THE BIG STORY

Vanderbilt quarterback Chris Nickson said he’s ready to take on Ole Miss on Saturday, despite an upper leg injury he sustained last week against Alabama.

Nickson got the bulk of the first-team snaps during Thursday’s practice, and the junior is likely to start. He deferred to the coaching staff as to whether he would play.

“It’s not my decision,” said Nickson, who has started 14 straight games. “But I’m going in just like any other Saturday.”

Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson said it will be a gametime decision whether to start Nickson.

“We’ll see how he warms up,” said Johnson said of Nickson, who suffered an upper thigh injury. “It’s more his (gluteus muscle) than his hamstring. You pull a ham when you’re running fast. He sort of got hit. When you’re injured, … you’re getting treatment, treatment, treatment, treatment. He’s been around-the-clock doing that.”

A look at the league:

ALABAMA

The Mobile Register reported football salaries will account for more than 10 percent of the Alabama athletics department’s operating budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year. Roughly $7.3 million of the estimated $70 million operating budget presented Thursday to the University of Alabama system board of trustees is pegged to pay employees of the Crimson Tide football program. Alabama hired head coach Nick Saban in January with an eight-year deal worth an average of $4 million per season, making him the highest-paid coach in college football. Saban was given roughly $2.245 million to divide among on-field assistant coaches. His staff is the best-paid in the Southeastern Conference. “It was important for him to be able to hire the staff that he wanted to hire and needed to hire,” UA athletics director Mal Moore said. “We were able to do this, and I’m glad that we could.” The addition of Saban and his staff helped raise the athletics department’s overall salary totals to roughly $22.21 million, which is almost $7 million more than the $15.27 million spent in 2005-06. The cost for football is nearly $6 million more than the $1.52 million in salaries for men’s basketball, which is the department’s second-costliest sport. Nevertheless, Alabama still expects to turn a profit this year, thanks in part to a record number of ticket sales ($22 million for football alone), contributions ($21.1 million) and broadcasting rights ($7.9 million).

ARKANSAS

Quarterback Casey Dick will be running the offense on Saturday at Arkansas after what Hogs’ coach Houston Nutt called two good weeks of practice and work for the junior signal caller. “If (Casey) can take it to the field and manage the game the way he managed it (against Troy), take care of the ball, throw it to our guys, get us out of those bad plays—he doesn’t have to be Superman each play—just execute and take care of the ball, he’ll be fine,” said Nutt. For the second game of the season, Nathan Emert will be listed on the depth chart as the No. 2 quarterback behind Dick. “(Nathan) Emert will stay right where he is. He knows and understands (the offense) a little better,” said Nutt. Nutt said the coaching staff had decided to sure up some areas on the special teams by traveling a few more players for kickoff and punt coverage that may need to contribute if needed. He also said Marcus Monk will not travel with the team to Alabama, but will stay in Fayetteville to continue rehab on his knee.

AUBURN

It will be a point of emphasis for Auburn on Saturday against Mississippi State to create turnovers. The Tigers forced no turnovers in last Saturday’s overtime loss to South Florida, while Auburn turned the ball over five times. “We have to do more to win the game and we have to create some turnovers and momentum for our football team,” Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said. “That’s the bottom line. We have to create some field position and momentum.” End Quentin Groves added, “We have to step up our level of turnovers.”

FLORIDA

The Gators are 15-0 at home under Urban Meyer, including 6-0 against their three biggest rivals — Florida State, Georgia and Tennessee. The Swamp is now as tough a place to play as it was under Steve Spurrier in the 1990s, and that was a priority for Meyer when he was hired two years ago. His first move was to close the stadium down except for games, including the spring game. That meant no more practices or scrimmages on Florida Field. “I’ve never done that before,” Meyer said. “One of the reasons I really wanted to come to Florida was that stadium. You don’t go in there and start scrumming around. That was not a hard decision. I think it was the right decision. When the kids go in there, they know it’s business.” Florida safety Kyle Jackson said the players respect Meyer’s decision. “Hey, it’s real simple,” Jackson said. “When we go into The Swamp, we’re going in there for a purpose, and that’s to win. For us to go in there and just practice on a field that means so much to us wouldn’t be right. We know when we step in The Swamp, it’s game time. It’s time to play.”

GEORGIA

Redshirt junior quarterback Blake Barnes is available to play for the first time this season after missing the first two games due to game suspensions. He sat out the Oklahoma State game as discipline for his arrest on alcohol-related in June and the South Carolina game, he said, for missing classes. “He knew he was out of the doghouse so to speak,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “Even something as simple as our pre-practice snapping with the centers, he was out of the rotation. He was over there on the side trying to teach Ben Harden how to snap.” Georgia used three quarterbacks last year against Western Kentucky in a 48-12 rout, its last game against a team in the former I-AA classification, so Barnes could see his first game action Saturday since 2005. “It would be the first time in a long time I’ve had a chance to play if we go out there and take care of business,” Barnes said. “It would be a lot of fun.” Barnes said having his name in headlines this offseason for the wrong reasons no longer bothers him. “I know who I am and know what I stand for,” Barnes said. “The people who are close to me know that, too, and I feel a lot of the Georgia nation knows that.”

KENTUCKY

The Wildcats suddenly have a strong three-tailback rotaton with Rafael Little, Tony Dixon and Alfonso Smith. Against Eastern Kentucky, Little carried 12 times for 135 yards, Dixon had nine carries for 77 yards, and Smith chipped in 53 yards on seven attempts. The three tailbacks also found the end zone. Last week against Kent State, Little had 13 carries for 102 yards, Smith had six carries for 54 yards and a TD, and Dixon added four carries for 36 yards and a score. Wildcats offensive coordinator Joker Phillips knows that there may be a time when he can’t keep all three backs happy. “There’s going to be some instances where maybe Rafael is hot and we have to stick with him,” Phillips said. “Then you try and get Tony a few carries. That might mean that there’ll be some games where Alfonso doesn’t get the ball as much as he’d like.” Phillips said he watches Dixon and Smith to make sure there are no serious issues over playing time. “You do worry about that,” Phillips said. “That’s something I’ve been keeping my eye on. So far, they’ve all handled it well. And the one thing is when you’re winning, it’s a little harder for guys to complain about playing time. It’s hard to make an argument against something if it’s successful.”

LSU

On Monday, the kickoff time of the LSU-South Carolina game on Saturday, Sept. 22, in Tiger Stadium will be announced. The game will either be at 2:30 p.m. on CBS or at 6:45 p.m. on ESPN. CBS has the first option of either taking the LSU-S.C. game or the Alabama-Georgia game at 2:30, and it will watch the Alabama-Arkansas game on ESPN at 5:45 p.m. this Saturday to help make up its mind. Should Alabama win and stay undefeated, it will likely get the CBS slot for the Georgia game while LSU will play South Carolina at night on ESPN. The LSU-Tulane game on Sept. 29 in the Superdome in New Orleans is expected to have an 11 a.m. kickoff on ESPN, but that has not been completely confirmed as of yet.

OLE MISS
Ole Miss’ defense has been torched by the spread offenses of Memphis and Missouri. So Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron knows that finding speed is his recruiting priority. “We’re going to find faster guys,” Orgeron said earlier in the week. “So that when we do play the spread offense, we can play three defensive linemen and eight defensive backs or three linebackers and five defensive backs. We have to find more skill guys.”

MISS. STATE

Mississippi State wide receivers coach Pat Washington will return to Auburn on Saturday for the first time as an MSU assistant. Washington was Auburn’s starting quarterback in 1984 and 1985, a stretch of time that saw the Tigers go 17-8 (and beat Mississippi State twice). Saturday’s trip will be his fourth to coach a visiting team on the Jordan-Hare Stadium sidelines. His first came in 1991, when he was an assistant at Southwestern Louisiana. “I was all fired up, ready to go, and we get beat by 50, or something like that,” he said, laughing. (It was a 50-7 Auburn win.) Washington was part of the 1998 Tennessee national championship team that won 17-9 on the Plains. UT lost to Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium in 2003.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Backup quarterback Tommy Beecher is scheduled to spell starter Blake Mitchell on the first possession of the second quarter against the Bulldogs. “If we’re in the middle of a drive, Blake will stay in there,” USC coach Steve Spurrier said. “But if not, Beecher’s going in. He’s playing this week. We’ve got to see what he can do.” Beecher, a redshirt sophomore from Concord, N.C., completed 11 of 15 passes for 137 yards and a touchdown against Louisiana-Lafayette. He did not play against Georgia. With Chris Smelley sidelined with a sprained shoulder for the second week, freshman Stephen Garcia is the No. 3 quarterback.

TENNESSEE

The Vols will take four quarterbacks to Florida. Starter Erik Ainge and backup Jonathan Crompton will be joined by redshirt freshman Nick Stephens and true freshman B.J. Coleman. . .Senior strongside linebacker Ryan Karl has another challenge this week in facing Florida’s All-SEC tight end Cornelius Ingram. But Tennessee tight end Chris Brown, who goes up against Karl in practice, thinks Karl can handle the job. “I think he’s a playmaker,” Brown said of Karl. “He plays off of instinct. He doesn’t really worry about what the plays are and everything that’s called. “He kind of just goes by what he feels. He goes out there and makes plays and tries not to think too much. I think that’s what’s special about Ryan Karl.”

VANDERBILT

Vanderbilt ranks 12th in the 12-team SEC in net punting — total punt yardage, less allowed punt return yardage — with a 27.4-yard average. Commodores sophomore Brett Upson is averaging 34.5 yards per punt, with a long of 47 yards, on 11 attempts. Only three of those have been returned, but they’ve been for an average of 26.3 yards each. . .Junior receiver Earl Bennett is now 23 receptions short of breaking the Vanderbilt career mark of 200, currently held by Keith Edwards (1980, ‘82-83). He’s also four touchdown catches short of the school’s all-time TD mark of 21, set by Dan Stricker (1999-2002).