Over the past few weeks, John Brantley has been dealing with a sore lower back.  Even his practice load has been lessened at time as a result.  But Florida’s quarterback says he’s A-OK and ready for action:


“I’m feeling good.  I’ve been in that training room a lot lately just trying to make it feel good.  It’s just been a bunch of little soreness and tightness, nothing major at all.”


Raise your hand if that’s the kind of comment you want to hear your QB making just days before the season opener.  Anyone?

Obviously, the big question will come when Brantley takes a hit… especially if it’s a blindside hit.  Will he bounce right back up, or will soreness impact his passing mechanics?

Backs can be notoriously slow to heal.  Just ask anyone who’s ever dealt with back pain.  So for a starting SEC quarterback to be dealing with a sore one before the season even starts, well, it’s far from ideal.

Still, Brantley believes “UF fans are going to like” Charlie Weis’ new offense.  “We’re ready to show everybody what we’ve got.”

The senior also says he learned a lot while struggling through a disappointing 2010 campaign.  “I definitely learned last year that when things aren’t going right or when things are just going wrong you need to forget about it and just move on.”

Brantley will be working in a new system Saturday against Florida Atlantic.  He’ll be hoping that the skill players around him can pick up more of the slack in Weis’ offense than they were able to in Urban Meyer’s spread last season.  The last thing he needs to be worried about is his sore back.

Yet as the season opener approaches, that’s a topic he is still having to discuss.

1.  Dan Mullen has a lot of respect for Memphis coach Larry Porter.

2.  On Thursday, State will visit a Memphis squad that absolutely horrible on offense last season.

3.  Several new faces dot the Week One depth chart as Ole Miss readies for BYU.

4.  The “story behind the story” on Saturday will be which set of new assistant coaches can best get a read on what the other team is doing.

5.  New Florida offensive coordinator Charlie Weis is viewed as a “genius” by his players.

6.  Here’s a list of “five potential disasters awaiting the Gators in 2011.”

7.  Two Gators escaped injury in minor one-car accident yesterday.

8.  Here are five things for Georgia fans to worry about in Fall 2011.

9.  With the goal of getting things back to normal in Athens, Saturday’s game with Boise State is a season opener UGA needed.

10.  Boise State’s play-by-play man is a Georgia alum.

In the past few weeks, Danny Sheridan has become a punchline for sports columnists and many college football fans.  The USA Today oddsmaker tried to defend himself yesterday with a statement released via Twitter.  Sheridan was reacting to the fact that he was blasted by the NCAA on Friday.

“The NCAA statement about me is total propaganda and an absolute misrepresentation of the facts,” the statement reads.  “For the record, I do have sources at the NCAA and that’s why the organization has chosen to shoot the messenger.

“I spoke with two NCAA investigators last Wednesday for almost an hour.  I was consistent with them as I have been with the media and the public in refusing to divulge my sources.

“I also politely declined to share the name of the individual I have been told gave money to Cecil Newton.  For the NCAA to claim I did anything else is specious, deceitful, disingenuous and completely false.  I will be happy to take a polygraph test on these specific issues and challenge them to do so as well.”

First, the NCAA was pretty damning and pretty detailed in its statement regarding Sheridan.  It also put the statement front and center on its website.  There didn’t seem to be much worry on the NCAA’s part that it was defaming Sheridan’s character.  That is why we — and most thinking adults outside the state of Alabama — tend to believe what the NCAA said about its dealings with Sheridan last week.

Second, what’s up with all polygraph offers from Sheridan.  He’s offered during the Paul Finebaum radio show to take one.  Now he’s offering to take one in a statement released on Twitter.  Doesn’t he realize that we all know lie detector tests can be beaten:

Naturally, there are still a few Tide fans out there who want to believe Sheridan simply because they despise Auburn.  Their conspiracy theory goes like this: “If Sheridan didn’t have real dirt, why did the NCAA attack him so roughly?  They haven’t done that with anyone else!”

As if the NCAA’s slapdown of the oddsmaker’s claims somehow proves those very statements in a roundabout way.

That fact is — of course — that no one else has made claims nearly as outlandish as Sheridan’s.  Even Scott Moore spoke of having heard someone else’s tapes.  He didn’t claim to know the name of a bagman and he certainly didn’t suggest that an NCAA mole gave him audio tapes or information regarding Cam Newton.

Also, it’s a mighty long way from Sheridan’s “I have a name” claims to the photo-based scandals that pop up on websites like SportsByBrooks.com and OutkickTheCoverage.com.  Those sites are basically showing pictures and suggesting something’s fishy.  They’re not claiming that the photos were given to them by NCAA officials.

In the end, Sheridan may well turn out to have been telling the truth all along.  But unless he’s willing to put up, it’s definitely time for him to shut up.

And offering to take a lie detector test isn’t “putting up.”  Especially when laws in the state of Alabama protect him against any suits that might be filed against him by someone he chose to name as Auburn’s bagman.  There’s absolutely no reason for him to not give up the name.  The fact that he’s decided to remain silent anyway… speaks volumes.

According to the Twitter feed of ESPN marketing man Mike Humes, the analysts on “College GameDay” have made their picks for the SEC Championship Game this season:


Kirk Herbstreit:  Alabama over South Carolina

Desmond Howard:  Alabama over Georgia

Lee Corso:  LSU over Georgia


With Jordan Jefferson and Russell Shepard facing lengthy suspensions, LSU’s stock would be falling in MrSEC’s book, not rising.

The Week One odds have been set by the boys out in Las Vegas and — as usual — SEC schools are getting a whole lot of love.  Below you’ll find the lines from:


* The Las Vegas Sports Consultants
* The Las Vegas Hilton
* The MGM/Mirage Casinos
* The Caesars/Harrah’s Casinos


Tennessee-Montana, Arkansas-Missouri State and Vanderbilt-Elon do not have lines as the Grizzlies, Bears and Phoenix are all FCS squads.

The favorites are in italics.

There are only two SEC underdogs to start the week: Ole Miss (hosting BYU) and Georgia (in Atlanta against #5 Boise State). 

You’ll also notice that two groups have pulled the LSU-Oregon-Willie-Lyles-Distraction Bowl from their boards altogether.

Ranked lower than any defending national champion in the last 20 years, Auburn’s football players — no doubt fueled by receivers coach Trooper Taylor — are taking an “us against the world” view of the 2011 campaign.

Now, to be honest, we’d have a much harder time finding one school in the country that doesn’t self-motivate by placing a chip — real or imagined — on its collective shoulder.  But in this case, AU’s at least got some numbers to back up their ‘tude.

Defensive end Corey Lemonier might as well have been speaking for the whole Tiger team when he said:


“Everybody’s dogging us.  Everybody’s like putting us down.  I don’t feel any pressure.  We’ve just got to go out there and just show them that we mean business.”


Technically, most teams that lose as much as the Tigers lost this past offseason aren’t likely to be ranked in the national polls at all.  So the “everybody’s dogging us” thing isn’t exactly true.

But as has been the case with sports teams for decades, it doesn’t matter what is and isn’t true.  All that matters is what the players believe.  And on The Plains, the Tigers believe they’re being disrespected.

1.  Alabama’s quarterbacks are still pushing one another.

2.  Tide hoopster JaMychal Green says  his World University Games experience showed him he can compete with anybody.

3.  Auburn’s players are excited to show people what they can do.

4.  Gene Chizik says the Tigers still have a lot of “polishing” to do this week.

5.  Arkansas is looking to build linebacker depth.

6.  If the Hogs want to achieve the unexpected, the defense will have to step up.

7.  Despite a wide range of recent distractions, LSU players say they’ve been focused on Oregon “since the day after the last game.

8.  Nonconference games with Oregon and West Virginia make this year’s Tiger schedule a doozy.

After a week of questions, a couple of big ones was answered last Friday — LSU starting senior quarterback Jordan Jefferson was arrested and charged with second degree battery.  That’s a felony charge for his involvement in a Baton Rouge bar fight two weeks ago.

Soon after Jefferson’s arrests, Miles suspended his quarterback and fellow-arrestee, linebacker Josh Johns.

But many more questions remain unanswered.  Jefferson’s case can still play out in a number of ways, including:

* Miles could decide to “un-suspend” his QB before his case goes to trial.  The coach, however, says that won’t happen “unless we had further information.”  Still, he hasn’t ruled it out as a possibility.

* The case could come to some form of quick, unexpected resolution — new evidence clears Jefferson, charges are dropped on some technicality, or Jefferson reaches a very-good-for-him type of plea agreement.  All in short time.  Unlikely, but possible.

* The whole matter could be taken out of Miles’ hands if the university suspends or expels Jefferson for violating code of conduct clauses in the LSU student handbook.  The school doesn’t have to wait for a court decision to rule in such matters.  It’s unlikely Jefferson would get the boot — pun intended, considering what he’s accused of — but as with the other possibilities, this can’t be ruled out.

Glenn Guilbeau of The Shreveport Times lays out one other option for Miles and Jefferson today.  And it’s likely not what Tiger fans were wanting to hear — the senior still has a redshirt year available.

“Yeah, I’ve not crossed that bridge just yet, but that’s a very, very interesting piece,” Miles said.  (Listen closely and you can hear the groans of thousands of fans already fed up with Jefferson emanating from The Bayou.)

In the minds of many Tiger fans, the Zach Mettenberger era can not begin quickly enough.  So the idea of Jefferson — a player who Miles clearly likes — returning for another year in 2012 might be the least popular possibility on the board.

It’s almost gametime in the SEC, but for many fans expansion remains the hottest topic of the day.  Below are a couple of morning notes from from around the country regarding the SEC, Texas A&M and their potential marriage:

1.  Richard Justice of The Houston Chronicle believes the joke is on Texas if/when A&M heads east.

“It ticks them off to know the Aggies outsmarted them, and it kills them to think the Aggies are moving into a better neighborhood.  All the things the Aggies think they’re getting from the SEC — a unique identity, more prestigious conference and greater stability — might be true.  The Aggies are trading Waco, Lubbock and Stillwater for Athens, Oxford and Tuscaloosa, and who wouldn’t make that swap?”

2.  Tim Griffin of The Chronicle spoke with Jackie Sherrill, Ivan Maisel, Tony Barnhart and Dennis Dodd about whether or not A&M and the SEC are a good match.

Sherrill:  “When you look at the campus environment, the students on campus, the curriculum and everything, there were a lot of similarities there.  Looking at places like Mississippi State, Auburn, LSU, it was a whole lot like what I found at A&M.”

3.  As for a possible 14 school, David Teel of The Newport News Daily Press writes that Virginia Tech fits the SEC profile… but it belongs in the ACC.

Teel: “… unless I’m completely misreading the internal politics, Tech has no interest in leaving the ACC, where the geographic convenience and academic connections are ideal.  That sentiment, by the way, prevails from president Charles Steger to coach Frank Beamer.”

1. Texas A&M could announce its departure from the Big 12 by the end of the week  Cost? $14 – $20 million. Multiple presidents call it “amicable divorce.”

2. Unclear if move to SEC could happen by the 2012-2013 school year.

3. Discussion of replacements in the Big 12  include Arkansas and Notre Dame.

4. Kansas City Star:” Texas’ bullying has pushed the Big 12 to the brink of extinction.”

5. Danny Sheridan fires back at the NCAA - ‘happy to take a polygraph test.”

6. Kevin Scarbinsky: “One side is not telling the truth, and more than one professional reputation is on the line.”

7. SEC previews from Chattanooga and New York.

8. Boise State will beat Georgia in the opener and other predictions on the Bulldogs season.

9. Mark Bradley: “This figures to be the year the fun returns.” Georgia linebacker Alec Ogletree on Mark Richt: “He’s a lot different from last year.”

10. Expectations and worries for Georgia.

11. Cornerback Branden Smith has an injured foot but expects to play in the opener.

12. What will Aaron Murray do for an encore?

13. Georgia’s Saturday practice report.

14. With the NCAA cloud lifted, Tennessee coach Derek Dooley looks for a boost in recruiting.

15. Freshmen and sophomores will play a huge role in this year’s Tennessee team. Will ride the arm of Tyler Bray. Just 10 scholarship seniors on the roster.

16. Defensive lineman Collins Ukwa has put on more than 60 pounds since coming to Kentucky.

17. Assistant coach Tee Martin likes the attitude of this year’s Kentucky team.

18. A look at Florida’s projected depth chart. Expect several freshmen to start on defense in the opener.

19. Will Muschamp on playing in the SEC: ”Unless you’ve been through it, you don’t really understand the competition level week in, week out of what you’re dealing with.”

20. It’s finally Oregon week for LSU but the Tigers coaches have been scheming and planning since the spring. Jordan Jefferson’s career may not be over, but it has crash-landed and coach Les Miles should shoulder some of the blame.

21. Auburn’s Devaunte Siglar makes the transition from linebacker to line while offensive lineman Reese Dismukes expects to start as a true freshman.

22. Before the season begins, how about one more look back at the “Turnaround in Tuscaloosa”?

23. The challenge for QB Barrett Trotter and why wins for Auburn may be hard to come by this year. At least they still have Gus Malzahn

24. Alabama is off until Monday.  ESPN’s Todd Blackledge was at practice on Saturday. Projected starters.

25. Yet another prediction for Alabama to make it six straight for the SEC.

26. Ron Higgins: (No) o coincidence that an SEC running back didn’t win the Heisman again until Alabama’s Mark Ingram in 2009.”

27. Connor Shaw may be the backup QB at South Carolina, but in Steve Spurrier’s system, he’ll get the chance to play. But make no mistake, Stephen Garcia is the key.

28. Season previews from Memphis of the Ole Miss Rebels, Mississippi State Bulldogs, the Arkansas Razorbacks and Vanderbilt. 

29. Sunday means it’s Tuesday in Starkville.

30. Ole Miss defense end Kentrell Lockett is realizing the only way to simulate football is to play football.

31. Center Wesley Johnson anchors the Vandy offensive line.

32. Facelift or new arena?  UCLA chose the former, Kentucky will likely choose the latter. But it could be renovated.

33. “The problem is, once you start paying players, it creates a whole new set of financial problems.”

34. Ten games that will impact the SEC race.

35. Players, games, newcomers.  Top 5 things to watch in college football.

36. One writer’s  top 25 and another’s projected final top 25.

37. Five showdowns on the road to a national championship game.

38. The 10 hottest seats in coaching.