THE BIG STORY

Kentucky, which plays No. 1 LSU on Saturday in Lexington, went down to Baton Rouge last year and got drilled 49-0.

The Tigers dominated so thoroughly that many thought it was the beginning of the end for Wildcats’ coach Rich Brooks (right).

“It was a one-of-a-kind butt-whoopin’ we got down there,” senior center Eric Scott told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “It was just one of those games where we couldn’t get anything going.”

“I remember looking at the scoreboard and it was 42-0,” said senior wide receiver Keenan Burton. “I thought it was the fourth quarter and the game was almost over, but it was only the third quarter.” Then the metamorphosis began.

UK had a bye week after the LSU debacle, and has been a different team ever since. They won five of their last six games, including a Music City Bowl win over Clemson. And they’ve gotten off to a rousing start in 2007, going 5-1 and earning a No. 17 national ranking in The Associated Press Top 25 poll.

A look at the league:

ALABAMA

Alabama coach Nick Saban emphasized his confidence in Alabama starting quarterback John Parker Wilson on Monday, indicating there are no intentions to use backup Greg McElroy. “He’s our guy,” said Saban of Wilson, “and we’ve got to help him get better. He can do better. He wants to do better. He works hard to do better, and he’s not doing as bad as everybody thinks.” McElroy warmed up briefly in the fourth quarter against Houston, but did not play when the Cougars scored to pull within a touchdown in Saturday’s unimpressive 30-24 victory over the Cougars. . . Saban showed up for Monday morning’s press conference with a sullen expression, raspy voice and no socks, looking like a man who slept in the film room. “I know we’re ‘Alabama’ and they’re ‘Houston,’ so we’re supposed to beat ‘em, and kill ‘em, and all that stuff,” said Saban, holding up two fingers to emphasize the quote marks. “But I told you that before we ever started that wasn’t going to be the way it was, and it wasn’t that way.” Saban then ranted for almost eight minutes harping non-stop on aspects of the season’s fourth victory. He criticized the “mental intensity,” and compared Alabama’s late-game slip to the rash of upsets circulating around the country this season.

ARKANSAS

Arkansas running back Darren McFadden said Monday that he’s feeling “pretty good” two days after being bothered by bruised ribs. As a precaution, the Heisman Trophy candidate underwent a routine scan Monday. The scan showed that McFadden doesn’t have any cracked or fractured ribs. “I think he’s feeling much better. He had a scan today on the rib cage, and I think he’s doing good,” Arkansas coach Houston Nutt said Monday afternoon. “I talked to the doctors. (They said) that he’s going to be fine.” McFadden is expected to practice this afternoon and play Saturday night when Arkansas hosts No. 22 Auburn in Reynolds Razorback Stadium. “I anticipate he’ll be fine,” Arkansas athletic trainer Dean Weber said. “I anticipate he’ll probably practice (Tuesday).”

AUBURN

Auburn running back Brad Lester sat out the first five games of the season due to academic suspension. But he stayed in shape, and when he returned to action Saturday against Vanderbilt, he had an unexpected advantage. While everyone else was bruised and fatigued, Lester’s legs were opening-day fresh. “Everybody wants to play from the beginning of the season,” Lester said. “But I’ve got fresher legs.” Lester carried 13 times for 77 yards and two touchdowns against Vanderbilt as part of the three-back rotation that has bolstered Auburn’s running game. The Tigers averaged only 93.5 yards in their first two games, but have averaged 195.8 in their last four. Lester was expected to be Auburn’s No. 1 back this year, but a suspension for undisclosed academic reasons disrupted the start of his season. Lester was originally suspended for the Jan. 1 Cotton Bowl, but he went through spring practice and August camp without issue. Head coach Tommy Tuberville said Lester was in good standing and would start in the first game. But one day before the season opener against Kansas State, Auburn announced that Lester’s suspension would continue indefinitely. Four weeks later, Auburn said that the NCAA had cleared Lester to return for the Vanderbilt game. Tuberville has not commented about the nature of the suspension other than to say it was out of the coaching staff’s hands. Lester declined an opportunity to discuss the reasons for the suspension when he met with reporters on Sunday. “Coach Tuberville, he handled everything great,” Lester said. “(Running backs coach Eddie) Gran handled everything great. They kept me involved as if I was playing each week. You have to learn how to deal with adversity, and I think I’ve done that over the last year. I appreciate all the fan support. I have had a lot of people supporting me. All the running backs — Ben, Mario, Carl (Stewart). Being up here with them, I just forgot all about it.”. . .The SEC announced Monday that Auburn’s game at LSU on Oct. 20 will be televised by ESPN and begin at 8 p.m.

FLORIDA

Florida is 2-2 in the league after Saturday night’s 28-24 collapse at LSU. But all five of its division foes have at least one loss, a thought that provided some consolation Sunday morning. “The thing I told our football team is that there’s a lot of ball left,” UF Coach Urban Meyer said. “Every team in the East has a loss. Some have two losses.” South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee have each lost once, giving them a virtual one-game lead over two-loss Florida, Vanderbilt and Georgia. Florida sits in a unique spot since both its losses came against West opponents. A sweep of UF’s remaining four conference games, including road tests at Kentucky (Oct. 20) and South Carolina (Nov. 10), would give the Gators an edge in every potential tiebreaker except one. That, of course, would be a dead heat with Tennessee, which can win its way to an East title despite a 39-point loss three weeks back in Gainesville. UT leaped back into the division race by thumping Georgia 35-14 on Saturday. Three straight Florida victories, and Tennessee slipping once more (UT has six conference games left) would set up a Gators-Gamecocks showdown for the division title in Columbia. “The team’s future is still bright,” sophomore quarterback Tim Tebow said. “We can still make it to Atlanta and win the SEC Championship. We have to still believe in each other and the coaches and fight the rest of the season.”

GEORGIA

Rather than being a third option behind Thomas Brown and redshirt freshman Knowshon Moreno, Georgia coach Mark Richt said Kregg Lumpkin now will share the workload with Moreno, the team’s leading rusher, similar to now-injured Brown on Saturday against Vanderbilt. “I’m trying to fill in Thomas’ shoes and try to fill in that spot,” Lumpkin said after Monday’s practice. “I feel confident in myself. I’ve got to stay focused and stay mentally and physically prepared.” Lumpkin will play with a splint on his right thumb for the second straight week against Vanderbilt. He rushed for 26 yards on four carries in the 35-14 loss to Tennessee this past Saturday in his first work at tailback since he sustained he broke that thumb in the opener. He was limited to special teams wearing a large cast the previous two games. “I thought Kregg Lumpkin came in and ran hard when he was in there,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. “You could tell he was fresh, but it was good to see him running hard.”

KENTUCKY

Kentucky coach Rich Brooks said that as good as the LSU Tigers were in their 12-1 Sugar Bowl championship season last year, they’re even better this year. The Tigers have the pedigree of the country’s top team, particularly on the defensive side of the ball: They lead the SEC and are among the top five in the nation in scoring defense (9.3), rushing defense (58.5), total defense (197.8), turnover margin (+12) and sacks (20). “LSU is unlike any team we’ve seen this year,” Brooks said. “They don’t have a weakness. We have our work cut out for us. We’re a much better team than when we played a year ago, but we haven’t played a team that will give us the problems that LSU does. This will be our biggest test of the year. We just hope we can be in the ballgame in the second half and have a chance to do something special.”. . .Kentucky senior running back Rafael Little is questionable for Saturday’s game with a bruised thigh, Brooks announced at his weekly news conference Monday. Little is third in the Southeastern Conference in rushing, with 682 yards on 107 carries. He has topped 100 yards five times in six games, with the only exception being the Arkansas game, when he missed the second half because of the thigh bruise. Brooks also listed sophomore running back Alfonso Smith (sprained ankle) and strongside linebacker Johnny Williams (plantar fasciitis) as questionable for LSU.

LSU

LSU tailback Jacob Hester picked up almost as many awards Monday as he did first downs during the No. 1 Tigers’ 28-24 win over No. 9 Florida Saturday night in Tiger Stadium. Hester, who gained 106 yards on 23 carries and scored the winning touchdown with 1:09 to play on a 2-yard run, was named The Sporting News national player of the week as well as the Southeastern Conference offensive player of the week. LSU coach Les Miles, meanwhile, named Hester his offensive player of the week and special teams player of the week. Hester also plays on the punt team and on field goals and extra points. “Hester ends up making a number of carries, a number of fourth down conversions. He plays big in (special) teams. He may well have had one of the better overall games that I’ve been around,” Miles said. “I’m especially pleased with how Jacob Hester played in a number of phases. He’s done a great job for his team - everything we ask him to do.” Miles joked that Hester came close to a trifecta. “The SEC offensive player of the week was Jacob Hester,” Miles said. “He was also our offensive player of the week and our special teams player of the week. So if he would’ve played any defense, we could’ve possibly given him the defensive player of the week. But he didn’t play any defense.”

OLE MISS

Ole Miss defensive coordinator John Thompson said there is no bad blood between him and Alabama coach Nick Saban, as the Rebels prepare to host the Tide on Saturday. Thompson was briefly named LSU’s defensive coordinator in December 1999 when Saban took over as head coach in Baton Rouge. But one month later, Thompson left to become defensive coordinator at Arkansas, his home state. Soon after he left LSU, rumors began circulating that Thompson and Saban parted on poor terms, but Thompson said those rumblings were fabricated. “None of the rumors were true - we got along,” Thompson said. “… I didn’t get let out on the side of the road. We didn’t get into a fight. I’ve heard a lot of them. … It was a great experience and I left to go to Arkansas because it was my home state.”

MISS. STATE

Wesley Carroll saw his first college football game at Neyland Stadium. Loved Rocky Top, the Tennessee song. He’s still a huge Peyton Manning fan. Think Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. game against No. 25 Tennessee at Scott Field is huge to the Mississippi State freshman quarterback? “It puts a little extra incentive on it,” Carroll told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger after Monday’s practice. His father and a handful of other family members graduated from Tennessee. MSU coach Sylvester Croom said Monday that while Carroll will start, he still intends to use Michael Henig some Saturday. . .The Mississippi State Athletic Ticket Office announced Monday that tickets still remain available for Saturday’s game against Tennessee at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are available in both the lower and upper levels of the East side of Davis Wade Stadium. Fans interested in purchasing tickets for the Southeastern Conference affair are encouraged to call the ticket office at 1-888-GO-DAWGS or 1-662-325-2600.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Eric Norwood put his school before the sideline reporter. The South Carolina defensive end had the game of his life last week when he tied an NCAA record by returning two fumbles for touchdowns in the Gamecocks’ 38-23 win against Kentucky. Norwood’s legend grew larger when he subtly turned ESPN’s Erin Andrews during a post-game interview to face the USC marching band and raise an imaginary glass at the end of the alma mater, a tradition at Gamecocks’ athletic events. “I guess it was the right thing to do,” Norwood said Monday. “I saw everybody else turned around. I saw coach (Steve) Spurrier, he was talking to somebody and then he turned around. I knew I had to.” The gesture earned Norwood his 15 minutes of YouTube fame, and brought him compliments from classmates and alumni. “A couple people from my class said it was a good thing,” he said. “I saw a couple people in Wal-Mart telling me it was a good thing for Carolina alums.”

TENNESSEE

Tennessee revealed a spread punt formation in last Saturday’s win over Georgia. “It’s something we’ve had,” Vols’ coach Phillip Fulmer said. “I felt like it was time to break it out.” It worked. Georgia returner Mikey Henderson only gained 11 yards on two returns. Fulmer said the new formation allows UT to get more athletes on the field, such as receivers, defensive backs and linebackers. However, future opponents won’t be taken by surprise as Georgia might have been last Saturday. “People start scheming it up and we’re going to have to do a good job about answering the questions about it,” Fulmer said. . .Fulmer reaffirmed that freshman cornerback Brent Vinson is expected to be fine after suffering a slight shoulder injury on Saturday.

VANDERBILT

Vanderbilt has now picked off at least one pass in each of its five games this season and has 11 for the year, along with a fumble recovery. Overall, though, Vanderbilt Coach Bobby Johnson said a lot of the shortcomings on that side of the ball stemmed from overzealous play. “I think we started freelancing and doing things that weren’t within the scheme,” Johnson said of the defense, which allowed a season-high 404 yards. “When you do that — and they were doing it to try to make plays — other parts of your defense start to break down, and it’s hard for coaches to figure out what’s going on. We need to have them doing the right thing all the time.” Nine defensive players have contributed to the Commodores’ 11 interceptions, led by D.J. Moore’s three picks.