Auburn University beat reporter

No time for wit or italicized fonts today. I’m currently courtside at the B-E-MC, ready and waiting for the Auburn women’s basketball team’s home opener against Temple.

While you wait for my hard-hitting post-game analysis, here’s some TNT to chomp on.

Auburn ditches huddle to avoid sign-stealing
Pitchers and catchers don’t receive the same amenities as a quarterback and his bevy of assistants do when it comes to relaying information.

So, in football, having your signs stolen shouldn’t really be an issue. But it’s one of the numerous reasons coach Tommy Tuberville ditched the arm-flailing method of communication brought to the Tigers by Tony Franklin for the old-fashioned huddle technique for Saturday’s game against Georgia.

“You just take too many things for granted that if you’re signaling and people are seeing what you’re doing,” Tuberville said. “When you’re huddling, only 11 people in that huddle know what you’re going to do.”

Tuberville couldn’t pinpoint any examples of supposed sign-stealing.

“As coaches, you’re always wondering why are they slanting this way or doing that,” Tuberville said. “It’s probably not happening but it gives you peace of mind for your players and coaches.”

Since Franklin was fired midway through the season, the Tigers have slowly worked away from his version of the spread and regressed back to the formations and common practices of Tuberville’s teams from the past. But the transition away from the no-huddle was one of the last switches to take place.

The reason for that, Tuberville said, has to do with Kodi Burns, Auburn’s speaker of the huddle.

“There’s not enough time in the day to do it in a four or five day period,” Tuberville said. “We’ve kind of gradually put more on Kodi and he’s done good, done well.”

Lester not in the ‘doghouse’
Tuberville was relatively ambiguous Sunday when discussing the lack of action senior tailback Brad Lester saw in Saturday’s game against Georgia.

Lester, a regular starter, a Georgia native and playing in his final game at Jordan-Hare Stadium, saw time only on special teams, as Mario Fannin and Ben Tate received all the work in the backfield.

Lester has struggled through injuries this season, but it wasn’t a factor in his no-show, Tuberville said.

“He’s not 100 percent, like some of the other ones,” Tuberville said, “but he just didn’t play.”

Asked if Lester was in Tuberville’s “doghouse,” often his euphemism for a suspension, the coach pointed toward Lester’s work Saturday on special teams.

“(When you’re in the) doghouse, you’re locked up,” Tuberville said.

Upset over being idle
You won’t hear many coaches peeved over an extra week of preparation, but Tuberville voiced his displeasure about this week’s bye heading into the Iron Bowl.

“It should be played this week. And I’m sure they’d love to be playing it this week going into the championship game,” Tuberville said, referencing Alabama’s appearance in the SEC Championship the following week. “We’ll rest our guys a little this week and try to get some of those guys a little more healthier that are playing. But it won’t be a lot of difference in who played this week and who’ll play next week.”

Per new SEC rules, no team is allowed to have a bye week heading into the conference championship. Tuberville said he would have liked to explore his options more after the initiative was passed.

“I guess we could have played somebody else but we weren’t given that option,” Tuberville said. “I don’t remember us being given that option, that’s for sure.”

Iron Bowl kickoff time set
CBS announced Monday that it would pick up this year’s Iron Bowl, which slates the game for 2:30 p.m. CT on Nov. 29.

It will mark the second time Auburn plays on CBS this season, the other being Sept. 27, when Auburn beat Tennessee, 14-12, at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The last CBS-broadcast Iron Bowl was in 2006, when Auburn beat the Crimson Tide, 22-15, in Tuscaloosa.

Auburn University beat reporter

As expected, CBS has picked up this year’s Iron Bowl, which slates the game for 2:30 p.m. CT.

This is the second time Auburn has played on CBS this season, the other being Sept. 27, when Auburn and Tennessee set high-scoring football back 20 years in the Tigers’ 14-12 victory. The last CBS-broadcast Iron Bowl was in 2006, when Auburn beat the Tide, 22-15, in Tuscaloosa.

Sports Writer/Designer

The long-delayed promised Auburn-Georgia thoughts are here. I touch on it a bit in tomorrow’s column and in last night’s rankings, but man is Georgia underwhelming.

For years I’ve talked about their lack of intensity and propensity for stupid plays, but actually seeing it in person drove everything home.

They don’t play with any fire in their bellies, they don’t play smart, they commit way too many penalties, they have no killer instinct and they just do everything possible to make you wonder why you believed in them in the first place. And every bit of that goes back to coaching.

I like Mark Richt. I haven’t dealt with him in a professional capacity, but crossed paths with him several times in my younger years and have always been impressed. He’s a super human being and a good offensive mind, but watching his team I really wonder what he’s doing there sometimes.

I mean, Knowshon Moreno seemed like the only one on the entire team holding up his end of the deal.

And I also still don’t get the Matthew Stafford love. He’s got a strong arm, which he showed off on three plays that I can recall, most notably the winning touchdown pass. But he just doesn’t seem all that impressive to me. I’m sure I’ll be proven wrong, as I often am.

It was my third time seeing Auburn play Georgia - incidentally, with all three games coming seven years apart (1994, 2001, 2008). And the teams are now 1-1-1 against each other, with the three games decided by a total of 11 points. A good series, as always.

You can read my Pulitzer-worthy “Best and Worst of the Day” at the end of the notes, although ace Auburn reporter Andrew Gribble’s notes and gamer, as well as sports editor extraordinaire Mike Szvetitz’s column and high school reporter/occasional Auburn dabbler Tom Peavy’s sidebar on Tez Doolittle, would be better reading.

I also went to Auburn’s NCAA tournament loss to Florida State yesterday. You can read my gamer here.

Since the boss has now officially dubbed me Auburn soccer beat writer -

I have proof in this excerpt from an e-mail:

You are now officially the Auburn soccer beat writer. Congrats

- I’m going to have to brush up on the beautiful game between now and August.