...according to Langosch. Here's the link: "Kick the tires"

Also, I found this line very amusing from the same article: "The production the Pirates have gotten recently from Lyle Overbay might lessen the Pirates' attempt to upgrade at first base, but an impact bat to slot into a corner outfield sport or at third base would make sense for the club"

So I guess now getting a couple of multi-hit games against the worst team in baseball means you're on a tear. Haha. Gimme a break.

Interesting that we're at least gonna ask about Beltran. I don't know how realistic it is, but like the article states, if we would be willing to eat some salary, it may not cost a whole lot to get him. But I'd rather have Pence than Beltran. That's just me.

I love trade talk!

according to DK's latest column for the Trib-Review. That's the word in the clubhouse. It shouldn't surprise anybody, but what move could be made? Honestly, I don't think the FO would bring in someone from the outside. I think the most logical move within the organization would be to move GJ back to first base and call up Presley to play RF. I'm not crazy about keeping GJ in the lineup, but GJ is our lone power threat (that's just sad) and it's better than what Overbay is doing right now. It'll be interesting to see what happens and what moves are made if our offense continues to stink up Major League Baseball.

Also, I read Rob Biertempfel's game story of tonight's game and he touched on the obvious lack of offense. He wondered what moves the Pirates could make with its roster and brought up Alex Presley. Here's his quote on Presley: "The hottest hitter in the farm system, Triple-A outfielder Alex Presley, is not much of a slugger or run producer."

Umm...is Biertempfel drunk? Presley has scored 46 runs, five more runs than McCutchen in the same number of games. He's also driven in 34 runs, just 2 less than McCutchen. True, Presley isn't really a power threat, but he has more HR (8) than G. Jones (7) so far this year, although Jones has played in five less games than Presley. I just don't understand that statement by Rob Beirwhateverhisnameis. Nobody's gonna be a great run producer playing for the Pirates because we don't get a lot of runners on and if you do get on base, we don't have a lot of guys that can drive you in. But I think Presley has been a great run producer considering who he plays for.

I'm just ready to see Presley get his chance rather than waste away time tearing Triple-A pitching to shreds.

Thinking about the now famously dubbed "Core 4" of Tabata, Walker, Cutch and Alvarez got me thinking about Gorkys Hernandez. The Pirates obtained Hernandez from the Braves in the Nate McLouth deal along with Charlie Morton and Jeff Locke, and he was one of the Braves' top prospects at the time. Blessed with above average speed and range in the outfield, Hernandez was thought to be a future piece for the Pirates, but his first 2 seasons with the Pirates in the minor leagues haven't been encouraging to a lot of people. He started at Double-A Altoona after the traded and posted a .262 average at Altoona in 2009. He stayed at Altoona last season, hitting .266 for the Curve his second time around. The averages aren't terrible, but they're not great either for a prospect that is supposed to be ascending through the ranks somewhat quickly. The power never showed up for Hernandez, either, as he combined to hit just 5 home runs in 2009 and 2010, but that may not be that big of deal, however, because Hernandez may be a top-of-the-lineup hitter his entire career.

However, Hernandez is still very young at 23 years of age and is still developing. He is at Triple-A Indianapolis now and serves as the Indians' leadoff hitter, where he's gotten off to a hot start this season. He's batting .333 (7-for-21) to start the year with 2 extra-base hits in a double and a triple. If Hernandez can have a breakout year, and with RF being a position of weakness in Pittsburgh both offensively and defensively, could Hernandez be the Pirates' RF of the future? Corner outfield spots are generally reserved for power hitters in the lineup, and ideally, that's what you want. But the Pirates are anything but conventional, and if Hernandez is going to make it in Pittsburgh, it's going to be in RF with CF and LF locked down presumably for a long time.

So what are ya'll's thoughts? Can he be a legitimate option for Pittsburgh's next right fielder, or will the Pirates use him as trade bait (assuming he puts together a solid 2011 campaign)?

This a joke, right? So if anybody has read the latest story from the Post-Gazette about Nutting's message to the team during a closed-door meeting Monday, ya'll have to be as embarrassed as I am at this stupidity. Based on the article, Nutting told everybody that losing was no longer acceptable, the team had to get drastically better and finishing near or below .500 wouldn't be tolerated.

After laughing at loud for a good minute or two, I regained my composure and just shook my head. Exactly how the heck does Nutting expect a change when you have the same freakin' product on the field? How does he expect a better result on the field when bringing in has-beens like Scott Olsen, Joe Beimel, Garrett Atkins and Kevin Correira is his definition of upgrading the talent? How are the Pirates supposed to legitimately compete for ANYTHING when the No. 1 starter is freakin' Paul Maholm (nothing against Maholm, but he's a 3rd or 4th starter at best in a real rotation)?

Nutting was either drowning in sarcasm with these remarks, or he's a plain idiot. I think it's the latter.

Good luck with all that, Bob.

Hey guys. There's another article out there written by SI's Stewart Mandel revolving around Ole Miss. It's about a certain coach. I just found it while browsing the SI website. I'm not gonna say anything. I'll just let ya'll read it and form your own opinions and conclusions, although if you're not a realistic fan, I'll bet that most of you won't agree with or like the subject of the article.

Here's the link

OK, so Pedro Alvarez hit two more home runs tonight against the Brewers, his second straight night to go yard twice. After doing an interview with MLB Tonight on the MLB Network last night, he granted the network's request to do another interview to talk about his two round trippers and the sudden offensive explosion by an offense that has been otherwise anemic all season (Greg Amsinger considers Pedro's postgame interviews with MLB Tonight his good luck charm). After Amsinger and Harold Reynolds each ask him one question a piece, Reynolds follows his first question with another one. Here are his exact words: "Pedro, where's the power coming from? You were supposed to be a live drive guy, maybe you'll hit 10 homers. You're pounding the baseball."

Seriously? Does Harold Reynolds not keep up with prospects and their strengths and weaknesses? Pedro has always been touted as a guy w/ MAJOR power and a decent hitter for average w/ a high K rate. Now, maybe Harold was just talking about the rest of this season when he came up with the HR total, but 10 HRs? I laughed when he said that. Basically, he compared Pedro to Tabata or Walker. Or maybe he thought he was talking to Tabata or Walker b/c those are line drive hitters that may hit 10 HR this year. But Alvarez? 10? Haha...He'll have 10 by the end of the week at this pace. I just couldn't believe Reynolds said that to him. It was quite comical. But then again, it may also be a reflection of how much coverage -- or lack thereof -- the Pirates and their young players get. For a baseball "analyst" to be that clueless about one of the top prospects in baseball is a result of one of two things: 1) Never paying attention to him or covering him (which is very possible) or 2) Not being good at your job. Ya'll be the judges.

The A's swept the Pirates today to hand the Bucs their sixth straight loss and their 18th in the past 20 games. I could go on and on about the season, but what's the point? It is what it is. Now, most if not all of us didn't expect a winning team to be put on the field this year. We knew what was coming. However, I think we all expected a team that could at least be competitive just about every night. The play of the team has slowly gotten worse and worse over the course of the season, and I think it came to ahead this weekend with a 4-error game on Sunday in which three unearned runs -- all the runs the A's scored to get the win -- came across the plate for Oakland. In other words, none of the runs that were scored were a result of Oakland's hitters doing the work necessary to get the runs across. The team's record sits at an abysmal 25-50 and is well on its way to challenging the Orioles for the League's Worst Team award (personally, I think the O's and the Buccos should get together and play the Worst Series). It's about that time where a change has to be made near the top.

Whether it's fair or not, somebody has to get the ax for a team that is losing this badly and in this manner. And if the losses aren't enough evidence for you, here are how the Pirates stack up against the rest of the competition statistically: Pirates -- 29th in team batting average (.238), last in team ERA (5.38) and 27th in team fielding percentage (.979). This team is stinking up the joint all the way around. You could pick anybody to go, or heck, fire the entire staff. But when a team is losing like this, Neal Huntington has no choice but to start handing out a pink slip or two...or three...or four. I wouldn't be upset about any of the staff being fired, but my first -- and obvious -- choice is John Russell. I've said time and time again that managing in baseball in overrated and you have to have talent to win, which is true. Russell is working w/ a MLB team that is hovering on the line of being a Triple-A team. Ever since Bay, Nady, McLouth (to a certain extent),Wilson and Sanchez were dealt, he's been dealing with a bare cupboard. However, having said that, some of the decisions that he's made through his tenure as the Pirates manager have nothing to do with talent. It has become increasingly obvious that the guy doesn't have the mental capacity to manage a Double-A team, much less a MLB team. There is a laundry list of things he has done that make no sense whatsoever -- leaving a pitcher in to hit only to have him face ONE batter the next inning regardless of whether the pitcher gets the hitter out or not, benching players when they start to actually get hot or show some improvement, playing RYAN DOUMIT! at 1B during interleague play when you have the option of putting him at DH, putting guys like Lastings Millege, Bobby Crosby and Andy LaRoche, guys that have no power whatsoever, in the 3 hole of the lineup, and it goes on and on -- and he has easily cost us more than a handful games that we might have won had he just had some common sense. I don't know if we would have ultimately won those games, but the baffling, head-scratching decisions he made put the game out of reach for sure. Granted, with this team, 6 or 7 more wins doesn't mean anything, but that's not the point. As a manager, you're supposed to make out a lineup and make the best decisions that give your team -- no matter how talent-stricken it may be -- the best possible chance to win on a nightly basis. JR is incompetent when it comes to this, and how Huntington and Coonelly view this guy as the man to lead the next winning team is beyond me. The amount of losing the team has suffered and the additional losing that is guaranteed to come will surely change how NH and FC perceive him, I hope.

In addition to Russell, Joe Kerrigan and Don Long have to be held accountable, also. Once again, these coaches have little to work with. Kerrigan can't go out there and throw the pitches, and Long can't go out there and swing the bats. But these guys have titles in front of their names, and when the group that they're "coaching" isn't producing, they are the scapegoats. This pitching staff has been the worst in baseball for the past two seasons and our hitting...well, we haven't hit a whole lot of anything since the Big 3 (Nady, Bay, McLouth) and Freddy Sanchez were shipped out. And what can you say about 3B coach Tony Beasley? The guy has been awful, abysmal, horrible, insert whatever word you want. I've lost count of how many potential runs he has cost us and how many baserunning blunders he has caused. It really is ridiculous. Something has to be done, and hopefully NH and FC can see this (since they're running the team after all) and make the necessary change(s). To make no changes is to tell the fanbase you really don't care and winning isn't important.

Hey there's a guy named Fredi Gonzalez out there. He's available. Just sayin'.

Sorry, I know this is a baseball blog, but after today's unbelievable soccer game, I had to post something. We got screwed in the first half again on Dempsey's disallowed goal. We had so many chances to score, but we finally got one from Donovan when it mattered most. Give credit to these guys for never giving up and persevering. Best of luck to them in the next round! USA! USA! What a great game!

Here's our lineup per DK over at the blog...

1. 1. Jose Tabata, LF
2. 2. Neil Walker, 2B
3. 3. Andrew McCutchen, CF
4. 4. Garrett Jones, 1B
5. 5. Ryan Church, RF
6. 6. Pedro Alvarez, 3B
7. 7. Ryan Doumit, C
8. 8. Ronny Cedeno, SS
9. 9. Maholm, P

Way to go Lastings! You get a couple hits last night, and by way of the JR specialty, you get benched. I'm so tired of this man as our manager, but I guess that's just beating a dead horse.

The Indians lineup was not posted as of 10 minutes ago.

This year's MLB Draft is quickly approaching, and the consensus seems to be that the Pirates have their sights set on three players for their first-round draft pick: high school SS Manny Machado, high school P Jameson Tallion and college P Drew Pomeranz. I am getting to watch the latter of three tonight in Oxford, Miss., as Ole Miss battles Auburn for the SEC Western Division title in the first game of a three-game weekend set. I go into the game w/ mixed emotions. I don't know how many of ya'll know, but I'm a diehard Auburn fan. I'm currently an Auburn University undergrad, and I want Auburn to win tonight to get a step closer in winning the division title (long story short: Auburn hasn't been to the SEC Tourney since '03 or postseason play since '05). On the other hand, being a Pirates fan, I know drafting Drew Pomeranz is a definite possibility for Pittsburgh. Pomeranz is 7-1 on the season with a 2.15 ERA. He has struck out 121 with only walking 43. Those stats are staggering, especially considering that the SEC is arguably the best baseball conference in the country. Pomeranz' fastball sits at 92-93 and the southpaw can occasionally hit 95 MPH. He also has a plus curveball and a changeup. I am both anxious and eager to see him throw tonight, knowing that he could possibly be in a Pirate uniform two or three years down the road. He will be challenged tonight unlike any other time this season. Auburn boasts the No. 1 offense in the SEC and No. 6 offense in the country with a .354 team batting average. Auburn has hit a ridiculous 106 home runs on the season (no that's not a misprint), ranking first in the country. The Tigers are also tied for first in the country in HR per game at 2.0 and sport the nation's best slugging percentage as a team at .595. It will be a battle of power vs. power tonight in Oxford. The Auburn fan in me wants to see our offense pummel Pomeranz tonight and knock him around for some crooked numbers, which the offense is capable of doing. The Pirate fan in me wants to see him go 7 or 8 innings while giving up two runs and striking out 10 (I would say 7 or 8 shutout innings, but I'm being realistic. With this offense, Auburn is going to score.) But tonight, the Auburn fan overrides my loyalties as a Bucco fan. I hope we mash Pomeranz, and then Pomeranz shuts down everybody else he faces going forward.

Either way, I will come back and let ya'll know what I saw and how he looked. I'm excited about getting to see him in person.

(I know Pomeranz is obviously the big fish concerning the Pirates, but I wanted to give ya'll some other prospects to keep on eye on for the upcoming draft that are playing in this series:

Auburn 1B Hunter Morris: Similar to Pomeranz, Morris may be on the fast track to the big leagues. Morris was drafted out of high school in the 2nd round by the Red Sox in '07 draft, but decided to forego the money and go to college (and Auburn fans couldn't be happier). The junior is leading the AU offense with 20 HR, 66 RBI and a .398 average on the season. With 1B being a question mark for the Pirates in the future, this is a guy to keep your eye on. I highly doubt he drops into the second round, but if he somehow manages to slip, I think the Pirates could definitely consider him then. This will be his last year in college.

Auburn CF Trent Mummey: Mummey is also a junior, and has been on an absolute tear this season. Mummey sports a .371 average to go along with 14 HR and 39 RBI, but that's not the remarkable part. Mummey has only played in 25 of Auburn's 53 games this season! Mummey missed half the season with a severly sprained ankle that he suffered toward the end of preseason practice. That's incredible, considering the numbers he's put up. This will probably be the last season of college ball for Mummey as well. The only way I see him coming back is if he wants to put a full, healthy season together for scouts, but Mummey is definitely top 5-round talent.

Auburn LF Brian Fletcher: Fletcher has really had a breakout season for Auburn. Fletcher has belted 18 HR and his 66 RBI are tied with Morris for the league lead. Fletcher is another junior that may or may not go pro after this season. Fletcher has a high BA at .362, but he has struggled with strikeouts throughout his career. He has cut down on his K's some this year as he has struck out 57 times in 213 at bats. If any of the three were to come back to school, Fletcher would definitely be the one. I think he may come back to school to work on making better contact and improve his defense, but I wouldn't be surprised in the least bit to see him declare for the draft also. His raw power is evident. Fletcher is probably a top-10 round talent right now, but might want to improve that with another year at Auburn.

Ole Miss RHP Aaron Barrett: If you want to make a comparison, you might say Barrett is Robin to Pomeranz' Batman, but that may be taking it a bit far. Barrett has had a solid season for the Rebels with a 3.12 ERA to go along with a 7-2 record. Barrett has recorded 88 K's while issuing only 38 free passes. Honestly, I don't know a whole lot about Barrett as he seemingly came out of nowhere to capture the Rebels' No. 2 weekend starter position. He was used as a reliever for most of the year last year, but has settled in to his new starter role nicely this season. He, like Pomeranz, is a big guy at 6'4", 218 pounds and has a fastball ranging from 88-91 MPH. I'm not really sure what kind of secondary pitches he has. Barrett is a senior and will be drafted, but I don't know when. After the Pirates took two pitchers from Ole Miss (Philip Irwin and Nathan Baker) in last year's draft, I'm sure Barrett will be on their radar in later rounds.)

We all know that Pedro Alvarez, Jose Tabata and Brad Lincoln will be called up at some point this season. For one of those three prospects, I believe the time should be now. After a 3-for-4 performance to go along with 2 stolen bases on Tues. night, Jose Tabata is hitting .327 with 8 doubles and 19 stolen bases for Triple-A Indianapolis. What else does Tabata have to prove in Triple-A? When a guy can hit above .300 for the course of two months, he's showing that his performance is consistent and the pitching he's facing is no longer challenging. His average was as high as .340 this time a week ago before a recent string of 1-for-4 and 1-for-5 games dropped it slightly. He's not going to get any better by continuing to wear out Triple-A pitching. Tabata has hit for average at every level he's been at and I don't see any reason for that to change moving forward. I know the one concern about him is the lack of power. That will come, and he can develop that power at the big-league level just as well as he can in the minors. And let's remember that he's just 21! For his age, he is ready for the major leagues. And another thing: When Ryan Church is being mentioned as a "mainstay" in your lineup, it's time to call up your RF of the future NOW! Church is a 32-year-old fourth OF at best, but because we don't have any talent, he's considered one of our better options, and according to pirates.com, he's becoming a mainstay in the lineup. Give me a break! Church is hitting .211 and would get a spot start every other week or so if he were playing for any other team. Church can be a good utility player and pinch hitter for us (which is why we signed him in the first place), but a starter? That's laughable. 

Jose Tabata needs to be in Pittsburgh ASAP. The guy is a potential future star, and it makes no sense for him to still be in Triple-A. And Ryan Church, of all people, should not be standing in his way. I don't know if it has to do with the arbitration clock associated with rookie players or what, but Tabata has earned the right to be our starting RF. There's nothing left for him to accomplish at Triple-A, unless he wants to try to get his average up to .400 before next month. It's time for the future to shine in Pittsburgh, and Tabata's star is shining the brightest so far. Let's get him to Pittsburgh!

With last night's throttling at the hands of the Brewers, our Pirates have lost 7 in a row while piling up a -82! run differential. Yes, it's been extremely frustrating over the last week to watch this "team" (if you can call it that) try to play baseball. I think everybody, including myself, has just wanted to give up. But let's all take a deep breath, relax and take a step back. If you think about it, this is about what most of us expected at the start of the year. Now, did we expect to get absolutely killed while looking like a Double-A farm team? An overwhelming no. The pitching has been absolutely dreadful from both the starters and relievers. BUT this is about what we expected from the offense. Most of us said going into the season that this was our worst lineup in 20 years or so. How was this team going to manufacture runs? Well, to no one's surprise (at least it shouldn't be), we haven't produced runs. No power in the lineup (besides Jones) and too many fringe players. It also doesn't help that it seems like the whole lineup is in a slump at the same time. McCutchen is what we expected him to be, and other than that, LaRoche is about the only guy hitting. Also, while the pitching has been beyond terrible, I can't say I'm totally surprised. After getting off to a great start through the first 2-3 months of the season last year, the pitching staff blew up in the second half. It's just continued into this year, only it's been worse. Too many projects in our pitching staff, also with Morton and McCutchen. Right now, those guys look like they belong in Triple-a. Also, Duke and Maholm, while seemingly solid, are No. 3 and 4 starters in any other rotation. The bullpen, which I thought was actually better than last year's, is just pouring gasoline on the fire. However, I'm not sure it's fair to judge the bullpen when all our starters aren't getting past the third or fourth innning. It may be a season full of blowouts because our bullpen will be exhausted by the end of May. 

So while it's been bad and even downright ugly at times, we've gotta stay true. I truly believe NH and the front office are doing the right things to try and be competitive. Let's face it, it had to get worst before it got better, and we're seeing that right now. When you don't have any talent because of the previous front office's pathetic baseball moves, it's gonna take a while to turn it around, as painful as it may be. While the farm system isn't quite where it needs to be, Littlefield (cringe) left it absolutely bare and NH has stockpiled some good talent through trades and the draft. It's A LOT better than were it was three years ago. That's how the Pirates are going to compete. We all know we can't go out and sign top notch free agents to multi-million dollar contracts.  But we've spent the most money of any team in the draft the last couple of years, which I believe shows something. As much as ya'll (and I) hate hearing it, be patient. I have confidence that we will be competing by 2012. At least I hope we are. A couple more drafts and summer trades should have us closer to seriously turning it around. But we can't really be surprised with the product that is out on the field right now. We knew what was coming.

Here's a great article on espn.com about stud CF Andrew McCutchen and the future of the Pirates. Thought ya'll would like to check it out. I'm really excited about what's to come for this franchise. Sure, things are bleak right now --they have been bleak for years -- but I believe good things are going to happen for our Pirates in the very near future. Hang in there, my fellow fans. Good days are ahead. Enjoy!

This is ridiculous! Another hitless game to bring his average to an awesome .037 for the spring. Sweet showing. It's time for the front office to admit that the return for Jason Bay failed. We need to cut our losses and move on. There's no way he's even good enough to be a bench player. Is there any reason to keep him around? Anything else is better than Moss. It's embarrassing and it's awful.

Ole Miss just wrapped up an 8-4 regular season after falling to arch rival Mississippi State, 41-27. The season started with disappointment early on as the Rebels, getting as high as No. 4 in the polls by attrition, failed to live up to the preseason hype of a darkhorse national title contender with losses to South Carolina and Alabama. The Rebels got things going, however, and finished the season strong, winning three of their final four games and earning a second consecutive berth in the AT&T Cotton bowl on Jan. 2. Today, even after a solid regular season, Rebel fans are a bit uneasy as rumors are starting to swirl that head coach Houston Nutt may be interested in the Kansas job. The rumors seem to have some validity to them as it has been reported that Nutt has already spoken to Kansas AD Lew Perkins about the coaching vacancy. It's deja vu for the Rebel faithful, as Nutt was linked to be in the running for the Auburn head coaching job this time last year before the Tigers finally settled on then Iowa State head coach Gene Chizik. The Auburn rumors proved to be beneficial for Nutt as they prompted Ole Miss AD Pete Boone to give Nutt a raise in order to ensure that Ole Miss' head man stayed in Oxford.

I know what Ole Miss fans are thinking: Boy, as soon as we get a head coach that wins, everybody else wants to try and take him away from us. Well, what do you expect? That's the way it goes in college football - and every other sport for that matter. If the head coach is winning games, he's going to attract attention from other schools (or organizations for the professional sports out there). But it wouldn't be the worst thing for Ole Miss if Nutt bolted for Lawrence, Kansas. Sure, Houston Nutt has done a great job at Ole Miss in his two seasons in Oxford, and Ole Miss has been good for Nutt. The Right Reverend needed a fresh start after a shaky end to his tenure as the Arkansas head coach. Ole Miss fans aren't going to see it (well maybe some will) right now because Nutt has rejuvented a weary fan base that witnessed an unsuccessful three-year ride with previous head coach Ed Orgeron, one that saw Ole Miss go 0-8 in Orgeron's final season at the helm in 2007. Right now, Houston Nutt is hot in Oxford. He's the flavor of the month - or should I say, the last  24 months - for how quickly he's turned around the Rebel football program. But Rebel fans shouldn't lose sleep if Nutt does indeed decide to head out west to Kansas. Houston Nutt bolting for Kansas would be a good thing for both Ole Miss and Kansas in the long run.

Every hot eye eventually grows cold. Every bright light eventually burns out. Houston Nutt is like a new toy in Oxford. He's fun to play with right now, but eventually the batteries will die or the toy will break and Ole Miss fans will want a new one. Let's be honest, Houston Nutt is a middle of the pack, borderline mediocre head coach. He's good for 8-4 or 7-5 every year with a bowl game. Every once in a while, when nobody expects his teams to do anything, he sneaks up on people and produces a very good season (Ole Miss in 2008 and Arkansas in 2002). But he doesn't have a pedigree as a strong recruiter, and he's not going to bring SEC or national championships to Oxford. You can disagree or badmouth me all you want, but it's the truth. The only players Nutt ever got at Arkansas were Darren McFadden and Felix Jones (and make no mistake about it, they were good). I'll throw Peyton Hillis in there for good measure. But besides them, Nutt didn't get any players. For those of you that are throwing Mitch Mustain and Damien Williams out there, please don't kid yourself. Gus Malzahn got Mustain and Williams, along with TE Ben Cleveland, to Arkansas. Nutt hired Malzahn from Springdale (Ark.) High School to be his offensive coordinator in 2006. Mustain, Williams and Cleveland all went to Springdale H.S. and followed Malzahn to Arkansas. In fact, it's widely believed that the only reason Nutt hired Malzahn was to get these players. Because Nutt couldn't convince them himself to come to Arkansas. And sure enough, what happened when Malzahn left after the 2006 season to become Tulsa's off. coordinator? Mustain and Williams transferred to USC. Coincidence? Hardly. Nutt doesn't put together nationally ranked recruiting classes, and he won't get the kind of players at Ole Miss that you need to win championships. It's going to be interesting to see -- assuming Nutt stays at Ole Miss -- how Ole Miss performs with Nutt's recruits in the fold. Nutt won last year with Ed Orgeron's recruits. Nutt is popular in Oxford right now because of the recent struggles of the Ole Miss football program. 8-4 and 7-5 is a welcomed breath of fresh air for Ole Miss fans after the miserable four-year showing following the Eli Manning era. But Ole Miss has finished 8-4 two straight years now, and the fans will want more. How much longer will 8-4 be acceptable? Ole Miss fans will want Nutt to gradually get the program to the next level, which is competing for SEC and national titles. That's the goal of any football program. With the pressures that come with coaching in a conference like the SEC and the pressures that come with keeping up with the likes of Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and LSU, Nutt hasn't shown that he can keep up and get his team over the hump. That may become a problem in Oxford.

Nutt would be a great fit at Kansas because Kansas is a basketball school. Nutt can lay low in the shadow of the basketball program and win eight games every year and it would be OK. Going 8-4 and 7-5 every year would go over a lot more smoother at Kansas than it would at Ole Miss simply because Kansas puts all of its eggs in the basketball basket (no pun intended). Nutt wouldn't have the same kind of pressure at Kansas that he would at Ole Miss. Also, with Nutt's offensive style of downhill running, I think he may be more successful in the Big 12, where defense seems to be optional at given times. Nutt also may be able to get slightly better players recruiting for Kansas as well. Sure, he'd have to compete with Oklahoma and Texas, but that pales in comparison to competing with Nick Saban at Alabama, Les Miles at LSU, Lane Kiffin at Tennessee, Les Miles at LSU, Gene Chizik at Auburn, Mark Richt at Georgia and even Dan Mullen at Mississippi State. Who wants to deal with that? Nutt would be more successful in finding better caliber players in the Big 12 than the SEC. To give you an idea, according to Rivals.com, there are currently five Big 12 teams with Top 25 recruiting classes. There are six SEC teams with classes ranked not only in the Top 25, but in the Top 10!! (As of right now, Ole Miss' class isn't ranked in the Top 25). The sleddin' would be a little easier in the Big 12. Just sayin'.

Houston Nutt has done a remarkable job at Ole Miss since stepping foot on campus considering the state of the football program at the time. There's no denying that. But now winning is expected and SEC championships are soon to be expected. I doubt Nutt can deliver them, and if Nutt decides to walk, I wouldn't exactly shed a tear if I was an Ole Miss fan. And now the big question: If Nutt left, just who exactly would Ole Miss hire? That's a good question that I don't have the answer to. That's why I'm not the athletic director. But Pete Boone better be ready to open up the checkbook because it's going to take someone better than Nutt to deliver what Ole Miss fans and alumni ultimately want -- championships.

Is that what you call "unleashing hell", Mike? Losing to the 3-8 Raiders AT HOME? All of a sudden not having a defense that can stop anybody? Wow, I'm speechless. Just unacceptable. Pittsburgh is and has been a dominant franchise in professional sports for a long time, and to lose to the Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders is downright embarassing. Tomlin and the rest of those coaches need to get their acts together. We may have already cost ourselves a playoff berth, but we HAVE to win out to have any chance to sneak in. With the way we're playing right now, that's highly unlikely.

Bruce Arians, what are you doing? Last week against Kansas City, we turn into Texas Tech and completely abandoned the running game when we needed it, and tonight, with maybe the fastest and most athletic QB in the NFL, Arians asks Dennis Dixon to execute a dropback passing game on the road in Baltimore? Really?? Look, Dixon shouldn't have made some of the throws he made tonight. He was extremely fortunate that Ledarious Webb didn't pick him off late in regulation, and we all know he wishes he had the INT in OT back. But to ask this young QB, whose strength is his legs, to drop back and read a zone defense as complicated as Baltimore's is was just idiotic. Why in the world is Arians not putting Dixon in a position to be most successful? Where were the rollouts? The bootlegs? Arians called one designed running play for Dixon off the Mike Wallace motion and guess what happened? You guessed it. Baltimore came with an all-out blitz, and Dixon outran the Ravens' D to the corner and turned it up for a TD scamper. Where were more plays like that? Roll Dixon out, get him on the edge and give the guy a run/pass option. The guy isn't Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Dree Brees or Ben Roethlisberger for that matter. Right now (not saying that he can't be), he's not a dropback passer and Arians expected him to be just that - in the first start of his young career on the road against Baltimore's defense. Good luck, youngster. That's tough for the most veteran of quarterbacks in this league. I just felt like Arians threw Dixon to the wolves with this gameplan. And it wasn't just this game. I haven't been crazy about Arians for a while now. He just doesn't seem to have a clue sometimes. And tonight's game was just another example of Arians' ineffectiveness. Not getting Dixon on the perimeter on more rollouts and bootlegs and giving him a better chance to be successful is terrible. Not only did I feel bad for Dixon tonight, but I have felt bad for the defense for a couple of games now. They have gotten no help from the offense. Tomlin needs to get rid of this guy ASAP!

Well, it's Iron Bowl week and not many people other than the 75 or so players that suit up for the Auburn team and the coaches believe that Auburn has a chance in this game. Yes, Alabama is playing at a high level right now, have tons of depth and is one of the best teams in the nation. It's goin' to take the Tigers' best effort of the season to shock the Tide. But don't think that Auburn can't win this game. This is a rivalry game and emotions will be running high. Here's what HAS to happen for Auburn if the Tigers want to shock the college football world on Friday afternoon:

1) The Tigers have to be healthy. The off week following the Georgia week was HUGE for this team. Not excusing Auburn for its loss to Georgia because we should've won that game, but you could just see how tired that football team was against the Bulldogs, especially the defense. Oh, and it didn't help that Eltoro Freeman got hurt and missed the second half. Freeman and RB Onterio McCalebb are the two big question marks going into Friday's contest. Reports are that McCalebb is healthy and ready to go while Freeman is still nursing a sore ankle along with some concussion-like symptoms. Hopefully, Freeman can heal quickly over the next two days and be ready to go. We have to have those two guys to have any chance in this game, and they need to perform at a high level.

2) Auburn has to win the turnover battle. In my honest opinion, this should probably be 1B. Taking the ball away and giving our offense extra chances to score and short fields will be critical in this game. I know our offense has dramatically improved from last year, but I don't know how often our offense is going to be able to put together long drives against Bama's defense. It's just too good. Our defense cannot miss any chances to take the ball away from Bama's offense.  Remember Josh Bynes having a Joe Cox pass go right through his hands two weeks ago? How about the 2 or 3 would-be INTs dropped by our defense against Jevan Snead early in the game against Ole Miss? Or the opening kickoff in that same game where Ole Miss' returner got nailed at the 10-yard line and we have 3 or 4 players try to fall on the ball, but none of them recover the ball? We can't drop INTs and we can't botch fumble recoveries. Every play has to be made! If we are +2 or +3 in the turnover margin, we will be there at the end.

3) The offense HAS to be balanced,and it has to find its rhythm! Gus Malzahn has stressed this all year long, and it's especially important against Alabama's defense this week. If Todd doesn't come out early and quickly get in a rhythm, it could be a long day. Todd can't miss open receivers, and he has to hit some deep balls to loosen up the Bama defense. Which allows for what? More running room for Ben Tate. Everything has to be working for this offense to be at its best. And you may say, "Well, isn't that true for every offense?" It's what every offense strives for, but it's not necessarily what every offense has to have. Some more well-oiled offenses (for lack of a better term) can pass the ball when the run isn't working or vice versa. That can't be said for Auburn. Take Auburn's four losses for example: Arkansas - ran wild, but never established a passing game. Kentucky - same as Arkansas. LSU - never really got anything going. UGA - passing game clicked, but couldn't get the running game going. This offense scores points -- and in bunches -- when it gets into a rhythm and is clicking on all cylinders. That's what needs to happen on Friday.

4) Contain Mark Ingram. This can't be said enough. I think the magic number for AU's defense is 100. If the D can hold Ingram to right at 100 yards (b/c let's be real about it...Ingram will get his yards), Auburn will have a chance. In other words, Ingram can't sew up the Heisman and have a field day against Auburn's defense. If we can't contain Ingram, Auburn has no shot. Not stopping Ingram means Auburn's front seven will start biting hard on the play action, leaving big holes and 1-on-1 situations in the secondary. That favors Bama big-time. But if the Auburn defense is able to stop Ingram, the pressure will fall on McElroy's shoulders to make something happen. McElroy has been know to force the issue at times, and maybe the defense can force him into some bad decisions resulting in all-important turnovers.

There you have it. Four crucial keys to pulling off one of the biggest upsets in Iron Bowl history. I definitely have faith in the Tigers, but they are going to have to play their best game of the season at 1:30 on Friday afternoon. Let's get there early, be loud and get JHS rockin'!! WAR EAGLE!!

Hey guys. Tough loss tonight to the Georgia Bulldogs. It looked like we headed for a blowout after two quick scores by Auburn in the first quarter, but after that, it was all Georgia as Auburn's offense scored a lousy 3 points in the second half and lost 31-24 between the hedges. It's getting really old losing to these guys, as tonight's loss marked the fourth in a row to the Bulldogs. So I'm sure people are asking: What happened? What went wrong? How did AU's offense look so good for 12 minutes in the first quarter, and then look lost in the final 48 minutes of the game?

Two big reasons stuck out to me:

1) The offensive line played its worst game of the season by far against Georgia. Tackles Andrew McCain and Lee Ziemba, suprisingly, were the ones receiving the most abuse from the Georgia front four. McCain and Ziemba got beat off the ball on just about every pass play and Todd was harassed all night. It may not be fair to single out McCain and Ziemba because the entire offensive line got whooped tonight. The line couldn't pass block, it couldn't make holes for Tate to run through (Tate ran more sideline to sideline tonight than he did north and south) and it couldn't stay out of its own way with false starts and holding penalties. The performance of the O-line was shocking for two reasons. First of all, the O-line, in my opinion, has been the most consistent unit all season long. While maybe the QB, the WRs, the TEs and the defense have had their share of breakdowns, the O-line has consistently blocked well for both the running and the passing game, and it was shocking to see them get dominated tonight. The second reason is that Georgia didn't really blitz a whole lot tonight. It's not like Todd was getting sacked because UGA was bringing more than AU could block or that UGA was bringing all kinds of run blitzes that stuffed Ben Tate. The line was simply getting beat by the front four of UGA. But at the same time, if Gus Malzahn sees that his O-line is consistently getting beat, I don't know why he didn't call for backs to stay in and help block the ends. I thought in certain situations, after UGA had consistently been getting pressure on Todd, Malzahn should have called for a running back (or maybe even two) to stay in and help chip the defensive ends. But at the end of the day, the O-line has to execute, and tonight, it was nowhere close.

2) The defense's inability to create turnovers. In all of Auburn victories this season, the Tigers have been able to get interceptions and fumbles at key points in the game. Coincidence? I think not. Josh Bynes apparently likes to play hot potato with the ball as the ball likes to go right throught his hands. It happened tonight and (if you'll remember) Bynes had one go right his hands against Jevan Snead and Ole Miss a few weeks ago. We have to make those plays. There is no way around it. If we are going to win games, especially this year, we can't miss opportunities to take the ball away from the opposing offense. Our defense doesn't have the depth to be able to come up with stop after stop after stop. We are basically playing 11 defenders on that side of the ball, and those guys are having to play EVERY SNAP! Getting tired is inevitable for this defense, and if we can't create fumbles and interceptions, we are going to get scored on - a lot. You may say "Yeah, but it was Georgia. Georgia's offense has been horrible all season AND they didn't have A.J. Greene tonight." It doesn't matter how bad UGA offense is. A bad offense will beat a tired defense any day. If we want any shot (I'm just being realistic) to knock off the Tide in two weeks, we have to create turnovers, and we can miss the opportunites to have turnovers when they are presented to our defense.

Keep your heads up, Auburn fans, and support these players through the thick and the thin! Better days are ahead.

Pride. Tradition. Loyalty.

Those are just a few of the words that can be associated with the history of colleges and the exuberance that fans show in support of their respective sports teams. Apparently, at Ole Miss, all of that is being changed. First, it was Colonel Reb being taken off the sidelines at football games because the mascot was seen as offensive to some people. Next, Mississippi, which claims the Confederate flag as its state's symbol, had its flag questioned as to whether it reminded people of slavery in the south. And now, this. Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt received a phone call from the mother of a recruit, who was concerned over a phrase in the song "From Dixie With Love" that was chanted at the end of a game by the Ole Miss students, according to RebelSports.net. The phrase, which goes "The South will rise again", will not be allowed to be chanted anymore at the end of Ole Miss football games. The order came from Ole Miss chancellor Dan Jones, who also said that the song would quit being played altogether if students continued to yell the phrase. Obviously, this is a racial issue, and quite frankly, it's ridiculous. Ole Miss can't have a rebel mascot on the sidelines, they can't waive the Confederate flag and now the students can't sing "The South will rise again" at the end of a song at a football game? A song that has been played and chanted for only God knows how long? I thought that this country had gotten over the race issue already, but I'm obviously wrong. It's sad that a university has to change all of its traditions and festivities because some people all of a sudden find them offensive. What's next? Is the school going to have to change its colors from red, white and navy blue to green, black and silver because red, white and blue reminds too many people of the colors of the Confederate flag? Give me a break! What else does Ole Miss have? The students and the fans don't have a mascot and  they can't sing a long-standing traditional song that has been a part of that university for decades. It's ridiculous for someone to think that when those fans and students chant that phrase in that song that they are thinking about or even hinting at race. It's tradition! It's pageantry! It's showing support for your school and your team! The so called "leaders" of that university need to put their collective feet down and say, "This has been our tradition at Ole Miss forever, and we're not about to change now." Either that, or Ole Miss might as well get new colors and a new mascot. I know this doesn't have anything to do with Auburn, but I just saw this particular article and was shocked. Once again, it's ridiculous.

I loved the win last night. It was a great win for our team. Our offense just continues to produce no matter what defense it faces. However, in the second half (and really the whole game), there was one glaring weakness that I noticed: no pass rush. We didn't sack Jonathan Crompton once last night, and really, Crompton had all the time he wanted to scan the field. During the fourth quarter, I remember saying to myself, "This is Jonathan Crompton, and he is single handedly moving their offense down the field!" What made the lack of pressure on Crompton even worse was the fact that our defense knew that Crompton had to throw in order to try to get Tennessee back in the game, and we couldn't muster any kind of pressure. Our front four got stoned. Now, I understand that Ted Roof didn't blitz hardly at all last night, and that had something to do with it. We ran a base defense probably 90% of the time, and that was by design. But it's still concerning that our front four couldn't generate any kind of pass rush last night. What does that say about them? Antonio Coleman is one of the best pass-rushing DE in the SEC, yet the guy only has one sack all season? If we can't get any pressure on Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallet, who I think is the second best QB in the SEC behind Tebow, Arkansas will put 50 on us. I fully expect Roof's game plan to be completely different against Arkansas because Ryan Mallet and Jonathan Crompton are polar opposites at the QB position. I expect a lot more blitzes and many different looks against the Hogs. But if we can't get pressure on Mallet early and often, our offense may have to score 60 to win.

Let the roads lead you back home where you can burn a couch, Mountaineer fans!

Is that what you were expecting from this Auburn fan? Well, I'm only kidding. Auburn fans have way more class than that. I just wanted to come on here and analyze Saturday night's game. It was a great effort by both teams.

1) West Virginia is still good. Earlier in the week, I said West Va.'s offense would give us some problems. Well, the offense gave us FITS! Jarrett Brown is a beast and killed us with his scrambling ability (although I have to ask: How many times does he have to scramble for 8-10 yards before our defensive coord. puts a spy on the guy! It was driving me crazy). He also has a strong arm. Noel Devine is, well, Noel Devine. The guy has great moves in the open field and can fly! Ya'll's offense really had our defense out of whack in the first half. The West Va. defense also presented problems. I thought we were going to able to run against the 3-3-5 stack, but ya'll shut it down for the most part. We found some running room in the second half, but the 3-3-5 really confused us early on. We won't see another 3-3-5 defense the rest of the year. I thought ya'll would suffer a down year after Pat White left, but ya'll will win a lot of games this year.

2) Auburn's tackling was by far the worst I have ever seen in all the years I have been following the Tigers. The first half, especially, was atrocious. Yes, Jarrett Brown is a large man and hard to bring down, but there's no way he should've gotten out of the grasp of as many tacklers as he did. It was literally ever other play. And the screen pass to Jock Sanders to score West Va.'s third touchdown? There were three defenders with their hands on him and he got away and scored when he should've been tackled for a loss or no gain. We got better in the second half, but man, our tackling was putrid early on. We can't use the rain/weather excuse, either, because West Va's defense had to battle the same elements and it wasn't missing tackles. We've got to get that corrected. Get 'em going, Roof/Chizik!

3) Chris Todd proved he could pass his team to victory. This guy looks like a totally different QB from last year. His arm is 10 times stronger, and he is able to fit balls into tight windows this year. He still holds the ball too long for my liking sometimes, but I'm not really going to complain about a 4-touchdown night, especially on a night where he had to throw the ball for us to win. Give West Va. credit. They stuffed our run game, and they forced to Todd to win the game through the air. Todd made good decisions, led the team down the field numerous times and didn't make the game-changing mistake. The offensive line did a great job protecting Todd, too. I think West. Va. only had two sacks all night, and one of those I wouldn't even count as the O-line's fault. Todd held the ball FOREVER that time he was sacked in the first half. Great job by Todd and the line tonight. If our offensive line can stay healthy, I think we can do some big things this year. And lastly...

4) Jarrett Brown proved he can't pass him team to victory. Brown is a great athlete and can make plays with this feet, but he wilted under the pressure Saturday night. Brown had a good first half for the 'Neers. We finally put some pressure on Brown in the second half, and we forced Brown into mistakes. Hurried throws, errant throws, sacks. Our front seven really stepped up and made plays when they had to. I said earlier in the week that Jarrett Brown had never done good against the big-time defenses he had faced. Well he still hasn't. With the front seven applying pressure and getting to him, Brown threw into coverage all night long, two of his four interceptions coming in the red zone. Even on the screen passes, we got to Brown before he was ready to throw the ball, forcing high throws that were tipped and intercepted. Brown is a great athlete and he showed me a lot on Saturday night, but he doesn't make the greatest decisions in the world, especially when the heat is turned up. Honestly, I don't know why ya'll didn't run the ball more. Our defense did make some adjustments to stop the run in the second half, but still.

I hope ya'll enjoyed your trip to the Plains (I know the rain sucked), and have a safe trip back. Oh, and I hope Jarrett Brown is going to be okay after going down with an injury late in the fourth quarter.

Hey guys. I was just wondering what happened to DeShaun Barnes, the LB that transferred to Auburn after being released from his scholarship at Tennessee. A year ago, he was seen as a guy that would get significant playing time. Now, if I'm not mistaken, I don't think he's on the team. I never heard about him quiting or leaving the team. Does anybody know what happened or why he's not playing anymore?

I know this isn't about Auburn, but it's definitely worth addressing...

No, the Boise St./Oregon game did not live up to all the pregame hype, so if you got tired of watching the sleeper, went to bed, and missed the postgame antics, then you're excused. But if you stuck around to watch the entire game, a game Boise St. dominated in every aspect on its way to a 19-8 win, and saw what happened between the two teams during the postgame handshakes, then you know what I'm talking about. Oregon starting running back LaGarrette Blount punched a Boise St. player in the jaw after the players exchanged some words at the conclusion of the game. For those of you unaware, Blount was quoted as saying, "We owe (Boise State) an a** whoopin" after Boise St. went into Autzen Stadium last year and pulled a shocking upset over the Ducks, 37-32. I'm assuming Boise St. used that quote as bulletin board material and pointed out Blount all night. In what small amount of defense I can give Blount, I can only assume that he was extremely frustrated after tonight's game, rushing 8 times for -5 yards. Also, the Boise St. player ran by Blount in the postgame exchange and tapped Blount on the shoulder, instigating the whole thing. Again, a lot of assuming here, but I assume with all the frustration coming to a head and the fact that the Boise player touched him first, Blount lost it. Blount landed a punch to the player's left cheek, knocking the player to the ground. But it didn't end there. After Blount was restrained and being escorted to the visitor's locker room, Boise St. fans (I will admit they were obnoxious) heckled Blount as he walked off the field. Blount lost it again, pushed his escort to the side and charged the group of young Bronco fans. Luckily, stadium security restrained Blount before he got to hop the fence and get his hands on the fans. It was ugly enough, but Lord only knows what would've happened had Blount gotten lose in the stands. Blount had to be restrained by two or three security guards all the way to the locker room.

I don't care who instigates what. I don't care if the opposing player touched him first. There's absolutely no excuse for throwing a punch, and there's no place for physical violence in any level of athletics. That's a classless move. Emotions run high and players go through frustrations all the time, but there's not a fight breaking out every Saturday night. Blount needs to grow up and act like a man. He's 21-22 years old, but he acted like a child on Thursday night. The guy should be suspended for the rest of the season, in my opinion. You should never let your emotions get the best of you, and also, you probably shouldn't write checks with your mouth that you can't cash. Let's not forget that this is the same guy that was kicked out of a summer workouts by head coach Chip Kelly for disruptive behavior. Yes, he was restrained by security when he attempted to rush the fans, but what security had been elsewhere right then? It would've gotten ugly in a hurry. It would've turned into Ron Artest, Part II. What he did is inexcusable, and if Chip Kelly has any respect for the his job, he will suspend him for rest of the season. You can't have guys like this playing for your team and representing your school.

But something tells me Blount will have far more serious things coming his way than worrying about being suspended from the football team.

With an ugly season-opening loss and possible legal sanctions facing his star running back, I can only assume it will be an extremely long week for Chip Kelly and the Oregon football team. 

Hey guys. I went to the scrimmage (yeah, get jealous...ha) and here's my take on what I saw:

1. Chris Todd's arm is a lot stronger, but he still has a lot of work to do. I have wanted to see for myself if his arm really was as strong as everybody has been saying for a while, and it is stronger. The ball is coming out with a lot more zip. However, Todd holds on to the ball entirely too long, a lot like he did last year. He does seem to make good decisions, but I remember one time specifically that he got sacked two or three times in a row because he wouldn't get rid of the ball. He's got three weeks to get his timing down with the receivers now that he's been named the start so maybe that will help. The secondary had something to do with it as they did a good job of pass coverage (there were some times Tyrik had nowhere to go with the ball, too), but Todd has to get the timing down with the receivers and get the ball out of his hands. If he does that this year, it could be another long year.

2. Tyrik Rollison looks to be separating himself as the #2 QB. Most of the reps (with the exception of a 2-minute drill to end the scrimmage that Caudle led) were split evenly between Rollison and Todd. Rollison look good from the first snap on. In fact, on Rollison's first play, he dropped back, ran out of the pocket to his left after his initial reads weren't there and delivered a 60-70 yd. strike to Travante Stallworth for a TD. He has a cannon of an arm. In my opinion, he looked better than Todd today. Granted, he was going against the 2nd team defense, but he was getting rid of the ball quickly for the most part and was on time with his throws.

3. Daren Bates and Dontae Aycock were impressive. Bates was everywhere, making a bunch of tackles and delivering a big hit to DeAngelo Benton on the sideline that caused a fumble (the ball was fumbled out of bounds). I think he is becoming one of Tommy Thigpen's favorites, along with Ted Roof. Aycock was running the ball hard, showing a good mix of power and finesse. He was breaking a lot of tackles, running through people and even showed some nifty moves in the open field. He may be starting to open some eyes.

4. "Can I get someone to catch stinkin' ball?" That's what Gene Chizik yelled to his kick returners after Demond Washington and Harry Adams dropped back-to-back kickoffs during special teams practice. He stopped special teams drills for a minute or two to get on to the kick returners and also to correct some of the players on the kickoff return team on "athletic positioning". Chizik wasn't the only coach getting on players. Trooper Taylor lit into freshman tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen, but I'm not sure what it was about. Taylor yelled at Lutz and corrected the youngster before making Lutz do up-downs non-stop for about 20 seconds. Then, Taylor summoned by Lutz to get back into the game. Again, I'm not sure what the freshman did.

5. Eltoro Freeman and Onterrio McCalebb did not take part in the scrimmage. Freeman was on the side riding the stationary bike. His hand is still sore. McCalebb? I don't know what was up with him. I don't think he was hurt, but I can't remember him getting one carry. Maybe he was just getting a rest. At least I hope that's all it was. We need him healthy and on the field this season.

6. Kodi Burns in the Wildcat formation. Burns lined up at WR for good number of snaps, but his one snap in the Wildcat formation created all the excitement. If I'm not mistaken, it was the only play that the offense ran out of the formation all night, but Burns took the snap, faked to Fannin and ran the ball right up the middle 25-30 yards for a TD. It was good to see.

In conclusion, it's nice to see some big plays from the offense for a change. It seems like for the last two or three years, all the reports from the scrimmage have been that the defense dominated. Not so much anymore. The offense did win today's scrimmage. I think the final score was 35-26, but I could be wrong. Both Todd and Rollison threw TD passes (Todd's was on a corner route to Billings in the end zone). The offense dominated the first half of the scrimmage with the defense clamping down and winning the second half of the scrimmage. I enjoyed seeing this team in action. It looks like A LOT of young players are going to see playing time. Sept. 5 can't get here soon enough!

A few more notes:

* Anthony Gulley caught a lot of passes out of the slot, particularly in the second half.

* Philip Pierre-Louis was in attendance tonight. He was sitting in the stands about 15-20 rows in front of me. He was with Aairon Savage. It's hard to see him having any significant role in the offense this year with the way these freshman receivers have come on.

Just like I thought he would, Pedro Alvarez is toying with those little Double-A kids, hitting .338 since joining the Altoona Curve and is 11 for his last 18 with his 3-for-4 performance on Thursday night. The strikeouts are also going down. Can the guy get a promotion already? Does he have to hit .400 for Altoona? Get the guy to Indianapolis already! 22 HR and 82 RBI for Alvarez in his first year of professional baseball with a month or so still to go. Not bad at all.

It's still the most popular question among Auburn fans concerning the 2009 football team: Who is going to be the starting QB for the Tigers when they take the field for the Sept. 5 opener against Louisiana Tech? The three front runners seem to be Neil Caudle, Kodi Burns and Chris Todd with hotshot freshman Tyrik Rollison having a small window of opportunity followed by fellow freshman Clint Mosely, who almost surely is a lock to redshirt and try his hand again next year. Chris Todd and Kodi Burns both have starting experience under their belts, which gives them an advantage over Caudle and Rollison. Neil Caudle is thought to be an accurate passer having good zip on the ball with the question marks being his decision making and game management. Rollison may have been the prize recruit of the 2009 recruiting class. He has all the accolades: a four-star recruit out of the football hotbed state of Texas (Sulphur Springs, TX). No. 2 ranked dual-threat QB in the country. A throw-first QB that has pin-point accuracy to go along with a strong arm, but can pull it down and run if he needs to. 74% completion rate as a senior at Sulphur Springs High School. U.S. Army All-American.

Let's look at all the contenders a little bit closer:

1. Kodi Burns - I think it's time for the coaches to move on from Burns. If coaches have seen the same thing that we, as fans, saw in the games last year and in the videos of the spring practices as well as the first four fall practices, I honestly don't see how this guy is still in the running for the job. Burns has had two and half years to win the job and show that he can be the man to lead this offense and he has yet to do it. His mechanics, from what I have seen on the videos of practice, have gotten no better than last year. The guy can't throw the ball, and I just don't think the team can win football games in the SEC with him at QB. Not to mention that Caudle's A-Day performance blew Burns' out of the water (I still don't know how Caudle didn't separate himself more after that performance...Weird.) Maybe the videographer just catches all of Kodi's bad throws at practice and the rest are good, but I just can't see him being the QB of the team. Maybe Gus Malzahn sees something in Kodi that we don't. He is watching him everyday at practice.

2. Neil Caudle - This is the guy that has all the Auburn fans excited. An Elite 11 QB coming out of high school, Caudle was redshirted his freshman year and was going to be the next great QB at Auburn once Brandon Cox left. However, Caudle suffered many nagging injuries that kept him on the sideline and he slowly fell out of favor with the previous coaching staff. Now a new regime is in town, and that means a fresh start for Caudle. Caudle is hands down a better thrower than Burns, showing good accuracy to go along with a strong arm. The knock on Caudle, other than injuries, is his decision making. Sometimes he develops Brett Favre syndrome, thinking he can fit a pass into any size window when really he should just dump the ball off to his checkdown or throw the ball away. That's a big no-no in the SEC, and that will lead to a lot of INTs. Caudle seemed to make better decisions in the A-Day Game, and after his performance in the game, I really thought he was going to be named the starter. But the coaches were hesitant because he wasn't playing against the greatest defense in the world, and they wanted to give Chris Todd a fair look in the fall. Todd missed all spring recovering from shoulder surgery.

3. Chris Todd - This guy is the wild card. Todd started half the season last year, and his performance was very hard to watch (as was Burns' performance). Todd originally committed to Troy, where Tony Franklin was the offensive coordinator, but previous head coach Tommy Tuberville hired Franklin away from Troy to be the Tigers' new OC and Todd followed Franklin to Auburn. Todd hurt his throwing shoulder while in junior college, and it was very clear by his performance that his shoulder was still nowhere near healthy. However, word from Auburn is that Todd's shoulder is as healthy as it's been in a while and he is throwing his passes with more zip. Of course, this is the same thing we heard last fall when anybody would ask about Todd's shoulder. I'm sorry, but I'm taking the wait-and-see approach with Todd. Until he proves that he can fit a ball into a tight window with some zip and can throw a deep ball that doesn't stay in the air for more than what seems like ten seconds, I won't be in favor of Todd being our starting QB. But, then again, Malzahn is there to watch practice everyday and maybe Todd's shoulder really is healthy now. But he continues to ice his shoulder constantly so I highly doubt that his shoulder is where it needs to be to be a starting QB in the SEC.

4. Tyrik Rollison - If Neil Caudle has Auburn fans excited, then Rollison has Auburn fans freakin' ecstatic! As previously mentioned, he comes in with all the accolades, and I think this kid has the makings of something special for years to come. The scouting report on him is that he is a deadly accurate passer with a stong arm and good footwork. From the small sample size I've seen on video of him in fall practice so far, I strongly agree. This guy is a quarterback, not an athlete. He may be one of the best if not the best thrower on the team already. But the learning curve will be steep as a true freshman and learning Malzahn's complex playbook in a short amount of time will obviously be Rollison's biggest challenge. But this kid will be the real deal in the future ( if not now).

Why can't Tyrik Rollison be the starting QB of the Auburn football team this season? Fans and coaches say that it is hard for a freshman to come in and play right away, especially at the QB position, because he has to learn the playbook in a short amount of time as well as get used to the speed of the college game, and I totally agree with that. I would love for Tyrik to redshirt, add some weight to his frame and really learn the playbook. I would love for one of the more experienced QBs to step up, be a leader of this team and take the reigns of this offense. However, my question is this: If one of the more experienced QBs hasn't stepped up yet and separated himself from everybody else as "the guy", then what does that say about our QB situation? This group of QBs as a unit is not exactly Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Mark Sanchez. In fact, I would go far as to say that we have one of the worst QB units in the SEC if not the worst. You can call me a basher if you want to, but I'm just looking at things realistically based on what I saw last year. The talent level of the QBs of the upperclassmen is weak, and Rollison isn't being blocked by anybody. My gut feeling is that Caudle steps up and has a good year for us as the starting QB, but if not, I could see Rollison making some noise at QB.

SEC Media Days were wrapped up yesterday, and thank God that they are over. Ever since the All-SEC teams as voted on by the coaches were revealed and it was known that Tim Tebow wasn't a unanimous first-team selection, the event that is SEC Media Days turned into the Who Didn't Vote for Tebow Days! Everywhere you turned -any sports channel on the TV,  the radio or the Internet- hosts, analysts, coaches, fans, and members of the media were talking about who didn't vote for Tim Tebow. Finally, on Friday morning, everybody found out who the "mystery man" was when Steve Spurrier admitted that he -actually, his Sports Info. Director- voted for Jevan Snead as his first-team QB rather than Tebow. Spurrier said it was a mistake because his SID filled out the ballot (like, according to Spurrier, he does every year), gave it to Spurrier to glance over, and Spurrier, not really glancing over it, said it was fine. (For the record, I believe him.) Spurrier said he called his SID and told him that surely, he put Tebow down as the first-team QB, but the SID said he actually put Snead on the first-team ballot and that's how it happened. The part that showed how stupid all of this really is was Spurrier's five minute apology to Tebow and the media at the beginning of his media session. The guy explained his "mistake", took full responsibility for it, apologized a million times and looked totally embarrassed.

My question is why? Isn't this a free country? Don't we as Americans have the right to vote for whoever we want to in any election or on any ballot? Even if it wasn't a mistake and Spurrier really did mean to vote for Snead, why in the world is everybody on his back about it? Every coach is entitled to his own opinion, and Spurrier, just like every other coach, should have been able to vote for whoever he wanted to and not get hounded about it. Instead, because Tebow wasn't (gasp) a unanimous choice on the first team All-SEC ballot, every single coach was asked at the beginning of his session who he voted for at QB for the first team, and a 60+ year old man and college football legend looks like a convicted serial killer on death row pleading with the judge to forgive him for the terrible crime of not voting for Tim Tebow. Yes, Tim Tebow is a great player, and he may be the most decorated player in the  history of college football if he can pull off another national title and maybe another Heisman trophy. He's a great leader. But what Steve Spurrier -and really, every SEC coach- had to go through just because Tim Tebow wasn't a unanimous pick for the first-team All-SEC team was ridiculous. They were asked more questions about Tebow and that situation than they were asked about their own football team. You mean the great Tim Tebow only got 10 of the possible 12 votes (Meyer can't vote for his own QB)?? Oh no! The world is coming to an end! What are we going to do? Does the media really need all 11 coaches to vote for Tebow to know that he is the best QB in the SEC? This "Tebow-mania" is getting way out of hand. What's happens next? Do the media and the fans hold a candlelight vigil when Tebow is done playing college football and moves on to the NFL? Like I said earlier, Tebow is one of the greatest college football players ever, and can still add on to those credentials this season, but this is going way over the top. Let's just enjoy what Tebow is doing as a college football player and be fans, not stalkers.

Olive Branch (Miss.) 4-star offensive tackle Aubrey Phillips, who chose Florida State over Auburn on National Signing Day back in February, has been granted a release from his scholarship at Florida State and will enroll in Auburn in time for fall practice. It is yet to be determined if Phillips will be able to play this season as NCAA transfer rules may force Phillips to sit out a year, but Auburn is expected to fill out a waiver asking for immediate eligibility, according to AuburnSports.com. The article on AuburnSports.com is very interesting, revealing the events leading up to Phillips' request for a release from the Seminoles and Phillips admitting he made a big mistake by signing with FSU in the first place. Auburn was hard on Phillips' trail in the final weeks leading up to Signing Day, and with Auburn's need for quality depth on the offensive line, Phillips' decision to sign with Florida State was a huge blow. But now, all of that is in the past, and Phillips will finally be an Auburn Tiger. If the NCAA grants Phillips immediate eligibility, I have to think that Phillips has a chance to come in and immediately compete for a starting tackle position. It's unlikely that Phillips will beat out Andrew McCain, a fifth-year senior, but if nothing else, Phillips will give us much needed depth on the offensive line and could the next great Auburn offensive lineman for the next 4-5 years.

The new college football game, NCAA Football 2010, came out last Tuesday and I've been reading messages boards on the Internet and people are saying that Auburn's roster (for the PS3, at least) is not updated at all. This is why I have yet to buy the game. I've read that Tray Blackmon, Raven Gray, Jason Bosley, Ryan Williams and Chris Slaughter are just some of the players that are still on this year's game, but are no longer on the team in real life. Are the rosters really that bad and outdated? Have the rosters been updated since the release of the game (which I've read from a few people that it has been) for the PS3, and if so, how do you get the updated roster? Some help and info. about this would be greatly appreciated.Thanks.