THE BIG STORY

Two head coaches known for their high-powered offenses have emerged as potential candidates to replace Houston Nutt, who was criticized during his tenure at Arkansas for being too conservative with his playcalling.

A source familiar with the situation told the Northwest Arkansas Times on Tuesday that Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin could be a good fit for the Razorbacks. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Kiffin has wanted to coach at the college level.

Kiffin is in his first season with the Raiders, but there is talk that he might be unhappy with the situation. Oakland is 3-8 this season, and the team has had quarterback issues despite using its first overall pick last April to draft former LSU signal-caller JaMarcus Russell.

Kiffin is no stranger to Arkansas. His father, Monte Kiffin, served as a defensive coordinator on Lou Holtz’ staff from 1977-79.

In addition, Kiffin was the offensive coordinator at the University of Southern California when the Trojans routed the Hogs 70-17 in 2005 and then 50-14 in Reynolds Razorback Stadium a year ago.

Kiffin, whose job security with the Raiders has been questioned as recently as last week, signed a three-year contract with Oakland in January.

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, known for his record-breaking, pass-friendly offense, has also been mentioned as a possible candidate to replace Nutt.

Leach, a former Kentucky assistant coach, has also been rumored to be interested in taking over at UCLA if coach Karl Dorrell is fired.

Incoming Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long, who will officially assume control when Frank Broyles retires at the end of the year, is handling the national search to find Nutt’s replacement.

But Long has remained quiet since Nutt announced Monday night that he was resigning after 10 seasons at Arkansas because the intense scrutiny from fans was taking a toll on his family.

Nutt reportedly agreed to a contract late Monday night to be Ole Miss’ new coach, and he will be introduced at a news conference today in Oxford, Miss.

Long, meanwhile, attended Nutt’s farewell news conference, but he was not made available to the media. He didn’t speak with reporters Tuesday, either.

Though his last day on the job is not until Dec. 31, Broyles said he will not have a part in looking for Arkansas’ next coach.

“I don’t think that I will be asked. I don’t think that I’ll be included in anything,” Broyles said Tuesday. “I think that’s the proper way to do it.”

Broyles declined to comment when asked if he would like to be involved in the search to find Nutt’s replacement.

Jim Lindsey, a high-profile member of Arkansas’ Board of Trustees, said Tuesday that he also won’t be involved in the coaching search. In the past, Lindsey has had a say in other Arkansas athletic issues.

“I’m going to sit back, and if I’m asked at the highest level, I’ll give my opinion,” Linsey said. “I’m not just going to talk about it (with Long).”

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THE BIG STORY

Texas A&M appears to have bypassed Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville in its search for a new football coach.

Two Texas newspapers reported that Houston Texans assistant Mike Sherman was the leading candidate for the job and could be hired within days. Sherman declined to comment to reporters after his team’s loss to the Cleveland Browns Sunday.

Tuberville had been pegged as a top candidate for the job for almost a month, and his refusal to squelch the rumors until recently raised questions about his future at Auburn.

Tuberville, who coached Auburn to its school-record sixth consecutive Iron Bowl win on Saturday, told the Mobile Register he plans to meet with Auburn Athletic Director Jay Jacobs today to discuss a range of post-season issues.

“It’ll be talk about the season and, of course, the president will evaluate our performance,” Tuberville said. “I’ll make some recommendations and we’ll go from there.”

Tuberville declined to elaborate on what the “recommendations” might entail.

Jacobs said this week’s meeting would be a “normal, year-end” chat to discuss “where we are and where we think we’re going.”

The two parties might also discuss a contract extension for Tuberville, who signed a seven-year, $18 million deal after the 2004 season.

Tuberville will make an average of $3.1 million over the four remaining years of the contract, putting him among the best-compensated coaches in the nation, but still well below Alabama coach Nick Saban’s contract that is worth $4 million annually.

Tuberville may have lost leverage in his negotiations when the rumors linking him to the A&M job stopped abruptly. The Houston Chronicle and the Austin American Statesman reported Sunday that Sherman is the top candidate to replace Dennis Franchione, who resigned as head coach after the Aggies defeated Texas Friday.

The Chronicle said the hire could be made as early as today, and quoted an anonymous source as saying that Tuberville was never a serious candidate. Tuberville said Sunday he had not spoken with Texas A&M and had no plans to do so.

Jacobs said Saturday that he believes Tuberville put the issue to rest a week ago, when the coach said he would remain at Auburn “as long as they want me.”

“I think when it first started happening, he just said, ‘It seems like every year, I get caught in one of these things,’” said Jacobs, referring to the coaching rumors. “I think when it didn’t die down, he finally said, ‘You know what, I’m just going to come out and put an end to all this.’ That’s what he did last week, when he said, ‘I want to be here.’”

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THE BIG STORY

The national media took aim at Alabama coach Nick Saban on Tuesday for an analogy comparing Alabama’s loss to Louisiana-Monroe with “catastrophic” historical events like the 9-11 terrorist attacks and Pearl Harbor during his Monday press conference.

Saban’s comments were the lead story on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” which played video footage of his statements and then cut to a segment with hosts of the network’s “Pardon the Interruption” show.

Michael Wilbon, a columnist with Washington Post, referred to Saban’s statements as “infuriating.”
“He is not a stupid man,” Wilbon said. “He is a very bright guy, or at least it seems that way. Yet to make these comments, to go on in paragraph form and talk about this stuff, you want to start screaming at him from the back room, ‘Hey, shut up! Do you know what you are saying?’”

Alabama safety Rashad Johnson said Saban made the analogies while speaking to players about the three-game losing streak.

“He gives examples to us that helps us to relate to them,” said Johnson, who added that, “It’s getting blown a little bit too much out of proportion. When it was brought up to us, he was basically having a speech about adversity.”

Saban did not address his statement Tuesday.

ESPN.com posted a poll asking readers if they were offended by the comments. As of Tuesday night, almost 15,000 had responded, with more than 61 percent voting no.

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THE BIG STORY

The Birmingham News writes that Tommy Tuberville, whose name has been linked to a possible coaching change at Texas A&M, said Monday he has no plans to leave Auburn for another school.

“We’re going to be at Auburn as long as they want us here,” he said Monday in his most definitive statement so far after weeks of news reports that Texas A&M might make a play for him.

Tuberville’s comments, a splash during an Iron Bowl week that will culminate with Saturday night’s game against Alabama, came before next week’s meeting between the head coach and Athletics Director Jay Jacobs. The two will also meet with university President Jay Gouge in a standard season-ending review accorded all Auburn coaches.

That meeting will touch on Tuberville’s vision for improvements in the athletic facilities as well as new contracts for his assistant coaches. Also on the table will be a contract extension for Tuberville.

Jacobs will make a recommendation on the proposals to Gouge in the days following their joint meeting. Tuberville said he has kept Jacobs and others apprised of his situation.

“As I’ve told them, I love Auburn and I love the Auburn people,” Tuberville said. “They’ve done a lot for me, and I hope we’ve done a lot for them. We’re going to be at Auburn as long as they want us here. We’re fired up about that.”

Tuberville is in the third year of a seven-year contract that pays him $2.6 million this season. He’s scheduled to make $2.8 million next year.

Media reports in Texas say A&M coach Dennis Franchione could be replaced after posting a 31-28 record in five seasons, and they have consistently listed Tuberville, a former A&M defensive coach, as a candidate to replace him, citing sources connected to A&M. Franchione’s final regular season game is against rival Texas on Friday.

Tuberville is gearing up for his archrival game against Alabama this weekend when he will try to become the first coach in Auburn history to beat the Crimson Tide six straight times.

He’s 6-2 against the Tide and his overall record at Auburn is 78-33. He has won nine of his past 12 games against Top 10 opponents, but has lost his past two against LSU and Georgia. No. 25 Auburn is 7-4 this season. Tuberville said his success against Alabama has not been discussed with his players in the past two weeks.

“I think that’s great talk for the fans, but it’s overblown,” he said. “I haven’t heard one word (from the players) about us winning so many games or what this would mean to add on to it. There’s no talk about it. They could really care less about what happened last year. This is a totally different team.”

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THE BIG STORY

It’s official. The University of Michigan has an opening for a football coach, and LSU coach Les Miles’ name is everywhere around it.

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr told the Associated Press on Sunday that he would be announcing his retirement at a news conference this morning, which is two days after signs asking for Miles to return to Michigan were displayed around Ann Arbor, Mich., as Ohio State and Michigan ended the season.

ESPN has mentioned several times that Miles, who played at Michigan in the mid-1970s and coached there as an assistant twice, is the top candidate.

Miles’ agent George Bass of Dallas, however, told Gannett Louisiana Sunday night that there has been no contact between the two parties.

Bass has been representing Miles since Miles left an assistant coaching job with the Dallas Cowboys after the 2000 season to become Oklahoma State’s head coach. Bass negotiated Miles’ contract with Oklahoma State and his contract at LSU when Miles became the Tigers’ coach after the 2004 season. Bass was part of the negotiations that saw LSU athletic director Skip Bertman place a clause in the contract that states Miles must pay LSU $1.25 million should he accept the head coaching job at Michigan. There is no such buyout if Miles goes to any other school.

Bertman did not return calls to his cellular phone on Sunday night. He said in a previous interview that LSU is a better place to coach football than is Michigan.

“Quite honestly, this is a better school to be the football coach at than most schools in the United States,” Bertman said on Sept. 10 after speculation intensified of Carr’s impending departure because of season-opening losses to Appalachian State and Oregon. “It’s in a great community. And you don’t have to worry about an Ohio State here. Of all the schools in the United States, LSU can lock up every kid in (its state).”

Bertman said then he figured Michigan would likely call for Miles.

“They might call,” he said at the time. “I don’t know. I’ll worry about that when the time comes.”

Associate athletic director Herb Vincent was contacted Sunday night but referred questions to Bertman.

Miles usually speaks with reporters on Sunday nights in a lounge in the football facility, but he told LSU sports information director Michael Bonnette that he canceled that because of the short week of preparation for the Tigers’ next game against Arkansas.

No. 1 LSU (10-1) hosts Arkansas (7-4) on Friday at 1:30 p.m. on CBS. The Tigers remained at No. 1 in all the polls Sunday afternoon, including the Bowl Championship Series rankings that decide the teams that play in the BCS national championship

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THE BIG STORY

The Birmingham News reported that Alabama and Clemson are closing in on agreement to open next football season with an Aug. 30 game at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.

Parties would like to have the deal announced before this year’s Dec. 1 SEC Championship Game, according to Gary Stokan, president of the Atlanta Sports Council.

“We’re still trying to work schedules,” Stokan said Wednesday. “I think it will work out, but there’s nothing to report yet.”

Talks began before the regular season but were delayed by several factors. First among them: A contract was already in place to hold the Corky Kell Classic, an annual series of Georgia high school games, that weekend at the Georgia Dome.

Alabama was also tentatively set to host Division I-AA Western Kentucky that opening weekend. An agreement with Clemson would force the Crimson Tide to reschedule the WKU game or find another home opponent.

UTEP backed out of a scheduled October visit due to the connections with coach Mike Price. Tulane and Northern Illinois are the other expected non-conference games on Alabama’s 2008 schedule, which has not been released to the public. UA athletics director Mal Moore has maintained for months that a deal was close with Clemson. First-year coach Nick Saban has said he would like one high-profile non-conference opponent each year. Alabama lost to Florida State in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 29.

Stokan said there are no plans to change the proposed teams or the date of the Alabama-Clemson matchup.

“That’s what we’re working for, that Aug. 30 date,” said Stokan, who added, “At this juncture, to play a game in 2008 with the schedules the way they are, I think it would have to be those two teams.”

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THE BIG STORY

Win out and Tennessee’s bowl destination is simple. The Vols would be the SEC champion representative in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 1.

Lose the SEC championship game to LSU, which has secured the SEC West title, and the Vols likely would be headed back to Atlanta for the Chick-fil-A Bowl on Dec. 31.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl would prefer to land Alabama from the SEC, a source close to the bowl told the Knoxville News Sentinel. That looks unlikely since the Chik-fil-A holds the fourth SEC bowl pick and must take the championship game loser if that team is still available.

Assuming LSU wins out, the Tigers will play in the national championship game. Then, the Capital One Bowl would have the first pick among the remaining teams. Georgia and Florida likely would be the top choices. The Outback Bowl would then have the next pick.

The winner of the Auburn-Alabama game seems likely to end up in the Cotton Bowl. That would leave UT in position to play in the Chick-fil-A, formerly the Peach Bowl.

That could change if the Outback or Cotton decide to exercise their mandatory selection of an SEC championship game loser.

Those two bowls, along with the Capital One and Chick-fil-A, must take the SEC championship game loser at least once in a four-year cycle. Capital One did so last year when it selected Arkansas.

The Outback seems an unlikely destination for UT since the Vols played there last year, losing to Penn State 20-10. It’s rare that the Cotton elects to take a team from the SEC East because of proximity.

The Cotton Bowl has picked only two SEC East teams in the past nine years, both times UT (2001 and 2005).

The best chance for UT to move up in the bowl pecking order would be for Georgia to win out and receive an at-large selection from a BCS bowl. That could open the door for UT to play in the Capital One, although that still seems unlikely with nearby Florida in line.

The Chick-fil-A views UT as an appealing selection if Alabama is not available, the source said, despite the fact UT played poorly in its last two trips there. The Vols lost to Clemson, 27-14, following the 2003 season and fell to Maryland, 30-3, in 2002.

If UT doesn’t win out and plays in the SEC championship game, the Chick-fil-A Bowl still is possible, although the slide would likely be to the Music City Bowl in Nashville or the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.

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