1.  Here are this week’s SEC basketball Players of the Week.

2.  If Florida hires Jeff Dillman — as expected — as its new strength coach, the way the Gators lift weights will change.

3.  All Georgia’s football players are present and accounted for as bowl week preps kick off in Tampa today.

4.  As for next year, this writer says it’s all but certain the Bulldogs won’t face Alabama.

5.  UGA forward Marcus Thornton — the Dawgs’ leading rebounder — is undergoing exploratory knee surgery today.

6.  Joker Phillips wants Kentucky to build next year on its “strong finish” in 2011 (meaning a nine-point loss to Georgia and a win over 5-7 Tennessee).

7.  This writer believes South Carolina’s best possible move might be to promote Lorenzo Ward to replace Ellis Johnson.

8.  Folks in the Volunteer State are looking forward to the mid-season arrival of true freshman hoopster Jarnell Stokes.

9.  This scribe says Tennessee fans should also be paying attention to Vanderbilt’s recruiting class.

10.  Vanderbilt moved its Liberty Bowl practice indoors as rain fell on Memphis.

1.  A number of Alabama footballers are weighing their NFL options.

2.  The Tide hoops team will try to regain its shooting touch against Oklahoma State tonight.

3.  Alabama, Auburn and LSU lead the SEC in football staff salaries.

4.  Tiger defensive back Jermaine Whitehead had to grow up fast this season.

5.  Arkansas had to overcome some cold shooting to off EKU last night.

6.  Les Miles is the AP’s Coach of the Year in college football.

7.  LSU expects another physical game with Alabama in the BCS title game.

8.  Mississippi State’s defense is ready for Wake Forest’s undersized offensive line.

9.  Dan Mullen won’t say if Chris Relf or a banged-up Tyler Russell will start at quarterback.

10.  Hugh Freeze says he did his best to keep assistant coach Gunter Brewer at Ole Miss, but he’s going to North Carolina anyway.

11.  But former UM player Grant Heard will join the Rebels’ staff as receivers coach.

12.  It sounds like Florida’s Brian White has a leg up on the vacant offensive coordinator gig.  (Here’s what we wrote on that topic yesterday.)

13.  Grad assistant Jeff Blasko is being promoted to quarterbacks coach at UF.

14.  The loss of strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti to Ohio State was a big, big blow to some Gators.

15.  Move over, Micheal Scott.  Georgia’s Mark Richt is the World’s Greatest Boss.

16.  UGA has more questions at the quarterback position than you might think.

17.  Samford’s Princeton-style offense was good practice for Kentucky last night.

18.  UK walk-on Sam Malone will have to have a fourth major knee surgery… a situation John Calipari calls “heartbreaking.”

19.  Ellis Johnson won’t be coaching South Carolina’s defense in the Capital One Bowl after all.  (We’re hearing increasing rumors of a bit of rift between Johnson and Steve Spurrier, by the way.)

20.  Spurrier says he has “several guys in mind” that might replace Johnson and current defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward is one of them.

21.  Kenny Miles will start at tailback for the Cocks rather than Brandon Wilds.

22.  Tennessee beat back the losing-streak virus last night against UNC-Asheville.

23.  The Vols finally toughed out a win.

24.  Vanderbilt’s perimeter defense will be tested by Lafayette’s long-range gunners.

In a blow to the South Carolina football program, the Gamecocks’ top defensive assistant, Ellis Johnson, will be taking over as head coach at Southern Miss according to The Jackson Clarion-Ledger.  The hire is expected to be made official today.  With Larry Fedora coaching USM once last time in their bowl game, it’s expected that Johnson will stay with USC for its Capital One Bowl date with Nebraska.

Johnson was in Hattiesburg interviewing for a second time with the school yesterday.  The 59-year-old — who turns 60 on Friday — once served as an assistant at USM in 1988 and 1989.

He has served as defensive coordinator at Clemson (1995-1996), Alabama (1997-2000), Mississippi State (2004-2007) and at South Carolina since ’07.  From 2001 to 2003 he served as the head coach of The Citadel.

Steve Spurrier’s turnaround of the Carolina program can be traced to two things: recruiting and defense.  Oddly enough, the Ol’ Ball Coach’s offense has not just found a way to take flight in Columbia.  A quick look at the Cocks’ D under Johnson shows how much improvement has been made on his watch:


2007 — 9th in total defense (SEC), 56th in total defense (nation)
2008 — 4th in total defense (SEC), 13th in total defense (nation)
2009 — 3rd in total defense (SEC), 15th in total defense (nation)
2010 — 7th in total defense (SEC), 46th in total defense (nation)
2011 — 4th in total defense (SEC), 4th in total defense (nation)


Clearly, Johnson has played a big role in changing the fortunes of his homestate school. 

This isn’t to say, of course, that Spurrier can’t find a new coordinator to fill Johnson’s shoes.  After all, he was the man who grabbed Johnson in the first place.

But it does mean the Cocks will have to wade out into the coaching pool and compete with the likes of Auburn for a top coordinator.  Better get out the checkbook.

Johnson was making $750,000 in Columbia as the “assistant head coach for defense.”  Lorenzo Ward actually bears the title of “defensive coordinator.”  So it’s possible that Spurrier will simply promote Ward if he feels he’s got the chops to run the show on his own.

Thanks for bearing with us the last couple of days.  We’ll be back to a full day’s work on Monday.  (Meanwhile, Mike and Josh will continue to handle weekend and recruiting news as usual.)

Here are your Friday headlines…

1.  Auburn will try to get its passing game cranked up in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

2.  The Tigers have sold about 15,000 of their 16,000 tickets to the game.

3.  Arkansas’ Joe Adams is an All-American.

4.  The hoops Hogs start a seven-game homestand tomorrow.

5.  LSU has started its title game preps for Alabama.

6.  The roundball Tigers shot just 31% last night… but they still managed to beat UC-Irvine.

7.  MSU cornerback Darius Slay is now playing a big role for the Bulldogs.

8.  Ole Miss is already keeping an eye on the RPI.

9.  Transfer Jelan Kendrick seems to be getting off on the wrong foot in Oxford.

10.  Florida is having struggles at the free throw line.

11.  Georgia’s Outback Bowl tickets are all sold out.

12.  The UGA hoops team will travel to Italy next summer.

13.  Chattanooga’s coach expects to run into a ticked Kentucky team after the Cats’ loss to Indiana.

14.  Are folks being too tough on UK’s Terrence Jones?

15.  South Carolina’s top defensive coach, Ellis Johnson, interviewed for the Southern Miss head coaching spot yesterday.

16.  An announcement from USM could come soon.

17.  Meanwhile, the Cocks are getting ready for their bowl date with Nebraska.

18.  New Tennessee AD Dave Hart wants to see “progress” from Derek Dooley’s program next year.

19.  The Vol hoops team is on its first four-game losing streak since 2004-05.

1.  Alabama and LSU grabbed plenty of All-American honors.

2.  Gus Malzahn will coach Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Bowl; Gene Chizik says there’s “no panic” in search for coaches.  (Anybody else think of this?)

3.  AU is 5-1 in hoops after a 52-40 win over South Florida.

4.  New Arkansas defensive coordinator Paul Haynes will make just short of $500,000 a year.

5.  Les Miles “wanted everyone to know that he is not interested in the Miami (Dolphins) job.”

6.  Recuperated LSU O-lineman Josh Dworaczyk can either take part in the BCS title game or gamble that the NCAA will grant him a sixth season of eligibility next year.

7.  LSU’s cornerbacks make history on the All-American team.

8.  Tiger hoopster Andre Stringer continues to undergo tests after fainting at practice last week.

9.  Ole Miss improved to 9-1 with a 66-54 win over Louisiana-Lafayette last night.

10.  Hugh Freeze will not honor the grayshirt agreement reached by quarterback Maikhail Miller’s family and Houston Nutt… yet another reason why player should look out for themselves.  (And, yes, the kid will be fined $364 for possessing less than an ounce of marijuana, but that’s hardly a murder charge.)

11.  Dan Mullen is going to get a contract extension at Mississippi State.  (Kudos to his agent for attaching his name to every job opening in the country.)

12.  Florida kicker Caleb Sturgis garnered All-America honors.

13.  Georgia landed two on the AP All-American squad.

14.  The length of Mark Richt’s contract extension will send a message to Dawg fans… and recruits.

15.  Kentucky’s Marquis Teague looked tougher against Indiana.

16.  South Carolina receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Steve Spurrier, Jr. is no longer a candidate for the head coaching job at Coastal Carolina.

17.  But Carolina defensive guru Ellis Johnson is reportedly a leading candidate for the top gig at Southern Miss.

18.  Here’s a good, lengthy look at USC’s NCAA response.

19.  Tennessee dropped to 3-6 on the season with a 71-65 loss at College of Charleston last night.  (The Vols have now lost to mid-majors Oakland and C of C in back-to-back years.)

20.  Perhaps that’s why this writer says UT has now fallen to “mid-major hell.”

21.  Vanderbilt promises to be aggressive on offense in the Liberty Bowl.

We’ll pick up this morning where we left off last evening… on the coaching carousel.  Here are the latest moves and rumored moves from across the SEC, starting with the last remaining head coaching vacancy.

* Texas A&M interviewed Southern Miss’ Larry Fedora twice, but North Carolina appears to have (finally) sealed the deal with the C-USA champion coach.  Fedora is a College Station native — and he was the top choice for many Aggie fans — but it looks like that ship has now sailed.

All told, just about every name but Knute Rockne’s has been attached to the job, but that’s a product of some serious spin.  A&M officials are leaking big-time names to give their job a boost and several agents are floating their clients’ names to build their cred.  Mark Richt, Kyle Whittingham, Dabo Swinney, Art Briles, Charlie Strong and Dan Mullen (of course), have all been tied to the job via reports and/or rumors.

In reality, it looks like the Aggies are headed toward Houston’s Kevin Sumlin, though Air Force’s Troy Calhoun reportedly interviewed well.

Also…

* Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart has interviewed for the A&M job.  But it’s not believed he’s near the top of the Aggies’ list.  In fact, his counterpart at Alabama may leave Tuscaloosa before Smart.

Offensive coordinator Jim McElwain is one of the finalists for the job and internet reports claim he is already working on terms with the Tigers.  If he does land the Memphis job, we’d like to wish him and his head coaching career well… because neither will be heard from again.  If Miami of Ohio is the “cradle of coaches,” then Memphis is the graveyard.

Another Alabama coach has also been connected to a new job via the rumor mill…

* Arkansas is looking for a new defensive coordinator following the dismissal of Willy Robinson yesterday and Tide assistant head coach and linebackers coach Sal Sunseri is a candidate.

Former Arizona head coach Mike Stoops, Joe Whitt Jr., and Mike Gillhamer have also been connected to the job via online reports and scuttlebutt that we’ve picked up from speaking to folks close to the UA program.

* One name that rarely pops up in connection to head coaching jobs is that of LSU defensive coordinator John Chavis.  But he remains one of the game’s top assistants as evidenced by his winning the 2011 Broyles Award yesterday, an honor that goes to the season’s top assistant coach.

Chavis beat out former Arkansas offensive coordinator Garrick McGee and Alabama linebackers coach Sal Sunseri among others.

* Yesterday, South Carolina lost running backs coach Jay Graham to Tennessee.  Today, Ellis Johnson — the Cocks’ assistant head coach, assistant coach of defense, and linebackers coach — is reportedly a leading candidate for the head coaching job at Southern Miss.  Carolina’s de facto defensive coordinator has ties to Mississippi, but he has deeper ties to Columbia and the Palmetto State.  From speaking to connections at USC, we would be surprised if Johnson departed.

* Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn has said that he wants to be a head coach at some point.  Last year he turned down overtures from Vanderbilt and Maryland.  Initially he was expected to be a serious contender for the North Carolina job, but it appears that was not to be.

His name is currently being mentioned with regards to the open job at Kansas, but would a man who passed on Vandy and Maryland jump to a comparable, bottom-of-the-league job in the Big 12?  We expect Malzahn to be back at Auburn next year.

* At Mississippi State, fans are once again having to deal with rumors of their head coach exiting.  Mullen — as noted above — had his name tied to the vacancy at Texas A&M earlier this week.  His name continues to pop up in connection with the Penn State opening as well, though the coach denied last week that there was anything to those initial reports.

At the very least, Mullen’s agent likes to float his client’s name whenever a top job becomes available.

1.  Florida sophomore Ronald Powell hopes to live up to the hype that made him America’s top prospect in 2010.

2.  This writer wonders how is Florida going to us Trey Burton this year.

3.  Gator cornerback Moses Jenkins is finally healthy again.

4.  Despite another scooter-related injury, Mark Richt isn’t banning his players from using them around the Georgia campus.

5.  AD Greg McGarity says scooters are just part of campus life.

6.  Richt is making a concentrated effort to bring more energy and enthusiasm into the Dawgs’ football program.

7.  John Calipari’s Dominican Republic national team whipped a team of ex-Kentucky greats by 18 in a Rupp Arena exhibition last night.

8.  Steve Spurrier bragged about his team’s GPA last night and said that South Carolina’s program “is healthier than it has ever been.”

9.  Ellis Johnson isn’t too worried about his defense… yet.

Content provided by Garnet And Black Attack.

As you know, my usual weekly preview includes a Prediction in addition to Three Keys and What It Means. In honor of the momentous occasion in Gamecocks football history that is this Saturday, the Prediction will be forthcoming tomorrow in its own post. For now, here are the other two parts of my preview.

Three Keys to Victory

3. Figure Out a Way to Contain Cameron Newton

This one is obvious, but you really can’t discuss Auburn without mentioning it. Newton is the centerpiece of the Tigers’ offense, and no one has found a way to stop him. When we played Auburn earlier this year, the Gamecocks actually did a fairly admirable job for three quarters of slowing everyone except Newton down. The final stats show big numbers for Michael Dyer, but those stats belie the fact that we bottled him up until late in the game; in fact, I recall the announcers talking a good bit about how badly we were stuffing him in the second quarter. What happened to us defensively is that Newton got enough first downs on his feet through the first three quarters to wear our defense out, eventually opening things up for the rest of the Auburn offense. (Our offense’s inability to sustain drives int the second half also contributed to this problem.) This time around, we need to figure out how to keep Newton from doing the same. I’m not sure what to expect from Ellis Johnson in this game, as he’s discounted the possibility of using a spy on Newton, which would have seemed like the most obvious choice. I’m not sure that Johnson isn’t right, though. His approach last time was misplaced; soft zone coverage and infrequent run blitzes won’t work because you really can’t give Newton any cushion or he’ll hit you up for seven yards every time. But do we need a spy? We have enough speed and hard hitters to stop Newton without a spy as long as our guys play him aggressively. Isn’t a QB like Newton exactly what the 4-2-5 is designed to stop? Johnson was, after all, recruited partially because Spurrier thought he might be able to stop Tim Tebow; Newton is simply Tebow 2.0 in many senses. (Yes, I said it. I think Newton is better than Tebow.) In short, we may give Auburn some room to gain yards in other ways if we forego the zone coverages, but I don’t think you can expect to have any success if you don’t key on Newton; history is against you there.

2. Stephen Garcia

For the past few weeks, I’ve called the run game a key to victory. Auburn, though, has one of the best rushing defenses in the country. I don’t expect that to change this week; the Tigers will key on Marcus Lattimore and they have the front line to stop him. (I do think we need to get him involved through the air, though.) However, just as there was last time we played Auburn, there should be plenty of opportunities to gain yardage through the air. That means that Garcia needs to be at the very top of his game. This game is his to win for the ‘Cocks. And why shouldn’t he be able to? He may have a checkered past, but now he’s all grown up. This is his chance to shine.

1. Don’t Take the Foot Off the Gas

Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen Georgia and Alabama come very close to ending Auburn’s run at the national title by jumping out to big leads against the Tigers. In both cases, a combination of resorting to vanilla playcalling and self-inflicted wounds allowed Auburn to hang around and eventually take the game when their offense finally got warmed up. We can’t let that happen. It should now be completely apparent that Auburn is capable of making up almost any deficit. That means that if we build a lead, we need to try to extend it. (History says that we will build a lead; that’s what’s happened to Auburn all year long.) Have a 21-point lead and a chance to extend it? You better get another seven if you want to beat the Comeback Kids.

What It Means

What doesn’t it mean? It’s hard to say that this is bigger than a championship, as SEC championships are pretty big in and of themselves. The SEC Title, after all, has essentially meant that you’re the best team in the land over the past few years. An SEC Title is what everyone wants short of the national title itself.

This game is even more than that for Carolina, though. In a year when the Gamecocks have accomplished numerous firsts, the most important first remains on the table this Saturday. This is a chance to complete the clean break with history that Carolina has been trying to make all season. This is it, folks. This is the chance to accomplish the kind of thing that Carolina has been searching for for its entire history.

On Saturday night in Gainesville, Steve Spurrier will take South Carolina’s football team to a place it’s never been before — to the doorstep of the SEC Championship Game.

It’s taken six years for the Ol’ Ball Coach to reach a de facto SEC East title game.  He’s landed some tall, fast receivers in that time.  He’s signed a solid prospect at quarterback and — for the most part — stood beside him through thick and thin.  He’s hired a defensive line coach who he calls one of the best in America.  And he’s got a defensive coordinator (“head coach of defense”) in Ellis Johnson who is awfully well-respected.

But when all is said and done, you can trace Carolina’s progress this season to two obvious factors:

1.  The SEC East is down

2.  Marcus Lattimore

Like it or not, Carolina is a one-man team.  When Lattimore does well, the Gamecocks do well.  When he doesn’t or when he is slowed by injury, the Cocks crumble.

Lattimore has averaged less than 3.9 yards per carry against just two Carolina foes: Auburn and Arkansas.  In both cases, Carolina lost.

Against Kentucky, the Cocks had a 28-10 halftime lead when Lattimore injured his ankle.  In the second half, USC was shut out and Kentucky roared from behind to win as Lattimore watched from the sideline.

The following week, without Lattimore on the field, Carolina struggled to subdue feeble Vanderbilt.

This past Saturday, Lattimore suffered a bruised knee early against Arkansas.  Trailing big and with his star back showing less than his usual power, Spurrier said that he “told the running back coach, let’s sort of let him rest and live to fight another day.”  The coach said this weekend that he thinks Lattimore will “be OK this week.”

He’d better hope so.  Florida’s rush defense has been a middle-of-the-pack bunch in the SEC.  If Carolina has any hope of winning at The Swamp, they’ll need to attack the Gators on the ground.

Spurrier has used Lattimore as a battering ram in just two games this season — 29 carries versus Tennessee and 37 carries versus Georgia.  He needs to do so again this weekend.

Barring Gator turnovers, if Lattimore carries the ball fewer than 25 times against Florida on Saturday, the Gamecocks will not win. 

Spurrier needs to be patient and he needs to run Lattimore down after down… even if the big bruiser isn’t having early success.  If he’s healthy, Lattimore can wear down a defense.  He can win a game by himself in the second half.  Through nine games, no one else on South Carolina’s team has proven that they can do likewise. 

Carolina is a one-man team.  They’ll need to realize that, embrace that, and play like that if they’re to beat the Gators on Saturday.