand and yet another great recruiting class on the way, it appears that Alabama will remain healthy for years.

Reason for Optimism:  If Nick Saban can go 8-0 with a new quarterback and a rebuilt offensive line, what can he do with veterans at those positions?

Reason for Concern:  Saban found it “disconcerting” that folks in the Heart of Dixie are finding fault with his squad.  Bama fans better hope they don’t drive Saban to the golf course prematurely.



2.  Florida

Health Equivalent:  Matthew McConaughey

Florida is buff… and they have no problem showing it off — like the too often shirtless McConaughey.  Based in fertile recruiting ground, as long as UF’s head coach even TRIES to recruit, Florida will have one of the nation’s ten best rosters.  There are that many stars in the Sunshine State.

Reason for Optimism:  Two BCS titles and a possible third on the way, UF is once again going to have a Top 10 recruiting class.

Reason for Concern:  Urban Meyer has shown that he can tweak his offense and win with Chris Leak… and he’ll need to do that again next year when Tim Tebow is playing in the NFL.  Also, Meyer has referred to Steve Spurrier’s old “10 wins isn’t enough” line.  Might UF expectations drive him away?



3.  Tennessee

Health Equivalent: This kid…

Lane Kiffin was considered a joke by most when he was hired.  His mouth has often made matters worse.  But there’s no questioning his coaching staff (see our offensive and defensive efficiency ratings) and his recruiting ability (see our commitment comparison).

Reason for Optimism:  If Kiffin can make Tennessee competitive with using holdovers from a team that got Phillip Fulmer fired, what can he do when he brings in another Top 10 recruiting class or two?

Reason for Concern:  Will the staff — including 69-year-old Monte Kiffin — stay together for another three or four years?  And will Lane Kiffin’s mouth eventually get him into serious hot water off the field?



4.  LSU

Health Equivalent:  The healthy jogger who drops dead from a heart attack.

Everything looks good.  Good record.  Great recruiting.  A national title in the trophy case.  So why do I get the feeling folks in Baton Rouge could turn on Les Miles so quickly?

Reason for Optimism:  John Chavis has fixed LSU’s defensive woes and Gary Crowton has had success with the offense in the past.  The talent-base in Louisiana/Texas is outstanding also.

Reason for Concern:  Nick Saban.  Miles — fair or not — will always be judged against his predecessor.  If the program goes into the slightest decline, folks will be quick to say, “He won his title with Saban’s players.”  Miles should ask Tubby Smith about that.



5.  Georgia

Health Equivalent:  George Burns (when he was alive)

Burns smoked cigar after cigar and yet he lived to be a hundred.  As I listen to folks point out all the horrible woes surrounding the Georgia program, I notice the following: They’re 4-4 after their top two players left for the pros early, they’re on the verge of another Top 10 recruiting class, their offense is the SEC’s best (in efficiency) and this is literally the first bad year for UGA under Mark Richt. 

Reason for Optimism:  A good defensive coordinator should be able to fix what ails the Dawgs.

Reason for Concern:  Richt might not want to make a move on his current defensive coordinator.



6.  Arkansas

Health Equivalent:  The drummer from Def Leppard

Bobby Petrino has the SEC’s worst/smallest recruiting base.  The Hogs are also in a division with Alabama, LSU and Auburn.  Those are some serious obstacles to overcome.  But Rick Allen lost his arm in a car wreck and still came back to do this for the past two decades.

Reason for Optimism:  Petrino is a good coach, he just needs to keep finding better players on defense.

Reason for Concern:  It’ll be hard for a team with a tiny recruiting base to climb too high in the SEC.



7.  Auburn

Reason for Optimism:  Tradition and a solid staff of assistant coaches.

Reason for Concern:  The Tigers are stuck in the same state with an 800-pound gorilla and the jury is still out on Gene Chizik who failed so miserably at Iowa State.



8.  South Carolina

Reason for Optimism:  The Gamecocks are a young team and should improve next year.  Steve Spurrier has also improved USC’s recruiting.

Reason for Concern:  No one has ever had success in Columbia.  I can’t understand why.  They have the talent-base, the fan support, the facilities… just not the history.  And it looks like they’re going to be in that 7-5 range once again this year.



9.  Ole Miss

Reason for Optimism:  I rank the Rebels ahead of Mississippi State based on tradition and the Big Brother factor.  That’s it.

Reason for Concern:  Houston Nutt overachieves when expectations are low, underachieves when they’re high.  I see no reason for that to change in the future.  Ole Miss will have some 8- and 9-wins seasons separated by some 5- and 6-win campaigns.  It is what it is.



10.  Mississippi State

Reason for Optimism:  Dan Mullen has brought energy to Starkville… and he might just be able to recruit on par with Nutt at Ole Miss.

Reason for Concern:  We’re still talking about Mississippi State.  Traditionally, they’re the Worst of the West.  That means there are five programs for Mullen to jump.  Good luck with that.



11.  Kentucky

Reason for Optimism:  Uh… uh… football recruits will enjoy going to UK basketball games more now that John Calipari is in town?

Reason for Concern:  Rich Brooks has made UK more competitive, but they’re just too far down the ladder to make a difference in the SEC.  They also have a poor recruiting base.  And no one knows if Joker Phillips will be able to duplicate Brooks’ “success.”



12.  Vanderbilt

Reason for Optimism:  Vandy has one of their best ever recruiting classes in the works.  And Bobby Johnson — for the most part — has lifted Vandy from laughingstock status…

Reason for Concern:  Except when his team gets hammered with injuries.  Then depth wipes out the traditional Commodore-mat of the SEC.

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There’s been quite a bit of shuffling on our recruiting Big Board since we last checked.  Eight of the league’s teams have seen some amount of movement up the chart.

As usual, we use the rankings provided by Rivals.com.  We give each star in their system an equal point value in our system.  But we count even 0-star athletes as being worth 1 point.  Okay, so we’re softies.

Below are the updated commitment numbers for each team in the SEC, through this morning.

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1.  Florida maintained their top spot in the BCS rankings, Texas leapfrogged idle Alabama for the #2 listing.

2.  The Tide is #3 behind Texas in all of the major polls this week, but if they take care of business, that fact won’t matter come bowl time.

3.  Chris Low of ESPN.com has a list of what we learned this past weekend.

4.  Stewart Mandel of SI.com covers Auburn, Ole Miss, Florida, Alabama, Anthony Dixon’s 252-yard effort versus Kentucky and Lane Kiffin’s “last laugh” in his latest column.

5.  Georgia’s Mark Richt isn’t saying whether or not Joe Cox is about to be benched.

6.  You might have to register to read this one (it’s free), but Matt Hayes of The Sporting News looks at the BCS mess and feels it’s no time for #9 LSU to panic.

7.  Andy Staples of SI.com believes Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes should be suspended for the absolutely scumbag move below.  Eye-gouging?  That’s weak, Mr. Spikes.  Very, very weak.

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When your defense ranks among the best of the SEC, it also ranks among the best in the nation.  And that’s certainly true for the top three defenses in this week’s Pure Efficiency ratings for defense.

To tally this statistic, we take the total number of plays a defense plays in league-games only.  Then we divide that number by the total number of touchdowns a team has allowed.  This tells us how many plays (on average) teams run between touchdowns against the SEC’s defenses in conference play.

This measures a defense’s real stinginess.  It also provides a look at overall team efficiency, as team’s with turnover-prone offenses tend to put their defenses in bad situations.



Pure Efficiency — Defense

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Through nine weeks of the season — though we’re looking only at the results from in-conference games at the behest of some readers –  it’s becoming clear which SEC offenses have what it takes to score.  And which ones don’t.

The SEC’s defenses are clearly dominant this year, which makes those offenses at the top of our efficiency ratings so impressive: they’re putting up good numbers in the face of the nation’s top run-stuffers and ballhawks.

Here’s an example of just how good SEC defenses are.  In five games against conference foes, Vanderbilt has scored just three offensive touchdowns.  On Saturday against 11th ranked Georgia Tech, Vandy tallied — you guessed it — three touchdowns in one game.

The SEC is absolutely brutal when it comes to suffocating defenses.



As always, we figure “Pure Efficiency” for the offense by taking the total offensive snaps run by a unit and dividing that number by the total number of touchdowns recorded by that offense.  That tells you how many plays each offense needs (on average) to score a touchdown in SEC play.

This rank gives a good idea to overall team efficiency as well, because a turnover-creating defense can give an offense short fields with which to work.



Pure Efficiency — Offense

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Anthony Dixon rushed for two touchdowns and a school-record 252 yards as Mississippi State kept its bowl hopes alive by outlasting Kentucky 31-24 on Saturday night.
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