Strange: No secret behind SEC's road warriors

Home isn't so sweet or so safe any more. Barbarians are knocking down the gates.

Tommy Tuberville and Mark Richt look more like golf pros than Viking marauders but you don't want to look out of your luxury suite and see either of them approaching your stadium.

Tuberville's Auburn teams have won 11 of their past 12 SEC road games since the 2004 season began. It would be 12 of 12 if his kicker hadn't missed five field goals in a bizarre overtime loss at LSU in 2005.

Richt is 23-3 at Georgia in opponents' home stadiums, including 3-0 at Neyland Stadium.

"That's tough in this league,'' said UT coach Phillip Fulmer, whose Vols had an impressive run as road warriors

Tennessee was 16-2 in opponents' stadiums from 2001 through 2004. The Vols are 6-6 since.

Richt's Bulldogs have one loss each at Kentucky, Auburn and LSU in his six-plus years. He has the advantage on the other league coaches of never having to play in Gainesville. Richt is only 1-5 against Florida in the annual showdown in neutral Jacksonville.

"I don't think there's any secrets,'' Richt said. "I personally believe the man affected most by a crowd is your quarterback.

"If your quarterback is poised enough to be calm in the storm, you've got a great chance. After that, your line has to be able to handle it, the sheer communication of it.''

Basic communication is key to Tuberville's success.

"Our philosophy is to win on defense and running the football,'' he said. "Playing on the road doesn't bother you on that.

"You don't have a lot of audibles checking off at the line. Defense you can play anywhere; you can play defense out in the parking lot.''

Georgia has won at Alabama this year. Auburn is fresh off a stunning win at Florida. You'd think it took a perfect game to pull the upset in The Swamp, but no.

"We played pretty good, we didn't play great,'' said Tuberville. "We were pretty consistent and that's what it takes on the road. You have to be consistent for four quarters.''

Florida has the toughest road challenge this weekend, going to Baton Rouge to face No. 1-ranked LSU.

The Tigers lead the nation in total defense, rush defense, pass-efficiency defense and are No. 2 in scoring defense, allowing 6.4 points a game.

Furthermore, Tiger Stadium after dark is arguably as hostile as any environment in the nation.

"Maybe there's time for our fans to celebrate getting to their seats,'' said LSU coach Les Miles.

I don't know that it's getting to their seats that they're celebrating but given a whole day to work on it, they're in a festive mood by a night kickoff.

"Their fans are a little above and beyond typical SEC fans,'' said Florida coach Urban Meyer.

Meyer's had pretty good luck at Tiger Stadium. Just not with Florida.

He was a grad assistant when Ohio State got out with a 13-13 tie in 1987. He was an assistant when Notre Dame won there in 1997 and also when Colorado State stunned the Tigers 17-14 in 1992.

Ice The Kicker: Not everyone agreed with Meyer's strategy of calling a timeout right before the snap when Auburn lined up for a game-winning field goal.

Auburn's Wes Byrum made the first attempt at 43 yards, only to have to regroup and kick again because of Meyer's timeout. Byrum made the kick again to win the game.

Fulmer and South Carolina's Steve Spurrier are of like mind.

"It's sort of a 50/50 deal,'' said Spurrier. "If the guy makes the first one it looks like a smart play. If he misses, they're all dejected and walking off the field and they say, 'Wait a minute, the guy gave you another chance.'

"A coach can look smart or look like a dummy.''

Fulmer prefers the kicker have more time to ponder the gravity of the moment.

"You call it earlier and freeze the guy, give him a lot of time to think about it,'' he said. "We'd rather ice the guy for a period of time, particularly if you have more than one timeout.''

Stat Watch: If nothing else, Tennessee is well behaved. The Vols rank No. 1 in the SEC and No. 8 nationally in fewest yards penalized per game (36.25).

Poor punt coverage is a statewide epidemic. Vanderbilt, Memphis and Tennessee are the bottom three in the nation in punt-return defense.

Last Word: Spurrier on the relationship between college athletes and the police:

"Law enforcement was more patient 20 years ago. You can't just run everybody off that gets arrested. It's sort of easy to get arrested now.''

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strange2@knews.com.