THE BIG STORY

LSU All-American defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey was more frightened than hurt after his right knee was injured on an illegal chop block at the knees by Auburn right guard Chaz Ramsey Saturday.

“Yeah, at first I thought it was a serious injury and it hurt at first,” Dorsey said to reporters after LSU’s practice Thursday night. “But really that came from me being scared a lot, too, of being hurt.”

Dorsey is expected to be one of the first players picked in the next NFL draft. He said his family has purchased insurance. Dorsey likely would have gone in the first round in the last NFL draft, but he opted to stay at LSU for his senior year because of a late-season shin injury that would have affected his NFL pre-draft workouts.

Dorsey said he expects his sprained right knee to be OK for LSU’s next game, which is Nov. 3 at Alabama. He has been held out of all three of LSU’s practices this week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and he said he would probably not play if LSU had a game this Saturday. All three of those practices were closed to the media.

“I’ve just been rehabbing,” he said. “I’ve got a good chance of playing against Alabama. Without a doubt, the bye week couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Dorsey said other offensive linemen have gone for his knees but none succeeded.

“They tried to, but I never got caught like that,” he said.

LSU coach Les Miles said he remains hopeful to have Dorsey when the No. 3 ranked Tigers (7-1, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) play No. 22 Alabama (6-2, 4-1 SEC) for first place in the SEC West at 4 p.m. on Nov. 3 on CBS.

“He’s a great leader,” Miles said. “He was the team captain for that game (the Auburn game) and will probably end up being a captain for the year. No question, he inspires his teammates in how he works, how he plays and who he is. There’s no question he’s a leader of our football team.”

A look at the league:

ALABAMA

Offensive coordinator Major Applewhite, offensive line coach Joe Pendry and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele each had three-year deals approved Thursday by the compensation committee of the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees. Two-year contracts for Alabama’s remaining six position coaches were also approved by trustees. All of head coach Nick Saban’s on-field coaches earn at least $170,000, giving Alabama easily the costliest coaching staff in the SEC. Pendry and Steele each earn a $350,000 salary, making them the best-paid coaches on Alabama’s staff ahead of defensive backs coach Kirby Smart ($275,000) and Applewhite ($250,000). Annual assistant salaries are listed as the same per year for the life of the multi-year deal with buyouts of 20 percent. Each assistant’s contract runs through February 2009 or 2010. Saban, the nation’s highest-paid college coach, will receive $3.5 million during this first year of his eight-year contract. At roughly $7.3 million, football staff salaries will account for more than 10 percent of the UA athletics department’s operating budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year. Each member of Saban’s support staff will receive at least $80,250 annually, including $120,000 for assistant strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran and $140,000 for director of player personnel Geoff Collins. “It was important for (Saban) to be able to hire the staff that he wanted to hire and needed to hire,” athletics director Mal Moore said. “We were able to do this, and I’m glad that we could.”

ARKANSAS

After a productive week of practice, Marcus Monk sat out during Thursday’s workout. Arkansas coach Houston Nutt said the senior receiver will play Saturday against Florida International and looks forward to the contributions Monk can bring to the Razorbacks. “Dean (Weber) thought it’d be better (for Marcus) to take the day off,” Nutt said. “He had two really good, hard days and he’ll try to go. He’ll definitely play, we just don’t know how many plays.” London Crawford was at practice, but did not workout and is expected to miss Saturday’s game. Nutt said the Arkansas receivers have had cope with several injuries throughout the season and is proud of how the unit has responded. “Robert Johnson, London, Crosby Tuck and all those guys have been hurt, but you have to go with what’s out there,” Nutt said. “You have to go with the hand you’re dealt and these guys are improving.”

AUBURN

Auburn freshman offensive lineman Ryan Pugh will play, but not start, Saturday against Ole Miss, coach Tommy Tuberville said Thursday. Tuberville said Pugh will play tackle and occasionally replace center Jason Bosley, who is still recovering from a knee injury. Senior King Dunlap will play tackle when Pugh is not in. “I’m proud of the way they’ve improved,” Tuberville said. . .Tuberville said Thursday’s practice was “spirited” but not as sharp mentally as Wednesday’s workout. “We’ve had good practices this week,” he said. “Guys are fired up. Ole Miss does a lot of things we have to prepare for. We need a little extra time in that. It’s been a good week. Mentally, we’ve gotten back into it a lot more than I would have expected after last week (the loss to LSU). These young guys tend to let things go over their head a little bit better than us older folks.” . . .Tuberville refused to reveal whether suspended receiver Robert Dunn would play Saturday. Dunn is in the doghouse for an undisclosed practice issue involving receivers coach Greg Knox last week. “I don’t know yet,” Tuberville said. “He’s worked hard. We’re going to meet (Thursday afternoon) and evaluate a lot of situations. That will be one of them we’ll talk about. He made a mistake. We’ve got to determine through coach Knox how he’s worked and if he deserves to come back this week or wait until next week or the week after.”

FLORIDA

Senior safety Kyle Jackson will start in place of freshman Major Wright (broken thumb) at free safety Saturday, Florida coach Urban Meyer said. Wright left practice in a T-shirt and shorts and a sling on his right arm. Jackson started the first three games of the season before being benched in favor of Wright because of poor play. “He’s had a good week of practice,” Meyer said of Jackson. “We expect Kyle to play well.”. . .Liberty High inside linebacker Brendan Beal announced his verbal commitment to UF Thursday night on CSTV during a telecast of Tom Lemming’s Next Generation. Beal also considered LSU, USC and Boston College and is the No. 51-rated prospect in the country, according to Rivals.com. “All these schools (have) such great opportunities and I would be so blessed to attend either one of them, but it comes down to where your heart is and Florida was it,” Beal said. Beal’s commitment gives the Gators 10 verbal commitments this season.

GEORGIA

Florida coach Urban Meyer said he spoke with Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford and his mother several times when he starred at Highland Park High School in Dallas. Georgia coach Mark Richt said that Tim Tebow, now Florida’s star quarterback, was on Georgia’s radar. “We were trying to get Tim, we were trying to get Stafford, we were working on (Mitch) Mustain like everyone else was,” Richt said. “It just seemed like there was a connection with Matthew than there was more with Tim. Of course, Tim was from Florida and I think they were Gator fans.” Meyer said Stafford has “one of the great releases and one of the great arms in college football. He’s also young like Tim. … When he gets on and he’s in rhythm, he’s a tough one to be around.”

KENTUCKY

After UK’s 43-37 triple-overtime win against Louisiana State two weeks ago, UK Coach Rich Brooks estimated that quarterback Andre Woodson changed about 50 percent of the team’s plays at the line of scrimmage. While offensive coordinator Joker Phillips says the number is not quite that high, he did say that Woodson has the power to change a play at the line whenever he sees fit. “He’s the smartest quarterback I’ve ever coached,” Phillips said. “We have complete confidence in him to get us in and out of the right play. He has freedom. I think that’s what makes our system so fun to play in.” Phillips wouldn’t have said that two years ago when Woodson wasn’t as dedicated in the film room. But as Woodson gradually became a more diligent student of the game, Phillips decided to gradually let him change more plays at the line. “He’s just gotten better and better at it,” Phillips said. The ability to change plays at the line of scrimmage gives the UK offense the last say in trying to gain the upper hand before the ball is snapped. “It’s a chess match,” Phillips said.

LSU

LSU coach Les Miles received a text message shortly after the LSU-Auburn game Saturday from the mother of receiver Demetrius Byrd. It said simply, “I told you so.” Byrd’s mother had spoken to Miles earlier in the season and complained that her son was not getting enough playing time. She may have had a point. Byrd, a junior transfer from Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Miss., via Miami, caught only four passes in LSU’s first four games and caught one pass against Kentucky. His three catches against Auburn were for a career-high 89 yards. Byrd, a junior from Miami, caught game-winning touchdown passes at Pearl River (Miss.) Community College and at Miami Central High School, but those were nothing like what his 22-yard touchdown catch of a Matt Flynn pass with one second to go Saturday. Final score: LSU 30, Auburn 24. “In Death Valley, you can’t get any bigger than that,” said Byrd, who was recruited by Florida State, Tennessee and Ole Miss, among others. “When I came here, the campus drew me in. I like how the stadium’s right in the middle of campus. I came on game day and I saw how good it was. I was like, ‘Man, I want to be a part of this here.’ And the fans were just crazy — good crazy though. I felt like I needed to be a part of this.” Flynn threw the ball perfectly deep in the end zone on the game-winning TD. “It was in a nice spot,” Byrd said. “It was low and away from the defensive back, and the way he put it was either, I’m going to catch it or neither one of us will catch it. So that was a good pass and a good spot. He put it right there, and he put it in a place where he knew that I had to make a play on it.”

OLE MISS

Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron said he has “a hunch” that senior backup quarterback Brent Schaeffer would get an opportunity to play on Saturday against Auburn. Schaeffer relieved struggling starter Seth Adams in last Saturday’s 44-8 loss to Arkansas. Schaeffer was 5-of-13 passing against the Razorbacks, completing the Rebels’ only touchdown pass - a 37-yard strike to Mike Wallace. “Seth is the starter and we have no set plan to get Brent into the game,” Orgeron told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. “But if Seth struggles at any point, we won’t hesitate to give Brent a shot because he’s played well in practice this week.” After an impressive start to the season, Adams has thrown 10 interceptions in three games, prompting Orgeron to say the senior was on a shorter leash. Schaeffer was the starter all last season,throwing for 1,442 yards, nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions before being losing the starting job to Adams this fall.

MISS. STATE

Mississippi State quarterback Wesley Carroll knows that in a roundabout way he’s just as important as any linebacker when it comes to playing defense against Kentucky’s score-often offense. “It’s just like when we were preparing for West Virginia,” Carroll told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger “We knew that they score so quickly and they score often. If we have the ball, they can’t do anything about it. That’s why we’ve got to keep our defense on the sidelines and we’ve got to just have those long drives that we’re capable of having.” That’s precisely what doomed Mississippi State in its horrific start to Saturday’s 38-13 loss to the Mountaineers. But it’s not as if State doesn’t know what a long scoring drive is like. The Bulldogs had a 17-play, 75-yard touchdown drive in the Oct. 6 win over UAB that lasted 9 minutes, 6 seconds. State has had nine scoring drives of 10 plays or more this season, five of which lasted more than five minutes.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Tennessee has the SEC’s No. 2 passing offense and the conference’s second-ranked quarterback. So naturally, South Carolina defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix expects the Volunteers to try to run against the Gamecocks on Saturday. As good as quarterback Erik Ainge and the Vols’ receivers have been, USC has been equally adept at defending the pass. The Gamecocks have the nation’s No. 1 pass defense, allowing an average of 145.9 passing yards a game. Opponents have had an easier time running against USC, which is 10th in the SEC and 80th nationally with 177.8 rushing yards allowed per game. “I think Tennessee’s going to come out and run the ball on us, do some different things,” Nix said Thursday. “So we’ve just got to stop the run.” The Vols have given up two sacks, fewer than any team in the country. Nix said the fact that Tennessee is seldom in obvious passing situations has contributed to the low sack total. “If we’re fortunate to get them in some long-yardage situations, then we’ll mix it up,” Nix said. “Sometimes we may blitz and see if we can get there.” Ainge, who has thrown for 256.7 yards a game, is impressed by the Gamecocks’ multiple defensive looks. “They do so much on defense that they confuse people, and they have good players,” Ainge said. “There’s not necessarily a position on their defense where you can say, ‘Let’s attack that position.’ ”

TENNESSEE

Vols’ safety Jonathan Hefney said the Vols are having communication issues in the secondary, primarily before the snap. That leads to incorrect alignment at times, which contributed last Saturday to Alabama receiver DJ Hall’s career day (a school-record 13 catches) and the Crimson Tide’s 363 passing yards. “We just need to communicate more,” Hefney said. “Sometimes you get busted coverages, and it’s from being young. We can’t use that as an excuse. You’ve got to get everything set before the play. You get the (right) signal for the defensive coverage.” Those issues have caused Hefney, a preseason All-American, to struggle at times this season. “It affects me (my play) a little bit, but at the same time, I’m still my own man and I have to take care of my business before I can help anybody else,” Hefney said. “That’s what I’m trying to do now, at the time trying to protect everybody else.” The Vols have forced just nine turnovers on defense, fewer than everyone in the SEC except Florida and Georgia. Only Georgia has fewer interceptions than Tennessee’s five.

VANDERBILT

Vandy punter Brett Upson won the SEC Special Teams Player of the Week award in Monday after averaging 40.1 yards against South Carolina on eight attempts — half of which were downed by Vanderbilt inside the South Carolina 10-yard line. Over the past couple of games, Upson has averaged 41.9 yards per punt to raise his season average to 38.4 — a yard ahead of his mark as a freshman. “I’ve just gotten more confident,” he said. “It all starts with the line — the long-snapper, the guys on the line and the guys out on the corners covering the kick. I just have to worry about kicking it.”