THE BIG STORY

Florida receiver Andre Caldwell, who has missed almost all the last three games with a sprained knee, told the Gainesville Sun that there’s no way he’s sitting out Saturday’s game at LSU.

“I’ll be going, you can’t stop me this week,” Caldwell said. “It’s written in stone. It’s a done deal. I wouldn’t let them sit me out this game. I’m going regardless. This is one of those games where if there’s something wrong with you, you’re going to get over it and do whatever it takes to get on the field. I’m going to do that. But I’m good now.”

Caldwell has been practicing this week and says his knee is about 90 or 95 percent. He vows it will be 100 percent by kickoff. Even if it’s not, he’s playing, he said.

He didn’t return for his senior season to hobble around on the sideline, to miss games, to miss this game against No. 1 LSU. He’s had to sit out three games already and that’s more than enough, he said.

“I think this is my time and our team’s time to show the world we’re still in this chase (for the national and SEC titles),” Caldwell said. “I plan on putting up big numbers and showing up some of these DBs. I want to win. I want to see these guys who have worked so hard to reach all their goals and achieve stuff. I was hurt not being able to help them do that. By the end of the week, I should be 100 percent and doing everything. I’m ready to play.”

A look at the league:

ALABAMA

Ten of Alabama football’s enrolling true freshmen have participated in at least one of the season’s first five games. That leaves OL Patrick Crump, DL Jeremy Elder, DB Tarence Farmer, FB Jeramie Griffin, LB Jennings Hester, WR Marquis Maze, TE Chris Underwood, DL Alex Watkins and WR Brandon Gibson of UMS-Wright as likely redshirt candidates. Demetrius Goode and Chris Lett are out with injuries. Alabama coach Nick Saban hesitates to confirm certain redshirt players, because injuries have forced him to use rookies late in the season before. “If we think they can help us win, we’ll play them,” Saban said. “We don’t want to be stupid in how we waste guys’ years, but sometimes it happens.” . . .Alabama’s Mal Moore will receive a $25,000 raise this year to boost his annual salary to $425,000 and make him one of the best-paid athletics directors in the Southeastern Conference. Moore’s new salary would rank him third in the SEC. As of earlier this year, Florida’s Jeremy Foley (roughly $600,000) and Kentucky’s Mitch Barnhart ($436,000) reportedly made more.

ARKANSAS

Arkansas is excited for its first trip this season to Little Rock and War Memorial Stadium with this Saturday’s 6 p.m. kickoff against Chattanooga. Arkansas coach Houston Nutt boasts a 20-2 record in Little Rock during his 10-year tenure at the helm of the Razorback program. UA has not lost a non-conference game at War Memorial since a 6-0 loss to Memphis State in 1993. “I think this (playing in Little Rock) comes at a good time, Nutt said. “You are going to a different atmosphere and a lot of them are going to their hometown. They are excited about and looking forward to it.” The status of senior flanker Robert Johnson is still day-to-day after he spent his second-straight practice on the sideline with a boot on his right ankle. If Johnson can’t go Reggie Fish will get the nod at flanker with Carlton Salter backing him up.

AUBURN

Wes Byrum’s game-winning 43-yard field goal on the final play of Auburn’s 20-17 upset victory at then-No. 4 Florida last Saturday has earned Auburn the Pontiac Game-Changing Performance award. The announcement was made during the Pontiac Performance Halftime Report on ESPN Thursday night. Auburn won the award with 62 percent of the votes that were cast. With the game tied at 17-17, Byrum’s successful kick was nullified by a timeout called just before the snap, then Byrum calmly kicked the ball through the uprights again for the win. For winning the award, Auburn will receive a $5,000 contribution from Pontiac toward the school’s general scholarship fund. The Tigers are also now eligible for the “Pontiac Game-Changing Performance of the Year” Award and can earn an additional $100,000 contribution.

FLORIDA

Florida coach Urban Meyer’s first trip to Baton Rouge, La., ended in heartbreak as Meyer held back tears during his post-game interview immediately following the 21-17 loss to the LSU Tigers. “Two years ago you can’t survive in this conference and you can’t survive in this style of offense without playmakers and I mean not average (playmakers),” Meyer said after Thursday’s practice. UF’s offense was nonexistent in that game, gaining only 206 yards of total offense. UF failed to take advantage of five Tigers turnovers by only scoring off of three of those turnovers. Unlike Meyer’s first trip to Death Valley two years ago, Meyer said his team is more polished athletically and should have a better shot at dethroning the Tigers from the nation’s top spot. Meyer said he looks at last year’s win over LSU as an example of how far his team has come since he arrived. “I watch last year’s game a lot and that was one of the finest college football games I’ve ever been a part of,” he said. “The plan to win, our team executed as well as I’ve ever seen as long as I’ve been coaching. For us to beat a team like this with the talent (it has), it’s going to have to be that kind of game.”

GEORGIA

With offensive coordinator Mike Bobo handling play calling, Georgia coach Mark Richt has more time to spend getting to know his players in his seventh season as head coach. Richt has held 15 minute one-on-one meetings with players during the past four weeks. “It’s really kept me pretty busy,” Richt said. “I might have overscheduled again.” The meetings gave senior walk-on linebacker Mitchell Pittman a chance to get in Richt’s ear. Pittman told Richt he loved his time at Georgia but had one wish: to get in for one play for the Bulldogs. That chance came at the end of Georgia’s 45-17 win over Ole Miss. “It just crossed my mind at the right time and we were able to get him in there,” Richt said. “He was just so thankful and excited for it. Our team enjoyed it, too. It was a great morale thing just to see him get excited about it.” The Lyons, Ga., native even recorded a tackle. “When coach (Willie) Martinez told me to get in the game, my legs got weak,” Pittman said. “I felt like I was in a dream until the first play was over, then I realized where I was.”

KENTUCKY

Steve Spurrier was able to get his 15th consecutive win against the University of Kentucky last night, but this time the Wildcats gave him an awful lot of help. Eighth-ranked UK shot itself in the foot with four costly turnovers, including three by quarterback Andre Woodson, which proved to be the major difference in the No. 11 Gamecocks’ 38-23 win in front of 76,220 fans at Williams-Brice Stadium. “Simply, this game was decided on our mistakes, or South Carolina’s alertness for turnovers,” Kentucky Coach Rich Brooks said. “It was a typical SEC football game in that the team that makes the most mistakes usually comes up short, and unfortunately that was us. I don’t know if it was nerves or crowd noise or what, but we weren’t a well-oiled machine.” Kentucky outgained South Carolina 384-342, but that advantage was negated by the lengthy list of Wildcat miscues. Woodson lost two fumbles, including one on a lateral, and both were returned for touchdowns by South Carolina sophomore defensive end Eric Norwood. Woodson also threw a costly pick at the South Carolina 2-yard line that stopped a Wildcat scoring threat.

LSU

LSU athletic department officials are calling Saturday’s college football showdown between No. 1 LSU (5-0) and No. 9 Florida (4-1) the hottest ticket in LSU football history for a regular season game. And it can be seen on non-cable television for free at 7:30 p.m. on CBS. “The demand for this game is the highest ever,” LSU ticket manager Brian Broussard said. “This game has been sold out since the spring ever since Florida took all of their allotment of tickets, which was 7,000. We sold out immediately. But people keep calling our office asking for tickets. The prices for tickets on the Internet are the highest I’ve seen. I’m sure we’ll beat the attendance record from the Virginia Tech game.” That was 92,739 on Sept. 8 when LSU was No. 2 in the nation and Virginia Tech was No. 9, but that was not a Southeastern Conference game and Florida was just ranked No. 3 in the nation last week before falling to Auburn. This is also LSU’s first game as the No. 1 team in the nation since Oct. 31, 1959, when it beat No. 3 Ole Miss 7-3 on Billy Cannon’s Halloween Run in front of 67,327. “We’ll be over 92,800,” Broussard said. “I think the No. 1 ranking has something to do with it.” Tiger Stadium’s capacity is conservatively listed as 92,400. The record before the Virginia Tech game was 92,664 for the Auburn game in 2005.

OLE MISS

Ole Miss coaches and players are trying to find the answer to the team’s fourth-quarter doldrums so far this season. Through five games, the Rebels have been outscored 55-13 in the fourth quarter, including 21-0 against Georgia, turning what was a competitive game through three quarters into a blowout. “I don’t think it’s a mystery when you look at the film,” coach Ed Orgeron said. “It’s not about working hard or conditioning. I think we’re in good condition. I think that first of all we need to learn how to win.We need to learn how to get up 14-0 and continue to lead. We don’t know how to do that yet.”

MISS. STATE

Junior Michael Henig has been cleared by Mississippi State’s training staff and can play in Saturday’s game against UAB, coach Sylvester Croom said Thursday after the Bulldogs’ practice. Croom said true freshman Wesley Carroll will start the game. He indicated that he would rather play Henig than burn the redshirt of another true freshman, Chris Relf. Henig threw sharply during the Bulldogs’ brief workout Thursday inside the Palmeiro Center but rubbed his surgically repaired right hand after many of his throws. Henig broke his hand in the Bulldogs’ 19-14 win at Auburn on Sept. 15.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson did not lose the Heisman Trophy on Thursday. Eric Norwood and the South Carolina defense took it from him. The USC defensive end scored on a pair of fumble returns and the 11th-ranked Gamecocks harassed Woodson into three turnovers to belt No. 8 Kentucky 38-23 before a Williams-Brice Stadium crowd of 76,220 and a national television audience watching on ESPN. The win moves USC (5-1, 3-1 SEC) into sole possession of first place in the SEC East for at least two days. The Gamecocks hold a half-game lead on Georgia and Florida and own the tiebreaker with the Bulldogs by virtue of a 16-12 win in Athens last month. “We’re still in it,” said Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier, who improved to 15-0 against the Wildcats. “If we’d have lost, we would not have been in it very well.” The Gamecocks could break into the top 10 for the first time since 2001 when The Associated Press poll is released Sunday. USC, which has won eight in a row against Kentucky, had not beaten a team ranked No. 8 or higher since a 23-10 win against No. 6 Georgia on Sept. 24, 1988. While Woodson’s stock dropped, Norwood vaulted into contention for postseason honors and proved the Gamecocks’ defense has leaders besides injured linebacker Jasper Brinkley. Norwood became the fourth player in NCAA history to return two fumbles for touchdowns in a game, and the first since SMU’s Alvin Nnabuife against Nevada in 2004. “That was some game he had. He had an All-American type game,” Spurrier said. “He is an active player that makes things happen. … I have to slow him down sometimes in practice.” Asked if he ever had a two-touchdown game at any level, Norwood said: “Not two scores on defense. Maybe on offense.” Norwood, a sophomore who entered as the Gamecocks’ leader in tackles, tackles for loss and sacks, finished with five tackles, two pass breakups and a quarterback pressure.

TENNESSEE

Tennessee will have four tailbacks ready for Saturday’s game against Georgia, but that doesn’t mean all four will play. “We probably can’t play all four of them a lot,” Vols’ coach Phillip Fulmer said. “If somebody gets hot and plays well, that’s the way we’ll go.” Montario Hardesty’s sprained ankle improved during the bye week. LaMarcus Coker will play in his fourth game since returning from a suspension, and starter Arian Foster and freshman Lennon Creer will continue to be staples in the backfield. “We’re averaging 4.3 yards per attempt, which is not bad by any stretch of the imagination,” Fulmer said. “We just got to call the run more.”

VANDERBILT

Vanderbilt tailback Jeff Jennings will likely see his first action in three weeks Saturday when the Commodores take on Southeastern Conference host Auburn. Jennings, sidelined since the Alabama game with a left high ankle sprain, has taken part in contact drills this week after sitting out both the Ole Miss and the Eastern Michigan contests. The redshirt junior also benefitted from the open week between the two wins. “I think he’s practiced well enough that he’s going with us and he’ll be dressing,” Vandy coach Bobby Johnson said. “Sometimes you’re not as far along as you hope you are, when you have to get out there and do it. It’s different when you’re out here practicing, as opposed to having to get away from Auburn defenders.” In two games this season, Jennings has rushed for 99 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. He’s also recorded three receptions for 23 yards and a score.