‘A little town, called Tupelo, Mississippi. I never forget it and I know you won’t either’

The blog’s hitting the road this afternoon. Because Oxford is teeny tiny, oh so gorgeous and has, according to several reports, just one Hampton Inn, it will be resting and lodging in the fine city of Tupelo.

I’ve heard various things about Tupelo, OK and bad, but here’s what Wikipedia has to say. Of course, anything and everything you find on Wikipedia is 100 percent accurate, so take it to the bank—the same one you took my bowl projections to.

- As of the 2000 United States Census, the city’s population was 34,211. By 2007, the population was 36,058, with a micropolitan area population of 132,245. Bonus points if you know what micropolitan means.
- The town was originally named Gum Pond before the Civil War, supposedly because of the high number of tupelo trees, locally known as blackgum, that grow in the area.
- Tupelo is the headquarters of the North Mississippi Medical Center, the largest non-metropolitan hospital in the United States.
- The 2008 Tupelo Golden Wave high school baseball team was ranked No. 1 in the nation for two weeks. The Tupelo High School Athletic department also was ranked No. 3 in the nation in 2008 by Sports Illustrated as best athletic department.
- Elvis was born there. Duh.
- Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons is credited with starting his career as a street mime in Tupelo.

Nothing much else to add about Tupelo, but when FAB and the Lazy Blog arrive there safely and soundly, we’ll be sure to let you know if anything else is worth noting.

Lessons learned

You may or may not recall a column I wrote back in August pumping up my surprise teams for this year.

As you can see from the link, we’re not looking very good on two of them.

I’m not sure what the problem is for South Florida. There’s really no reason they shouldn’t be undefeated right now. Suffice it to say, I am off the bandwagon.

And our lesson? Don’t listen to me.

I’ll do my usual blogging over the next few days, but expect some blogs detailing the SEC and national pictures come Monday and Tuesday.

Pinebox derby

Then
“They’ll have to carry me out of here in a pine box.“

Now
“I’ve been here 10 years. I plan on being here 10 more. I’m looking forward to it … I’m 10 years an Auburn man and I’m 10 years more of an Auburn man than most because I put my heart and soul in this thing and we ain’t going to stop now.“

Discuss.

Returning to Oxford ‘not quite as brutal’
The storyline has become less and less juicy as the years go by, but a trip back to Oxford for Tommy Tuberville and a number of coaches on his staff still brings back the memories.

The unkind reception from an anti-Tuberville fanbase has also tempered, making the trip just a tad more relaxing.

“It’s not quite as brutal as it was early in my tenure,“ Tuberville said. “It’s always fun to go back and see old friends. They even call for tickets. I never give them to them but they call for tickets.“

The enemies certainly outnumbered the friends in Tuberville’s first couple of return trips to Ole Miss.

Days before he signed with Auburn following the 1998 season, Tuberville made one of his more infamous statements: “They’ll have to carry me out of here in a pine box,“ an enthusiastic commitment to the school where he began his head-coaching career.

The words, obviously, did not sit well with fans, who have let Tuberville hear it when he returns every other year. The worst reaction came in his first trip back, in 2000, when Auburn players carried Tuberville on their shoulders after the Tigers’ victory. The Vaught-Hemingway crowd heavily booed the display.

The boos and nasty signs haven’t necessarily had an effect on Tuberville, who is 4-0 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and 6-2 overall against his old school.

“A lot of changes over there,“ Tuberville said. “They’ve done a good job with facilities. They’ve done a good job with the football team. They’ve gotten better the last few years. This is still a pretty young team.“

Three of Tuberville’s offensive assistants and two on defense followed Tuberville from Oxford to Auburn.

“We had some great times over there but we’re at Auburn now,“ defensive ends coach Terry Price said. “We’ve been here 10 years and again it’s Auburn versus Ole Miss.

“So really it’s a ballgame.“ 

One more update
As he said after Wednesday’s practice, Tuberville said that the only players likely to miss Saturday’s game are cornerback Neiko Thorpe (ankle) and right guard Byron Isom (concussion).

Isom did not dress for Auburn’s game at West Virginia, per doctors’ orders, and Tuberville said Thursday that sophomore Mike Berry, who started in Isom’s place, was still running with the first-team offense.

Tuberville said nose guard Tez Doolittle (groin) should be available and cornerback Jerraud Powers (hamstring) will hopefully get a little healthier before gametime.

Tailback Ben Tate (hamstring), who Tuberville said Sunday was about “80-85 percent,“ is not quite 100 percent yet, but has improved by the day. A big step this week came when Tate did not have to warm up on a stationary bicycle during individual drills.

“Now he’s going through everything, so he should be fine,“ Tuberville said.

Kick it
Tuberville stood strong in his vow to keep Auburn’s open kicking job a secret heading into Saturday.

Tuberville said he has liked what he’s seen from starter Wes Byrum, backup Morgan Hull and punter Clinton Durst, who was thrown into the mix at the start of the week.

He was particularly impressed after Wednesday’s practice, when all three kickers made all of their attempts. Each kicker has gotten six kicks under pressure each day in practice, Tuberville said.

“We’ll go all the way to Saturday knowing that everyone’s had a lot of work this week,“ Tuberville said. “We’ll just go off what they do in pre-game.“

This and that
Auburn is 8-1 all-time in Oxford. It is 24-8 lifetime against Ole Miss … The Tigers have not allowed a touchdown in the first quarter and are one of only 10 defenses that have not allowed more than four rushing touchdowns this season … Ole Miss’ roster features six Alabama natives and one former Tiger, linebacker Patrick Trahan. Freshman tailback Enrique Davis originally signed with Auburn before de-committing and joining the Rebels. Davis has run for 175 yards and two touchdowns this season.

Various linkage

A couple of stories caught my eye earlier today.

This one about Saturday’s “Don’t Call it the Cocktail Party” piqued my interest mostly because of this comment from Miami head coach Randy Shannon.

“Something will happen in that game,“ Shannon told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel this week. “I can guarantee you that. You better go to that game. You would get a great story. Don’t come to ours. I’m serious. Something is going to happen after what happened last year. You can book that.“

And, on a completely different note, you stay classy, LSU fans.

Thursday, never looking back

Bonus points for anyone who knows the song from which that headline originated. Gold stars all around if you can name the band, too.

With it being a Thursday and all, and with the Tigers holding their standard brief practice, there’s not much news to report today. Actually, if you’re looking for hard news, I’ve got none.

But, when Tommy Tuberville speaks, it’s always news, right? Here are a few of the highlights.

Will he and his staff do anything differently at halftime Saturday?
We might go scrimmage at halftime…There’s really no answer to it other than the fact we need something good to happen to us when we first go out there. We’ve gone back and looked and it looks like we’re waiting for things to happen instead of making things to happen – coaching and playing. We’ve got some things in mind that we want to try to do if the situation arises.

There’s no miracle formula. We’ve just got to go out and play better and play for four quarters and coach better and coach for four quarters. 

Is Ole Miss’ Wildcat formation similar to what Houston Nutt ran at Arkansas?
Yeah, pretty similar…There’s not a lot you can do with it. You can do a lot out of it, but it takes away from your other offense. It just gives you a change of pace and gives your quarterback a little bit of a break, puts it in the hands of another guy who might be a little bit more dynamic of running the quarterback draws and things like that. It changes your mindset on defense. It’s just kind of a change-of-gear formation and you have to have a couple ways to play it so if one doesn’t work you can go to the other.

You’re 4-4, Ole Miss is 4-4. It seems like the end of the world here. They’re having a great time in Oxford. Go.
I don’t think they’d won a conference game for a while, for a couple of years. Their last winning season, 2005?

It’s all relative to what you’ve done in the past and what you’re doing now. Everybody looks at us saying something’s wrong that we’ve lost four games. You look back and we’ve won 50 games in the last five years.

It’s hard for us to take. You think the fans it’s hard to take. It’s harder for the players and coaches to take it than it is for the fans. It eats at us because we know we’re better than how we’ve played. We know we played a lot of good teams.

I put them in a bind in the middle of the year. I told everybody that. We should be a lot better right now but we’re kinda in the third or fourth game of the year instead of the eighth game in terms of what we’re doing now on offense and defense.

As he said Wednesday, the only player certain to miss Saturday’s game is cornerback Neiko Thorpe (ankle).

More to come later.