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"Last year we weren’t coached very well. We weren’t as smart as players as we are this year with a...

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"Last year we weren’t coached very well. We weren’t as smart as players as we are this year with a change on defense." McNeal said. "Last year, we put on kind of a clown show, a lot of guys not doing their work and not doing their job. This year, we just detailed our work."

Brutal Honesty Demetruce McNeal is much happier with this year's Auburn defense than last year's. You could argue they still put on a bit of a clown show in allowing 410 yards and 28 points to ULM, but who's counting?

On replay, although contact was made to the receiver’s helmet, the primary contact from the...

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On replay, although contact was made to the receiver’s helmet, the primary contact from the Vanderbilt defender was to the shoulder area. The Vanderbilt defender never lowers his head and the contact is made with his facemask up looking at the South Carolina receiver. It was a foul because there was glancing contact to the receiver's helmet. In the UAB contest, based on video replays, the contact was initiated by a slight launch of the defender into the receiver and the primary contact was targeted directly into the receiver's facemask.

From the SEC The SEC released this statement to The State regarding why D.J. Swearinger got suspended for his hit against UAB but Vandy's Andre Hal did not have to sit for his hit on Justice Cunningham.

Smith: "Tyler Wilson took a hit to the head and was kept in Little Rock last night for observation....

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Smith: "Tyler Wilson took a hit to the head and was kept in Little Rock last night for observation. His prognosis is good." Day to day.

From Robbie Neiswanger It's good to hear that Wilson wasn't roughed up too badly, but even him being there won't make much of a difference this coming Saturday based on what I've seen of the Arkansas defense so far. Tevin Mitchel, who was carted off after a scary hit, is doubtful for the Bama game with what the team is calling "an injury above the shoulders". It sounds like he'll recover well, but he'll need more than a week to do so.

"I would hope that we have a conversation, which we haven't yet, that everybody plays a game on...

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"I would hope that we have a conversation, which we haven't yet, that everybody plays a game on Thursday night during the (next scheduling) cycle," said Larry Templeton, an SEC consultant helping to put together future schedules. "There will be some schools that have difficulty hosting that game. But there would also be opportunities."

"Difficulty"? Yes, there would be some difficulty for some schools. Atlanta traffic comes to mind, as Blutarsky mentions. The enormous size of the state of Florida is another one. I'd love to see the league office try to explain to South Florida-based Gator fans how they should take off work early to drive 5-6 hours (at least) to get to Gainesville and another 5-6 hours afterwards to get home. The obvious solution would then be to send schools that can't practically host a Thursday game on the road; for instance, FSU has played plenty of Thursday road games for the ACC. Even so, it prevents a lot of fans from being able to make the trek to that road game, and the league is concerned about attendance. We'll have to see on this, but I'm not in favor of forcing schools to play on Thursdays if they don't want to.

Joker asked today if true freshmen would play at CB this year behind Neloms/Rice: "Yeah, we're...

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Joker asked today if true freshmen would play at CB this year behind Neloms/Rice: "Yeah, we're going true freshmen. That's all we've got."

From Ben Jones November is right around the corner.

Junior receiver Da'Rick Rogers is suspended indefinitely for violation of team rules, per UT....

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Junior receiver Da'Rick Rogers is suspended indefinitely for violation of team rules, per UT. Dooley will address situation after practice.

From Evan Woodberry of GoVolsXtra Woodberry also says that Rogers' status for the rest of the year is unknown according to the school. This is a big blow for a team that was looking to have a breakout season finally.

Saban said during the Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday, "LSU wasn't winning when I went there. Michigan...

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Saban said during the Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday, "LSU wasn't winning when I went there. Michigan State wasn't winning when I went there. Toledo wasn't winning when I went there. And Alabama really wasn't winning when I came here. I guess I gotta go someplace else. I don't know." He added, "I think it's great, I love Steve. I'm always anxious to hear what he has to say - it's always funny."

Saban responds to Spurrier Not a bad comeback to Spurrier's line about him from April, all things considered, but he completely missed (or avoided) Spurrier's actual point. Hit the link if you're lost on the exchange.

CBS Sports Network announces Houston Nutt will serve as studio analyst this year. He'll be joined...

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CBS Sports Network announces Houston Nutt will serve as studio analyst this year. He'll be joined by Ron Zook.

From Brandon Marcello Goodness, this makes CSN must-watch TV. For the first time, I feel like I'm going to miss out on something by not getting this channel.

As experts predicted, ESPN will pay $80m/year for the Champions Bowl per SBD this morning. Same...

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As experts predicted, ESPN will pay $80m/year for the Champions Bowl per SBD this morning. Same money as Rose Bowl.

From ESPN's Kristi Dosh It's odd to see ESPN's sports business reporter passing on a report on ESPN by the Sports Business Daily, but the big four-letter really does keeps its business and journalism sides separate. Anyway, this is a huge payday for just one bowl game. If the pot gets split up evenly all around, that's $40 million to each conference, $4 million to each Big 12 school, and $2.86 million to each SEC school. Incidentally, that kind of math is what argues against Big 12 expansion in the future.

'Big Ten, Pac-12 suspend plans for scheduling collaboration' - well, there's a disappointing email...

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'Big Ten, Pac-12 suspend plans for scheduling collaboration' - well, there's a disappointing email subject line.

From George Schroeder Remember the plan for Big Ten and Pac-12 to play each other in the regular season every year? It's off now. The Pac-12 began setting the stage for this a few weeks ago as the playoff was taking shape. With nine conference games, the Pac-12 has every team in the league committed to more tough games than any conference that doesn't have nine-game schedules. Adding this arrangement would basically mean a 10-game conference schedule (only one of them doesn't matter towards the league title). The Pac-12 only wanted to go forward with this if there was going to be a firm strength of schedule component to the playoff selection process. With this agreement being put on ice, it likely means that no such restriction will be put on the committee. They will consider strength of schedule, of course, but it appears that no independent SOS measure will compel them to do anything. Thus, the Pac-12 bailed. Here's your press release from both conferences. Each cites the Pac-12's nine-game schedule as the main issue.