Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

10/13/2011 at 3:58pm

Steve Spurrier doesn't have a whole lot more to say about his troubled and now dismissed quarterback, Stephen Garcia, and even less about the coach's chastising of a Columbia, S.C., columnist earlier this week.

Only the Southeastern Conference, where every day's a drama.

Spurrier and South Carolina take on Mississippi State, which has its own quarterback derby going on. Also, Auburn and Florida meet this week in a high-profile ESPN night game where quarterback is each talented squad's weakest position, and Ole Miss and Houston Nutt take on No. 2-ranked Alabama. We have our weekly Power Poll and a look at the upcoming games in this week's notebook.

And, did you know that Georgia faced a second-and-56 situation in its win over Tennessee? If that wasn't bad enough, the play call for that second-and-long-long-long netted a one-yard loss.

Let's look this week's Power Poll, as we're already in the seventh week of the season:

ArkansasSports360.com Power Poll Week 7

1. Alabama (6-0). Crimson Tide completely shut down Vanderbilt, and it was still not to Nick Saban's expected level of play.
2. LSU (6-0). Keeping up with the Crimson Tide in every facet.
3. Arkansas (5-1). Solidly the third-best team in the league for now, with a week off to heal aches.
4. Auburn (4-2). Somebody has to step up to pass and catch the ball, though the Tigers aren't much worse than everyone behind them.
5. South Carolina (5-1). Spurrier may have given Garcia too many chances; team looked good with Connor Shaw.
6. Georgia (4-2). Did nothing overly impressive in Knoxville except win.
7. Florida (4-2). Gators can't buy a break at quarterback.
8. Tennessee (3-2). Without Tyler Bray for six weeks, Rocky Top will be bluesville.
9. Mississippi State (3-3). Mullen wants a power running game, but it only works if Dawgs can pass. Enter Tyler Russell.
10. Vanderbilt (3-2). No offense has Commodores looking at quarterback position, like much of the league.
11. Ole Miss (2-3). Week off came at the right time to get Randall Mackey more settled at QB.
12. Kentucky (2-4). How low can the Wildcats go?

DONE TALKING
It was obvious that discussing the Stephen Garcia dismissal by the USC athletic department was not something South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier wanted to dwell on Wednesday during the SEC coaches teleconference. Garcia, who had been suspended five times during his Gamecocks career by Spurrier for various indiscretions, was dismissed from the team on Tuesday after it was learned Monday evening that he had failed a recent, random substance test for alcohol.

One reporter asked Spurrier Wednesday if he was aware that Garcia's family reportedly had said Spurrier was too hard on the quarterback during his college career.

"I haven’t read where they've said that. I’ve read where some people around here said I didn’t praise him enough. I try to praise all our players around here on how they perform," Spurrier said. "Anyway, it’s over. We don’t need to rehash it. It's an unfortunate situation."

Garcia was benched last week in favor of sophomore Connor Shaw after a mediocre performance in South Carolina's 16-13 home loss to Auburn on Oct. 1. Shaw responded in leading the Gamecocks to a 54-3 win over Kentucky at home last Saturday. Spurrier said that with Garcia now gone, the focus is to keep Shaw healthy because the backups have little or no experience.

"Our comfort level [with Shaw] is what it is," he said. "Connor is our starter. We certainly hope he can stay healthy."

Later in his segment, Spurrier added, "He's certainly capable of making the plays."

Spurrier said he had met with Garcia on Monday and reiterated to the former starter that he was one play away from being the starter again, but then the coach learned Monday night that Garcia would be dismissed on Tuesday.

"I don’t like it. I don’t like it. I wish he had stayed," Spurrier said. "I wish he had finished his career as a Gamecock here." 

Spurrier's Tuesday press conference, in which the Garcia news was announced, began with the head ballcoach taking umbrage with a Columbia, S.C., columnist, Ron Morris, over a spring column about basketball player Bruce Ellington joining the football team. Spurrier accused the columnist of fabricating Spurrier's involvement in Ellington switching from hoops to football last spring. Spurrier told the gathered media he wouldn't speak to them until the columnist had left the room.

Watch it here.

"I did not like doing that," Spurrier said of his press conference statement that singled out Morris. Spurrier invited TV reporters into another media room for one-on-one interviews before returning to address the writers, and Morris was still in his seat. "I said what I had to say yesterday. I'm not getting into that discussion anymore. Hopefully what I said was enough."

Spurrier said his reaction Tuesday to a column from March that he disagreed with had nothing to do with learning of Garcia's dismissal the night before.

QB CHANGES
Looks like more than half the SEC has quarterback problems, either through injuries, suspensions, dismissals or just outright bad play. Mississippi State was struggling to score against woeful Alabama-Birmingham last week until the Bulldogs pulled starter Chris Relf and went with passer Tyler Russell in the second half. MSU then pulled away to a 21-3 victory.

Big things were expected from Coach Dan Mullen's Bulldogs, but in facing South Carolina on Saturday in Starkville they're looking for their first league win after three losses. Russell gives the Bulldogs some offensive hope, even if South Carolina has the top-rated pass defense in the league. Mullen says that doesn't change how MSU will approach the game.

"We have to worry about who gives us the best opportunity to win the football game. It doesn’t affect us on who is going top play at all," said Mullen, who even suggested that if it took a two-quarterback system or even three quarterbacks, he'd do it.

Right now, Russell is the guy who has MSU's offense moving with his ability to throw accurately.

"He’s a guy who has won, led his team to the state championship in high school. He's a strong-armed passer, has that winning attitude," Mullen said. "He has worked hard here, never worried about anything except improving as a player. When he had his chance this past week he stepped up and took advantage of the opportunity."

As for the rest of the league and their quarterbacks:
* Alabama (AJ McCarron), LSU (Jarrett Lee), Arkansas (Tyler Wilson) and Georgia (Aaron Murray) appear the most stable with their game 1 starters in place;

*Florida was down to third-stringer Jacoby Brissett last week at LSU but hopes to get freshman Jeff Driskel back for Auburn. The Gators haven't announced that John Brantley (leg injury) is done for the year, but it doesn't sound promising. Driskel replaced Brantley against Alabama, then Florida kept Driskel's ankle injury last week secret before the LSU game, as if that was going to matter in Baton Rouge;

* Auburn used freshman Kiehl Frazier more in the Arkansas game, but also gave Clint Moseley some late snaps behind ineffective passer Barrett Trotter. Still, Coach Gene Chizik was adamant that Trotter is the Tigers' starter;

* Tennessee lost sophomore starter Tyler Bray to a broken thumb last weekend, meaning former starter Matt Simms is back in a role where he struggled;

* Ole Miss has used three quarterbacks and finally got a solid performance from one, Randall Mackey, in a big road win at Fresno State on Oct. 1;

* Vanderbilt, one-dimensional with Larry Smith, is looking for a passer;

* Does Kentucky use a quarterback?

LONG YARDAGE
This writer recalls the Miami Hurricanes once facing a second-down-and-44 in the 1991 Cotton Bowl against Texas (and making up the yardage in two plays, incidentally), but we're not sure we've ever heard of a team in a second-and-56 situation like Georgia faced at Tennessee last Saturday in the Bulldogs' 20-12 win.

After the next snap lost a yard, Georgia, which was up 20-6 and trying to put the game away, was looking at third-and-57 from the Bulldogs' 30.

"The thing about it was, we came out in second half after being tied 6-6, we're up 14 and then they punt us down inside our 3," Georgia Coach Mark Richt said Wednesday during the coaches teleconference. "We're driving. We get it all the way down to the 23-yard line on the other side, in good shape to kick a field goal to go up 17, to remove all the drama."

But then came a series of holding penalties on the Bulldogs, including one that was deemed a personal foul holding of the facemask. Richt was asked Wednesday, what does a coach call in a second-and-56 situation.

"I don't call anything. [Assistant] Coach [Mike] Bobo calls the plays," he said, only half jokingly, then admitted he wondered if the Bulldogs had broken an NCAA record for longest down-and-distance.

What concerned Richt was his team's failing to put the game away. "We didn't remove the drama, they did score, then they recovered an onside kick and the game was still in doubt," Richt said. "One of my biggest issues for the team this week is to finish better. We're getting close but haven't gotten there yet."

QUICK HITS

The league honors the following athletes as Players of the Week for their efforts last Saturday: Connor Shaw, QB, South Carolina (offense); Mike Gilliard, ILB, Georgia (defense); Blair Walsh, PK, Georgia (special teams); Will Blackwell, OG, LSU (offensive lineman); Fletcher Cox, DT, Mississippi State (defensive lineman); and, Tevin Mitchel, CB, Arkansas (freshman) ... Georgia and LSU are the only SEC teams who have scored first in every game they've played this season ... Despite losses the past two weeks to the No. 2 and No. 1 ranked teams in the country, Florida has the SEC’s best mark against AP Top 25 teams since 1989. During that time, the Gators are 68-52-1 (.566) against AP Top 25. Alabama is second with a .519 winning mark (54-50-1) ... Three of SEC's 5 highest active players with most TDs scored have as many TDs as games played: Trent Richardson, Alabama, 31 games/31 TDs; Marcus Lattimore, South Carolina, 29 games/19 TDs; Vick Ballard, Mississippi State, 25 TDs/18 games.

THIS WEEK’S MATCHUPS
Saturday, Oct. 15 (all times Central)
South Carolina (5-1, 3-1 SEC) at Mississippi State (3-3, 0-3 SEC). 11:21 a.m., SEC Network/ESPN3.com. Gamecocks can't afford a road slip-up if they plan to repeat in the East.

LSU (6-0, 3-0 SEC) at Tennessee (3-2, 0-2 SEC). 2:30 p.m., CBS Sports. It seems amazing considering the respective histories, but Tennessee leads the all-time series between the programs 20-8-3.

Alabama (6-0, 3-0 SEC) at Ole Miss (2-3, 0-2 SEC). 5 p.m., ESPN2/ESPN3.com. Alabama has won 44 of the teams' 56 meetings.

Florida (4-2, 2-2 SEC) at Auburn (4-2, 2-1 SEC). 6 p.m., ESPN/ESPN3.com. Auburn still has a long home winning streak to protect. Will Gators' athletes on defense show up?

Georgia (4-2, 3-1 SEC) at Vanderbilt (3-2, 1-2 SEC). 6 p.m., FS South/ESPN3.com. Defense on the rise at Georgia, which is bad news for struggling Commodores.

OPEN: Arkansas (5-1, 1-1 SEC); Kentucky (2-4, 0-3 SEC)

Tagged: Tevin Mitchel, Tyler Wilson, Dan Mullen, Southeastern Conference, Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers, Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, LSU Tigers, Kentucky Wildcats, Ole Miss Rebels, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Tennessee Volunteers, Vanderbilt Commodores, South Carolina Gamecocks, Mark Richt, Houston Nutt, Steve Spurrier