Support staff at SEC football programs rarely make big headlines.  Those are left to the men on the actual coaching staffs.

Except in the case of ex-Tennessee employee Steve Rubio.  The school announced yesterday that he is no longer employed by the university and no longer holds the title of director of player personnel.

Rubio was a Lane Kiffin hire in Knoxville.  He came to Tennessee from Central Florida where he had served as the Golden Knight’s director of player personnel.  After his arrival at Tennessee, UCF got spanked by the NCAA and coach George O’Leary — along with the NCAA — laid plenty of the blame at Rubio’s doorstep.

In October of 2009, Rubio — serving as a recruiting intern for the Vols — visited his old Florida high school along with Kiffin while UT’s head coach made a recruiting visit there.  That’s a no-no.  The NCAA investigated the matter.

Still, Rubio was eventually promoted to the position of director of player personnel and stayed on Tennessee’s staff after Derek Dooley’s arrival.  Now gone, the school won’t say if he left on his own or was asked to depart.

A House subcommittee nixed a South Carolina lawmakers attempt to force South Carolina and Clemson to meet on the football field each season.  While the rivalry — which has been played 103 consecutive years — looks safe now, conference expansion and realignment have interrupted other long-standing rivalries (Kansas-Missouri, Texas-Texas A&M, etc).

“This is important to the state,” argued Representative Nathan Ballentine, who sponsored the bill.  “It is something the Palmetto State could be proud of, should be proud of.”

But in the end, his bill was crushed by a touchdown, 7-0.  “These matters should be handled by the universities and trustees,” Representative Lester Branham said.

If Carolina or Clemson ever attempt to end their football rivalry, expect a number of Palmetto State lawmakers to rush to get involved.

1.  The Orlando Sentinel says Florida was “completely outclassed” by Kentucky last night.

2.  Brian Cox Jr. signed with the Gators because his papa — the ex-NFL’er — and Gator D-coordinator Dan Quinn worked together with the New York Jets.

3.  Off-field issues have whittled down Georgia’s secondary depth.

4.  This columnist says Anthony Davis’ defense is just the tip of Kentucky’s spear. 

5.  Michael Kidd-Gilchrist continues to come up big in the Wildcats’ biggest games.

6.  South Carolina is 1-7 in the SEC and 0-4 on the road heading to Tennessee tonight.

7.  The Vols’ Jeronne Maymon will try to remain consistent, efficient and tough versus the Gamecocks.

8.  Vanderbilt will try to snap a two-game losing streak when LSU visits Nashville tonight.

9.  No surprise — SEC coaches aren’t thrilled with the NCAA’s new multi-year scholarship option.

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.

After seeing Kentucky up close and personal in a 78-58 loss last night, Florida’s Billy Donovan has high praise for John Calipari’s team:


“The one thing I like about their team is I love their disposition on the floor.  There’s a certain disposition you have to have and I’m not talking about an arrogance or a cockiness, but there’s like a focus level in terms of what really goes into winning at that level.  There’s a mentality there.”


Donovan — whose Gators lost to #2 Syracuse earlier this season — also said #1 Kentucky has a bit more talent than the Orange in that they have six future NBA first-round picks on their roster.  Still, “it would be a heck of a game,” he said.

The University of Arkansas is spending $40 million on a brand new football complex in Fayetteville.  The school is also planning to expand Razorback Stadium. 

People in Little Rock are paying attention.

Afraid they might lose the two games played annually by the Razorbacks at War Memorial Stadium, there’s now discussion to upgrade and expand the 63-year-old venue.  The school and the War Memorial Stadium Commission currently have a deal that runs through 2016.

Arkansas is the only school at the FBS level that plays multiple “home” games away from its campus each season.  As Bobby Petrino has improved the Razorback program, ticket demands have gone up.  And Razorback Stadium can seat about 22,000 more Hog fans than War Memorial Stadium.  For that reason, there’s already speculation that the season finale between Arkansas and LSU could be moved to Fayetteville this fall.

Obviously the folks in Little Rock can see the writing on the wall.

Hugh Freeze is hoping to avoid the cold-shoulder from the Ole Miss football team.  The new Rebel coach tells The Jackson Clarion-Ledger that he knows he won’t win over everybody, but he hopes to reach the vast majority of players:


“At the end of the day, you hope 80% of your team has chosen to buy in.  that’s the buy-in principle.  And your 20%, you hope they’re not negative influences.  If you can ever get a team that’s about 90% or so to buy in, I think you got a special group.  But that’s always a challenge.”


Freeze was a head coach for one season at Arkansas State.  He’ll be asking his team to buy-in on faith, not on a long, distinguished resume.  His players, therefore, will likely want to see some early positive results before they buy-in completely.

1.  After a flurry of technical fouls, Alabama knocked out Auburn.

2.  Anthony Grant probably won’t be happy with some of his players for calling out Auburn fans and players on Twitter after the win. 

3.  Tony Barbee says his Tiger team got “out-toughed.”

4.  Undefeated at home, Arkansas heads to Georgia looking for its first win away from Bud Walton Arena in 348 days.

5.  LSU goes on the road to Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym tonight.

6.  MSU fans have chosen their program’s Team of the Century (from State’s first 100 years of basketball… it’d still be a bit soon to for the team of the 2000s.)

7.  Ole Miss needs to keep hitting the boards when the Rebels travel to Starkville on Thursday.

8.  Terrance Henry says he’s got the back of UM’s Nick Williams, the Reb’s top trash-talker.”

Yesterday we told you that in SEC hoops, teams have but a 24% chance of winning on the road.  Well after last night, that number has skyrocketed to a 25% chance.

SEC home teams are still 38-13 in league play, but one of last night’s two contests was indeed captured by the visitor.  In spite of the turmoil surrounding that squad.


Alabama 68, Auburn 50

One day after the indefinite suspension of Tony Mitchell, the Crimson Tide traveled into the home of its arch-rival and made off with an easier than expected win.  The Tigers had been 3-1 at home and Bama would be looking to replace Mitchell’s 13 point- and 7 rebound-average.

JaMychal Green and Trevor Releford combined for 34 points to fill the scoring void.  And UA managed to outrebound AU 30-26 on the night, even without Mitchell’s usual contribution.

The win boosts Bama to 16-7 overall and 5-4 in the SEC.  They’ve now rebounded from a four-game losing streak with a three-game win streak.  The NCAA Tournament is still in sight for Bama.  For Auburn?  The SEC cellar remains in view as the Tigers tumbled to 3-7 in league play, ahead of only Georgia and South Carolina.


Kentucky 79, Florida 58

The thinking went as follows: If anyone is going to knock off the Wildcats in Lexington, it will be the Gators.  But in reality, Billy Donovan’s team was just another speed bump en route to an SEC crown and a probable #1 seed in the NCAA tourney.

When we pointed out yesterday that UK’s average home win was by a score of 83-60, we didn’t anticipate last night’s score being so similar.

For the Cats, overconfidence might be the only concern moving forward.  Example: “We have this little swagger.  We just want to go out there and play hard and win.  We’re capable of winning a national championship if we keep playing how we’re playing.”  That’s from Anthony Davis after last night’s whipping of Florida.  Davis, of course, is a freshman who happens to have no idea of what it takes to win six games in a row in the NCAA Tournament.

There’s a reason John Calipari changed his talking point from “being physical” to “avoiding overconfidence” this week.  The latter seems to be the only thing that can slow down his Wildcats… especially in the regular season.

Darius Philon — the conflicted Alabama commitment who chose Arkansas sight unseen when the Tide tried to get him to delay enrolling for a year — is feeling better about his decision to matriculate in Fayetteville.

According to Richard Davenport of WholeHogSports.com, Philon’s defensive coordinator in high school says the player “has been wearing Razorback clothing to school and is all smiles about attending Arkansas.”

The coach also said that Philon had surgery on a torn meniscus before Christmas, but he is “rehabbing well and should be ready to go in the fall.”

Anyone not wishing the best for this kid has a heart of stone.

On signing day, Dan Mullen told a Mississippi State video crew that he doesn’t just preach values, he lives it every day in his program.  Ole Miss fans — familiar with Mullen’s many shots at the Rebels over the years — took his comments to be a thinly-veiled reference to new UM coach Hugh Freeze, a man who speaks often of his faith.

Asked about Mullen’s remarks by The Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Freeze took the high road… as Houston Nutt often tried to do before him:

“I’m sure that all of us express our faith in different ways.  I have said from Day One that I’m far from perfect and do not claim to be and certainly don’t judge others.  I have said from Day One also that I have great respect for what he’s done there.  I give credit where credit’s due.  I look forward to trying to increase our momentum against them, but whether or not he meant that toward me — I don’t know why he would, because I will never.  I’m not going to talk about something I don’t know, Number One, and have no reason to think anything about me.

We’re not going to enter into negative recruiting.  It’s just not what we’re going to do. … Will we be 100% in that?  Probably not as a whole staff, but I don’t think that’s going to be the practice we adhere to…

I look forward to talking with him.  I do.  I know how we feel about that rivalry and I certainly understand it and I get it.  I’ve lived here.  But at the end of the day, I don’t know that it has to be a rift between the coaching staff because of it.  I’m going to want to beat them as bad as we can and he’d going to want to do the same, but I still think you can have a professional relationship.  I hope.

I don’t think he in any way in recruiting tried to do anything that was hurtful towards me personally or say anything about me.  And I know I didn’t him.”

Mullen is a needler.  He’s got a touch of Spurrier and a dash of Kiffin about him.  (Cue the “he’s a sweetheart” emails from MSU fans.)

We’ll see how long it take for MSU’s coach to get under the skin of UM’s new head man.

(Sidenote — Because MSU fans are already yelping we’ve changed the word “faith” above to “values.”  Mullen was referring to preaching about values, not preaching about faith.  This changes nothing, of course, as Rebel fans still took it as a shot at Freeze who is vocal about his faith, values, beliefs, etc.  And UM fans taking Mullen’s comment as an insult was what led the reporter from The JCL to ask Freeze his thoughts on the remark… and that’s what led us to post it here.

Here’s a link to the web clip.)

1.  Varez Ward is becoming a real leader for Auburn’s basketball team.

2.  Michigan has sold out its allotment of tickets for this fall’s season-opener against Alabama at Cowboys Stadium.

3.  Even without Marshawn Powell, Arkansas is playing itself onto the NCAA tourney bubble.

4.  Trent Johnson is trying to prepare his LSU team for a visit from battle-tested Vanderbilt.

5.  Forward Shaun Smith could be a big help to Mississippi State in the stretch run.

6.  Bo Wallace has an advantage in Ole Miss’ quarterback race.