In 2009, Gus Malzahn’s Auburn offense averaged 33.3 points per game and 431.7 yards per game.

In 2010, the Tiger offense piled up 41.2 points and 499.2 yards per game with Cam Newton at the controls.

This season, AU is back down to 34.3 points and 373.7 yards per contest.

The takeaway?  Newton was a pretty hefty part of Auburn’s offense last season.  Shocking, right?

Gene Chizik has called for better execution from his current offensive players.  Sounds simple enough.  But some fans have a different take.  On Saturday, some in the Tiger student section began chanting the name “Frazier,” as in third-string, true freshman quarterback Kiehl Frazier.

Starting signal-caller Barrett Trotter hasn’t been bad in AU’s first four games.  He’s completing 61% of his passes and he has an 8-3 touchdown-to-interception ratio.  He is not, however, a threat with his feet in the way that Newton was.  Auburn has gone from having the SEC’s leading rusher at quarterback to a guy who’s run 20 times for a total of 33 yards.

Unlike Trotter, Frazier is a dual-threat type quarterback.  Tiger fans know it.  We know it.  In fact, we predicted prior to the season that Frazier would take the reins of Auburn’s offense in October because Malzahn would need his two-way skills entering SEC play.

But that hasn’t happened yet.  In fact, Frazier has mainly seen time in Auburn’s Wildcat formation.  For the season he has rushed four times for 33 yards and tossed one incomplete pass.  That’s it.

Chizik once said that Frazier’s role would grow by Week Five.  It’s now Week Five and some Tiger-backers are calling for him by name.  Will Malzahn now begin to work him into the offense more?

For his part, Frazier isn’t campaigning for playing time.  “Whatever Coach Malzahn thinks,” the freshman told Al.com.  “He’s going to go in with the guy he has the most trust in, and that’s been Barrett so far.  Barrett’s been doing a good job.”

Just not good enough to keep Frazier from becoming a topic of conversation on The Plains.

Just a couple of months ago, the Tennessee athletic department got the news it had been hoping for when the NCAA accepted its self-imposed sanctions and decided not pile on more penalties.

So much for sighing with relief.

Yahoo! Sports reported last night that former Tennessee assistant coach Willie Mack Garza wired $1,500 to street-agent Willie Lyles in order to fund an unofficial recruiting trip by Lache Seastrunk and his mother in 2009.

As you likely know, Seastrunk and Lyles are at the center of Oregon’s current NCAA mess.  LSU coaches have also been questioned about their connections to Lyles.

Garza — the coach in question — left Tennessee with Lane Kiffin just one year after arriving in Knoxville.  Just prior to the start of this season, Garza resigned his position on Southern Cal’s staff saying that he had “some personal issues unrelated to USC that I need to address.”

Those issues apparently relate to Tennessee instead of Southern Cal.

Lyles used the money allegedly sent to him by Garza to pay for plane tickets from Texas to Knoxville for both Seastrunk and his mother.  Lyles informed the NCAA of the payment last month.

And here’s the worrisome part for Tennessee — Lyles also told Yahoo! Sports that NCAA investigators were conducting a wide-ranging look into Tennessee recruiting practices.

“We are aware of the situation as is the conference office,” a UT spokesperson said.  “We’ve been verbally contacted by the NCAA enforcement staff regarding a recruiting issue in 2009 related to the former coaching staff and a student-athlete who never attended Tennessee.  We believe, as does the conference office, that this matter is not subject to the repeat offender provision.”

Judging from recent NCAA rulings — including those at UT this summer — it’s certainly possible that Garza or any other coaches involved in illegal recruiting activities would be punished more harshly than the school.  Especially since those coaches are two years removed from Tennessee and the NCAA has already conducted one investigation into their actions.

However, as we say in every one of these cases… when the NCAA arrives on your campus, it’s never a good thing.  There’s absolutely no telling where an investigation can lead.

This has to be particularly troubling for Derek Dooley.  The second-year Volunteer coach admitted this summer that recruits had been worried about the black cloud hanging over the UT program since his arrival.  Now, just as it appeared that cloud had dissipated, a new one has blown in.

One has to wonder if Tennessee will ever finish paying for the hire of Kiffin.

1. Defensive end Jordan Jenkins could be close to making a decision.

2. Athlete Josh Harvey-Clemons will visit Florida and Georgia.

3. UGA quarterback commit Brice Ramsey kicked a 57-yard field goal.

4. Alabama and Auburn are in the mix for Baltimore athlete Cyrus Jones.

5. 2013 quarterback Tyler Cogswell plans to visit Ole Miss in October.

6. Linebacker Reuben Foster will be a top prospect in the class of 2013.

7. Here’s what several ESPN writers learned during the weekend.

8. Take a look at Phil Kornblut’s weekly recruiting notebook, which covers the SEC and ACC.

Just a few headlines for you on this Tuesday morning…

1.  Here’s a transcript of Mike Slive’s Q&A with the media on Monday night.  (Highlights — The SEC has received no assurances that Baylor won’t sue… the SEC isn’t racing to find School #14, etc, etc.)

2.  Mike Slive says the addition of A&M will allow the SEC to renegotiate its television contracts.

3.  Prior to Slive’s Q&A, Aggie brass held what amounted to an SEC-A&M “marriage” ceremony in College Station.

4.  Here’s more on the celebration, complete with a video clip or two.

5.  Gotta make room on the SEC’s old banner/wheel logo for the Aggies.

6.  Big 12 coaches weighed in on A&M’s move Monday.

7.  Here’s more reaction from coaches and ex-players from across the country.

8.  This writer says the Big 12 is the best fit for Missouri.

9.  MU chancellor Brady Deaton probably realizes by now that the Big 12 is down to four AAU members while the SEC has three.  In other words, Mizzou could make the SEC more academically reputable than the Big 12 simply by moving.

10.  Mizzou football coach Gary Pinkel isn’t backing of his criticisms of the Big 12 which puts more pressure on Deaton and MU administration.  For all the writers who say the Tigers should play chicken and avoid the SEC, it’s interesting that their coach seems to have a totally different view.

11.  This writer says Texas was more interested in the ACC than the Pac-12… and that UT had zero interest in the SEC or Big Ten.  (Last summer, however, Texas and Big Ten officials were caught exchanging emails.  Where was Kenneth Starr then?)

12.  Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference are considering a merger in football in the hopes of landing a BCS bid.

13.  The governor of Connecticut says UConn wants into the ACC… but it looks like that league is waiting to see what other leagues do before expanding to 16 teams.

14.  Don’t miss our breakdown of how a 13-team SEC schedule might look next year.  (It ain’t real pretty.)

15.  And finally, former West Virginia coach Don Nehlen thinks the Mountaineers still have a shot at landing in the SEC.  Unfortunately, he also says he can’t understand why the ACC picked Syracuse and Pitt over WVU when those schools “can’t bring 5,000 to a (road football) game.”  That statement shows that he fails to grasp what expansion is really about.

For those who haven’t read our take before — and it’s a take shaped by the input of SEC sources and one senior television network executive — WVU is a good fit with the SEC in terms of athletics and fan culture.  It’s a bad fit in terms of population, television households and academics.  The SEC is no doubt keeping WVU’s application on file, but the fact they didn’t jump at it tells you all you need to know.  Sadly, the Mountaineers are a fallback choice and nothing more.

With Texas A&M officially in the fold, the Southeastern Conference is preparing for a 13-team football season next fall.  Someone, somewhere, is working on schedules for basketball, baseball, and all the lower-profile sports, too.  We don’t envy any of those folks.

Below you’ll find a complicated breakdown of what a 13-team football schedule might look like.  It’s a complicated read because it’s a complicated issue.  It’s a terrible situation, to be honest with you.

We at MrSEC.com did not anticipate the SEC actually stopping at 13 and frankly we do not believe that the league expected to get stuck on unlucky 13 either.  We were told by SEC sources from the get-go that 13 would automatically mean 14.

Sure, Mike Slive planned to be patient.  Yes, the SEC wanted to avoid being the league that pulled the plug on the current conference set-up.  And yes, the SEC also knew that if it raided — we’ll say — the ACC it could have led that league to grow to 16 teams in response… which would have set off a chain reaction… that could have then forced the SEC to expand to 16… something the league wants to avoid.  Follow?

But just looking at how awkward a 13-team season might be, you can be certain this was not the SEC’s dream scenario.

Some will say that the Big Ten existed for two decades as an 11-school league and that the SEC can easily follow suit.  Only that league did not have a championship game, a two-division set-up, or 13 paranoid fanbases who were just sure that their teams were somehow getting the short end of the stick from the league office on every issue.

No matter what the SEC does, there will be complaints.  There will be outrage.  There will be cries of favoritism.  There will be conspiracy theories.  Long-term, the SEC office might not care.  But in the short-term, it figures to a be a very noisy year (or longer) at SEC Headquarters.
For an example of how a 13-team football schedule might work we turned our eyes to the Mid-American Conference.  In 2007, Temple joined that league and pushed it into its current 13-school set-up.  Next year — while the SEC is shifting to 13 teams — the MAC will add UMass and expand to 14 schools, ending its unbalanced system.

In the MAC, there are currently seven teams in the East Division and six in the West.  More than likely, the SEC would feature seven teams in the West and six in the East.

As is the case in the SEC, MAC teams play an eight-game conference schedule.  Obviously, the perfect scenario is for each school to play five division opponents and three games against foes from the other division.  But in a 13-team league, three teams in the larger division must play six division games (and just two non-division contests) for the sake of math.  There’s no way around that fact.  It’s simple arithmetic.

So Job One for the SEC will be determining which four West Division foes would not play next year.  That will also be Point Of Contention #1.  Imagine the moans and groans that will arise if a school gets to avoid an Alabama, an LSU or an Arkansas in 2012.

Cecil Hurt of TideSports.com broke down a schedule using this format last week.  In his scenario the Alabama-Ole Miss and the Auburn-Mississippi State games would be nuked from next year’s docket.

Naturally, all currently protected East-West rivalries would be kept on the schedule: Alabama-Tennessee, Arkansas-South Carolina, Auburn-Georgia, Florida-LSU, Kentucky-Mississippi State, Ole Miss-Vanderbilt.

(Sidenote — For those pulling their hair out over the possible end of the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry, don’t fret.  Even if the SEC adds a 14th school at some point and Auburn moves to the East Division, the SEC would likely go to a nine-game conference schedule — over coaches’ objections — just like the Big Ten and Pac-12.  That would allow each school to protect an extra cross-divisional rivalry each year.  Georgia AD Greg McGarity spoke on that subject with The Macon Telegraph last weekend: “It’s critical that the Georgia-Auburn series stay intact in football.  I can’t imagine that being displaced or being discontinued.  I think your traditional rivalries are always going to be there.  Tennessee-Alabama, count on that.”)

In Hurt’s plan, Arkansas, LSU and Texas A&M would all play six division games and just two cross-divisional games.  Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State — as well as all of the teams in the East Division — would play the usual five-three schedule.

This is where another issue arises.  The NCAA rulebook states that in order to hold a championship game, a league must have two divisions of at least six teams each and each school must play a round-robin divisional schedule.  The NCAA has allowed the MAC to skirt that bylaw and hold its title game despite the fact that four teams in one seven-team division do not actually play a full round-robin schedule.  It’s likely the SEC would be given the same pass.

Ready for another issue?  We reached out to the Mid-American Conference last week and spoke to a senior member of that conference’s management team.  We were told that the issue of tie-breakers also becomes a trouble spot because not all MAC East Division teams (West Division teams in the SEC) play each other in a year.

Got a headache yet?  You should try writing this.
Below is an example of how next season’s SEC schedule might look using Hurt’s plan — Arkansas, LSU, Texas A&M playing six-game divisional schedules — as well as the cross-divisional rotation the SEC has employed the past 10 years.  The table shows only the foes for each school.  We do not even attempt to work all of this out on a week-to-week calendar.  So don’t read it as Week One, Week Two, Week Three.  We’ll leave that to some other poor stooge.

(Sidenote — The SEC has told some media members that the SEC’s cross-divisional rotation is spelled out in this year’s media guide, but the league chose to show what the cross-divisional rotation has been from 2002 through 2011.  It did not include any hint of what the rotation would be moving forward, which would be a lot more useful in a conference media guide.  Also, only two SEC schools — Georgia and Ole Miss — have posted their full future schedules online which is very much out of the ordinary.  Perhaps it’s a coincidence that 90% of the league’s sources went quiet with regards to future SEC schedule rotation in the very same summer that the league added a new team… but there are likely a few X-Files-watchers out there who’ll find that to be a bit too coincidental.)

In case you’re wondering, the games coming off of next year’s anticipated 12-team schedule would be:

Alabama-Ole Miss
Auburn-MSU
Arkansas-Tennessee
LSU-Kentucky

Overall that whole thing is a red and blue mess.  And though we’ve triple-checked our typing, it’s possible we’ve typo’d somewhere in that table because it’s late, we’re tired, and it’s taken us three days to lay out all these complexities in what we hope is a format that a non PhD can follow.

Oh, and there’s one other issue we’ve yet to mention: Arkansas and Texas A&M will have to rush out and find one more non-conference opponent for themselves.  Their annual battle in Arlington, Texas will become a conference game next year, opening up a non-conference slot on each team’s schedule.  (For the record, we hope the Aggie-Razorback game remains in Arlington as a neutral site game for years to come.  And with Jerry Jones kicking out major bucks to both schools, we expect that will be the case.)

The SEC continues to say that a 13-team schedule won’t be a problem.  Former Mississippi State athletic director and current SEC consultant Larry Templeton says the league’s athletic directors will meet soon to hammer out these scheduling details.

“We’ll wait until we visit with athletic directors to talk about process and how they envision us handling the schedule,” Templeton told The Jackson Clarion-Ledger.  “We’ve got some basic concepts and decisions to make that we haven’t been able to make until now.  And now we need to do that.”

So throwing out fan discord, how should we all expect a 13-team schedule to work out?  Here’s what our source in the MAC front office said:

“How well has the format worked for our league?  It’s worked so well that we went out and added another football member beginning next year.  This extends our footprint, however, (and) also balances our divisions!”

The exclamation point was his.

Suffice to say, a 13-school league is not ideal.  For that reason, we expect the SEC hopes it can quickly find a 14th school just as the MAC has.  In fact — as we’ve noted many times before — we believe the SEC had hoped a good 14th school would have presented itself already.

Oakland Raiders running back Darren McFadden (Arkansas) is the man.  Just ask New York Jets corner back Darrelle Revis.  “He just crushed us today,” said Revis following the Raiders 34-24 victory on Sunday.

McFadden rushed for 171 yards on 19 carries with two touchdowns.  One of those touchdown runs went for 70 yards on a play that was supposed to be a pass.  “I just felt like it was in my best interest to go ahead and run,” McFadden said.

“He’s able to get from point A to point B faster than anyone I’ve seen,” quarterback Jason Campbell (Auburn) said. “He can get in a hole and shift out and make two guys miss and get down the sidelines.”

With 393 rushing yards in his first three games, McFadden leads the NFL.  ”He’s the best back in football, bar none,” said Raiders coach Hue Jackson.

On the defensive side of the ball for Oakland, Jarvis Moss (Florida) had a big day for the Raiders, notes Jerry McDonald of the San Jose Mercury News.  The defensive end had two sacks, a tackle for a loss, and three quarterback hits.

Pending the outcome of tonight’s Washington-Dallas game, there will only be three or four undefeated teams left standing heading into week 4.  One of those teams is the Detroit Lions led by quarterback Matthew Stafford (Georgia).  On Sunday, Stafford led the Lions back from a 20-0 halftime deficit as Detroit rallied to beat the Minnesota Vikings 26-23 in overtime.

Although this is Stafford’s third year in the league, thanks to an assortment of knee and shoulder injuries, the Lions QB completed his 16^th career start on Sunday, completing his “rookie” year.  Detroit News columnist Mike O’Hara breaks down Stafford’s stats and says the former Bulldog compares favorably to another SEC legend – Peyton Manning.

“Stafford is proving he’s the real thing.  He is a quarterback, not just playing the role.”

Sunday afternoon in Minnesota, Stafford completed 32 of 46 passes for 378 yards and two TDs. Stafford is currently fifth in the NFL in passing yards, only behind Philip Rivers, Cam Newton, Drew Brees and leader Tom Brady.

Speaking of Cam Newton (Auburn), the number one overall pick in this year’s NFL draft had his worst statistical game but got something that had eluded him in his first two starts – a victory.  The Carolina Panthers beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 16-10.

After back-to-back  400+ yard efforts in his first two games, Newton completed 18 of 34 passes for just 158 yards yesterday. But he did engineer his first fourth-quarter game-winning touchdown drive in a game that featured “monsoon-like” weather conditions.

“No matter what the conditions were — dry, slick, wet — it doesn’t matter as a quarterback in this league,” Newton said. “There’s an old saying: ’Don’t tell me about the pain, just bring me the baby.’”

Another positive for the rookie yesterday – no interceptions and no sacks.

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning (Ole Miss) was also a winner Sunday – torching the Philadelphia Eagles for four touchdown passes with no interceptions in the Giants 29-16 victory.

Sean Hartnett says it’s time to recognize Manning for what he is – a top 10 NFL quarterback.

“No longer should he be the whipping boy of New York back pages, radio hosts and fans when things go wrong”

A few other SEC-related notes from Sunday:

• Mike Wallace (Ole Miss) caught 5 passes for 144 yards including an 81-yard touchdown pass in the Steelers 23-20 victory over Indianapolis.
• Julio Jones (Alabama) had an impressive showing in a losing cause.  The Atlanta Falcons rookie caught 6 passes for 115 yards against Tampa Bay.  The Bucs won the game 16-13.
• Sidney Rice (South Carolina) had 8 catches for 109 yards as Seattle won for the first time this year.  The Seahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals 13-10 in Rice’s season debut.  He had been sidelined with a shoulder injury.
• Mark Ingram (Alabama) scored the go-ahead touchdown in the Saints victory over the Texans.  It was his first touchdown of his young NFL career. New Orleans defeated Houston 40-33.
• The Broncos lost to the Titans 17-14 on Sunday fueling speculation in Denver that it’s time for Tim Tebow (Florida).  But coach John Fox is still backing Kyle Orton.  “Right now, in our opinion, Kyle gives us the best chance to win.”

And finally, Colts owner Jim Irsay made news this morning when he told a group of Super Bowl donors that Peyton Manning (Tennessee) was out for the season.  Irsay later clarified those comments saying there’s an “outside chance” Manning returns in December.

When it comes to conference expansion and radical realignment, Alabama’s Nick Saban says he’s not looking for any say in who the SEC has invited or who it will invite in the future:


“I’ve always said I have tremendous faith, trust and confidence in our administration, our president, Mal (Moore, UA’s AD), and the SEC commissioner to make the decisions about what’s right for the SEC in the future.

It’s like I don’t think it’s my responsibility to change the uniforms around here.  It’s not my responsibility to worry about who we decide is the best fit for the SEC in the future in terms of expansion, if that’s the best thing for the league, and I’m not saying that it is or it isn’t.  I’m just saying if those people think it is, then they need to make those decisions…

(Adding Texas A&M) does open up a different market to the SEC, so there are positives.  I’m sure you could sit down and figure out some negatives if you’re willing to take the time to do it.

But I don’t know a lot about it, to be honest with you.  I know these things sort of get decided way above, and I don’t have any favorites.”


Bama’s coach did say that he hopes “the integrity of the rivalries” in the SEC will avoid damage in expansion.

Dalton Santos committed to Tennessee over Texas A&M in July because of the opportunity to play in the SEC.

Now that the Aggies are officially joining the SEC, Santos is reconsidering his decision. That’s why the linebacker from Van (Texas) High School took a visit to Texas A&M on Saturday.

“It’s a pretty big deal to say the least,” Santos told GigEm247.com. “It’s really about where I feel most comfortable at now that they are going to the SEC. It also comes down to what my family is comfortable with and what they want to do. If it’s easier for them to stay here or stuff like that. If they feel comfortable here and don’t want to leave then that will help me figure out where I stand on the situation.”

Tennessee is left to wonder where it stands with Santos, who plans to take an official visit to Knoxville on Oct. 15. That trip should help Santos reach a final decision.

“I’d like to get it over with as quick as possible but I also want to see how these teams react to the pressure,” he told GigEm247. “It’s hard to figure out what my timeline is right now. I want to see how Tennessee’s gameday atmosphere compares to A&M’s before I do anything.”

The oddsmakers in Las Vegas have set the lines for this weekend’s SEC games and you can find them below.  Eleven league teams are in action, one team has an open date, and one future league squad will dip its toes into SEC waters a year early.

Here’s the full rundown (all times Eastern):


Mississippi State at Georgia
12:00pm on FSN
Georgia -7.5

Kentucky at LSU
12:00pm on SEC Network
LSU -28.5

Texas A&M at Arkansas
12:00pm on ESPN
Texas A&M -3

Buffalo at Tennessee
12:30pm on CSS
Tennessee -28.5

Auburn at South Carolina
3:30pm on CBS
South Carolina -11.5

Alabama at Florida
8:00pm on CBS
Alabama -5

Ole Miss at Fresno State
9:15pm on ESPN2
Fresno State – 4.5