THE BIG STORY

The Gainesville Sun reported on its website that star senior defensive back Tony Joiner was arrested at 4:59 a.m. this morning outside the fenced impound lot of Watson’s Towing in Gainesville.

Joiner was accused of pushing a heavy electric gate open to enter the lot in an attempt to retrieve his girlfriend’s car which was being held in lieu of a $76 towing bill, according to police reports.

According to Gainesville police, witnesses said a man pushed open the gate at 4:30 a.m., got into a car, drove the car out of the lot and was trying to close the gate when he was confronted by one of two witnesses.

The witness said the man drove the car back into the lot and waited for officers to arrive.

The officer who arrested Joiner, Robert Concannon, noted in the arrest report that Joiner was on a phone talking to someone when Concannon walked up to Joiner. Concannon said he heard Joiner talking into the phone and saying, “I am probably about to go to jail ‘cuz I did push the gate open.”

A look at the league:

ALABAMA

Alabama tailback Terry Grant remembered one tackle in Saturday’s loss against Florida State as “probably the first time I’ve ever gotten scared in my career.” Grant said his left shoulder went numb after being tackled on a 26-yard swing pass in the second period of Saturday’s loss to the Seminoles. “I fell on my neck,” Grant said, “a head-with-the-ground collision.” It was not the same shoulder that caused Grant to take a medical redshirt last season, and he soon returned to the game with no ill effects.

ARKANSAS

Arkansas coach Houston Nutt was pleased with the play of baclup quaretrback Nathan Emert in Saturdat’s blowout win over North Texas. “Nathan Emert is highly intelligent,” Nutt said. “He was cool. You would have thought, if you were just watching the game, that he been out there five or six games. He gets the signals and handles the 25-second clock. Usually that’s the first thing when a guy goes in cold off the bench and hasn’t played in a couple years, you think he’s going to miss a signal or two or get a couple delay of game (penalties), maybe even have a fumbled snap, but he didn’t have any of that. I’m glad he’s on our team. He’s a good operator and threw the ball well. He’ll only get better.”

AUBURN

Now that Auburn upset Florida, 20-17, can the Tigers handle all the congratulations heading into Saturday’s game vs. Vanderbilt? “That’s always a question mark,” said Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville. “We’ve talked about how to get over it. For a couple weeks, they couldn’t get anyone to talk to them, and now they’re the talk of the campus. If we think about (the win) too long, we’ll start this thing over again next week, talking about how we could have played better if we’d gotten the game out of our minds. It’s always great to win a big game, especially on the road, but it’s worse if you don’t get it off your mind and lose the next week because you weren’t focused.”

FLORIDA

Florida coach Urban Meyer said he is taking a different approach in the aftermath of Saturday’s 20-17 loss to Auburn compared to last year’s loss. After the latter loss a year ago, Meyer had a much different messages for his players the following Monday. He played them an audio tape made by former UF Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel talking about how the 1996 UF team overcame a heartbreaking loss to Florida State to win the SEC and the national championship.To companion the audio, Meyer stressed to the Gators they were still in the championship hunt and had everything to play for. Every Monday after that, Meyer would stand up at the meeting and update his team on the BCS standings and where UF fit in the national championship picture. Meyer said a similar approach would not play well with this year’s young team. “Every Monday I’d talk to the team about what was going on around the country,” Meyer said. “We actually talked about (the BCS). This year, there is none whatsoever because we’re not at that point yet. For me to waste time talking about that (would not be appropriate). There is not going to be a big rally cry and we’re not going to have a bunch of slogans around here. It’s just to get a little better. The only thing that matters is coming out today and having a good practice, not putting our caps on backward for rally caps or turning them inside out. We have to get better.”

GEORGIA

Starting middle linebacker Marcus Washington said he won’t play Saturday against Tennessee and is unlikely to play Oct. 13 against Vanderbilt after separating his left shoulder against Ole Miss. Washington said cartilage was also torn, but no surgery is required. Washington hopes to regain his strength in time to return against Florida on Oct. 27. “It’s another hurdle in the road, but I’ll keep my head up and keep fighting,” said Washington, who missed the last two games of last season with a knee injury. Junior Dannell Ellerbe will move from the weak side to middle linebacker. Darius Dewberry becomes the starter on the weak side.

KENTUCKY

Kentucky defender Marcus McClinton said the UK defense is better equipped to deal with South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier’s trick plays when the teams play on Thursday in Columbia. “We got beat on trick plays a lot last year and we’ve been doing a better job so far this year,” McClinton said. “I believe it’s all about experience. A lot of trick plays are successful because guys aren’t reading their keys. One of our goals for this year was to read our keys, and we’ve made a lot of plays because of that this year. I believe that this week we’re going to read our keys, and trickery is not what’s going to win the game.” With a short week, Kentucky Coach Rich Brooks won’t have as much time to prepare his team for Spurrier’s trickery, and he knows there’s a good chance he’ll see at least one or two surprises. “Reverses and trick plays are always going to be a factor” with South Carolina, he said. “You have to be ready to defend them, and you never know when they’re coming. Sometimes we do what we’re supposed to do, and sometimes we don’t. Hopefully we will do the right thing if we see one, and I’m sure we will.”

LSU

LSU’s offensive line will have to play a lot better against Florida on Saturday than it did in last week’s sluggish win over Tulane. The line allowed quarterback Matt Flynn to be sacked six times, though Flynn often held onto the ball too long. There were dropped passes by LSU receivers and poorly thrown passes by Flynn. “I think we were really close to making some big plays,” said Flynn, who recovered from an 8-of-18 start passing to finish 16-of-29 for 258 yards. “We were really close to having a great game, but one person here or one person there not doing the right thing can mess it all up. Everybody has to be spot on every play. In the passing game, everybody has got to be perfect for it to work. As an offense, we need to focus on the little things, starting with me. We’re working on that every day.” Flynn was knocked down a dozen times or more in addition to the sacks.

OLE MISS

Center Corey Actis, who started the season’s first four games, dressed but didn’t play in Saturday’s loss at Georgia, according to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron didn’t give a specific reason for Actis’ benching, saying “I evaluate these players and everything they do and then I make decisions.”… If guys don’t do things I expect them to do, whether it be in the classroom or on the football field, I’ll make those decisions and (change the) depth chart. … I don’t care who it is.” Senior Thomas Eckers started at center in Actis’ place.. . .Cornerback Dustin Mouzon should be ready for the weekend despite missing much of the Georgia game with a hip pointer sustained on the opening kickoff. He returned briefly in the second half.

MISS. STATE

Zack Harrington heard the news on Monday morning, and Monday afternoon he was back in Starkville as Mississippi State’s third-string quarterback. Harrington, the walk-on who was a prep star at Oak Grove, left the program last week. But he did so under amicable terms with MSU coach Sylvester Croom, according to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. So when State starting QB Josh Riddell learned on Sunday night he has torn an anterior cruciate knee ligament in Saturday’s loss at South Carolina, the Bulldogs were down to just two true freshmen QBs, since Michael Henig is still healing a broken throwing hand. After a Monday morning phone call to Croom, Harrington drove from his home in Hattiesburg to Starkville in three hours to re-join the team. “I didn’t make the meetings,” Harrington said. “I made practice. Matter of fact, Mike (Henig) had called me and I told Mike I think I might take up NASCAR.” So for Saturday’s game, the QB depth chart is Wesley Carroll as the starter, Chris Relf as his backup and Harrington at No. 3. . . .Henig practiced on Monday for the first since breaking a bone in his right hand in State’s win at Auburn Sept. 15. He wore gloves to protect his sore hand, the one that bore a two-and-a-half inch scar on its back side. He threw perfect spirals but often rubbed his right hand after making a pass. Henig said he had some pain in the knuckle, saying it was from swelling and scar tissue. Croom said he liked how Henig threw Monday with the glove. But he also said that he wouldn’t take a chance on playing Henig this week if that meant exposing him to the risk of longer-term injury.

SOUTH CAROLINA

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier doesn’t mind the short week this week, playing Kentucky on Thursday night. “The only reason football needs time off is because guys get banged up a little bit, so as far as X’s and O’s, we could play in two days,” Spurrier said. “We all have our offenses, and we all see how the other team has their general scheme of things. We could go play tonight if we had to. But because you get bumps and bruises, you need to heal up.” Spurrier would have no use for a Friday night game, which some high-profile teams (such as Oklahoma) have played. If South Carolina were offered a Friday game, Spurrier said he would turn it down. “I just think Friday night belongs to the high schools,” he said. “Saturday afternoon and night belongs to college, and the pros take Sunday. The ratings are so good that it’s obvious they’re going to put (college) games on Thursday night.”

TENNESSEE

Tennessee has yet to start the same 11 players on defense in any game this season, but most of that is due to some shuffling in the secondary after Antonio Gaines suffered a season-ending knee injury Sept. 8. Despite those switches, Vols’ coach Phillip Fulmer feels like Tennessee’s starting 22 is set in all but a few positions. “We were in a bit of disarray there for a little bit, trying to find the right combination of guys,” Fulmer said. “I like the group that we’ve settled on athletically. There’s still competition at a couple positions, and that’s almost a daily kind of progression.”

VANDERBILT

Look out for Vandy’s defense. The Commodores are ranked 17th nationally in scoring defense (16.2 points allowed per game) and total defense (279 yards allowed per game) and 11th nationally in passing defense (157.5 yards allowed per game) following Saturday’s 30-7 nonconference win over Eastern Michigan. Vanderbilt is second in the SEC in total defense (behind LSU), third in scoring defense and passing defense, and fifth in rushing defense. “We’ve been trying to get faster, better, more-experienced players,” Coach Bobby Johnson said Monday at his weekly news conference. “That’ll do wonders for you. We’ve got a pretty veteran group. We are faster than we’ve ever been and we’ve got some guys that have played a bunch of plays. Experience, speed, athletic ability — I think it’s all gone up a little bit.”