Road stretch worries Tuberville

HOOVER, Ala. — Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville is looking for a few good men.

A few good salesmen, actually.

With a brutal four-game stretch in the middle of the season that includes trips to Florida, Arkansas and LSU, Tuberville will be counting on veterans to perform a bit of a pregame hard sell.

“Your older guys on the team have to be good salesmen to your younger guys in the dressing room of, ‘Hey we can win this game on the road,’” Tuberville said during Wednesday’s opening day of interviews at SEC Media Days in suburban Birmingham.

That four-game stretch certainly has the look of a make-or-break run.

After opening with four straight games at home, Auburn travels to defending national champion Florida on Sept. 29. The next week, Auburn hosts Vanderbilt.

But on Oct. 13, the Tigers travel to Arkansas. Then on Oct. 20, it’s a slugfest at LSU in a game that traditionally goes a long way in determining the SEC West champion.

But if there’s one thing Tuberville has proved at Auburn, it’s that his Tigers can win on the road.

The last three seasons alone, Auburn has gone 11-1 away from Jordan-Hare Stadium. The lone loss came at LSU in 2005.

“I learned that years ago from the coaches I worked with that if you go and play the same type of philosophy on the road that you play at home, you’re going to end up short,” he said.

“This league’s fun when you play in these different stadiums. They’re all hostile environments. If you can win on the road, that means you’ve got a really good football team.”

SEC’s 75th: Commissioner Mike Slive officially kicked off the SEC’s 75th anniversary in his opening comments.

Slive showed the media a short video of its “75 Stories of Character” marketing campaign.

Six former Tennessee athletes will be featured in the mixed media campaign: Catherine Byrne Maloney (swimming), Charles Davis (football), Benita Fitzgerald Mosley (track), Jenny McGrath Weaver (swimming), Heath Shuler (football) and Tim Townes (football).

Townes, a medical researcher and chairman/professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at UAB, will be featured in a television spot.

Each of the 12 SEC schools will be featured in a TV spot during sports broadcasts in the 2007-08 season.

Prominent alumni or citizens will narrate the TV vignettes for their respective school or state.

Former UT quarterback Peyton Manning will narrate the Townes spot.

Vintage Ball Coach: South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier, responding to a question about Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson, dished out that vintage back-handed compliment.

Two of them, actually.

“We thought we did something big beating Clemson, then Kentucky beat them also,” Spurrier said. “At one point in the year they (Clemson) were a dang good team. I don’t know exactly what happened to them, but they didn’t finish very well.”

No mention of coloring books or the Citrus Bowl, though.

NBA Ripples: Spurrier called the ongoing scandal involving an NBA official accused of betting on games a “a good scare that will help every sport.”

Of course, Spurrier’s response also drew plenty of chuckles from the assembled print media.

“I’ve probably been accused of saying something like that a couple of times,” he said. “We’ll all have to be careful now of not saying, ‘It appeared that guy had money on the game.’

“There’s been a few lousily called games that deserved an investigation.”

Nutt’s Offseason: Arkansas’ offseason should have been spent reveling in a surprise SEC West championship.

But Razorbacks coach Houston Nutt instead found himself facing a tumultuous offseason that featured a fan’s open records inquiry revealing more than 1,000 text messages to a female news anchor, the transfer of two highly touted players to Southern California and a fan-commissioned approval poll.

“The toughest thing is your family,” said Nutt, who is entering his 10th year with the Razorbacks. “The reason you’re able to go home at night, look your children in the eye, look your wife in the eye is because, see, they know the truth. Our players know the truth. That’s why I’m still here today.”

SEC TV? Slive said he’ll be closely watching the success of television networks started by the Big Ten and Mountain West conferences before deciding whether to pursue a network devoted to SEC sports.

“Our presidents and chancellors and athletic directors have authorized us to continue to explore the viability of an SEC network,” Slive said. “We are keeping an eye on the progress that each is making.”

Drew Edwards covers University of Tennessee football. He may be reached at 865-342-6274.