THE BIG STORY

University of North Carolina coach Butch Davis, a Springdale native and former Arkansas defensive lineman, said Tuesday that he would have no interest in the Razorbacks’ job if it were to come open this offseason.

“The unfortunate thing is I did play (at Arkansas), my father lives there and I’ve got a lot of friends there,” Davis told the Raleigh News and Observer. “… But I am thrilled to be here (at UNC), and I believe the program here, we’ve spent a great year, this first year, building stuff.”

Davis was pressed on the issue by a reporter, who asked if the coach would leave for Arkansas.

“I just told you, I’m thrilled to be at North Carolina,” Davis said Tuesday evening.

The issue came up because of a report by CBSSportsline.com’s Dennis Dodd last week that said that Davis had an exit clause in his contract that would allow him to leave UNC for Arkansas without facing a financial penalty.

A UNC spokesperson confirmed to the Raleigh News and Observer that Davis does not have such an out in his contract.

Davis grew up in Springdale and was a defensive lineman for legendary Arkansas coach Frank Broyles. He graduated from UA in 1974 and got his coaching career started as a volunteer assistant at Fayetteville High. Davis, who has also been the head coach at the University of Miami and the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, signed a seven-year contract at UNC in November 2006.

If he left UNC for another coaching job, he would have to pay the school between $700,000 and $2 million, according to the Raleigh News and Observer.

A look at the league:

ALABAMA

Eight games into the season, Alabama is using this bye week to work not on third-ranked LSU, but on itself, correcting missteps of previous weeks without concern about an upcoming opponent. Only two participating players — Jonathan Lowe and Ezekial Knight — sat out Tuesday’s practice due to ankle injuries. The rest worked full speed in spite of various bumps and bruises that have accumulated to this point. “We’re going to get at it. We’ve got to,” linebacker Darren Mustin said. “That’s the only way (Alabama Coach Nick) Saban knows.” “There’s a lot to do. I don’t feel like I’m letting up any,” Saban said. “I feel like it’s good for the staff, though. We don’t have to work quite as much. We may get home an hour earlier.” Beating LSU and subsequent foe Mississippi State could give Alabama the division title regardless of the result at Auburn (5-3, 3-2) in the season finale. But this much is for sure: If Alabama wins against LSU and Auburn, the Tide will be in Atlanta for the SEC title game. “We’ve developed a little higher standard, which is good in terms of the expectation of how we can play, what we can do,” Saban said. “Hopefully, we can build on that in the future.”

ARKANSAS

Marcus Monk completed a full practice on Wednesday for the second consecutive day. The senior wide receiver did not play against Ole Miss but has steadily recovered from his knee injury. “(Marcus Monk) is sore but he really pushed through it today,” Arkansas coach Houston Nutt said. “He had another good practice. Really for the first time I feel confident he’ll get in the game for some plays. I’m not sure how many but he’ll get in (the game).” After a strong first series against the Rebels, Nutt is preparing his team for another good first series against Florida International to get the game started on a fast note. “If it’s the kick off return team, we need to start off fast,” Nutt said. “We need to give them no hope early and finish the job.”

AUBURN

Auburn quarterback Brandon Cox says it’s vital that the Tigers ramp up their offensive performance in third quarters. In eight games, the Tigers have scored 27 third-quarter points. They were three-and-out on two third-quarter possessions at LSU. ” Coach Borges talked a little bit about it on Sunday,” Cox said. “We have to just go out there and execute. It’s not about doing anything different. We have to go out there and find a way to put the game away. We don’t get our defense off the field. We put them out there way too much.”

FLORIDA

The Gators could be without freshman safety Major Wright on Saturday against Georgia. Wright is coming off of thumb surgery, and is listed as “very questionable” to play. Florida coach Urban Meyer is confident in replacing him. “We got Kyle Jackson and we got Dorian Monroe, so we got capable bodies,” he said. “They just have to play their tails off Saturday.”. . .Also, sophomore defensive lineman Brandon Antwine won’t play. He was hospitalized with a serious lower back muscle injury on Tuesday. Antwine, who missed the Kentucky game because of his back injury, was hospitalized after the injury worsened, Meyer said. “He’s been in the hospital for a little bit,” Meyer said. “It’s a lower back muscular (injury). It’s been a painful week for him. It’s very painful, but it’s not a structural issue.” There is no timetable for Antwine’s return to practice.

GEORGIA

One reason freshman tailback Caleb King could play for the first time this season Saturday against Florida is that senior Thomas Brown won’t return until at least the Nov. 10 game against Auburn. Coach Mark Richt said on Wednesday that Brown’s collarbone will need at least six weeks to heal from when he initially broke it against Ole Miss on Sept. 29. Kregg Lumpkin (knee) won’t return before a bowl game, leaving redshirt freshman Knowshon Moreno to carry the running load the next two games. “Even if we knew for sure that Thomas would be back for Auburn, we would still be working Caleb like we’re working him,” Richt said. “We’re working him like he’s going to play. I’m not saying that we’re going to play him. You’re at a point now with your injury situation that if you have another injury where a guy’s out for an extended time, I just think you’ve just got to go.”

KENTUCKY

Some people viewed the 2006 stats of Kentucky wide receiver Dicky Lyons Jr. (50 catches, 822 yards, nine touchdowns) as being the beneficiary of opponents giving extra attention to Keenan Burton. There were also whispers about whether he could stand out against elite competition, as he went scoreless against Florida, Tennessee, LSU and Georgia. Lyons has answered those questions this year. In a crowded receiving corps that features Burton and Steve Johnson, Lyons is once again delivering solid numbers: 40 catches for 461 yards and six TDs. He had the biggest game of his career in Kentucky’s 45-37 loss to Florida on Saturday, catching eight passes for 124 yards and three scores. He raced past a Gator defensive back for a 33-yard TD and also took a middle screen 50 yards to the house. The fact that Lyons, a stocky 5-foot-11, 190-pounder, doesn’t seem all that physically imposing at the line of scrimmage works to his advantage, according to offensive coordinator Joker Phillips. “When you line up against him, he’s a little squatty guy that doesn’t look like he can run,” Phillips said. “And the guy just runs past people. He’s got good speed and understands the offense. He also knows how to stick his foot in the ground

LSU

The Tigers are second in the Southeastern Conference and 12th nationally in rushing offense with 224.2 yards a game. LSU has not averaged 200 yards or more rushing a game in a season since 1997 when tailbacks Kevin Faulk, Cecil Collins and Rondell Mealey led the Tigers to the SEC rushing title with 256.6 yards a game. Jacob Hester leads LSU with 544 yards on 113 carries, but three other rushers have gained 200 yards on the season. Keiland Williams has 283 yards on 41 carries. Trindon Holliday has 221 on 34 carries, and Charles Scott has 236 yards on 33 carries. Richard Murphy has gained 118 yards on 25 carries. LSU had no runner gain more than 50 yards against Auburn, but it totalled 169 yards for the game with Hester getting 50 on nine carries and Scott 28 on five carries. Williams has only rushed twice in LSU’s last two games, but he caught a screen pass for a 46-yard touchdown against Auburn on Saturday. Holliday has rushed only 12 times in the last three games, but he’s had runs of 17 yards in each of the last two games and a 16-yard run against Florida. Scott has carried just 12 times in the last two games, but he has 122 yards in those two games, including runs of 55 and 17 yards and two touchdowns. Murphy has carried just five times in the last two weeks, but he caught two short passes for 22 yards against Kentucky and battled for three yards and a first down in the game-winning drive against Auburn. “It’s nice to be able to call a curveball at times and put a guy in who’s a little more shifty, a little more quicker,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “We threw a ball to Keiland for a big gain. Murphy takes an option pitch late in the game, has an unbelievable run to get us a first down. I think it’s been running back by committee. Charles Scott gets in the game and pounds the ball and Hester does the things we ask him to do. So we’ll run the exact same things with all those backs.”

OLE MISS

Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron has plenty of experience dealing with Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville. The two were assistants together at Miami back in the Hurricanes’ glory years from 1988-92. “We learned a lot of football together and he’s a very good coach,” Orgeron said of Tuberville. “He actually helped me get down to Miami and we are really good friends. We didn’t have any money. “All we basically did was coach football and work our way up. We were like sponges down there.”

MISS. STATE

The way Kentucky has played games to the end this season, Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom doesn’t expect anything different on Saturday when the Bulldogs travel to Lexington. “We go to Kentucky this weekend, this is a televised game, and that is always positive motivation for us,” Croom said. “The biggest motivation though is that we are 4-4 right now with the chance to become bowl eligible. This is a great challenge for us as well as a great opportunity and we need to play extremely well. I have no doubt that our guys will prepare well during the course of this week and that we will play hard when we get there. The deal is being able to play well down after down throughout the course of the ballgame and when the opportunities come, our playmakers must step up and make plays. It’s going to be a 60-minute contest, because throughout the entire year, Kentucky has found a way to win, no matter what the situation and circumstances, and that says a lot about them.”

SOUTH CAROLINA

If Steve Spurrier has decided on a starting quarterback, the South Carolina coach is not saying who it is. Spurrier said he might wait until Friday before announcing the starter for Saturday’s game at Tennessee. Fifth-year senior Blake Mitchell and redshirt freshman Chris Smelley combined to start the first eight games. But after the Gamecocks gave up seven sacks in a 17-6 loss to Vanderbilt, Spurrier added Tommy Beecher to the competition because of the redshirt sophomore’s mobility. Neither Mitchell nor Smelley was made available to reporters Wednesday. . .Starting tailback Cory Boyd, a fifth-year senior and one of the Gamecocks’ most vocal players, has stopped talking to the media. Boyd’s vow of silence began Saturday after the 17-6 loss to Vanderbilt. “I’m done (talking) for the rest of the year,” Boyd said Wednesday when a reporter asked him to stop. “The young guys need to learn how to do it.”

TENNESSEE

The Vols got some good news on the receiver front as preparations continued for Saturday night’s home game South Carolina. Receivers Josh Briscoe (concussion) and Lucas Taylor (turf toe) are still slowed but cleared to play. “They gave me the go-ahead and just gave me limited contact,” Briscoe said. “We’ll take it from there and see how I am (Thursday).” Briscoe, who suffered another concussion as a sophomore in high school, said he doesn’t even remember a catch he made for a first down against Alabama. “My head hit the back of the turf,” he said. “I got up and stumbled to the sideline and came back in and played about four more snaps. “I got a catch, but I don’t remember it. Anytime you get a head injury you’ve just got to take precautions.” Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said he’s counting on Briscoe and Taylor to be available against the Gamecocks. “Lucas and Briscoe will play unless something happens between now and Saturday,” Fulmer said. “He (Briscoe) did really well. He did everything today and of course there wasn’t any contact. He looks really good and I was concerned about that because they said Sunday and Monday it was a pretty significant concussion, but he really toughened up.”

VANDERBILT

The Commodores’ front four has anchored a unit that has had two seven-sack performances in its last four games — including one in its most recent win at then-No. 6 South Carolina — and ranks among the top 20 nationally in scoring defense, passing defense and total defense heading into Saturday’s contest against visiting Miami (Ohio). “The defensive line’s been doing a great job,” said senior linebacker Jonathan Goff, the Southeastern Conference’s sixth-leading tackler. “This weekend, they were always in the quarterback’s face, putting pressure on them, never letting them get into a rhythm. “Coach (Rick) Logo’s done a really good job this season. We don’t have as much experience (in the line) as some people would like to see, but we definitely have the talent and they’re really coachable guys.”