THE BIG STORY

Is South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier setting another trap like he did against Georgia? Spurrier’s team is a 16-point underdog at No. 2 LSU on Saturday, and Spurrier acknowledges that.

“We don’t have to beat LSU to still be in contention,” Spurrier said at press luncheon on Tuesday. “And I told our guys that. We’re not going to go down there and, if we get beat, hang our heads. There’s a lot of ball left.”

On Wednesday a reporter from a South Carolina fan magazine on the Southeastern Conference teleconference told Spurrier that that was an uncharacteristic comment for him.

“Well, I haven’t been quite this big an underdog going somewhere,” Spurrier said. “I don’t want our guys to go down there with false belief that, you know, we got a great chance to win this game. In other words, sometimes you’ve got to be realistic, and I always like to tell our team if we’ve got a chance to win the game, I want to be honest with them. And if something happens that it doesn’t work out, we’ve got Mississippi State, we’ve got Kentucky, we’ve got Vanderbilt. We’ve got a whole bunch of teams coming up that we match up pretty evenly with if you know what I mean.

“So you always coach one game at a time, but in the back of your mind you just sort of mentally got to say, ‘We’re not going to be devastated if it doesn’t work out.’ And now on the other side, we hope the ball bounces our way and we get in the type of game that maybe comes down to a field goal here or there. Maybe I didn’t say it the right way, but our guys will come down there ready to compete. OK, just being a little realistic with our guys.”

Carolina running back Cory Boyd has seen this Spurrier act before.

“He said some of the same things going into the Georgia game,” said Boyd, who gained 76 yards on 14 carries in a 16-12 upset of the then-No. 12 Bulldogs in Athens, Ga. “He didn’t think we performed very well in our first game so he started saying things like we didn’t have a team good enough to beat Georgia. I think he wants to get us riled up for the game.”

“Everybody always thinks we’re a big underdog. It doesn’t take much to rile us up — just look at TV and everybody says we’re not that good. The coaches saying it is just more icing on the cake.”

“We’re not thinking about losing. A coach is always going to do some kind of a mind trick to get you going. It’s up to us as leaders to go check the rest of the team after he says that. Then we’ll see what kind of leadership we have. That’s what he’s doing. He’s trying to get us riled up to see what kind of team we have.”

A look at the league:

ALABAMA

Alabama coach Nick Saban, a one-time assistant for Bill Belichek, defended all of his NFL coaching colleagues on Wednesday in the wake of Belichek being fined by the NFL for apparent spying and the backlash from the story. “I have a lot of respect for our profession and I don’t like to see our profession getting questioned like it’s getting questioned right now,” Saban said. “I have a lot of respect for people in this league and I absolutely do trust them because I think they’re honorable people and they have integrity in what they do. That’s certainly what we’d like to be known as. If it’s anything else, that we did our job with class and we did it the right way and we did it with honesty and integrity in how we went about doing it.” Saban also explained the situation last season when he was the coach of the Miami Dolphins. There was speculation that the Dolphins had obtained an audio copy of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady calling signals at the line of scrimmage. “All we did in Miami was show our players TV copies of the game of Tom Brady that had sound on it so they could get the cadence and understand his checks,” Saban said. “If you’re able to watch it on TV, we ought to be able to show it to our players. You can hear the sound. No one ever questioned anything unethical about it.”

ARKANSAS

Arkansas wide receiver Marcus Monk was back at the Hogs’ practice on Wednesday, don’t get too excited yet. Monk, who is still recovering from his second arthroscopic knee surgery, took field the dressed in a jersey, shorts and a helmet, stretched with the rest of his teammates before the start of practice, and caught passes from a football-throwing machine like his fellow wide receivers. But Arkansas coach Houston Nutt said Monk’s return to the practice field isn’t a sign that the wide receiver will be back in the lineup anytime soon.”He’s just getting anxious. He’s wanting to get on this field, but he’s probably still a little ways (away),” Nutt said. “But he was on the ball machine with his helmet (on) and doing things like that.” Monk wore a black brace over his right knee, which he had a second arthroscopic surgery on in late August.

AUBURN

The team that started the year ranked 18th in the nation has seen 13 turnovers virtually erase an offense that is last in the Southeastern Conference and 100th in the nation. Auburn has already pulled fifth-year senior quarterback Brandon Cox in favor of Kodi Burns, one of 20 freshmen who have played. Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville has shown a willingness to make those kinds of dramatic moves before the season slips away. Tuberville said he can’t dwell on how games against South Florida and Mississippi State have slipped through his hands, or even how Auburn had to come back in the final two minutes just to win its opener against Kansas State. “Crying over spilled milk never solved any problems,” Tuberville said. “We’ve won one and lost two. We talked today about this is the start of the fourth game and we can’t control anything behind us. But we can control what happens in front of us.”

FLORIDA

The competition is on for the Gators’ starting free safety job. Both senior Kyle Jackson and freshman Major Wright have worked with the first-team defense in practice this week. Florida coach Urban Meyer has yet to decide on a starter for Saturday’s game at Ole Miss. “That’s a game-time decision,” Meyer said. Jackson, who lost his starting job as a sophomore, has started the first three games of the season. But Wright, a talented freshman from Fort Lauderdale, has played the majority of downs the past two weeks against Troy and Tennessee. . .Meyer praised the play of sophomore receiver David Nelson in Wednesday’s practice. “He’s coming on,” Meyer said. “He had a great day today. Just practiced his tail off. Instead of worrying about things he’s going out and playing as hard as he can. He’s going to play Saturday.” … Meyer said he expects sophomore receiver Riley Cooper (ankle) to play Saturday. Freshman offensive guard Maurkice Pouncey (ankle) and sophomore cornerback Markihe Anderson (knee) will be game-time decisions.

GEORGIA

Senior tailback Kregg Lumpkin is wearing a huge cast on his right hand that at first sight looks similar to what former Ole Miss linebacker Patrick Willis played with in games. The cast is protecting a thumb Lumpkin broke in the opener against Oklahoma State. Lumpkin will play on special teams but Georgia coach Mark Richt said he probably would only be used in an emergency situation at tailback. He is carrying the ball with his left hand. “I really haven’t seen anything that has made me nervous as I watched him,” Richt said. “He’s probably carrying it a little bit better than I thought he would. He didn’t flinch in the drills that we did and I told the guys to get physical with him.” Lumpkin caught kickoffs and passes and took part in a pass protection drill in practice Wednesday.

KENTUCKY

The Kentucky defense has improved statistically through its three games. After finishing 118th out of 119 teams last year in yards allowed (453.4), the Cats are now 70th at 374 yards per game — not a great number by any means, but it’s still significant improvement. UK gave up 467 yards to Louisville, and Kentucky coach Rich Brooks and defensive coordinator Steve Brown noted that number would have been below 400 had Ahmad Grigbsy held on to an interception in the fourth quarter that would have ended U of L’s go-ahead drive and iced the game for the Cats. The Wildcats defense is still opportunistic. A year after finishing second in the nation in turnover margin, UK has six more takeaways than its opponents. The Cats have already picked off five passes and recovered three fumbles compared with just two turnovers. “Our defense has been better, but it needs to get even better than it has been,” Brooks said. “We’re basically doing what we need to do defensively to win the games.”

LSU

LSU coach Les Miles is still playing coy about naming a starting quarterback for Saturday’s game against South Carolina, though Miles seems optimistic about Matt Flynn’s outlook. “It was encouraging to see Flynn out there taking a lion’s share of the snaps,” Miles said after practice. “He looked really good.” Flynn, a fifth-year senior, missed LSU’s 44-0 victory Saturday over Middle Tennessee State after he suffered a high ankle sprain a week earlier in a 48-7 win over Virginia Tech. Sophomore Ryan Perrilloux made his first start and threw for 298 yards and three touchdowns. Miles, who said Flynn could have played against Middle Tennessee if he had been needed, was abrupt in clarifying he wasn’t naming Flynn the starter for the 2:30 p.m. Saturday game in Tiger Stadium against the Gamecocks. “I didn’t say that,” Miles said. “The starter’s undecided.” He said LSU is closely watching Flynn’s ability to run and throw. “He looked very positive today considering it’s Wednesday,” Miles said. “He’s much closer to 100 percent at this point on Wednesday than he was anywhere near last week.” Miles confirmed that the only thing that would keep Flynn from starting is his ankle, not any change in the depth chart after Perrilloux’s performance.

OLE MISS

Ole Miss quarterback Seth Adams remained limited with a sprained right shoulder Wednesday, but coach Ed Orgeron still believes the senior will be ready to play third-ranked Florida on Saturday. “He was struggling a little bit with it,” Orgeron said. “I thought he’d be a little further along today than I expected. We’ll see. I think he should be fine by game time.” Adams threw a few passes during the portion of practice open to the media, but watched as senior Brent Schaeffer and redshirt freshman Michael Herrick handled most of the work. Orgeron said the other quarterbacks have been “all right” in two days of practice, but Adams’ absence has been noticeable with the Florida game looming. “We’re definitely missing Seth, his consistency at the quarterback position,” Orgeron said. “It’s not the same without him in there, that’s for sure.” Earlier Wednesday, Adams said he is planning to play against the Gators. He has full range of motion in his throwing shoulder and isn’t experiencing any pain.

MISS. STATE

A viral infection that’s found its way into the Bulldog football team. Five players - fullback Jeremy Jones, defensive tackle Jessie Bowman, defensive back Keith Fitzhugh, defensive tackle Quentin Wesley and defensive back Anthony Johnson - missed practice Wednesday with symptoms that include up to a 102-degree fever. “I have a myriad of others, including coaches, who are sick,” trainer Paul Mock told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger on Wednesday. . .Senior defensive end Titus Brown didn’t practice Wednesday after suffering a quad bruise. Croom said he expects he will return to practice today.

SOUTH CAROLINA

South Carolina defensive end Nathan Pepper said he tore the ACL in his left knee against S.C. State planting his left foot to decelerate after a 19-yard TD interception return and felt the knee buckle. “I didn’t think at one point in my mind to celebrate,” Pepper said Wednesday. “I was just thinking about finishing through the (goal) line, making sure I was in there and then getting off the field.” Pepper’s haste to get in the end zone was understandable. On an interception return at Clemson last season, he was caught from behind and fumbled when he slowed down near the goal line. Pepper, a junior from Greenville, will undergo reconstructive surgery in the next couple of weeks once the swelling goes down. He plans to redshirt this season and will have two years of eligibility remaining.

TENNESSEE

According to a report published on Wednesday, Florida tight end Derek Baldry, a member of the Gators’ field-goal unit, said that a UT defender told him late in the game not to bother blocking him because he didn’t plan to rush the kick. “He said he was tired,” Baldry told Florida Today. “It’s unbelievable to have a rivalry like that come into your stadium and after the first quarter basically dominate them. In the locker room, that’s all everybody was talking about. It just seemed like we were going at a different speed than they were, especially at the end.” Asked Wednesday about Baldry’s comments, Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge said he “couldn’t imagine that happening. If it happened, then whoever said that would need to take a hard look in the mirror.There’s a lot of guys that would do anything to go out there and play on special teams for the University of Tennessee. So if that were the case, I wouldn’t want him playing for me — or on my team, period.”

VANDERBILT

If you double team Vanderbilt wide receiver Earl Bennett, George Smith will make you pay. “I think I help get Earl those opportunities by being a deep threat down field, drawing the safety’s eyes off Earl a little,” said Smith, the 6-feet, 3-inch, 200-pounder, whose six receptions for 74 yards have complemented Bennett’s 28 for 375. “Also, just catching the ball when it’s thrown to me shows I’m a reliable source.” Of Smith’s six catches, four have been for first-down yardage — compared to 16 of 28 for Bennett, a Biletnikoff and Walter Camp award candidate. “He has really done that throughout his career,” Vandy receivers coach Charlie Fisher said of Smith, who notched his 50th collegiate catch in Saturday’s win over Ole Miss. “He hasn’t been a guy that’s caught 40 or 50 balls (in a season), but he’s caught 20 and they always seem to be big catches.