LITTLE ROCK — When Auburn started 1-3, the thought that Coach Gene Chizik would have trouble hanging onto his job sounded kind of crazy, like the Alabama fan who poisoned the trees at Toomer’s Corner.
Yeah, this is the SEC, but Chizik led Auburn to a 14-0 record and a national championship in 2010. That has to buy him a little extra time, right?
The idea of Chizik’s firing seems more realistic now, even probable, with the Tigers at 1-6 after becoming the first SEC team to lose to Ole Miss in 17 games and losing to Vanderbilt for the third time since 1950. The losses figure to keep coming with Texas A&M, Georgia and Alabama left to play.
Kevin Scarbinsky, a columnist for AL.com, wrote this week that Auburn needs to fire Chizik, especially with Alabama Coach Nick Saban poised to lead the Crimson Tide to their third national title in four years.
“Alabama has a head coach in search of a challenge. Auburn has a program in need of a head coaching change,” Scarbinsky wrote. “It looks like Nick Saban can’t be stopped, which is just part of the reason Gene Chizik’s got to go.
“... Change staff members, and all you’re doing is rearranging deck chairs on a boat that’s become a submarine. The only way to stop a spiral that began last year with five lopsided losses is to start over. At the top.
“All the good work Chizik and his staff did in 2010, in running the table and winning the national championship, has come undone. On and off the field,” Scarbinsky continued. “The fan base he rallied so skillfully that season has turned against him, to the point that one Auburn booster said a quiet movement has begun behind the scenes to gauge and enlist support for Bobby Petrino as the next coach.
“The discussion of the next coach can wait. The machinery to create the opening can’t, not with actual or potential job searches at Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky as well. Someone at Auburn has to realize that being a good man isn’t good enough for an SEC head coach.”
Perfect underdog
Mississippi State is 7-0 and No. 11 in the BCS standings, but No. 1 Alabama is a 24-point favorite against the Bulldogs for Saturday night’s game at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
“I don’t put any money on games, so that doesn’t really affect me,” Mississippi State Coach Dan Mullen said when asked about the point spread. “I’d feel great if we walked in the stadium and it said 24-0 before the game started.”
A lack of respect for the Bulldogs probably has something to do with the three SEC teams they have beaten - Auburn, Kentucky and Tennessee - being a combined 5-17 in conference.
“To me, the respect issue comes down to our guys respect themselves, they respect each other, and that’s really the only respect you need in a football team,” Mullen said. “What people outside our building say about us is their opinion.
“We have to worry about what we think about each other inside.”
Too soft
Georgia senior strong safety Shawn Williams took his teammates to task after the Bulldogs struggled to beat Kentucky 29-24 last week.
“We’re playing too soft as a defense,” Williams said after Monday’s practice,according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“That goes for the D-line, linebackers, corners, safeties, everybody. We’re just not playing with the same attitude we were last year.”
Kentucky scored on its opening series for the first time this season, driving 80 yards for a touchdown.
“It gets frustrating because I’m sitting here and I’m giving all I got and I feel like I’ve got some guys that are not,” said Williams, who leads Georgia with 51 tackles. “I feel we’ve got some guys that are in a whole different place.
“I’m trying to see if I have to take somebody’s helmet off and slap them and say, ‘What’s going on?’ We’re not playing with any emotion right now. Period.”
Presumably the Bulldogs will be emotional for Saturday’s game against Florida.
“Right now, Florida plays very physical and they’re going to come out and try to just manhandle you,” Williams said. “So I’m really looking forward to seeing what we do.
“Somebody’s going to get punched in the mouth. It’s going to be us or them.”
Moving on
Missouri freshman receiver Dorial Green-Beckham, the nation’s consensus top recruit last year, spoke with members of the media Monday for the first time since his arrest Oct. 3 and being charged with marijuana possession.
“It was a mistake, but all I’ve got to do is learn from that and move on and not look back, keep helping my teammates out,” said Green-Beckham, who served a one-game suspension against Vanderbilt. “I talked to some of the guys about it and let them know where I was coming from, that it shouldn’t have happened and it wouldn’t happen again.
So they understand we have to move past it. We can’t be stuck on that one thing.”
It’s also been a frustrating season for Green-Beckham, who chose Missouri over Arkansas and other schools, on the field. He has just 7 catches for 128 yards and 1 touchdown.
Long road
Texas A&M plays the first of three consecutive road games when the Aggies make their first ever visit to Auburn on Saturday. Then they play at Mississippi State and at Alabama.
Texas A&M is playing three consecutive road games for the first time since 1979, when the Aggies had four in a row against Baylor, Penn State, Memphis and Texas Tech. They went 2-2 in that road stretch 33 years ago, winning at Penn State and Memphis.
Not automatic
Georgia has botched five extra-point attempts this season.
Place-kicker Marshall Morgan has missed three attempts - with each miss bouncing off an upright. The Bulldogs also had an attempt blocked and failed to get a kick because of a mishandled snap.
“I believe he’s hit the upright more than anyone in the nation,” Georgia Coach Mark Richt said . “He probably has our record for that, I’d think.”
McCarron’s streak
Alabama junior quarterback AJ McCarron has 239 consecutive passes without an interception, including 154 this season.
“He doesn’t force balls into bad situations,” Mississippi State Coach Dan Mullen said. “I think a lot of protection helps that, the experience and the talent on the offensive line.
“A lot of times you’ll see interceptions come after a sack, after there’s been a bunch of pressure, a guy is trying to get rid of the ball too soon or getting a ball tipped. They don’t do much of that. They run the ball very well, they protect him well, and he does a nice job of getting the ball out of his hands when he needs to, and when it’s not there he throws it away and goes on to the next play.”Great eight
Alabama is ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press poll for the eighth consecutive week, which is a first for one of college football most tradition-rich programs.
Prior to this season, the Crimson Tide’s longest streak to be ranked atop the AP poll was seven weeks, which happened in 1979 and 1980 under Coach Bear Bryant.
Supporting Dooley
A cynic might say Alabama Coach Nick Saban applauded the job Derek Dooley is doing as Tennessee’s coach so the Crimson Tide can keep beating the Volunteers by 31 points.
That’s been the margin of the Tide’s victories overTennessee the past three years, including 44-13 last Saturday night at Neyland Stadium. Two years ago, Alabama won 41-10 and last year it was 37-6.
But Dooley was a Saban assistant at LSU and with the Miami Dolphins, so Saban showed support by opening his postgame news conference last week by praising Dooley.
“I think Tennessee’s team really played hard,” Saban said. “I think that Derek is doing a fantastic job. They have been better and better every year that we’ve playedthem. We were fortunate today that our defense played well enough to keep their high-powered offense to just 13 points.”
A lot of Tennessee fans figure to disagree with Saban, considering Dooley’s Vols are 14-18 in his three seasons, including 4-16 in SEC games.
In Dooley’s defense, the Vols’ 0-4 SEC record this season has come against nationally-ranked opponents Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State and Alabama, which are a combined 27-1 overall.
The Vols get another ranked opponent Saturday when they play at South Carolina.
Dooley dollars
Tennessee would be on the hook for a minimum of $5.6 million in buyouts if Athletic Director Dave Hart decides to part ways with Coach Derek Dooley and his staff after the season, according to a report in the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
The financial obligation Tennessee would face could rise to more than $9 million, depending on how quickly the Volunteers’ assistant coaches found other employment and what their salaries would be.
Dooley’s buyout alone is $5 million, though it’s payable over four years.
Additionally, offensive coordinator Jim Chaney would be due $645,000 in monthly payments through December 2013 under his guaranteed deal, the newspaper reported.
Seven other assistants are working under multi-year contracts, and one assistant has a contract that runs through February 2012.
Game of the meek
Kentucky and Missouri are a combined 0-9 in the SEC this season, but one of them has to win Saturday when the Wildcats (0-5) play the Tigers (0-4) at Faurot Field.
Both teams have been hit hard by injuries, including at quarterback, where the Wildcats likely have lost Maxwell Smith for the season after four games because of an ankle injury and the Tigers are expected to be without James Franklin for a fifth game because of knee and shoulder injuries.
Talk like a man
Tennessee Coach Derek Dooley called out quarterback Tyler Bray for refusing to be interviewed after the Alabama game.
“I was very disappointed, and I told him that,” Dooleysaid at his Monday news conference.
“I have no defense for that kind of behavior.
He’s the quarterback, and there’s a level of responsibilityyou have to the team, to the fans and to the media.
“If you don’t like it, don’t play quarterback. That’s how it is.
“That’s unacceptable in our program. So man up.”
Bray met with the media after Monday’s practice and said he should have “owned up” and done postgame interviews.
Game of the week: No. 2 Florida vs. No. 10 Georgia 2:30 p.m. Saturday, CBS
One of the nation’s top rivalry games takes on added significance with the SEC East Division championship at stake in Jacksonville, Fla. It may not be November yet, but If Florida wins, the BCS No. 2 Gators will clinch their first East title since 2009. If Georgia wins, the BCS No. 10 Bulldogs will take control of the East with South Carolina already having two SEC losses. Georgia is 4-18 against Florida since 1990, but the Bulldogs won 24-20 last season, overcoming a 17-3 deficit.
By the numbers
1952: Last time Auburn was 1-6, during Shug Jordan’s second season. The Tigers started 1-7 and finished 2-8
0-14: Derek Dooley’s record at Tennessee vs. nationally ranked opponents
2.43: Tackles for lost yards per game for Texas A&M defensive end Damontre Moore
Sports, Pages 23 on 10/25/2012