The Guilbeau Poll
1.ALABAMA (7-0, 4-0 SEC) – The Crimson Tide is playing the most complete football in the league, which means it's also playing the best in the nation. Alabama also does not need help to win games as Florida did against Arkansas.
2.FLORIDA (6-0, 4-0) – The Gainesville police department apparently knows right from wrong concerning Gators better than the officiating crew at the Florida-Arkansas game last week.
3.LSU (5-1, 3-1 SEC) – Auburn's defense may just be the triple shot of espresso that LSU's comatose offense needs. LSU's fans may need a shot of something, too. According to Ron Higgins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal and formerly of the Shreveport Times, "Florida's defense shut down LSU's offense (13-3 on Oct. 10) and performed an intervention on 92,000 well-lubricated Tiger Stadium fans."
4.SOUTH CAROLINA (5-2, 2-2) - The Gamecocks played Alabama tough.
5. OLE MISS (4-2, 1-2) - Quarterback Jevan Snead finally got some protection against UAB last week and produced. He'll do more of the same Saturday as coach Houston Nutt will once again make Arkansas wonder why it let him go.
6. KENTUCKY (4-3, 3-2) - The Wildcats' win at Auburn last week was just their second SEC road win since the 2007 season.
7. ARKANSAS (3-3, 1-3) - The Hogs nearly pulled a major upset last week.
8.AUBURN (5-2, 2-2) - LSU defensive coordinator John Chavis will teach Auburn's latest high school offensive coordinator a few lessons.
9.TENNESSEE (3-3, 1-2) – The Vols played their best football against Georgia two weeks ago, then had an off week. Look for a great effort against the Tide Saturday.
10.GEORGIA (4-3, 3-2) - The Bulldogs have a week off to prepare for Florida, which looks more beatable every week - excluding game officials.
11.MISSISSIPPI STATE (3-4, 1-2) - State has played one of the better SEC schedules, and it played competitively in losses to No. 17 Houston and No. 11 Georgia Tech.
12. VANDERBILT (2-5, 0-4) - Even when the Commodores do something well, they get penalized by another anal SEC officials. After 24 penalties over two games, linebacker John Stokes blocked a 57-yard field goal last week against Georgia. But he was called for taking too many steps before jumping. "I don't think I landed on anybody," he said.
SATURDAY TELEVISION
Arkansas at Ole Miss, 11:21 a.m., SEC Network.
Tennessee at No. 1 Alabama, 2:30 p.m., CBS.
Louisiana-Monroe at Kentucky, 6 p.m. Fox Sports South.
Vanderbilt at No. 23 South Carolina, 6 p.m., ESPNU.
Auburn at No. 9 LSU, 6:30 p.m., ESPN2.
No. 2 Florida at Mississippi State, 6:30 p.m., ESPN.
LAST WEEK’S GAMES
Georgia 34, Vanderbilt 10
Mississippi State 27, Middle Tennessee 6
Florida 23, Arkansas 20*
Ole Miss 48, UAB 13
Kentucky 21, Auburn 14
Alabama 20, South Carolina 6
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
OFFENSE – Alabama TB Mark Ingram stepped into the Heisman Trophy race with 246 yards on 24 carries with a touchdown and caught two passes for 23 yards in the win over South Carolina. No Tide back has rushed for more yards in Bryant-Denny Stadium in history, and his total is the third highest in Bama history. Shaun Alexander has the most rushing yards in a game in Alabama history with 291 at LSU in 1996. Bobby Humphrey is No. 2 with 284 at Mississippi State in 1986.
DEFENSE - Kentucky LB Mark Johnson had 14 tackles with eight solos in the win over Auburn.
SPECIAL TEAMS – Florida K Caleb Sturgis kicked the game-winning, 27-yard field goal to beat Arkansas with 33 seconds left. Sturgis also booted a 51 yarder.
NOTEBOOK
*SEC OFFICIALS PENALIZED: At last, an SEC officiating crew has been suspended. In an extremely rare move, the SEC office this week suspended the officials who called Florida's controversial 23-20 win over Arkansas in Gainesville, Fla., on Saturday. The crew was removed from its next two assignments on Oct. 31 and Nov. 7. It will not be officiating this Saturday either, but it already had this Saturday as a scheduled off day.
The crew was off on several calls last Saturday. There was a questionable pass interference call against Arkansas' Ramon Broadway and a questionable personal foul call against Arkansas' Malcolm Sheppard. The calls were on consecutive plays in Florida's game-tying touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.
Another questionable decision by the crew was a non-call against Florida receiver Riley Cooper, who collided with Arkansas cornerback Andru Stewart in the end zone on Florida's game-winning field goal drive. Cooper is the same receiver who pulled LSU cornerback Chris Hawkins' jersey to get open for the Gators' only touchdown of the game in a 13-3 win at LSU on Oct. 10, but that was not the same officiating crew.
The guilty crew is the same one that the SEC said made an incorrect excessive celebration call against Georgia receiver A.J. Green in the Bulldogs' 20-13 loss to LSU on Oct. 3. Green did little if anything on the play, but Georgia was penalized 15 yards and had to kick off from its 20-yard line. This helped LSU get better field position for its game-winning touchdown drive.
"A series of calls that have occurred during the last several weeks have not been to the standard that we expect from our officiating crews," SEC commissioner Mike Slive said in a release. "While only a few calls have been identified, the entire crew shoulders responsibility for each play. I have taken this action because there must be accountability in our officiating program. Our institutions expect the highest level of officiating in all of our sports, and it is the duty of the conference office to uphold that expectation."
The crew's eligibility for bowl assignments is also at question, the SEC office said.
The crew is headed by Marc Curles of Birmingham, Ala., and includes umpire Ronnie Jones, linesman W. Randall Kizer, line judge Michael Shurley, back judge Michael Watson, field judge Greg Thomas and side judge Jess Dupuy.
Watson was the one who mistakenly threw the flag against Green.
PETRINO REPRIMANDED: The SEC also reprimanded Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino "for his public comments," about the calls that violated the SEC's code of ethics, Slive said. SEC Bylaw 10.5.4 says that coaches "shall refrain from all public criticism of officials."
After the game Petrino said, "I didn't like them. I didn't think they were good calls."
After Florida tied it 20-20 in the fourth quarter with the help of the two phantom calls, ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach said, "Bobby Petrino has to feel like he's getting jobbed right now," on his Twitter.
Arkansas drew 10 penalties for 92 yards. Florida, which appears to be headed to another classic No. 1 versus No. 2 SEC Championship Game in Atlanta if it can stay undefeated, drew three penalties for 16 yards.
In the weekly SEC writers network report, the Florida writer had 4.5 pages of notes but nothing on the penalties.
STARS WERE ALIGNED: Other than the officials, Arkansas had good karma going for a monumental upset. Two of Arkansas' previous four wins over a No. 1 team in the nation came on Oct. 17, which was the date of the Florida game. The unranked Hogs defeated No. 1 Texas 42-11 on Oct. 17, 1981, and the No. 8 Hogs beat No. 1 Texas 14-13 on Oct. 17, 1964.
CLEANLINESS NEXT TO TIDE-LI-NESS?: South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier was known for whining about officials when he was Florida's coach. He once harshly criticized Florida State for being too rough on Gator quarterback Danny Wuerffel. But Spurrier praised Alabama for the way it handled its five sacks of Gamecock quarterback Stephen Garcia.
"I tell you, Alabama's a very clean team," said Spurrier, who turned in former Alabama coach Mike Dubose for recruiting violations. "After watching the tape, a lot of guys could've taken hard shots at Stephen right as he threw the ball, but they sort of veered off and didn't clobber him near as badly as maybe some other teams do."
Alabama safety Robby Green knocked out South Carolina receiver Moe Brown with a helmet-to-helmet hit, and Brown is questionable for Saturday's game against Vanderbilt with a concussion. But Spurrier had no issue with that hit either.
"It was a very clean hit," he said.
SPURRIER STILL WHINING: Spurrier did have a problem with Alabama kicker Leigh Tiffin using a white tape to spot his field goals and extra points in last week's game in which he kicked two field goals and two extra points.
"No material or device shall be used to improve or degrade the playing surface or other conditions and give one player or team an advantage," the NCAA rule book states.
"I guess Alabama didn't know it was against the rules," Spurrier said.
"We've done some research on it, and over half the teams in the league do something with it (tape or something else)," Alabama coach Nick Saban said. "They put a piece of grass there or a piece of mud or whatever it is, so the kicker knows where the ball's going to be spotted. We even saw verification where last year South Carolina's kicker did it. "
50-YEAR RECORD IN DANGER: Alabama defensive back/punt returner Javier Arenas is just 150 yards away from breaking a SEC record that has stood for half a century. Arenas, a senior from Tampa, Fla., has returned 110 punts for 1,546 yards in his career. The SEC record holder is Auburn's Lee Nalley, who returned 109 punts from 1947-49 for 1,695 yards.
Arenas missed Alabama's last game with a rib injury and is questionable for Saturday's Tennessee game.
ORANGE IN LOUISIANA: Tennessee receivers coach Frank Wilson, a former high school coach in New Orleans, and UT recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron, a former Saints assistant coach who also coached at Northwestern State, McNeese State and Nicholls State, are recruiting heavily in Louisiana.
The Vols are after linebacker Patrick Swilling of Brother Martin High in New Orleans, tailback Alfred Blue of Hahnville High, receiver James Wright of Belle Chasse and defensive back Jarvis Landry of Lutcher. Swilling is the son of former Saints linebacker Patrick Swilling.
For 2011, UT already has a commitment from defensive tackle Anthony Johnson, who is expected to be one of the state's top prospects next year. Johnson goes to O. Perry Walker High in New Orleans, which is where Wilson was the head coach from 2000-03.
STATS OF THE WEEK:
Auburn coach Gene Chizik is only the third first-year Auburn coach in history to win his first five games. The other two were Terry Bowden, who won his first 20 in 1993 and 1994, and Mike Donahue, who won all five of his games in his first season in 1904. Donahue left Auburn after the 1922 season to become LSU's coach.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"Refs are CHEATING in this Florida/Arkansas game!!"
- Buffalo Bills receiver Terrell Owens on his Twitter page Saturday during the game.
- Compiled by Glenn Guilbeau with other SEC writers.
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