A sampling of what writers around the nation and are saying about SEC football: IAN R. RAPOPORT The Birmingham

(Ala. ) News In the record books, John Parker Wilson has taken giant steps among the legends. On the field, in the biggest of games, baby steps. Alabama’s thirdyear starter boasts a resume that would cause most college quarterbacks to be jealous. He owns virtually all of the program’s individual marks, just not the type of victory that leads to championships, rings and parades. The former Hoover High standout leads top-ranked Alabama against No. 15 LSU on Saturday. Though Wilson owns two blowout victories against Tennessee, he has yet to defeat the Tigers — LSU’s or Auburn’s. “We haven’t beaten them yet,” said Wilson, who is 124 of 204 passing for 1, 412 yards with 8 touchdowns. “It’s something I want to do. This is the next step in our journey this season.” Wilson said he doesn’t care about his records. Not the ones for all-time completions, passes thrown, touchdowns passes, total yards or passing yardage. Wilson’s plight has divided fans. Some respect his body of work, while others are frustrated by his association with mediocre teams.

He stands over names like Harry Gilmer, Joe Namath, Ken Stabler and Jay Barker in the record books, but not in the way they’ve led their teams. Wilson said he doesn’t dwell on his mistakes. He looks to the future.

LSU Coach Les Miles has noticed. “John Parker Wilson is a very talented guy,” Miles said. Unlike last season, he hasn’t been called upon to lead his team to victory, because his team has only trailed for 1 minute, 15 seconds this year.

When asked if he would rather lead his team on a come-frombehind victory, Wilson said, “No part of me wants that. We’re just going to keep playing like we’ve been playing, staying within our offense.” GEOFF CALKINS Commercial Appeal

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(Memphis ) He walked to the lectern and he read a statement and he took some questions and he fought back tears. Phillip Fulmer said he would “accept the university’s decision” that this will be his last season. Just like that, it was over. Tennessee had fired its head football coach. The odds are the next guy will be canned before long, too. Does the name Jim Lambright mean anything to you ? He replaced Don James at Washington. He lasted six years. Then there was Terry Bowden, who replaced Pat Dye at Auburn. Frank Solich replaced Tom Osborne at Nebraska. Solich was replaced by Bill Callahan, who was replaced by Bo Pelini.

After the latest humiliating loss, to South Carolina, most everyone outside the Fulmer household understood he had to go. There will be a lot of talk in the next few weeks about all the wonderful things Fulmer did for the university, but he didn’t do many of them recently. He’s lost a staggering 31 games in his past six-plus seasons. He’s 3-9 in his past 12 games against Georgia, Alabama and Florida. The past four losses to Alabama and Florida have been by an average of more than 26 points. This year, with a 3-6 record and no offense to speak of, Tennessee might well lose eight games. You know how many times that’s happened in Knoxville ? It’s a small number: Zero.

So, yeah, Fulmer had to be asked to leave. When epic, program-changing coaches like Fulmer depart a program, the next guy often struggles. Georgia tried to replace Vince Dooley with Ray Goff. Oklahoma tried to replace Barry Switzer with Gary Gibbs. And then there’s Alabama, which tried to replace Bear Bryant for 25 years. Nine coaches later, Alabama fans seem to think they’ve finally found an appropriate successor. His name is Nick Saban, and — wouldn’t you know it ? — he’s part of the problem for the next guy at Tennessee. Urban Meyer won a national championship in his second season at Florida.

It’s clear a coach needs to do better than Fulmer has done the last decade. Should Tennessee really have a better program than Florida or Alabama ? Georgia or LSU ?

Florida, Georgia and LSU have a much richer recruiting base than Tennessee. Alabama may have the best college coach in the universe.

Stop the talk about bringing in Butch Davis or Bob Stoops. The Tennessee job isn’t as appealing as some fans seem to think. It may not even be as appealing as some of the other jobs that are open this year. Clemson’s in a much softer league. So is Washington. Would you rather succeed Fulmer or Tyrone Willingham ?

So this is going to be tricky. Fulmer is gone. The next guy could be better.

Unless, of course, he’s not. BRANDON WRIGHT

The Reflector (Mississippi State ) After the Kentucky game, Bulldogs fans should be ashamed. I’m certainly embarrassed. I don’t mean because the team is 3-6 (1-4 ), or that it lost to a depleted Kentucky team at home. I don’t mean because Mississippi State’s field goal unit didn’t show up on Saturday, either. No, Mississippi State fans should be ashamed because they only put 40, 168 butts in the seats Saturday. That’s a whopping 72 percent of the stadium’s capacity, for a crucial game. We’re talking about a game in which Mississippi State was favored by three points against a conference opponent. A game the Dawgs desperately needed to win to cling to slim hopes of playing in a bowl game.

What makes the abysmal attendance figure even worse is the fact that conditions were absolutely ideal last weekend. The weather was perfect and there were extra factors surrounding the game.

I’m not sure how many of you noticed, but there was a new addition to the football stadium. Is a brand-new $ 6 million HD video board not worth going to a football game to see ? I feel certain that the party that signed the check for it thought it was.

I know attendance suffers when the team isn’t winning. Fans from other parts of the state don’t want to spend the time and, more importantly, money required to travel to see a struggling football team. Yet, it sickens me to think that people have stopped coming just because the team is struggling. That practice is deplorable in general, not to mention the fact that our team is light-years ahead of where it was five years ago.

The curse of the fair-weather fan is no small reason why Mississippi State is bringing up the rear in SEC athletic budgets. Look at Alabama, there’s no doubt that its fans support its football team. The last time Bryant-Denny didn’t sell out for a home game ? 1988. Even when Alabama went 3-8 in 2000 and 4-9 in 2003, the school sold every ticket to every home game. That’s with the highest ticket prices in college football.

Look at Tennessee. The Volunteers are struggling. I read an article a few weeks ago chastising UT fans for not showing up due to the team’s lack of success. UT’s average attendance ? A scant 101, 651 fans. That’s out of a possible 106, 000, or 95 percent. I know MSU is not Tennessee or Alabama. I’m not expecting 100, 000-plus at every game. However, is half of that too much to ask ? Should we not shoot for similar percentages of stadium capacity ?

What degree of success must Mississippi State maintain to keep the bandwagon fans in the seats ?