SEC Football

1. Brandon Mitchell’s transfer puts more pressure on Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen, writes Barrett Sallee.

2. The Arkansas News Bureau has more on the transfer of Mitchell and three other Razorbacks.

3. The price of Alabama’s trip to the BCS championship game in Miami: $3.4 million.

4. New Auburn defensive line coach Rodney Garner brings an “intense, demanding style” to the Tigers.

5. Jay Prosch was “one of the highlights of the whole spring” at H-Back for Auburn.

6. Who from the SEC will join the College Football Hall of Fame? We’ll find out today at 10:30 ET.

7. Today’s meeting in Jacksonville could be LSU’s “last defining attempt” to eliminate permanent cross-division opponents.

8. Edward Aschoff wraps up the spring looking at the SEC’s attempt for one more BCS title.

9. More good news for Kentucky football player Ashely Lowery: He’s expected to make a “full” recovery.

10. Tennessee coach Butch Jones has turned his team over to the players, writes Mike Strange.

11. The list of elite prospects for next year’s NFL draft does not include Johnny Manziel, according to Bucky Brooks.

SEC Basketball

12. Forward DeVon Walker has decided to transfer from Florida after only one season in Gainesville.

13. Marco Harris and Mark Pancratz are candidates for the Director of Basketball Operations job at Tennessee.

14. There are only two SEC teams in the early Top 25 from USA Today.

Extra

15. Tim Tebow is the most influential athlete of 2013, according to Forbes.

16. The Baltimore Sun looks at the Ravens’ attempt to turn former Ole Miss basketball player Murphy Holloway into a tight end.

17. From yesterday: A highly-touted linebacker wants out of his NLI at Florida State so he can attend Georgia or USC.

18. A tough decision awaits the NCAA regarding the Ben McLemore case, writes Jeff Eisenberg.

In a bit of a surprise move, Arkansas quarterback Brandon Mitchell intends to transfer and has been granted his release.  After failing to beat out Brandon Allen for the Razorbacks’ starting job this spring, there was talk of Mitchell moving to another position.  New coach Bret Bielema had said as recently as last week that he intended for Mitchell to stay at quarterback.  Instead, he’ll be gone altogether.

Mitchell — a senior — is on pace to graduate this summer and therefore could transfer and play elsewhere immediately.  He has played quarterback and receiver at Arkansas.  He was also a member of Mike Anderson’s basketball squad.

Three other Razorbacks have been granted releases today: defensive end Austin Flynn, safety Defonta Lowe, and receiver Keante Minor.  “Through meetings with these student-athletes, a determination was made that it would be mutually beneficial for them to pursue their goals elsewhere,” Bielema said of the four.  “We fully support them and wish them all the best moving forward.”

Suddenly keeping Allen, the starting quarterback, healthy this fall just became an even bigger priority.

With spring practice at an end, it looks like Arkansas has a starting quarterback.  And according to Bret Bielema, it’s the guy most expected would grab the job before spring ball began:

“Brandon Allen really from the first week until the game that you saw on Saturday made progress all the way along.  But just really the last weeks have been exceptional.  He’s just continued to make strides…

Brandon Mitchell does a lot of really good things as well.  One thing we can’t do is we can’t turn the football over.  We can’t create negative plays on our own.  I think Brandon Allen did a lot better job of that just overall and has progressed in a way that has put him in that position…

As far as with Brandon Mitchell, obviously, I think at quarterback he’s got some special gifts that we definitely can use or make better.  If there’s another role, him at another position, it’ll be something that we kind of work through together.”

Could Allen, a sophomore from Fayetteville, still botch up the works with an offseason slip-up or a poor fall practice?  Probably.  But it’s noteworthy that a first-year coach with no proven starter has gone ahead and listed one QB hopeful over another on the post-spring depth chart.  Had he decided to milk the competition thing a bit longer — and many coaches do so just for the sake of doing it — Bielema could have listed Allen and Mitchell neck and neck.

But he didn’t.  And the fact that the possibility of moving Mitchell to another position — he was moved to receiver some last year — was brought up should provide a clue as to just far ahead Allen is in Arkansas’ quarterback derby.

SEC Football

1. What to expect at LSU’s spring game tomorrow?  Here are five things to look for. Three projected starters will be held out with injuries.

2. What to expect at tomorrow’s Tennessee spring game? Defensive coordinator John Jancek: “We’ll be pretty vanilla.”

3. With Marlin Lane’s absence, Vols thin at running back.

4. In the quarterback battle at Arkansas, has Brandon Allen done enough to separate himself from Brandon Mitchell?

5. Here are 10 questions facing Missouri heading into tomorrow’s spring game.

6. With Alabama’s spring game tomorrow, a position-by-position breakdown of the offense and one for defense/special teams

7. Here’s the position breakdown at Auburn- the offense and defense/special teams.

8. Final rolling of Toomer’s Oaks tomorrow.

9. How things stack up among Florida tailbacks and fullbacks.

10. Mississippi State JUCU transfer wide receiver Jeremy Chapelle is starting to look comfortable.

11. Georgia coach Mark Richt expects plenty of competition for starting spots this fall: You’ve got some guys legitimately fighting for jobs.”

12. Some SEC fans could be celebrating New Year’s Eve in Memphis.  Liberty Bowl scheduled for December 31.

13. From Johnny Manziel to Kiehl Frazier, Athlon ranks the SEC quarterbacks.

14. From Nick Saban to Mark Stoops, Matt Hayes at The Sporting News ranks the SEC coaches.

15. Could 12 SEC players go in the first round of the NFL draft? Tyrann Mathieu gets a magazine cover.

SEC Basketball

16. Kentucky coach John Calipari on his eight-man class coming to Lexington: “The thing I like most about this group is its competitive spirit and its will to win.”

17. Breaking down the best class in the country.

18. Former Ole Miss guard Jamal Jones is headed to Texas A&M.

Extras

19, “Good thing Will Muschamp got the head-coaching job at Florida a couple of years ago. He might have grown old waiting for Mack Brown to retire at Texas.”

20. Study: Graduation-rate gap between college baseball players and all male students greater than gap with football players.

21. Trashed hotel room at the NFL combine linked to Clemson and Rutgers players.

22. How many college athletes benefit from multiyear scholarships?  Not many.

Sophomore Brandon Allen is a quarterback.  Senior Brandon Mitchell is a quarterback who was turned into a wideout who then turned himself into a basketball player and who’s now been turned back into a quarterback.

Armed with that information, most Arkansas fans knew that the younger of the two Brandons had the inside track to the Razorbacks’ starting job entering spring.  According to his coach, it sounds like Allen is doing everything necessary to nail down that gig (though a starter probably won’t be named until fall).

Over the weekend, Bret Bielema once again praised Allen for his performance in the Hogs’ latest scrimmage:

“I thought our offense today at times in the early parts looked really, really good.  Brandon Allen especially.  Looked crisp on some of his throws, stepping up in the pocket and doing things we’ve asked him to do.”

According to HawgSports.com — the Rivals.com site covering Arkansas — Allen completed four of six deep passes on Saturday with receivers taking the blame for the two incompletions.

Last season, Allen played in just five games for the Razorbacks connecting on 21-of-49 passes for 186 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions.  That’s hardly a long resume.  And the change from the Arkansas’ old pass-first system to Bielema’s run-first offense could mitigate some of the experience Allen did gain during his freshman year.

That said, for those who don’t remember, Allen was ranked as the #5 pro-style quarterback in the country coming out of high school.  He has talent to be sure, but it’s likely to be pretty raw early in the season.

Last week we noted that it will be interesting to see if Bielema and new offensive coordinator Jim Chaney — a pass-first guy — mesh in Fayetteville.  But one definite benefit of Chaney’s hire is his ability to polish signal-callers.  In two stints as a college offensive coordinator Chaney has put two QBs in the NFL (Drew Brees and Kyle Orton from Purdue) and another will join them later this month (Tyler Bray from Tennessee).  That bodes well for Allen and Arkansas.

The fact that most folks around the Arkansas program feel that Allen continues is opening a gap between himself and Mitchell suggests that the sophomore is already taking to Chaney’s tutelage.  It also suggests that he’ll indeed be the Razorbacks’ starter this fall… just as everyone expected.

Jim Chaney ran a wide-open, pass-first offense at Tennessee last year.  The Volunteers had more 10+ yard passing plays (161) than any other offense in the SEC.  UT’s yards-per-game average of 475.9 was second only to Texas A&M’s 558.5.

Now serving as Arkansas’ offensive coordinator, Chaney is looking for a starting quarterback — Brandon Allen is the leader in that race — and some playmakers.  Considering how good the Razorbacks’ offense was under Bobby Petrino, it’s almost hard to believe we’re writing that just one year removed from his tenure.  Still, according to Chaney, that is indeed the situation in Fayetteville:

“We weren’t as explosive (in Saturday’s scrimmage) as I’d like to have seen us be.  When you’re trying to score points, you’ve got to generate some big plays and we didn’t do that as well as I’d like to.  When Coach (Bret Beilema) moved the ball back and made us go a long distance, we were unable to get the ball down there…

It was interesting, the success we had (near the goal line).  There was a lot of excitement and emotion on the field.  Then we move it to move-the-field and it was like we’d forgotten that.  We needed to get them pumped back up and get ready to go on the move-the-field part of the practice.  We kind of dropped the ball when we moved to that part, kind of got our butts kicked.”

Chaney told reporters that the Hogs passing attack is still trying to find its niche in what’s now going to be a run-first offense.  At Tennessee, Chaney was sometimes criticized for relying too heavily on the pass.  For comparison’s sake, Bielema’s last six Wisconsin teams ranked next-to-last, 8th, last, 8th, 9th, and 9th in the Big Ten in pass attempts.

Mark down the Bielema/Chaney marriage as one of the more interesting storylines to follow in the SEC this fall.

New Arkansas coach Bret Bielema knows what he wants out of the two men vying for the Razorbacks’ starting quarterback spot — dedication:

“The more reps and the more time — they’ve got to be junkies.  Quarterbacks have got to be those guys that are always last out of there and always asking to do more.  And I think we’re getting that culture more and more.”

Brandon Allen continues to run with the first string while Brandon Mitchell toils with the backup unit.  It sounds like Bielema is expecting more from Allen than from Mitchell.  “There’s just some urgency (Allen) needs to get.  I was all over his tail (in practice).  There was a snap where we had a positive third-and-short but our wide receiver wasn’t quite lined up and an itchy official could have flagged us there.  I said ‘It’s your responsibility.’  He’s got to dictate those other 10 guys that are in his control and be very aware of that situation.  He can do it.”

Bielema added that Mitchell “continue to impress” him.  “He’s got a gamesmanship to him.  He’s got a little rhythm.  He’s got a little fire in him.  He’s a great competitor.”

Allen, who’ll be a sophomore in the fall, completed 21 of 49 pass attempts for 186 yards at Arkansas last season.  He tossed three interceptions to his one touchdown.  Mitchell, a senior-to-be, has completed 25 of 43 career attempts for 332 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception.  He was moved to receiver during the 2012 season.

Auburn Allegations

1. Asked about allegations surrounding the program, Auburn coach Gus Malzahn defers to the school’s administration.  Phone records obtained Friday showed he made more than 90 calls to Dakota Mosley’s father.  Malzahn told ESPN he met with Mosley regarding depression.

2. Kevin Scarbinsky on Auburn’s rapid response efforts: “Make no mistake. Auburn is on trial here…”

3. Matt Hayes on Auburn’s troubles: “The guy charged with fixing it all, new coach Gus Malzahn, was knee-deep in the process little more than a year ago.”

4. Florida coach Will Muschamp has nothing to add to a previous denial he paid an Auburn player when he was defensive coordinator:  ”There’s nothing to dignify any other response other than exactly what you’ve read.”

SEC Football

5. Rehab on the shoulder of Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace going well, could start throwing in June.  But the Rebels have missed him this spring.

6. Both Kiehl Frazier and Jonathan Wallace threw more than 20 passes in Auburn’s Saturday scrimmage.  Malzahn:  ”It is really hard to look good in a scrimmage until you start settling in with specific personnel.” Undisclosed injury for running back Tre Mason. Tigers cancel Monday’s practice. 

7. Not much separation in the quarterback battle at Tennessee between Justin Worley and Nathan Peterman. Coach Butch Jones “not pleased at all” with the offense.  “An offense seemingly bereft of playmakers struggled.”

8. In the quarterback battle at Arkansas, coach Bret Bielema says Brandon Allen took a step ahead of Brandon Mitchell.

9. Razorbacks running back Jonathan Williams the star of the scrimmage.

10. In a three-way quarterback battle at Missouri, is redshirt freshman Matty Mauk emerging from the pack?

10. Encouraging signs for Mizzou running back Henry Josey, coming back from a brutal knee injury.  Coach Gary Pinkel: “People have no idea what this guy had to do,”

11. Running back Mike Davis impressive at South Carolina’s scrimmage on Saturday.

12. With the spring game done and just a few practices left, time to ask some unresolved questions and throw out some possible answers surrounding the Georgia Bulldogs.

13. Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo: “We are nowhere where we need to be offensively.”

14. Florida freshman running back Kelvin Taylor one of the stars of the Gators spring game.  Will Muschamp:  “Kelvin’s got a really strong lower body. He runs through contact extremely well.”

15. One of the stars of Alabama’s first spring scrimmage – wide receiver DeAndrew White.  He’s one of three Bama receivers coming off injuries in 2012.  Nick Saban: “DeAndrew White is doing really well – did a really good job, made some big plays today, actually.”

16. Mississippi State defensive coordinator Geoff Collins on the Bulldogs first scrimmage: “I went through every call that we have on defense. The one defense executed every call.”

17. Kentucky’s offense dominates in Saturday’s scrimmage.  Coach Mark Stoops: ”It wasn’t even close today.”

Extras

18. Phil Steele projects the AP Top 26 – six of the top 12 in the SEC.

19. Former Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning giving $500,000 to the Pat Summitt Foundation.

20. The New York Times on former Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice: “Interviews and documents reveal a culture in which the university was far more concerned with protecting itself from legal action than with protecting its students from an abusive coach.”

21. Louisville basketball has to stop selling a t-shirt – “use of logo” issue.

22. Former NBA coach Phil Jackson was live-tweeting the Final Four.

24. Eddie Einhorn paid the NCAA $6,000 to broadcast the 1961 championship game between Ohio State and Cincinnati.  Couldn’t find a station outside of Ohio or Kentucky willing to broadcast it.

1. Kevin Scarbinsky on former Alabama A.D. Mal Moore, who died Saturday. “Moore will be linked forever with Paul Bryant in death as they were in life.”

2. Former Alabama coach Gene Stallings knew Moore for 55 years.  ”I was extremely surprised when I found out that he passed away.”

3. Vanderbilt’s latest scrimmage shows the Commodores are committed to the Wildcat formation.

4. LSU defensive end Jordan Allen is back on the practice field after a knee injury against Washington cost him his sophomore season.

5. Injuries at Georgia – offensive lineman Austin Long out for the rest of the spring.  Cornerback Sheldon Dawson likely out as well.

6. Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray on the Bulldogs Saturday scrimmage: “I thought we dominated the day.”

7. Arkansas coach Bret Bielema on the Razorbacks Saturday scrimmage: “I was happy with the way they were hitting.”

8. Looks like sophomore Brandon Allen has a slight edge on senior Brandon Mitchell for the Arkansas quarterback job.

9. Auburn quarterback Kiehl Frazier bulked up to 245 pounds last year.  With the running game back in play, he’s shed 10 pounds already on the way back down to his freshman weight of 220 pounds.

10. Likely top target this fall for Mississippi State quarterback Tyler Russell?  Junior receiver Robert Johnson.  ”We actually played against each other in high school.”

11. It’s the one wide-open competition at Ole Miss this spring – tight end.  Co-offensive coordinator Dan Werner: “We’re just playing about eight of them right now, letting them battle it out to see who’ll be the guy and right now nobody is separating themselves.”

SEC/NCAA Tournament Basketball

12. Trey Burke’s performance for Michigan Friday night was the first time a player had scored at least 20 points and 10 assists since Billy Donovan did it for Providence back in 1987.

13. Roster juggling at Tennessee or early NBA departures? Vols have ten returning scholarship players and four commitments.  That’s 14 with a 13-scholarship limit.

14.  Rick Pitino and Mike Krzyzewski will face each other for the first time today since the immortal Christian Laettner shot.

Apparently that’s that.

According to local radio and TV reports from Fayetteville, Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson has not been cleared by doctors and will not play tomorrow against top-ranked Alabama.  Wilson suffered a concussion last Saturday.  He also suffered a concussion last year.  (Don’t think NFL GMs won’t consider that next April.)

That’s a tough break for Wilson, a tough break for the Razorbacks, and a really tough break for John L. Smith.  If the loss to Louisiana-Monroe didn’t guarantee his departure from Fayetteville at year’s end, what’s likely to occur when Arkansas starts a backup against Bama probably will.

Brandon Allen went 6-of-20 for 85 yards with a TD and an interception when he was thrown in against Louisiana-Monroe last weekend.  As ULM proved, anything’s possible… but if Arkansas upsets the Crimson Tide with a backup quarterback, it’ll go down in the Hog history books.