1. The NCAA chose not to add on to South Carolina’s self-imposed penalties.

2. Once highly-touted quarterback Phillip Sims has decided to transfer from Alabama.

3. Another Alabama defender, this time Courtney Upshaw, went quickly in the NFL draft on Friday.

4. Recruits were paying attention to Alabama’s success in the draft on Thursday night.

5. Here’s a look at the SEC defenders selected in the NFL’s first round.

6. Tony Barnhart of CBSSports.com believes Nick Saban’s team is helping provide hope to Tuscaloosa.

7. One writer believes former Gator Janoris Jenkins – taken by St. Louis - will be the next Pacman Jones.

8. Outside of Jankins, Florida saw its draft drought continue into the second day of the draft.

9. Here’s a preview for Texas A&M’s upcoming spring game at Kyle Field.

10. We’ll get a new look at Texas A&M’s defense on Saturday.

11. Mark Wiedmer of the Chattanooga News-Free Press shows us a nice side of Tennessee coach Derek Dooley.

12. Bill Belichick believes former Arkansas defensive end Jake Bequette will be productive in New England.

13. Arkansas hasn’t had any receivers selected in the draft. That will change today.

14. Matt Hayes of Sporting News believes it’s time for college football to finally land a commissioner.

15. The LSU Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved an expansion of LSU’s Tiger Stadium.

16. SEC coaches can use the NFL draft as a three-day recruiting tool.

17. Former Georgia offensive lineman Cordy Glenn will help where needed in Buffalo.

Extra:

18. Here’s a look at the conference champion only idea for the future BCS.

19. Here’s another preview of Missouri’s offense as it enters the SEC.

20. Vanderbilt coach James Franklin will surely use Casey Heyward’s drafting in recruiting.

Former Auburn running back Mike Dyer testified today that a gun used in an alleged robbery involving four other ex-Auburn players was his.  Former Tigers Antonio Goodwin — on trial now — Dakota Mosley, Shaun Kitchens and Mike McNeil were arrested in March of 2011.

Dyer — Auburn’s leading rusher the last two years and the MVP of the 2011 BCS Championship Game — testified that he and Mosely, Goodwin, and Kitchens were drinking beer and smoking synthetic marijuana while watching an NBA game when “Dakota asked me if I want to hit a lick.” 

“Hit it a lick” means — apparently — “let’s go rob someone.”

Dyer said he wouldn’t do that.  Yet it was his gun that was eventually used in the robbery that also involved McNeil.

Dyer has since followed Gus Malzahn to Arkansas State.

Auburn fans enjoyed a fantastic season in 2010.  But from L’affair Newton to a much-hyped HBO investigation to an NCAA investigation to the dirt that’s going to come out from these guys’ trials… all the memories of that team might not be good ones for Tiger backers.

Running back Ladarious Phillips arrived on Auburn’s campus at a whopping 291 pounds in 2010.  He was expected to drop some of that excess weight, but that didn’t happen.  And now AU’s dropping him.

Phillips — who was expected to be a fullback for the Tigers this fall — is walking away.  “He will not be on our football team and we’re going to with him well,” Gene Chizik said yesterday.  “He’s decided he’s not going to play.”  At Auburn, that is.  He’s been granted a full release to transfer to any school of his choice.

Jay Prosch — an All-America transfer from Illinois — is slated to be Auburn’s starting fullback in Scot Loeffler’s new offense.

Earlier this month, two Auburn Tigers decided to transfer from the Plains.  Today, a new player — and a good one at that — is planning to fill one of the open slots left in Tony Barbee’s program.

Former Virginia guard KT Harrell has transferred to Auburn, where he will have to sit out one season before joining the AU team for the 2013-14 season.

Harrell is an Alabama native and was actually a Top 30 player in America (four stars) according to Rivals.com when he came out of high school.  He played two seasons with Virginia and will have two seasons of eligibility remaining.

According to Harrell’s father, Auburn’s style of play was a big factor in his son’s decision to transfer to the school.  “The style of play that Tony Barbee wants is exactly what we want, that dribble-drive offense, and it’s going to work out great for everyone.”

Harrell started 15 games for the Cavaliers during the 2010-11 season and played in all 31 contests averaging eight points and two rebounds per game.  He played in just 11 games this past season.

Auburn fans are just like any other fans.  They cheer for their teams.  They spend money to follow them.  They send us ugly emails and suggest we’re fans of some other SEC team anytime we so much as mention a negative associated with their teams.

They don’t deserve what’s been tossed their way the past couple of years.  Cecil Newton asked — and he’s admitted doing so to NCAA officials — for money from Mississippi State backers in order to have his son sign with the Bulldogs.  Because Cam Newton inked, played, and thrived at Auburn, the Tigers were the target of an NCAA investigation and numerous media probes.  No smoking gun was ever found.  No bag man was ever named. 

Auburn got a black eye for nothing.  (Though the NCAA has now changed its rules as a result.)

Now Tiger fans are going to have to hunker down for yet another string of cloudy days.  Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports revealed yesterday afternoon that suspended Tiger Varez Ward and formerly suspended Tiger Chris Denson were involved in an FBI investigation into point-shaving.

Denson was found to have had no involvement and was allowed to suit up again for Tony Barbee’s squad.  The FBI still has questions for Ward regarding a pair of losses this season — an 18-point loss to Alabama and a three-point loss to Arkansas — and possibly more. 

Auburn officials have clammed up after releasing a short statement:


“Auburn officials were made aware of a rumor regarding an allegation two weeks ago and immediately reported it to the FBI, the NCAA and the SEC.  Because of the nature of the allegation, Auburn is not in a position to make any further comment on the situation.”


Barbee would only reiterate yesterday what the school had already released in its statement.

Yahoo! Sports reports that AU officials were made aware of the rumor when a current Tiger player alerted an assistant coach to his concerns.  Meanwhile, NCAA honchos have said that Auburn will likely face no penalties if it’s found that Ward — acting on his own — did shave points.  The body’s official statement:


“The NCAA takes any allegation of point shaving very seriously because sports wagering threatens two of our core principles — the well-being of student-athletes and the very integrity of intercollegiate sport.  As allegations of point shaving, if proven, are also potential federal crimes the NCAA will defer action until any process with the FBI has concluded.”


As for Ward, Al.com reports:


“Ward has privately confirmed that federal authorities have questioned him about point-shaving allegations in games he played for the Tigers this season.  He has denied those allegations, according to a source familiar with Ward’s version of events.

Ward has said that federal authorities seized his phone through a court order and questioned him with a lie-detector test, according to the source.  Ward was not aware of the current status of the investigation.”


Regarding evidence of point-shaving, Covers.com — a site focused on sports gambling — claims that managers of four different sportsbooks told the site they’d neither seen nor heard anything suspicious regarding Auburn’s program or the games in question.  In fact, AU still covered the 9.5-point spread in its loss to Arkansas.  (Ward only played 19 seconds in that game before leaving with a knee injury.)

In the Alabama loss — in which the Tide was favored by five — Ward scored just three points and turned the ball over six times.

However, directors of three Las Vegas sportsbooks told Al.com that they have not been contacted by the FBI, which is usually a given in a point-shaving case.  One anonymous bookmaker said: “We haven’t heard from them about any Vegas action.  If there is something wrong, if something happens here, they’d absolutely be involved.  There’s been nothing at this time.”

Of course, there’s still the possibility that offshore sportsbooks might have been used.

As a result of all of this, ESPN is now jumping all over the story and you can bet it will be a staple of its 24-hour news cycle.  So as Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News correctly points out: “The words ‘Auburn” and “point shaving” have been linked nationally.”

Such scandals hurt Boston College in the 1970s, Tulane in the ’80s, Arizona State and Northwestern in the ’90s.  Kentucky was given a one-year ban in 1952-53 due to point-shaving.  Then-national power CCNY saw it’s entire program start to crumble as a result of the same investigation that took down UK.

Rest assured rival coaches will use the words “Auburn” and “point-shaving” together when recruiting against the Tigers in the coming months.  All through no fault of Barbee or Auburn. 

By all accounts so far, as soon as the Tiger staff learned of the issue, they sent the info up the chain of command.  Ditto the school which — again by all accounts — quickly turned over the info to the SEC and the NCAA and the FBI.  Following the Newton scandal, AU officials probably had a good idea of how to handle such a fiasco and plenty of motivation to avoid another yet drawn-out investigation filled with innuendos.

Still, it’s Barbee’s program and its fans who will pay the price for this story coming to light in the first place.  Throw any hatred you might have for Tiger fans out the window and put yourself in their shoes.  You’d be asking, “What’d we do to deserve all this?” too.

So much for sitting down to watch a little of the SEC Tournament.

Yahoo! Sports is reporting that suspended Auburn point guard Varez Ward is currently under investigation by federal authorities as part of an ongoing probe into point-shaving.

Pssssssssssssssssssssssss.

That’s the air coming out of the SEC tourney balloon in New Orleans.  Mike Slive, you’ve got a new crisis to handle.  Auburn fans, well, get ready for another scandal and wall-to-wall news coverage.

Charles Robinson reports that:

“Three sources with knowledge of the case said the FBI has been investigating Ward since late February after he and guard Chris Denson were suspended by the Tigers prior to a Feb. 25 home game against Arkansas.  Two sources said Denson was also questioned as part of the point-shaving investigation, but he was cleared of any wrongdoing and returned to the team after sitting out the loss to the Razorbacks.  The sources said additional players have been questioned in the case about whether Ward — who has not been with the team since being suspended — attempted to enlist them in a possible scheme.  The sources said at least two games are under scrutiny: a 68-50 loss to Alabama on Feb. 7 and a 56-53 loss to Arkansas on Jan. 25.”

Ward is a native of Montgomery and transferred into Barbee’s program after beginning his career at Texas.

Oddly enough, we earlier today linked you to a story from The Opelika-Auburn News in which Tony Barbee talked about the state of his program and the improvements made since his first season.  Whether it’s his fault or not, the words “point-shaving scandal” will be attached to his squad until the FBI’s investigation into Ward concludes… and perhaps even after depending on what they find.

ESPN has not always rushed to report stories broken first by other parties — namely Yahoo! Sports which is becoming the sports version of Woodward and Bernstein at this point.  With ESPN partnering with the league — via it’s “SEC Network” syndication package — to air this week’s tournament, it will be interesting to see and hear just how much time the network dedicates to covering this new hurricane-sized cloud that hangs over Auburn and the Southeastern Conference.

All that said, Tiger fans are well aware that accusations don’t always result in players being found guilty when it comes to buzz-creating scandals.  But when you add the words “point-shaving” and “FBI” together, there aren’t a whole lot of reasons to expect a positive outcome in this one.

The folks at the Federal Bureau of Investigation don’t need Danny Sheridan to come forward with a bag man to help them with their work.

Say goodbye to the last assistant coach with Tommy Tuberville ties at Auburn.  The school announced yesterday that secondary coach Phillip Lolley would be moving into an administrative role with the program, creating the third coach search Gene Chizik has had to undertake since the end of the regular season.

“We appreciate Coach Lolley and the contribution he has made to the Auburn football program in his various roles over the years,” Chizik said in a press release.  “We look forward to him continuing to help with the program’s success in his new capacity.”

Already being mentioned as a potential replacement is one Willie Martinez.  Martinez served as secondary coach under new defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder at Georgia before succeeding him in that role in 2005.  After being dismissed in Athens, he moved on to Oklahoma for two seasons before being replaced there by Bob Stoops’ brother Mike this offseason.

In addition to Lolley’s successor and VanGorder’s replacement of Ted Roof, Chizik has also hired Scot Loeffler to replace offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn.

Following the introductory press conference of Scot Loeffler yesterday, many pundits began writing the epitaph for Auburn’s spread offense.  After all, the new offensive coordinator said that he wanted to “protect the defense” and that likely means chucking the no-huddle, hurry-up part of Gus Malzahn’s system.  (Makes you wonder if Gene Chizik and Malzahn might not have seen eye-to-eye when the OC had to slow down his offense at the HC’s request last season.)

Auburn also welcomed aboard Jay Prosch, a transferring fullback from Illinois last week.  There certainly wasn’t a traditional fullback in Malzahn’s spread, either.

Further muddying the water, Loefler and Chizik danced around specific questions about Auburn’s new offensive style.  “I like it all,” Loeffler said.  “What we’re going to do here is take our personnel, assess exactly where we are, and we’re going to build a system to get our playmakers the football.”

“Everybody’s going to talk about spread and pro,” Chizik said.  “What they’re called, that’s overrated.  It’s real simple on offense right now.  Create the offense, and have the flexibility to get your best players the football.”

A slower pace.  A fullback.  Both coaches refusing to say the spread would be back.  All have been taken as clear signs that the days of Malzahn’s influence are at an end.

But remember that one thing still lives on from the Malzahn era — a roster specifically recruited for the spread offense.  If Auburn wants to go from spread to pro-style on a dime, the Tigers could be looking at some of the same issues faced by Florida’s new regime in 2011.  Ask Will Muschamp how easy the Gators’ transition was.

We find it far more likely that Loeffler — a man with experience in both spread and pro-style systems will simply start the move from spread to pro-style.  That may be a multi-year project depending on how quickly Auburn can begin to recruit to Loeffler and Chizik’s desired system.

So what do we think you’ll see on the Plains this fall?  Listen to what receiver prospect JaQuay Williams said last week that Chizik told him:


“He said it’s going to be a little bit o the same.  Four receivers.  Three receivers.  It’s be more a little pro-style.  It’s going to be good.”


That sounds reasonable.  The Tigers have recruited the skill positions hard.  If Loeffler can coach up one of Auburn’s quarterbacks — Clint Moseley, Kiehl Frazier or newcomer Zeke Pike — it makes sense that AU would still try to spread teams out across the field.  They also lost their best offensive weapon in running back Michael Dyer.

With Dyer off to Malzahn’s Arkansas State squad, Onterio McCalebb is the Tigers’ leading returning rusher.  But McCalebb has most often been used on sweeps as AU’s speedy “Mr. Outside.”  Could he become a traditional, workhorse, SEC back?  Good question.  See: Jeff Demps at Florida.

Florida-transfer Mike Blakely (close to Dyer’s 5’9, 210 frame) and Alabama-transfer Corey Grant are options as well, but current commitment Jovon Robinson might be the closest thing to a prototypical, pro-style back at 6’0, 215.

Suffice to say, Loeffler might not have the personnel to run a tried-and-true pro-style offense.  For that reason we anticipate Auburn will continue to spread teams out (think NFL Saints and NFL Patriots rather than Malzahn’s or Oregon’s spread) and will continue to utilize the occasional sweep or end-around to take advantage of talents like McCalebb’s.

We do agree with most others that it sounds like the hurry-up is going bye-bye.

But to suggest a wholesale system change in Year One?  That would be inviting the same kind of troubles that Muschamp and Charlie Weis experienced last season.  To see those issues first-hand, Chizik would only need go dig out the game tape from Auburn’s 17-6 win over the Gators last season.

Auburn has hired former Florida quarterbacks coach and current Temple offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler as the man to replace Gus Malzahn.  He did great things with the Owls run game last year (they were seventh in the nation) and his pre-Temple resume features work with a number of top college quarterbacks: Tim Tebow, Chad Henne, Tom Brady, Brian Griese, Drew Henson and John Navarre.

Still, AU fans didn’t go into the coordinator search with Loeffler’s name on their tip of their lips.  There are questions today as to what changes he will make to Malzhan’s hundred-mile-an-hour spread system.

“Scot is a rising star whao has worked with some very good quarterbacks, has achieved a tremendous amount of success,” Gene Chizik said via statement.  “He is a tireless worker, is an outstanding recruiter and knows the rigors of competing in this conference.”

After a lengthy stint at Michigan — look at that quaterbacks list again — Loeffler joined Urban Meyer’s Florida staff for the 2009 and 2010 seasons.  In 2009, he was Tebow’s position coach… when Superman rolled up a 164.17 passer rating. 

Meyer’s offense was a spread offense, but it differed from Malzahn’s.  Still, it’s likely Auburn will remain a run-first team and now they have an experienced quarterbacks coach to coax the maximum from Clint Moseley, Kiehl Frazier and newcomer Zeke Pike.

Auburn recruit JaQuay Williams said last week that Chizik had told him the Tigers would still be a spread team (three- and four-receiver sets) with a bit more pro-style added to the mix.  Loeffler seems like a good fit to create that blend.

“Auburn is one of the special jobs and special places in college athletics with a tremendous amount of history and tradition,” Loeffler said of his new home.  “I’m excited to get started and look forward to beginning recruiting, meeting the players and staff, and interacting with the Auburn family.”

Barrett Trotter began the season as Auburn’s starting quarterback.  By mid-October he’d been replaced by Clint Moseley and Kiehl Frazier.  After sitting for five games, Trotter came off the bench to help lead the Tigers past Virginia in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

Now he’s walking away from the see-saw and will forgo his senior year of football.  Trotter graduated last August and is currently enrolled in graduate school on the Plains.


“My four years at Auburn has been a great experience and I’m thankful for the opportunities that I’ve had.  I’m truly blessed to have been a part of winning seasons and championships during my time at Auburn.

I’m also very appreciative of Coach (Gene) Chizik and the coaching staff, as well as my teammates and the entire Auburn family.”


Trotter said the he will not transfer to another program.  He can take part in Auburn’s pro day if he wants to pursue an NFL career, though it’s unlikely he’ll get a look in the pros.  For his career, Trotter passed for 1,248 yard and 11 touchdowns.

Chizik and the person he hires as offensive coordinator will have Moseley, Frazier and highly-touted incoming freshman Zeke Pike to choose from when it comes to Auburn’s quarterback position in 2012.