1.  Alabama’s Nick Saban wants BCS voters to be fair when picking the two best teams in the country.  (Sidenote: Even Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy said he’d have a hard time voting his Cowboys ahead of Bama.)

2.  Auburn went to 4-0 last night, but Tony Barbee says he’s “not enjoying coaching their group right now.”

3.  The University of Arkansas football team said their goodbyes as former teammate Garrett Uekman was laid to rest yesterday in Little Rock.

4.  Les Miles believes safety Eric Reid will be ready to play when LSU faces Georgia on Saturday.

5.  Gunter Brewer is Ole Miss’ one-man recruiting staff at the moment.

6.  Mississippi State defensive tackle Fletcher Cox says he plans “on coming back” for his senior season.

7.  Florida’s Billy Donovan locked up his 400th career victory last night.

8.  Georgia’s assistants will be receiving bonuses for winning the SEC East… just weeks after an 0-2 start had folks thinking they’d be receiving pink slips instead.

9.  John Calipari says Kentucky’s #1 ranking just puts a bigger target on the Wildcats’ backs.

10.  Receiver Alshon Jeffery and guard Terrence Campbell both broke bones on Saturday, but they’re expected to be A-OK by the time South Carolina goes bowling.

11.  This writer says Tennessee has become a bottom-tier SEC football program.

12.  A Vanderbilt transfer led his new team — #11 Xavier — to an overtime win at #20 Vandy last night.

With an anticipated move to the SEC next fall, Missouri coaches are already widening their recruiting focus to include lands further east.  According to The Kansas City Star, one Tiger assistant has already been assigned to recruit Atlanta while two others have been assigned the state of Florida.

While the Tigers will continue to recruit in Texas — which is a major reason they’ve been able to improve their football fortunes in recent years — Gary Pinkel says his coaches will have to start making connections in new areas:

“The foundation of who we are is not going to change at all.  The recruiting and marketing standpoint of it is pretty significant.  You’re just going into territories you haven’t been to and building relationships.  There’s a transition process…

We’ll still have the same coaches in Texas, but we’re also getting them in different areas.  After this recruiting year’s over, we’re going to kind of make permanent adjustments based on the information we have at the time.”

The Tigers will enter the SEC East next fall if all goes to plan.  While the league is expected to maintain an eight-game league schedule next year, we at MrSEC.com are firm in our belief that the league will eventually go to a nine-game plan.  Regardless of that breakdown, sources have indicated that Missouri and Texas A&M will become permanent cross-divisional rivals.

As noted earlier today, Larry Fedora is figuring prominently in Ole Miss’ search for a new head coach.  He’ll likely win a few Rebel fans to his corner with a barb he tossed toward Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen… a coach who has tossed his own barbs at UM for three years.

After Saturday’s Egg Bowl win, Mullen said:


“Hopefully the kids in the state of Mississippi understand this is the place to come to win championships.”


Said the man who’d just finished up a 6-6 regular season.  While Mullen dart was clearly aimed at Ole Miss, Fedora — who is at Southern Miss — took notice.  And it just so happens his team is 10-2 on the season and is heading into a C-USA title game with Houston this weekend.  His reply to Mullen’s boast:


“We’re proud of the fact that all the great players from the state of Mississippi on this team have an opportunity to actually play for a championship.”


Zing. 

If you thought Mullen would allow Fedora to have the final word, however, you don’t know Mullen.  Told of USM’s coach’s comments, MSU’s coach said:


“It’s neat for them that they get to play in that championship game, obviously it’s not the Southeastern Conference.”


There’s a slim chance that Mullen and Fedora could meet up in the Liberty Bowl this season if the Music City Bowl passes on State, if USM loses to Houston, and if the two in-state schools agree to meet in Memphis.

Perhaps our best hope of seeing this two go head-to-head is for Mullen to stay put in Starkville and for Fedora to land the job in Oxford.  First man to an actual SEC championship wins.

National signing day is exactly nine weeks from tomorrow.  It’s been four weeks since our last SEC commitment comparison.  With time winding down there have been a number of moves — both for the good and the bad — across the league in the last month.

As always, we use Rivals’ star rankings as our guide.  For each star they hand out, we assign a value of one point.  We also give all 0-star prospects a point.

First, let’s look at the total talent each program — including newbies Texas A&M and Missouri — are bringing in this offseason.  At the far right of the table you’ll see how many points each school has gained or lost since our last comparison back in late-October:

Now, let’s look at the type of athlete each school is connecting with at the moment.  Below are the average points per commitment for each program:

There’s already one coaching vacancy in the state of Mississippi.  According to the rumor mill, there might be another SEC school in the Magnolia State that will have to go looking for a new coach soon.

Starting with the known opening at Ole Miss, Southern Miss’ Larry Fedora continues to be the focus of most of the talk.  Makes sense.  In four years at USM he’s taken the Golden Eagles from back-to-back 7-6 seasons to 8-5 all the way to 10-2 and the C-USA Championship Game this year.  Before moving to Hattiesburg, Fedora was an offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State and at Florida (under Ron Zook).

His proximity and reputation as a solid recruiter make him a natural leader for the job Archie Manning and crew are trying to fill.  But his name is also popping up in connection with other jobs — North Carolina for one.

For now, Fedora isn’t talking about about the Ole Miss job… and that’s to be expected.  His team is prepping for unbeaten Houston in the C-USA title bout.

Meanwhile, Louisiana-Lafayette’s Mark Hudspeth — a former Dan Mullen assistant at MSU — is believed to be rising up the UM charts.  Reports claim he interviewed with the Rebels’ search committee Sunday in New Orleans.

While a BleacherReports.com post claimed Arkansas State’s Hugh Freeze had already agreed to take the Memphis job — totally false — the school has actually released a statement saying that Freeze does not have permission this week to speak with other schools.  The Red Wolves face Troy this weekend.

Freeze was an assistant in Oxford under Ed Orgeron and he reportedly made a good impression on folks in the UM administration.

For Fedora, Hudspeth and Freeze, Ole Miss is a step up.  Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart is also on the Rebels’ watch list, but would he really want to get his start at the bottom of the SEC West at a school that’s never been to the SEC title game?  The money would be good and there’s nothing wrong having the letters S-E-C on the resume, but Smart’s career might be better aided by him starting elsewhere.

Plus, how many Nick Saban acolytes have gone on to great success in coaching?  The most high-profile former Saban aides are Jimbo Fisher (Florida State fans are mad at him), Derek Dooley (Tennessee fans are mad at him), and Will Muschamp (Florida fans are already mad at him).  All of those coaches are relative newbies on the big stage, but that’s hardly a track record of great success.

For his part, Saban says Smart is ready.  “Leadership is really an important part of being a head of anything, a business or whatever it is, and I think Kirby is a great leader,” Saban said yesterday.  He also said he thinks Smart will make “an outstanding head coach.”

We still believe Ole Miss would be wise to check out one of the coaches who beat the Rebels this year — Sonny Dykes from Louisiana Tech.

The Mississippi job might not be the only opening in the Magnolia State if the rumor-mongers and messageboarders are correct.  Mississippi State’s Mullen has emerged as one of the most talked about candidates to replace Joe Paterno at Penn State.

MSU fans went down this road with Miami rumors last year only to hang onto their coach.  Would Mullen make the move to State College this year?

On the surface, Penn State is one of the best college football jobs in America.  It’s the top school in a fertile recruiting zone and the Big Ten isn’t as cutthroat and tough as the SEC at the moment.

Below the surface, someone’s going to have a major clean-up job on his hands — and we still don’t know what the NCAA might due to the Nittany Lions’ program.  Plus, while Joe Paterno’s name is now tarnished, don’t forget, PSU students rioted to keep him.  And Penn State fans are used to winning big — over the long haul — with Paterno.  They won’t be patient regardless of the circumstances.

Other nuggets:

* Vanderbilt’s James Franklin has had his name attached to the Penn State job as well.

* Gus Malzahn — once believed to be the leader for the North Carolina head coaching job — has reportedly dropped a bit with Auburn’s recent offensive struggles.

* At Tennessee, fans are waiting to see if Derek Dooley makes any sudden moves on his coaching staff.  Rumors emerged last yesterday that offensive coordinator Jim Chaney and offensive line coach Harry Hiestand had been let go.  Naturally, those rumors were false.

* Joker Phillips is safe at Kentucky, but there’s much speculation about who from his staff might be let go following the Cats’ first non-bowl season in six years.  Offensive coordinator Randy Sanders — who’d done an excellent job until this year — might be a fall guy since defensive coordinator Rick Minter has just wrapped his first year in the Bluegrass State.  Minter’s defense struggled as much as Sanders’ offense until the season’s final two weeks.

Sheldon Dawson is still committed to Memphis, but the athlete from Memphis (Tenn.) Ridgeway High School could look elsewhere.

The Tigers fired coach Larry Porter during the weekend. Dawson, who cited Porter as a main reason for choosing Memphis, told 247Sports.com he isn’t sure how the move will affect his college decision.

“It’s just business and it’s how it goes I guess,” Dawson told the website. “I don’t really know what I’m going to do right now. It was a surprise to me.”

Dawson told 247Sports that Tennessee, Georgia, Cincinnati and Vanderbilt have been recruiting him the hardest. He still plans to take all five official visits permitted by the NCAA.

Dawson is considered the No. 9 athlete in the nation and No. 1 prospect in the state of Tennessee by 247Sports.

Tennessee is hoping running back Quenshaun Watson from Athens, Ga., will fix the Vols’ need for speed on offense.

The Clarke Central High School standout committed to UT on Monday.

“They just like that I have the ability to take it to the house at any point,” Watson told govols247.com.

Watson, who chose UT over an offer from Indiana, posted a personal record last year when he ran the 100-meter dash in 10.58 seconds.

“He’s fast,” Clarke Central coach Leroy Ryals told govols247. “He can go, now. You can’t coach speed – you either have it or you don’t – and that’s a God-given talent he has, so I’m glad he’s taking advantage of it.”

Watson is UT’s 20th commitment for the class of 2012.

Alabama, Auburn and Florida State are the top three schools in the running for defensive tackle Eddie Goldman from Friendship Academy in Washington, D.C.

“I’ll probably make my decision before Signing Day because I don’t want to do the whole picking a school thing,” Goldman told AuburnUndercover.com. “I’m going to commit before signing day and then on signing day I’ll just announce it.”

Goldman, who’s considered the nation’s No. 1 defensive tackle by 247Sports.com, still plans to take an official visit to Clemson and either Miami or California.

1.  Urban Meyer’s old Florida players have mixed reaction to his move to Ohio State.

2.  So how does Georgia compare to other big SEC title game underdogs?

3.  Kentucky has supplanted North Carolina as the top-ranked basketball team in the country.

4.  Here’s a report card from South Carolina’s win over Clemson.

5.  Tennessee’s Derek Dooley says “we’re going to begin our climb right now.”

6.  Vanderbilt will host 12th-ranked Xavier in Nashville tonight.

7.  The waiting game has begun for Alabama.

8.  Tony Barbee and Auburn are gunning for a 4-0 start tonight.

9.  Arkansas will likely go bowling in Orlando or Dallas.

10.  Mark Richt has been wowed by LSU’s power running game.

11.  LSU defensive end Sam Montgomery says Alabama would provide “the ultimate test” for the Tigers.

12.  This writer has updated his list of Ole Miss coaching candidates.

13.  Rick Stansbury has Mississippi State ranked in both hoops polls.

For a team that couldn’t repeat as SEC East champion, South Carolina has accomplished one major goal already — becoming just the second Gamecock team in history to log 10 wins in a season.  Now Steve Spurrier says his team will have to start aiming for something else when they begin bowl practice:


“I think we had a goal to win eight, win nine, win 10.  We didn’t set one to win 11, so we’re going to set a new one when we meet back up (today).”


This season will have to rank among Spurrier’s best efforts.  Despite struggles at quarterback — including the dismissal of starter Stephen Garcia — and the loss of Mr. Everything tailback Marcus Lattimore, the Ol’ Ball Coach led his team to a 10-2 record and for the second year in a row beat all four traditional Carolina roadblocks: Clemson, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.

I have no problem admitting that I expected USC’s season to fall apart with the loss of Lattimore, a player who accounted for 36% of the Gamecock offense.  But that didn’t happen.  While the offense struggled, the defense became stronger.  And on Saturday night against Clemson, quarterback Connor Shaw had what might be his breakout game.

Kudos to Spurrier and his staff for some excellent work in 2011.