Out of the ballpark

Big day on the Plains.

Tommy Tuberville takes the podium and tries to squash every imaginable rumor possible—even the ones that came from the last row in the upper deck, which just so happens to look out over left field.

A stroke? Really?

Maybe it will go down as “Rumorgate” when we all look back on this crisp, autumn Monday.

Before we look that far into the future, let’s tone it down and just look ahead to tomorrow’s notes today.

Playbook slimmed down to delight of players
Asked how much the playbook has been skimmed down since Tony Franklin’s firing, Rod Smith couldn’t describe it in words.

The senior wide receiver smiled, then used his hands.

According to Smith’s hand gestures, Auburn’s playbook has gone from the size of an Old Webster’s dictionary to a silm, grocery-store romance novel.

But it’s the quality of the plays, not the quantity, that should make Auburn more successful, Smith said.

“It’s a lot different from what it was when coach Franklin was here,” Smith said. “If we didn’t run a play right, sometimes we’d just run the next play. We really didn’t have time for that with the type of plays that we ran, so we just had to keep moving on.”

Now, it’s the complete opposite.

Smith said the offense tried to run a screen play in practice Sunday, but whichever quarterback was behind center at the time couldn’t complete the pass. The play was promptly eliminated from the repertoire, Smith said.

“We just want to run the plays that we can be successful with as an offense,” Smith said. “If we’re not running a play right, we’re going to cut it out.”

Smith said the size of Franklin’s playbook made it “tough” on the offense. Running back Tristan Davis said it led to widespread confusion at times.

“Sometimes, how things were, we were guessing,” Davis said. “We really weren’t 100 percent sure. You can’t play football thinking. You have to be there mentally. You have to know what you have and go do it.”

The changes have been across the board since Steve Ensminger took the helm as de facto offensive coordinator, and in the process, an “identity” has been found.

“We do have an identity now on offense, an offense we’re going to run each week and every day in practice,” Tommy Tuberville said. “We’re going to rep and rep and rep, and we’re going to get better at it.”

Another change centers on how the offensive line positions itself before the snap.

While still maintaining the two-point stances that were commonplace in Franklin’s spread, the offense has mixed in a few situations where the linemen get down into the three-point.

The switch, just like the crash diet to the playbook, certainly has its supporters.

“I always heard (offensive lineman) Tyronne Green crying about being in the two-point stance, about how he can’t get push,” defensive tackle Tez Doolittle said. “I guess they like having their hand down in the dirt and stuff.” 

Todd to travel
In dispelling a number of rumors surrounding himself, Tuberville addressed those surrounding embattled quarterback Chris Todd on Monday at his weekly press conference.

Since his 3-for-10, 18-yard outing against Arkansas, Todd has been mostly inactive in practice because of a sore shoulder and has not been considered a candidate to back up starter Kodi Burns – at the moment, at least.

“I don’t have any doubts that if Chris Todd got 100 percent healthy that he could be the quarterback here, Tuberville said. “In couple of weeks you never know, you’ll have to wait and see if he makes any improvements.”

Tuberville said Todd, along with Auburn’s three other quarterbacks, will make the trip to West Virginia, even though he doesn’t have much of a shot seeing the field.

“He obviously would love to be the quarterback,” Tuberville said, “but he understands the situation.”

Early-bird special
Auburn’s game at Ole Miss on Nov. 1 will be televised regionally by Raycom Sports at 11:30 a.m.

It will mark Auburn’s second game this season to be aired by Raycom, with the first coming Sept. 6, when the Tigers defeated Southern Miss, 27-13, at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“If you ain’t first, you’re last”

Well, if that’s the case, consider the Auburn’s men’s basketball team “last” in the media’s preseason projections.

But for those of you who don’t live by that proclamation, so emphatically said by Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights, there’s good news to be found today.

By a slim, 3-point margin over last-place Arkansas, Auburn was picked to finish fifth in the SEC West. The Tigers did not pick up any first-place votes. Most of those were divied between Alabama and LSU, who each picked up 11. Alabama trumped the Bengal Tigers by four points in the overall tally, rendering the Tide as the team with the most pressure to succeed in the SEC West.

The team with the most pressure, overall, is Bruce Pearl’s Volunteers. They received 23 first-place votes and are tabbed to win the whole, gosh-darned conference.

Here’s the rest of the standings, including the preseason first- and second-teams, neither of which include an Auburn Tiger.

Eastern Division
Tennessee (23)  
Florida (5)            
Kentucky (2)      
Vanderbilt            
South Carolina        
Georgia              

Western Division
Alabama (11)      
LSU (11)            
Ole Miss (8)      
Miss. State        
Auburn
Arkansas

SEC Champion
Tennessee (23); Florida (5); Kentucky (2)

First-team, All-SEC
Patrick Patterson, Kentucky
Tyler Smith, Tennessee
Nick Calathes, Florida
Devan Downey, South Carolina
A.J. Ogilvy, Vanderbilt

Second-team, All-SEC
Marcus Thornton, LSU
Jarvis Varnado, Miss. State
Ronald Steele, Alabama
Tasmin Mitchell, LSU
Chris Warren, Ole Miss
Alonzo Gee, Alabama              

Tuberville: ‘I did not have a stroke’

That catch you a little off guard? You’re not alone.

That little tidbit of information came from a roughly four-minute, unprompted rant of sorts from Tommy Tuberville at his weekly press conference Monday. After a brief, two-minute synopsis of Thursday’s game at West Virginia, Tuberville dove face first into a bevy of rumors that have swirled on radio, print and the Internet, as the Tigers have struggled with an anemic offense and gone 4-3.

Here’s a full transcription of what the head coach had to say, again, unprompted.

I just want to let everybody know that everything is going good. I did not have a stroke. I am completely healthy. As a matter of fact, about three months ago I had a full physical.

I’m not tired of coaching. I’m fired up as ever. You know, I’ve been here 10 years as head coach, this is my 30th year to coach, and I feel as good right now as I ever had about coaching football and young guys. I still have that drive. You pretty much have to, 14-, 18-hour days this time of year. I read that my drive was gone.

No, we did not negotiate a contract last week. That’s another one that came out. I don’t like recruiting anymore. Well, I went 2,500 miles last Thursday and Friday and covered a lot of high schools and talked to a lot of coaches and I loved every minute of it. Our recruiting is going great.

It’s just amazing the rumors that go around when things are not going as good as you would hope. No matter what happens anywhere, you’re going to have years that things are not going to go perfect. That’s my job to get it straightened out.

The one thing I will tell you about our football team is that will all these distractions from the outside, I can tell more about our football team when things go like this then I do at any other time. A good football team is made from within, not from without. We’ve got some great kids on this team that have busted their tail and they have hurt immensely. And you should, as much time and effort as they put into it.

Every fan out there, you can put them together. They really love their football and I’m proud of that. But you can put every fan together and it wouldn’t come near the hurt that it hurts one of these kids to lose a football game, the effort and time they put into it. I’m proud of it.

I just wanted to let you know. I’ve been here 10 years. I plan on being here 10 more. I’m looking forward to it. All these rumors get started. 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. We’re going to keep working and striving to get better because we do have a good football team.

We’re not playing good right now. This is a transition year but we’re going to get better. I don’t know whether we’ll win any of these last five games but I’ll tell you one thing, all you got to do is look back at the first seven. We led every game at halftime. Some things didn’t work out in the second half but we fought hard in every game. We played well. We hadn’t been beat by 30 points. There’s time when you’d think we’d lost that game by three or four touchdowns and it came down to basically the last play or so.

That’s just this football team. I’m proud of how they’ve worked, how they put it together. The coaches, how they’ve done it. Good football teams don’t win every game. I’m looking forward to the next few weeks and seeing how much we improve.

We put in seven principles of what we want to do for the next five games in terms of winning. We’re going to base this football team on that. Your football team is based on more than how they play on Saturday. I base them on a lot more things around the program, how they handle themselves, how they do things, classes, all those things together. And we’re going to have some guys get in trouble. We’re not perfect but we take care of those problems.

We’ve got a great program here that’s going to get stronger, that’s going to get better. All the detractors from outside that keep throwing stones at us, that’s fine. I love it. It makes us work harder.

So we’re looking forward to this Thursday, coming back this weekend getting ready for the next conference game the next week and on and on.

Again, I appreciate the sympathy cards for my illnesses and all that but please don’t send any flowers. Save your money ‘til Christmas. It looks like the way the economy is, you’re going to need it.

That’s a paid political announcement my Tommy Tuberville, by the way. Now we can get on with it after dispelling all those things. 

And here are a few of his responses to follow-up questions.

Did you meet with athletic director Jay Jacobs to discuss these rumors and, perhaps, your contract last week?
He’s been very supportive. Dr. (Jay) Gogue is the guy, he makes all the decisions. At the end of the year we sit down and we visit about how things have gone. Very little of it, to be honest with you, last year, wasn’t even about winning or losing. It was about everything else. And that’s what it should be. I’m a football coach and everything that goes along with it. I know more about this program than most people combined, what I’ve put into it in the last 10 years.

The good thing is, Jay does to. He’s been around and knows the tough points and all the things that go along with it. Everybody has been very supportive.

What prompted you to make such a statement?
Off-week, I’m sitting here on the Internet saying ‘Are you sick?‘ I get call after call ‘Are you going to quit?‘ Listen, I’m not a quitter. I don’t where stuff like that gets started. That’s part of it. But I felt like after all that, everybody’s been absorbing it. Again, I got to church people ask me if I’m all right. I knew right then that this thing was getting out of hand. Let’s get this thing straight. So I just wanted to make that short statement that I’m going to make it through the week in terms of being sick.

In other, much less exciting news, Auburn’s kickoff with Ole Miss on Nov. 1 is set for 11:30 a.m. and will be televised regionally by Raycom Sports.

Falling up

The mystery has been solved. No need to wait until Thursday’s clash with the Mountaineers. The offense has been cured—in the standings at least.

The solution? Don’t play. “Stay,“ as they say in blackjack. Hold steady.

Sure, 5-3 would be a lot better than 4-3, but would it be better than 4-4? Maybe 292.6 yards of total offense per game is as good as it gets. It might not be worth the risk to try for 300+.

When it comes to total offense, Auburn is on the up-and-up. The Tigers moved from 11th to 10th in total offense within the SEC. As far as the entire nation goes, Auburn jumped from 108th to 107th. You can thank Mississippi State for both jumps. The Bulldogs mustered just 189 yards in a 34-3 loss to Tennessee on Saturday. They now rank 111th in the nation in total offense—seven spots in front of second-from-last Vanderbilt, who had just enough firepower to sneak by your Auburn Tigers.

If the Tigers opted to not play the rest of its games and remain idle for the remaining six weeks of the season, they would be on pace—at this rate, at least—to finish as the fourth-best offense in the SEC and the 101st best in the nation.

Hey, it worked for those dalmatians. Why not the Tigers?

OK, maybe that is a wacko idea. Especially when you consider that tomorrow’s notes today would be in short supply if the Tigers stopped playing football. That’s not the case today, as injury talk takes center stage again. Enjoy.

Wounds licked, Tigers ready to go
In between recruiting trips Friday, Tommy Tuberville popped into the Auburn training room.

“It looked like a hospital,” Tuberville said.

Players who will still nursing injuries after Thursday’s practice were not able to skip town Friday and Saturday.

Apparently, many of Auburn’s players fell into that category.

One of those players, cornerback Jerraud Powers (hamstring), may not be healing as fast as expected. Powers said last week that he expects to play Thursday against West Virginia and defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads all but guaranteed the junior cornerback would be ready.

But on Sunday, Tuberville was a bit more skeptical.

“I don’t want to put him out there and lose him for the rest of the year,” Tuberville said. “We’re not going to take a chance with that.”

Powers was active during the first half of Sunday’s practice. He even ran 10 or so plays in 7-on-7 drills, safety Walt McFadden said.

“I peeked over there while he was doing drills, backpedaling and running. He’s getting back pretty fast,” McFadden said. “I think he should be back Thursday night.”

Defensive end Antoine Carter (ankle) appears to be the only other player whose status remains uncertain. Tuberville said Carter did not participate much in Sunday’s practice and was still “limping around.”

For the few non-injured Tigers, the two days off still served a purpose: a much-needed break from the everyday grind.

“It definitely helped just to get off your feet and really not think about football. I didn’t even watch football Saturday,” center Ryan Pugh said. “It really just helped us recharge our batteries and come back out here and have a practice like we did today.

“It was just fun to be back out there.”

Cotton happy
A visit from Tuberville and lead recruiter, linebackers coach James Willis, brought a smile to one of Auburn’s top verbal commitments this weekend.

Dual-threat, Fort Meade, Md. quarterback Ray Cotton said he remains committed to Auburn after the non-contact visit from the coaches Friday, according to Rivals.com.

Cotton, who threw for two touchdowns and ran for 97 yards in front of Tuberville and Willis, said he will make his official visit in November for the Georgia game and is not entertaining calls from any other schools, according to Rivals.com.

Scout.com ranks Cotton as the 20th best quarterback in the class of 2009, while Rivals.com rates him as the 12th-best dual-threat quarterback in the country.

Bundle up
Forecasts as of Sunday night have gametime temperatures in Morgantown, W. Va. hovering in the low 40’s and upper 30’s.

That bit of news brought out mixed reactions from Auburn’s players Sunday.

“You just got to keep your hands warm,” said Kodi Burns, a Fort Smith, Ark. native who said he had plenty of experience in cold-weather, and even snow-filled games.

On the other side of the ball, middle linebacker Josh Bynes, who grew up less than 15 minutes from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., didn’t pretend to be thrilled.

“I’m from the bottom of the map,” Bynes said. “The cold weather is all right, but when you get flowing the cold weather won’t affect you really that much.”

The coldest kickoff temperature all of last season was 50 degrees at the Iron Bowl. The last time Auburn had a kickoff temperature below 50 was at the 2007 Cotton Bowl, where it was 46. The coldest game Auburn has played in since 2000 was the 2000 Iron Bowl, where it was 41 degrees with freezing rain.

Auburn is 3-2 in sub-50 degree games since 2000.

Pugh joked that he prepared for Thursday’s game by staying in Auburn, where temperatures almost dropped into the 40’s Saturday night.

Slow news day

Tommy Tuberville rushed into the Sports Information office, sat down in a swivel chair and began spinning a football in his hands.

A few things were obvious from the get-go. He was in a hurry to get to practice, he had no news to report on the Barret Trotter situation and, thus, we had no pertinent questions to ask at the moment.

So, the gab-session was cut short and put off until the end of what Tuberville promised to be a “long” practice.

Here’s what Tuberville had to say in regards to Trotter.

That’s yet to be seen. He’ll still take some snaps. Kodi (Burns) is the guy who will start the game for us. Barrett did very well last week as Neil Caudle did. I thought it was a very good competition and I thought each of them helped each other so we’ll have to wait and see.

We need another day. it didn’t go as well as I would’ve hoped in terms of mistakes and stuff from all of them. We need another day of looking at all of them and kind of figuring out who can do what.

Tuberville later said he would make the decision at some point this week. He’ll know more once the rest of the offensive gameplan is installed.

In other news, Jerraud Power’s status for Thursday seems a bit more iffy. Tuberville said Powers will warm up today to see if he can go at practice.

“I don’t want to put him out there and lose him for the rest of the year,“ Tuberville said. “We’re not going to take a chance on that.

Tuberville said he popped into jam-packed training room Friday morning before heading out to do more recruiting.

“It looked like a hospital,“ Tuberville said.

So, while we wait for Tuberville Part 2 and whatever players het lets us talk to, I figured I’d go ahead and give you a little entertainment. Oh, the first installment of the BCS standings were just released. No real surprises there.

This skit from two weeks ago, and this one from last night both gave me hope that Saturday Night Live is not, in fact, dead.

Enjoy, and say hi to your mother for me.