You can pencil Jeff Driskel into the lineup for Florida this weekend.  The Gators’ starting quarterback will return to action at Florida State on Saturday after an ankle injury cost him last week’s game with Jacksonville State.

According to Will Muschamp:

“Jeff looked very good at practice yesterday and he’ll be ready to go.  Yes, he would (start) at this time.  Obviously we’ve still got a couple of more days of practice, but he looked good enough to me that he’ll be fine. 

(Backup) Jacoby Brissett looked fine, too.  We’ll go from there. Right now, Jeff looks good.”

Florida State ranks #5 nationally in scoring defense, #1 in rushing defense, #5 in passing defense, and #1 overall in total defense.  Florida ranks #118 (out of 124 teams) in passing offense and ranks no higher than 40th nationally in scoring offense, rushing offense and total offense.

The Gators not only need Driskel back in action on Saturday… they’ll need him to be at his very best.

The sprained ankle that will keep Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel out of action this weekend could cause even bigger issues for the Gator signal-caller.  Namely, it could keep him out of Florida’s season-ending showdown with Florida State in two weeks.

Will Muschamp said today that not only will Driskel miss the Jackonsville State game on Saturday, but moving forward, there’s really no certainty as to when his quarterback will be ready to return.

“We’re just working through this week,” Muschamp said.  “Whenever you deal with an ankle it’s a day-to-day process.  It’s a situation that continues to improve.  How much it’ll improve into next week, I have no idea at this time.  We feel like he’ll be available, but who knows?”

Florida (9-1) will travel to Florida State (9-1) for this year’s rivalry game.

Apologies for a quickie headline post today.  Too much going on with coaching searches and phone calls to check on coaching searches.

1.  Gene Chizik believes he can turn things around at Auburn.

2.  Is Alabama becoming too pass happy?

3.  Here are this week’s SEC football Players of the Week.

4.  Bowl projections for everyone.

5.  The SEC’s BCS title streak is in jeopardy now.

6.  Is Texas A&M proving that big, bad SEC defenses can be taken down by “an offense imported from Conference USA.”

7.  Pushing hard to land an SEC job, could Tommy Tuberville’s slap of a grad assistant hurt his chances?

8.  Meet the SEC’s hoops Players of the Week.

9.  TCU’s Gary Patterson sorta/kinda denies the Arkansas rumors.

10.  Mike Leach says he won’t be leaving Washington State this offseason.

11.  Ex-Ohio State coach Jim Tressel says there’s “no substance” to rumors that he might land at Kentucky.

12.  Mississippi State fans can tell you that it’s never good to be described as “reeling.”

13.  Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel is doubtful for Saturday’s game with Jacksonville State due to a sprained ankle.

14. From bad to worse: Tennessee loses linebacker Curt Maggitt to an ACL tear.

15.  Vanderbilt coach James Franklin said “that wound has healed” when asked about Derek Dooley’s postgame celebration after UT beat Vandy last year.

16.  Texas A&M was simply the better team in Tuscaloosa on Saturday.

17.  South Carolina opened the Frank Martin era with a win over Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

18.  Ready for another Kentucky-Duke hoops clash tomorrow?

Ole Miss 30 – Arkansas 27

1. Rebels one win away from bowl eligibility as Ole Miss kicker Bryson Rose connects on 31-yard field goal time expires.  

2. Back-to-back SEC wins for Ole Miss for the first time since November 2009.

3. Ole Miss runs identical play four straight times in fourth quarter. Hugh Freeze: ”I’m a high school coach at heart, so I don’t mind running a play several times in a row.”

4. Arkansas drops its second straight game at War Memorial Stadium for the first time since 1997.

5. Razorbacks receiver Brandon Mitchell suspended before the game.  Will he be back this year? John L. Smith: “We anticipate yes. But I don’t … we’ll have more answers for you on that.”

Georgia 17 – Florida 9

6. Consecutive Georgia wins over Florida for the first time since the late 1980′s.  Malcolm Mitchell: “How many of y’all honestly thought we were going to win?”

7. Quarterback Aaron Murray gets his first win over a top 10 opponent; freshman running back Todd Gurley goes for 124 yards on 27 carries.

8. Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones -  “had his own personal Cocktail Party…”

9. Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel commits four turnovers, sacked five times.  Will Muschamp: “You can’t put everything on Jeff Driskel.”

10. In all, six turnovers for the Gators. Muschamp: “Six turnovers. Wow. It ended with that. That’s the end of the game in my opinion — six turnovers.”

 Texas A&M 63 – Auburn 21

11. Most points ever for a visiting team to Jordan-Hare Stadium.

12. Aggies top three running backs combine for 247 yards on 35 carries.

13. Auburn defense gives up a school-record 671 yards. Defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder: “It’s embarrassing.”

14. Auburn coach Gene Chizik asked three times after the game about his job security: “I’m not going there.”

15. “Is this the last time we’ll see Gene Chizik as Auburn’s head coach?”

Nick Saban initially said that Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron had just bruised his knee in last week’s win over Missouri.  He said that his quarterback would be fine in a day or two.

But today, FoxSports.com’s Russ Mitchell tweeted the following:

McCarron didn’t practice yesterday as the Tide prepared for a game at Tennessee on Saturday.

A meniscus tear — depending on the severity — might not be that big of a deal.  The person writing this story right now has a torn meniscus and a shot every six months clears it right up.  I’m certainly not a college quarterback, but I’m not a fast-healing 20-something, either.

If McCarron has a serious tear, then surgery could be needed.  But referring to the injury as a bruised knee would suggest that the meniscus injury for Bama’s quarterback – if he even has a meniscus tear — is not that serious.  If that’s the case, then McCarron would likely have some swelling, some pain, and limited motion in the knee joint.  If he were a dual quarterback, that might be more of an issue, but McCarron is not Johnny Manziel or Jeff Driskel or James Franklin.

If he has a meniscus tear, it’s likely Alabama’s signal-caller will play with it.  It’s also likely opposing defenses will try harder than ever to pressure McCarron in the pocket.

UPDATE — According to Mitchell, both McCarron’s mother and cousin have said there is no meniscus tear in the quarterback’s knee.

And welcome to the crappy world we’ve all had a role in creating.  I get snarky emails all the time from young pups who say they get all their information from Twitter because it’s immediate.  Well, it’s also ridiculously unreliable.

But because people want immediate information in 140-character bursts — and could care less what’s right, what’s wrong, or how credible the tweetsman is — media members worry more about Twitter than truth.  We care more about breaking a damn story than actually, ya know, trying to find out if said story is correct.

Why?  Because you don’t care.  You just want your fast food info.  And we don’t care.  We just give you whatever you want to try and keep you coming back.

Fans blame the media.  The media blames the fans.  I say we’re just in a circle pattern that’s going to keep repeating until someone realizes what a hodge-podge of BS and smart-aleck comments Twitter really is.

And as always, you can become one of our 32,000+ Twitter followers right here at twitter.com/mrsec!

Already one of Maxim’s “Top 100 Twitter Accounts Every Guy Should Follow,” last week we were listed as one of Athlon Sports’ “Top 25 Twitter Feeds Every SEC Fan Should Follow.”

At least our Twitter crap is well-respected Twitter crap.  Huzzah!

Florida names Jeff Driskel starting QB for Texas A&M game
ESPN’s “College GameDay” show will be live in College Station, TX
Missouri DT Sheldon Richardson: “If we execute, nobody in this league can touch us.  Period.”
Missouri hosts Georgia in its first SEC contest Saturday
Georgia’s Mark Richt isn’t saying who is and who isn’t suspended for Saturday’s game
South Carolina QB Connor Shaw “has trouble lifting his arm” and is questionable for Saturday’s game with East Carolina
Tennessee LB Herman Lathers’ is “probable” for Saturday against Georgia State despite a shoulder injury
Tennessee now has three “co-starters” listed at running back
Keep up with all the news from the SEC on MrSEC.com and like us on Facebook

Georgia 45 – Buffalo 23

1. Freshman running back Todd Gurley stars in his debut; a 100-yard kick return, 100 yards rushing and three touchdowns.

2. In front of the first non-sellout of a home opener since 1998, shorthanded Bulldogs defense-absent five frontline players – gives up 347 yards of total offense.

3. Jeff Schultz: “Great teams don’t have first games like this.”

4. Will suspended starters Bacarri Rambo and Alec Ogletree play against Missouri? Mark Richt: “Yes, they were suspended for this game and we’ll find out next week what we’ll do next week.”

5. Another concern - injuries piling for the Bulldogs. Will cornerback Malcom Mitchell and offensive lineman John Theus be ready for next week?

Florida 27 – Bowling Green 14

6. Two touchdowns and a career-high 154 yards for running back Mike Gillislee.

7. Who is Florida’s starting quarterback? “Jeff Driskel and Jacoby Brissett looked equally uncomfortable.”

8. 14 penalties for 106 yards for the Gators.  Will Muschamp: “Believe me, we’ve exhausted every measure I know.”

9. A non-sellout crowd on hand.  Mike Bianchi: “Have you ever felt less of a buzz for a UF season than this one?”

There’s an old adage in football and I happen to be a big believer in it:

“Show me a team with two good quarterbacks and I’ll show you a team without a great quarterback.” 

For the sake of Florida’s fans, I hope that’s not the case in Gainesville this season.  But it sure seems to be.

Today, Will Muschamp unveiled his depth chart heading into Saturday’s opener with Bowling Green.  The quarterbacks, however, were listed with a great big “OR” between their names.  Oh, sure, there’s an element of gamesmanship involved in this.  But make no mistake, Jeff Driskel and Jacoby Brissett have been splitting reps from spring onward.  Even with Driskel suffering a bruised scapula, Brissett was apparently not able to grab the starting job and run with it.

And these aren’t drastically different types of quarterback.  This isn’t a change-of-pace kind of deal.  Show me a Leak/Tebow or Greene/Shockley dynamic and I’ll buy forget about that old adage above.  But Florida’s QBs are similar.  One’s 6-6, 237.  The other is 6-6, 229.

In 2012, Driskel was 16-of-34 for 148 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions.  He had 16 rushes for 18 yards.  Brissett was 18-of-39 for 206 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions.  He had 13 rushes for seven yards.

Sim-i-lar.

Perhaps one or the other will prove himself be a gamer come Saturday.  For now, though, it appears that Florida will have to lean pretty heavily on Mike Gillislee and the new Gator ground game in 2012.

We’re 10 days from kicking off the 2012 football season and three SEC teams are still wondering who their starting signal-caller is going to be.  That’s not a good situation to be in right now… regardless of how coaches try to spin it.

So which teams are in the best shape quarterback-wise as we race toward Week One?  Below are our answers.  Each team has been dropped into one of four categories.  We’ve also added a word of explanation for why your favorite squad wound up were it wound up.

Top Guns

* Arkansas (Tyler Wilson, senior) — Bobby Petrino is gone, but his system remains.  Some NFL scouts openly mourned the fact that the 6-3, 220-pound Wilson returned to Fayetteville for his final season.  He passed for 3,600+ yards and a had a TD-INT ratio of 24-6 last season.

* Georgia (Aaron Murray, junior) — Georgia’s QB looks the part of an All-SEC quarterback.  He’s got the arm and the legs to win games.  But he’s just 2-7 against ranked foes — which can’t all be put on him — and he’s lost his security blanket in tight end Orson Charles.

Proven Commodities

* Alabama (AJ McCarron, junior) — There’s a reason McCarron made the coaches’ preseason all-conference team: he wins.  He captured a BCS title ring in his first season as a starter, completing 67% of his passes while throwing just five interceptions last year.  He’s everything Nick Saban wants in a quarterback.  One word: Solid.

* Missouri (James Franklin, junior) — At 6-2, 225, Franklin is bigger than most SEC fans probably think.  More than just a scrambler, he’ll run over you if he has to.  Last year he threw for 2,865 yards and ran for an additional 981 in the offense-first Big XII.  But can he adjust his style of play to the SEC… and can he stay healthy if decides not to change his ways?

* Tennessee (Tyler Bray, junior) — Bray has the tools to make all the throws and earn himself a fat NFL paycheck next spring or the year after.  The only thing keeping out of the Top Gun category is his head.  Bray has had some Stephen Garcia-esque off-field misadventures and his head coach recently said he had to do some maturing and make “lifestyle changes” this summer.  If he did, he can be a star.

Question Marks

* Kentucky (Maxwell Smith, sophomore) – Just named UK’s starter yesterday, the sophomore from California made nice strides over the course of the 2011 season.  He’ll need to improve further for the Cats to return to a bowl game after a one-year absence.

* LSU (Zach Mettenberger, junior) — Down on the Bayou, there are high expectations for the Georgia-to-juco-LSU newcomer.  The 6-5 bomber has Baton Rouge’s best arm since JaMarcus Russell and Tiger coaches say they’re going to use it.  But star juco quarterbacks have entered the league and thrived (Cam Newton) and imploded (Brent Schaeffer).  Until we see him on the field… the jury’s out.

* Miss. State (Tyler Russell, junior) — Folks in Starkville will tell you that Russell is set for a big year as the Bulldogs lean on veteran wideouts and shift into more of a passing mode.  But Russell never could wrestle the starting job away from run-first Chris Relf.  And last year he completed just 53% of his 129 pass attempts.

* S. Carolina (Connor Shaw, junior) — In 2011, Shaw took over for Stephen Garcia in October but failed to show the arm that many had Carolina fans had hoped to see.  Steve Spurrier went to more of a zone-read offense to suit Shaw’s skill set and the Ol’ Ball Coach says USC may run the ball even more this season.  Still, Shaw needs to take a step forward as a thrower.

* Vanderbilt (Jordan Rodgers, senior) — The younger brother of Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Vandy’s quarterback has the athleticism to succeed.  But can he succeed in the SEC with the talent that surrounds him at VU?  He’ll need to do better than a 50% completion percentage and a 9-10 touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio in 2012.

Worry Warts

* Auburn (Kiehl Frazier, sophomore or Clint Moseley, junior) – Auburn went 2-3 during the late part of the season with Moseley running Gus Malzahn’s offense.  When Frazier played, he threw just 12 passes (completing five to his team and two to his opponents) and ran 76 times.  Maybe there’s a reason everyone’s talking about third-string freshman Jonathan Wallace on the Plains.

* Florida (Jacoby Brissett, sophomore or Jeff Driskel, sophomore) – Brissett played in five games for the Gators last year and was woeful as a passer (46% completion percentage, 2-4 TD-INT ratio).  Driskel — who’s dealing with a bruised scapula at the moment — wasn’t much better in his five games (47% completion, 0-2 ratio).  The fact that neither guy has separated himself so far in fall camp probably isn’t a good sign.

* Ole Miss (Barry Brunetti, junior or Bo Wallace, sophomore) — Face it.  It’s an ugly situation in Oxford.  Brunetti saw action in four games last year after transferring in from West Virginia.  He was pedestrian at best.  Wallace arrived in January after an All-American year in the juco ranks, but he’s not yet passed Brunetti on the depth chart.  With so little talent around them, it might not matter who wins the starter’s job.

* Texas A&M (Johnny Manziel, freshman) — Rivals ranked Manziel as the 14th best dual-threat quarterback in the nation when he signed with the Aggies in February of 2011.  The fact that he won a four-man battle to become A&M’s first-ever SEC quarterback was a surprise to many.  Kevin Sumlin knows how to develop quarterbacks, but Year One of his system… entering a defense-first league… things could get rough with a  redshirt freshman behind center.

Yesterday we used the case of Jeff Driskel’s sore/broken/bruised/destroyed/nicked shoulder to remind everyone — fans and media alike — that the current means of new dissemination has gone full-on wonky.  Turns out, all those reports that leaned toward a serious injury for the Florida quarterback were way off-base.  At least according to Florida officials.  And Driskel’s mom.  All of which just goes to prove that the ready-fire-aim, Twitterification of news is a bad, bad thing.

Ditto coaches’ ridiculous attempts to cut off any information they can from the media and, by default, their own teams’ fans.

In Driskel’s case, Twitter exploded yesterday with news of an injury to his non-throwing shoulder.  Reports varied from a small injury to a broken scapula.  Here’s a sampling:

The Palm Beach Post quoted a release from UF stating that “Jeff Driskel was a practice today and will be taking reps at practice on Wednesday.”  No biggie.

The Gainesville Sun reported: “Although a source close to the Florida football program told The Sun that quarterback Jeff Driskel has sustained a ‘significant’ shoulder injury, UF released a statement Tuesday afternoon saying Driskel will practice with the team Wednesday.”  The paper’s source claimed Driskel injured his shoulder Sunday, did not realize it until Monday, and the “unspecified injury” was discovered after that.

The Orlando Sentinel wrote that Driskel “was injured during practice Sunday, but he is expected to return to workouts this week.”

InsideTheGators.com — the Rivals site covering Florida — reported behind a paywall that the injury was “minor” and that Driskel “seems fine,” according to a source.

Meanwhile, USA Today went straight to the horse’s (mother’s) mouth.  According to Mary Driskel, her son “told her he injured his left, non-throwing shoulder in drills on Sunday and woke up sore on Monday.  She said Driskel did not practice Monday or Tuesday.  He is expected to return on Wednesday.”

All that after the rampant speculation on Twitter had hyped the boo-boo into a major injury.

There are three reasons stories like this get blown out of proportion:

1.  Paranoid coaches close off as much info as possible… and fans actually applaud them for it.  Most NFL teams don’t close practice.  Pete Carroll didn’t close practice at Southern Cal.  Writers are simply expected to keep certain things quiet and when they don’t, they get booted.  But the media is allowed to see who’s at practice and how healthy those persons happen to be.  That hasn’t hurt NFL squads and it sure didn’t hurt Carroll at USC.  Coaches who don’t like stories like Driskel’s being blown out or proportion have themselves to blame.

2.  Fans — the same ones who cheer their coaches for fighting off the big, bad media — will scour the earth for every nugget, tidbit, or rumor that they can find regarding their favorite teams.  Credibility doesn’t matter nearly as much as speed.  “Gimme, gimme, gimme… but don’t give it to the media,” seems to be the mantra.  Better to get bad info fast from a messageboard or Twitter than get good info a hair slower from trained professionals.

3.  Media members know the score on all that.  Twenty years ago, the goal was to research a piece and get more details than the other guys in town.  Now, if you want credit, you tweet what you know when you know it.  Whether you actually know it or not.  That’s a bad system and a recipe for trouble and even good journalists fall victim to it.  Gotta get eyeballs.

We’re all to blame, people.  You, me and that coach who’s shutting his doors to journalists and the fans to whom they report.

It’s a ridiculous situation.  And it’s only going to get worse and worse.