THE BIG STORY

So is Arkansas wide receiver Marcus Monk in or out?

Monk is rehabilitating a right knee injury, which forced him to miss the first five games. He made his season debut when he stepped on the field for the second play Saturday, but it was the only action he saw in the 9-7 loss to Auburn. He has to decide this week whether to redshirt for the season or try to play.

Arkansas coach Houston Nutt told the Northwest Arkansas Times that Monk might play against Ole Miss on Saturday, but offensive coordinator David Lee wasn’t as optimistic.

“We’re pushing Marcus what we can,” Lee said. “But I just don’t think he’s quite ready right now. He may be in the next 72 hours, but just looking at him (Tuesday) I don’t think he’s quite ready.”

Lee said asked Monk if he wanted to go one-on-one against defensive backs, but Monk declined because Lee said Monk is still having trouble “putting his foot in the ground and getting out of the cut and separating still.” Lee said he’s not running routes at full speed.

A look at the league:

ALABAMA

Alabama cornerback Lionel Mitchell, with merely a nod of his head, indicated he didn’t touch the football before Rebels receiver Shay Hodge at the end of Saturday’s game, won by the Tide 27-24. “I had it towards the end,” Mitchell said Tuesday. “I tried to snatch it from him when we came down, but he came down with it. … I’m not quite too sure on the rule or whatever. It was what it was. The refs made the call.” SEC replay official Doyle Jackson overturned a call on the field that Hodge pulled from Mitchell a 41-yard, fourth-down catch at Alabama’s 4-yard line with seven seconds remaining. It was ruled that Hodge stepped out of bounds and touched the ball first, nullifying the catch by rule. “I just knew he was behind me at first,” Mitchell said. “I went to play the ball and kind of quit paying him attention. After I watched film, we were both out of bounds.”

ARKANSAS

The Wildhog isn’t so wild anymore. The formation, which was known as the Wildcat last season with ball being snapped directly to running back Darren McFadden who’s lined up as a quarterback, is barely used. Arkansas ran four plays out of the WildHog formation in last Saturday’s 9-7 loss to No. 18 Auburn. At the end of last season, the Razorbacks used it 14 times against Tennessee, 10 times against Mississippi State and a season-high 16 times against LSU. “We just haven’t put it in the game plan,” McFadden said. “I can’t say why we haven’t run the thing. It’s just something we haven’t run that much this year.” Arkansas offensive coordinator David Lee and Arkansas coach Houston Nutt said that opposing defenses have caught up to the Razorbacks, which is why the WildHog formation hasn’t been used nearly as much this season. “The element of surprise is so big in football, and that (formation) was the surprise thing last year. Nobody had any research on it. Nobody knew where it came from,” Lee said. “Everybody researched it this past offseason, so it’s not as effective as we’d like.”

AUBURN

Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said Tuesday that Auburn would open up its offense Saturday night against LSU after an ultra-conservative second half last week at Arkansas. “We need to change our philosophy offensively,” Tuberville said. “We need to score more points down the stretch. We have to make more plays. We were a little more open in the Florida game. That was by design. I thought (offensive coordinator) Al (Borges) and his coaches did a good job of getting points on the board early. We’ve got to play a four-quarter game on offense. We haven’t done that all year long.” Tuberville said he restrained the offense during the second half of the Arkansas game because Auburn’s defense was so dominating. “My philosophy, especially when you go on the road, is that you’ve got to play good defense and kicking game,” he said. “That’s a given. If you’re not good on defense, then you better be good on offense. We’ve got weaknesses. We try to play away from those and build on our strengths. When you play a team like LSU, you’ve got to do more things to score points.”

FLORIDA

Florida is close to having a key member of its secondary back. Sophomore Markihe Anderson, projected as a starting cornerback heading into the season, could return from a knee injury Saturday against Kentucky. Anderson has been out since suffering a knee injury during Florida’s 59-20 win over Tennessee on Sept. 15. He also missed Florida’s season-opener against Western Kentucky with a knee injury suffered in preseason practice. “He’s getting pretty close to being game ready,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said. “He practiced last week with sort of a limp. But we need him back.”

GEORGIA

Tailback Kregg Lumpkin won’t play another regular-season game for Georgia and tailback Thomas Brown won’t play against Florida, Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said after Tuesday’s practice. Lumpkin underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Tuesday to treat a torn lateral meniscus and a sprained posterior lateral complex sustained against Vanderbilt. Richt said that the senior might return to play in a bowl game. “Talking to him (Tuesday), he would welcome that opportunity,” Richt said. “Some seniors are like ‘You know what? Forget about it.’ He acted like if he was healthy he wanted to finish.” Richt said Brown won’t be ready to return from a broken collarbone Oct. 27 against the Gators. He said Sunday there was an “outside shot” Brown could be back. He suffered the injury Sept. 29 against Ole Miss. Starter Knowshon Moreno, who rushed for 157 yards on 28 carries Saturday, will only get limited full speed work in practice to minimize the number of hits he will take, running backs coach Tony Ball said. Walk-on Jason Johnson got the bulk of the work behind Moreno Tuesday, but redshirt freshman Shaun Chapas also is getting a look as the back-up. “I really want to see how they both protect the ball and how they are going to protect the quarterback,” Ball said. “I’m not interested in are they going to take it the distance.”

KENTUCKY

With a thigh bruise holding out starter Rafael Little of a second straight game, UK again will turn to Tony Dixon, who coach Rich Brooks said probably will start on Saturday against Florida despite being listed as questionable with a hip flexor. In their 43-37 triple-overtime win against Louisiana State last Saturday, the Cats featured Dixon early, then turned to fourth-string freshman Derrick Locke. Locke rushed for 64 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. Seventeen of Locke’s carries and 43 of his yards came in the fourth quarter and overtime. With third-stringer Alfonso Smith back and close to 100 percent after a high ankle sprain, Brooks said the Cats are likely to spread the wealth at tailback. “We’ll just rotate (the tailbacks) in there earlier and more often, probably, so one guy isn’t taking the constant pounding,” he said. Brooks also said safety Marcus McClinton is expected to return after missing the LSU game with injuries to both ankles. McClinton said that he injured a tendon in his right ankle before the season opener but had been able to play until suffering a high sprain in his left ankle. . .Kentucky walk-on wide receiver Anthony Stewart was arrested Monday night and charged with trafficking marijuana and cocaine. The 21-year-old junior was suspended indefinitely from the team. According to an arrest report, Lexington Police detectives executed a search warrant at Stewart’s residence Monday and found bags and wrappings that contained marijuana residue. The bags were marked with amounts of more than 5 pounds. According to the report, Stewart, 21, was found at another location in possession of about three grams of powder cocaine. He was arraigned yesterday and pleaded not guilty via video from jail, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. Stewart, from Anderson, S.C., hasn’t played this season. He played in one game last year after redshirting in 2004.

LSU

LSU defensive end Tyson Jackson said his personal foul against Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson in the overtime loss Saturday wasn’t very smart. Jackson hit Woodson in the top of the head with his fist following an incomplete pass in the first overtime period. The Wildcats, who would have been facing a second-and-15 from their 30-yard line, were pushed up 15 yards to the LSU 15 and given a first down because of the penalty. They scored five plays later to take a 34-27 lead en route to a 43-37 win.
“It was just a crazy penalty on my part,” Jackson said. “I thought the quarterback still had the ball, but it was still a stupid thing to do. It was a critical part of the game. It was a real bad play on my part.” LSU was penalized 12 times overall for 103 yards. “We have to play smarter,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “Penalties come because of the game being so close and the desire to make a block or a tackle that you are not in position to make.”

OLE MISS

Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron said that he thought offensive coordinator Dan Werner did much of his best playcalling all season in Saturday’s 27-24 loss to Alabama. But Werner told the Jackson Clarion Ledger playcalling has very little to do with whether of not the offense has a good game. “Playcalling is the most overrated thing in all of football, bar none - it’s not even close,” Werner said. “Because if you execute, every play is a good play. If not, it’s a bad call.” Ole Miss had 420 yards total offense against Alabama.

MISS. STATE

Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom said true freshman quarterback Wes Carroll hasn’t thrown the ball to the wrong place all year. Croom told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger about a critical fourth down during last week’s 33-21 loss to Tennessee. “He immediately went to the checkdown to (Arnil) Stallworth. Immediately. In fact, I found out that he alerted Stallworth as soon as he left the huddle to be ready. And that’s a (Brett) Favre-ism there. When he came out of it, the ball just got tipped. … Ball doesn’t get tipped, we’re going to make that first down, easy,” Croom said.

SOUTH CAROLINA

South Carolina football has advanced. Nobody is partying in Columbia now that the Gamecocks are bowl eligible. “They said, in the history of South Carolina, anytime they get bowl eligible they had a party down in Five Points,” South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said during his weekly news conference. “Everybody was celebrating, ‘Hey, we’re bowl eligible.’ And they’d be laughing and hugging and high-fiving in the locker room. There was none of that (after beating North Carolina 21-15).” Barring a collapse, South Carolina will appear in a bowl for the third consecutive season, a first for the program. The Gamecocks were bowl-eligible in 2004 but voluntarily pulled out of bowl consideration because of the brawl during its game with Clemson. Junior linebacker Marvin Sapp said he had no idea the team became bowl eligible until he heard it on ESPN. “That’s the first time I heard anyone mention it,” he said. “No one on the team mentioned it. Coaches didn’t mention it. I think that we’re just taking it in stride. It’s a good thing; we want more.”

TENNESSEE

Tennessee receiver Lucas Taylor knows Alabama coach Nick Saban, When Taylor was in high school in Carencro, La., he was recruited by Saban, then at LSU. Taylor was recruited as a receiver and what coaches call an “athlete,” meaning he could play multiple positions. Taylor decided he wanted to go to an out-of-state school. He’ s now 12th in the nation in receiving yards per game (103.0), and is on pace to finish with 82 receptions, which would break UT’s single-season receptions record (76 by Marcus Nash, 1997). “I really didn’t expect any of it,” Taylor said.

VANDERBILT

With his 21-yarder against Georgia, Vanderbilt junior placekicker Bryant Hahnfeldt has converted as many field goals this season — eight — as he did all of last year. Hahnfeldt has done so in six fewer attempts, going 8-for-11 through six games after hitting eight of 17 last year. For his career, Hahnfeldt has hit 28 of 45 field goals and has scored 162 points, leaving him four short of the school’s No. 3 mark in scoring by a placekicker. Johnny Clark scored 165 points from 1986-89. . .Tailback Cassen Jackson-Garrison and wife Courtney welcomed their first-born, Cassen II, at 3:21 p.m. Tuesday at Summit Hospital in Nashville. The child weighed in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces, and was 19½ inches long. . .Reserve offensive lineman Eric Hensley was suspended indefinitely for violating team rules, Vandy coach Bobby Johnson said in a written statement. A redshirt sophomore offensive tackle, Hensley saw limited action in Vanderbilt’s first six games. Johnson would not elaborate on the action.