SEC East: Calling Mr. Goodwrench

This is why he's Steve Spurrier, and you're not Before South Carolina ran a third-and-goal play in the fourth quarter in a 16-15 upset at Tennessee on Saturday, Carolina coach Steve Spurrier called back-to-back timeouts. Why? He wanted to get the correct personnel on the field. It worked. When play resumed, quarterback Blake Mitchell zipped a 5-yard touchdown pass to Sidney Rice. "I'm a big believer in using your timeouts when you need a moment to say, 'Hey, let's find the best play possible,'" Spurrier said. "I like to call one when you sort of get stuck down there in the red zone."... First, it was Auburn's dependable John Vaughn missing five field goals in a 20-17 overtime loss at LSU on Oct. 22. On Saturday, Georgia placekicker Brandon Coutu missed two field goals in a 14-10 loss to Florida after hitting 11 straight entering the game. Coutu was kicking into wind that gusted up to 30 miles per hour, but he didn't use that as an excuse. "I cost us the game," he said. "That was six points right there. Put it on my shoulders. I can take it."

Shifting gearsSo how did Florida beat Georgia on Saturday? Since the Gators knew Georgia QB D.J. Shockley was out with a knee injury, they thought the best and safest way to beat the Bulldogs was to go to conservative. That meant first-year Florida coach Urban Meyer ditching his spread option offense. The Gators had two running backs in the backfield many times, used a lot of two-tight end sets and had few three wideout formations. Quarterback Chris Leak threw shorter, quicker passes, and he didn't take a physical beating. Meyer finally realized that his spread option was getting swallowed by the SEC's fast defenses. "What we did is evaluate the SEC," Meyer said. "This is as new to me as being satisfied with scoring two touchdowns or trying to score three touchdowns in a game. I'm not comfortable with that, but I am comfortable with winning and putting your players in the best possible position to win. So that means being much more conservative."