1. Georgia continues to recruit Chaz Elder, one of the state’s top prospects.

2. There were plenty of prospects watching when South Carolina beat Clemson last weekend.

3. Quarterback Gunner Kiel, who recently visited LSU, should choose a school soon.

4. Auburn and Alabama are both going hard after quarterback Jameis Winston.

5. Expect Urban Meyer to recruit the state of Florida for Ohio State, writes Chris Hays of the Orlando Sentinel.

6. Coaching changes can often hurt recruiting classes. But Barton Simmons writes they can also provide a spark.

7. Will Muschamp could bring in a large class at Florida this year.

8. Quarterback Steven Bench is hoping for more interest from some top programs.

Anyone dreaming of Mike Leach landing in the SEC this year (Ole Miss fans) or perhaps next (Kentucky, Tennessee fans) can stop dreaming.  The pirate has landed about as far from his South Florida home as imaginable.

Leach has been hired by Washington State, which might just be the best place for him.  If there’s a school as isolated and off-the-beaten path as Texas Tech, it’s Wazzu.  In addition, the Cougars have a long history of producing star college quarterbacks… from Jack Thompson to Drew Bledsoe to Ryan Leaf.  (We said star college quarterbacks.)

In the wide open Pac-12, Leach could prosper as he did in Lubbock.  And if he does — and does so more than Ole Miss — it’s likely the folks in Oxford won’t let their administration forget that they could have had him. 

As the SEC readies for its 20th annual conference championship game, it’s becoming more and more obvious just how much better football is in the Deep South.  We’re not just talking about the product, either.  From fan passion to excitement to plain ol’ luck, no other region or conference can compete.

Let’s explain…

The SEC Championship Game features an undefeated LSU team that’s ranked #1 in the country against a Georgia team riding a 10-game winning streak.  Even if LSU loses, the Tigers will likely face Alabama in the BCS Championship Game.  Some say that renders this year’s title game moot.  Not exactly.

In reality, if Georgia upsets LSU in a tight game, the Bulldogs will join the Tigers and Tide in BCS action.  An SEC title would insure then that the Dawgs will slide right into the Sugar Bowl, complete with its $17 million payout.  An irrelevant game?  Seventeen mil will be riding on it.  That’s hardly irrelevant.

Not to mention this fact: If Georgia beats LSU and the Tigers go on to face the Tide in the BCS title game, the SEC can literally say that it’s so tough a league even the national champion couldn’t win it.  Think about that one.

Meanwhile, copy-cat title games from copy-cat leagues have been flops for the most part.

The ACC has had one empty venue after another for its championship game.  Fact: If you have to put tarp down to cover seats at your Jacksonville title game… it’s not a great way to show off your league.

The Big 12 saw one national title contender after another fall victim to upset before it did away with its game this season.

Saturday, the Pac-12 will launch a title game.  In order to guarantee a full stadium, that league decided to play the game at a host team’s stadium.  Worse, the inaugural game will feature a 6-6 UCLA team that is already set to fire its coach and might leave its game at Oregon with a losing record.  Embarrassing.

And now the funniest mess of all — the Big Ten is actually using a Craig’s List ad to fill seats at its inaugural title game in Indianapolis.  For those who’ve forgotten, Michigan State beat Wisconsin on a Hail Mary pass the first time the two teams met.  Now no one cares.  Someone — the Big Ten says it’s not them — is paying $75 a person for “seat fillers” who’ll get “an exciting opportunity to be paid to see a live sporting event!”

Fans around the country may tire of hearing it, but when it comes to college football, nothing compares to the SEC.

Paying people to attend your first-ever title game?  Legends and Leaders indeed.

1.  Looking for a reason not to trust ESPN and/or Urban Meyer?  Here ya go.

2.  “A source close” to Alabama’s Kirby Smart says the defensive coordinator has not interviewed with Ole Miss yet.

3.  LSU’s Jordan Jefferson continues to improve.

4.  Trent Johnson’s basketball team rallied for a much-needed one-point win over Houston last night.

5.  The Ole Miss basketball team will head to Hawaii for a December basketball tournament next year.

6.  This writer says it’s nearly a sure thing that Florida will land in the Gator Bowl.

7.  Georgia’s Isaiah Crowell should be ready to go against LSU Saturday night.

8.  John Calipari wants the NBA to make players spend two years in college, “but that ain’t happening.”

Heading into the 2010 season, LSU’s Les Miles sat on the hottest seat in the SEC West.  His program had lost nine games in a two-year span and with his salary, Louisiana’s depth of talent, and the success LSU had enjoyed in previous seasons, fans were talking dismissal.

Heading to the 2010 season, Georgia’s Mark Richt sat on the warmest seat in the SEC East.  His Dawgs finished 2008 with five losses… his worst mark to date in Athens.  A year prior they have failed to live up to preseason #1 expectations.  And the coach continued to lose to Florida.

In 2010, both coaches had their struggles.  Miles was the butt of jokes — and the target of fans’ anger — after his team nearly blew a home game to hapless Tennessee through game-management issues.  Richt saw his team get off to an 1-4 start en route to a 6-7 finish.

But from 2009 to now, both coaches have silenced many (if not all) of the critics demanding their ousters.  As Mike Herndon of The Mobile Press-Register writes:

“Yet, here they are two years later, preparing for the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta on Saturday.  One with a shot at a second national title and the other with his first division title in four years. Patience may be a virtue after all, even in the win-now world of college football…

LSU and Georgia could have gotten antsy a couple of years ago.  They are being rewarded for their patience this week.”

Patience.  It’s an interesting idea considering Kansas and Memphis both fired coaches after two short seasons and, inside the SEC, many fans at Kentucky and Tennessee would like to see their coaches dismissed after just two years, too.

As we noted here yesterday, Tennessee’s football squad looks to be Team Turmoil heading into the offseason.  There were players unhappy with other players this season.  Players unhappy with coaches for throwing them under the bus and for using double-standards when it came to discipline.  There was a lack of leadership from veterans (mainly because there were very few veterans in the first place) and the youngsters who became de facto leaders had serious attitude problems.

All of that’s what’s swirling around the Tennessee program heading into a bowl-less offseason.  Good luck, Derek Dooley.

Yesterday, tailback Tauren Poole — one of the seniors who called out some younger teammates after the Vols’ loss to Kentucky on Saturday — opened up about the mess at UT on WNOX-FM in Knoxville yesterday.

Asked whether — in hindsight — he would go to UT again, Poole said:

“If you’d have told me Coach (Phillip) Fulmer would have gotten fired and then this coach, that coach, this strength coach, that position coach, I probably wouldn’t have came here because I knew it would have been a dysfunctional setup, an unstable program… It was a tough situation.  It was a roller-coaster ride.”

And what does he mean by roller-coaster ride?

“Guys kind of shut it down (against Kentucky).  All the seniors, we cared.  We cared more than a lot of those guys out there.  And that’s expected, but we weren’t getting it back.  Those guys have next year to look forward to.  We don’t.  My career is over at UT.”

And what about his coach’s critical tongue… which he uses to critique his players in the media with great regularity?

“Coach Dooley is a very critical guy.  He’s critical of his players and coaches.  It’s criticism and you’ve got to take it in.  Guys just got to have thick skin with Coach Dooley.  He’s going to speak his mind.  Every minute of the day, every moment, if he’s got an opinion, he’s going to tell you.  That’s just the type of guy he is.”

Dooley is rebuilding Tennessee’s roster and is one his way to a third-consecutive Top 15 signing class.  As for building a “team,” well, it sounds like that’s his next challenge.

The website FAUOwlAccess.com reported yesterday that Arkansas offensive coordinator Garrick McGee has interviewed for the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic and “he possibly could have an offer to be the next coach already in hand.”

The Owls are 1-10 in Howard Schnellenberger’s final season at the helm and still have a game to play with Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday. 

When it comes to McGee, apparently the writers at OwlAccess are in favor of finding someone with a more proven background as they suggest FAU’s athletic director talk to Ron Zook and Dennis Erickson before rushing into a hire of Bobby Petrino’s coordinator.

It’s appropriate to note that Zook’s offensive coordinator at Illinois — before being fired this week — was former Arkansas offensive coordinator Paul Petrino.

McGee has been at Arkansas for four seasons and has led the offense for the past two.  He is one of five finalists for this year’s Broyles Award which goes to the nation’s top assistant coach.

Unfortunately today will be a quick day around MrSEC.com as duty calls in other areas.  For that reason, we’ll have more headlines, less analysis today and for that we do apologize. 

Here’s the first wave of what’s going on around the SEC today:


1.  Urban Meyer didn’t exactly leave a stocked cupboard at Florida in the first place, but now the number of Gators transferring out is all the way up to 11 since April.

2.  LSU’s defense will be the best Georgia has seen all year.

3.  A Lexington study shows that it would cost less than half as much to renovate Rupp Arena than to demolish it and build another one.  (Sorry, Mitch Barnhart.)

4.  Here’s a by-the-numbers look at South Carolina’s football season.

5.  Oakland coach Greg Kampe says Tennessee compares favorably to Alabama and Arkansas.  (His squad beat UT at home and lost to the two UAs on the road.)

6.  Vanderbilt officials were impressed enough by Wake Forest’s stadium last week — and James Franklin’s stellar work in Year One of his tenure — to consider making some upgrades at Vanderbilt Stadium.

7.  This interesting statistical breakdown suggests that Ted Roof’s Auburn defenses haven’t been as bad most everyone suggests.

8.  Alabama tailback Trent Richardson is waiting for his official invitation to the Heisman Trophy ceremony.  (Wonder if he’ll have anything nice to wear?  Calm down, it’s a joke…)

9.  Arkansas’ Mike Anderson is wary of Mississippi Valley State.

10.  Receiver Rueben Randle has become a leader at LSU.

11.  Two MSU players took to Twitter to laugh at stories that Dan Mullen might leave them.  (File under: Asking for it.)

12.  This writer says Ole Miss fans want a coach who will toss barbs back at Mullen.  Someone like, um, Larry Fedora?

Good Wednesday morning to you all.  We’ll start today’s rumor-mongering where we left off last night — in Starkville.

* While Dan Mullen has come out and denied a Jackson, Mississippi television report saying that he is close to signing a deal with Penn State, the coach has technically said nothing to dispel the rumor.  (The station, however, backed off its story… and now they’ll look pretty silly if he does wind up in Happy Valley.)  He’s said he’s happy at MSU.  He’s joked that his name comes up everywhere, every year.  He’s said that he doesn’t talk about specific jobs other his current one.

He did not say that he has no interest in the Penn State job.  He did not say that he will definitely be back in Starkville next year.  The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports that Mullen will attend the National Football Foundation meetings in New York on Monday… a get-together where lots of ADs meet with lots of coaches.

The MSU-centric blog ForWhomTheCowbellTolls.com isn’t losing any sleep over the Penn State talk.  “Unless something further develops, don’t worry about the Penn State rumors,” CB Mosley writes today.  “I believe Dan is happy, and quite comfortable, right where he is.”

A few Bulldog backers are upset that the media keeps connecting their coach to different jobs, but they might want to start emailing Mullen instead of me.  All he has to say is: “I’m not leaving.  See you at the bowl game.”  Until he does, expect the Penn State talk to continue.

Here’s today’s wrap on the situation from The Philadelphia Inquirer.

We spoke with someone close to the MSU situation last night and were told that “there’s probably been some contact,” between Mullen’s camp and Penn State, but the general feeling is that nothing’s heated up yet.

* “Up North” of Mullen, the Ole Miss search committee — led by Archie Manning — met with the Rebel football team yesterday.  “We are determining their next leader, so we felt it was important that the players are as involved and as comfortable with the process as possible,” Manning said.  Good move.  Kudos to ex-player for keeping the players in mind.  Usually they hear news via Twitter like everyone else.

In terms of the Rebels’ search, Louisiana-Lafayette’s Mark Hudspeth withdrew his name from consideration yesterday suggesting that his MSU ties had tainted him for Ole Miss.

Kirby Smart became a hot topic when Nick Saban heartily endorsed his defensive coordinator for any job that might come open.  Saban said no one has asked him to speak with Smart yet.  However, others are reporting that Smart and Ole Miss officials have already met.  The UM fan site RedCupRebellion.com even tweeted:

“A source close to the Cup has informed us that Alabama DC Kirby Smart is to be hired as the OM head coach.  Announcement later this week.” 

But now the site is backtracking a tad saying, “We’re just passing along what we’ve heard (from people we trust) with the caveat and understanding that nothing is set in any sort of stone.”

Meanwhile, we continue to hear the Larry Fedora of Southern Miss — who we believe would make the most sense by far — and Hugh Freeze of Arkansas State are the actual leaders for the Rebel job.

The big question: After so many recent failures, can Ole Miss really afford to turn over the worst job (currently) in the SEC West to a man with no head coaching experience?  If we were running the show, it’d be Fedora (who already knows the lay of the land in the state) followed by Sonny Dykes of Louisiana Tech (if it’s offense the Rebels’ want…) and Freeze.

* In the Music City, it was reported early this week by the Nashville-based site OutkickTheCoverage.com that Vanderbilt and James Franklin had reached an agreement on a contract extension and a raise.  The Tennessean then reported that the school and the coach were working on a deal.

Well now Franklin’s name is popping up in connection to the vacant head coaching positions at North Carolina and Penn State.  Franklin is a Pennsylvania native which explains the PSU connection.

North Carolina might be a bit more realistic.  Franklin has served two stints in the ACC at Maryland.  And UNC’s search appears to be wide open with Fedora also being tossed around as a candidate.

* Auburn’s Gus Malzahn was once believed to be ticketed to Chapel Hill — his wife even got caught following multiple Twitter feeds from that city — but his name has cooled.  Having a bottom-half of the pack offense doesn’t look good on the resume of an offensive genius.

Not only is Malzahn’s name cooling at UNC, but it really never heated up at Ole Miss.  For those reasons, AuburnUndercover.com reports: “offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn has told people close to him that he expects to return to Auburn for his fourth season in 2012.”

* New member Texas A&M might have a new coach when they join the SEC after all.  After giving Mike Sherman a vote of confidence last week — prior to the Aggies’ loss to Texas — A&M president R. Bowen Loftin backed off that position yesterday — after the Aggies’ loss to Texas.

AggieSports.com quotes Loftin as saying: “I’ve been talking to (athletic director) Bill Byrne for the last couple of weeks.  We’re thinking hard about (the season and the future).”

He also said that “the athletic director evaluates coaches after every season,” and that “there is no timetable on when a decision will be made.”

A&M will be moving to a new conference next season so the easy way through a transition year might be to hang on to the current staff.  But the Aggies’ recruiting class is already filled (25 commits on the board), so making a change now might not hurt A&M’s recruiting very much.

More than likely, Sherman’s 25-25 four-year record in College Station and Thanksgiving’s come-from-ahead loss to Texas have led some major Aggie boosters to put away their checkbooks.  Athletic departments run on money and even a president who’s publicly backed a coach knows that to be true.  Thus the wavering from Loftin.

* Three SEC names have been connected to Urban Meyer’s new Ohio State staff to this point: Florida linebacker coach DJ Durkin, Florida strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti, and LSU offensive coordinator Greg Studrawa.

Alex Groberman 

Heading into this week’s SEC showdown between the LSU Tigers and Georgia Bulldogs one thing is for certain: there is no lack of confidence on either side.

During a recent interview regarding the looming game, Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones fired the first shot in what promises to back an interesting back-and-forth when he said that his team’s defense was “just as good, if not better” than LSU’s. Needless to say, given the fact that the Tigers have largely hung their hats on the notion that they are the best defensive team in all the land (even though the Alabama Crimson Tide is, if you go by stats), the remark was expected to generate a response.

But it didn’t.

If anything, LSU players appear so secure in the strength of their calling card that they don’t mind being a little humble – with reporters around, at least.

“He may have a point,” Tyrann Mathieu said. “I know those guys are going to go out there and play hard. I know he’s going to go out there and play a little bit extra hard. It’s just about us playing our style of football.”

It’s not as if Georgia doesn’t have a reason to be confident. Whereas the Tigers currently allow nearly 249 yards per game, the Bulldogs aren’t far behind with a similarly impressive 271 yards. The two teams rank at No. 2 and No. 5 in the nation, respectively. LSU also allows 86 yards per game rushing, whereas Georgia allows nearly 95 yards. The rank breakdown is fourth and sixth when it comes to rushing yards given up, respectively. The only real asterisk by Bulldogs’ stats is that they haven’t played as a tough a schedule as their Louisiana-based counterparts.

Then again, earning 10 consecutive wins, lighter schedule or not, is still impressive. And while defense has been absolutely instrumental in that, Georgia has also been firing on all cylinders offensively as of late. Quarterback Aaron Murray currently leads in the SEC in both touchdown passes and efficiency, and if anyone can challenge an LSU secondary that has intercepted 16 passes on the year it’s definitely him.

Not that he’s going to admit that, of course.

“It’s amazing, just how many plays they make,” Murray said. “You talk about Mathieu, you’ve got to worry about him on special teams. They’re great athletes.

“You put them in the category, when I was watching the film, of just athletes like Jarvis Jones on our team. They’re football players. They know how to go out there and make plays, and they’re exciting to watch.”

That obvious respect for what the LSU defense can do is appropriate, given the fact that it has allowed 12 touchdowns in 12 games. That, coupled with a nose for interceptions makes the unit a nightmare for any quarterback, including one as efficient as of late Murray.

The biggest question for the Tigers in this one is how their offensive production will counteract the production of the opposing offense. Both tremendous defenses notwithstanding, quarterback Jordan Jefferson’s ability to play above his 18-of-29, 208-yard, one touchdown and one interception effort versus the Arkansas Razorbacks will be key. While LSU clearly proved that they knew how to put points on the board in a hurry following an early 14-0 Arkansas lead, Jefferson remains relatively unproven this year because how dominant his team has been on the other end.

A repeat of last week’s performance from running back Kenny Hilliard — who had 102 yards and a score on 19 carries — will also be instrumental in earning a win this time around.

Ultimately, if the Tigers play the game their way and don’t allow the Bulldogs to pressure them, they should emerge victorious in this one.

As admirable Georgia’s confidence is, and as impressive as the 10-game winning streak undeniably has been, the better team typically wins in college football.

LSU is that better team.

The game kicks off at 4:00 p.m. eastern time, Saturday.

Get more sports analysis over at Opposing Views.