COLLEGE FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK: Not so happy return for Tide's Lowe
Saturday's game provided the first opportunity for Jonathan Lowe to return to Starkville since the former Mississippi State return specialist elected to transfer to Alabama in 2006.
"It brought back some memories," the Phenix City native admitted. "It brought a little fight out in me, trying to prove a point, trying to get my point across. But it was a great atmosphere, a great turnout. Those guys played a heck of a game."
Earlier in the week, Lowe was vague about the reasons that brought about his transfer, only saying he was not dismissed from the team. He said he did not speak to head coach Sylvester Croom after the game.
"Not at all," he said. "I talked to one player, Jamayel Smith, just because our people were leaving the field. I just wanted to stay with my team. I didn't have time to talk to anyone."
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Very little options: John Parker Wilson's game-changing interception at the end of the first half was an attempt by the junior to throw the ball away under pressure. Because his team had just used its last timeout, Wilson could not have taken a sack and had time for another play, causing some reporters to ask head coach Nick Saban whether he should have burned the Crimson Tide's final timeout with 21 seconds remaining or attempted to run another play while conserving the timeout.
"What would you do different?" Saban shot back. "We had enough timeouts to run every play that we could've run. You think if we would've had a timeout, he wouldn't have thrown it to them? If we had blocked the play right on second down, we would've scored then.
"We had the ball on the one and a half-yard line and we're a pretty good short-yardage team. We played it the way we planned to play it. I guess we could've done it your way and run the ball again, but we didn't have much success running it the first two times because we didn't block it right."
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Not so picky: Rashad Johnson intercepted his Southeastern Conference leading sixth interception early in the game, but dropped two others during the contest, including one in the second half in Mississippi State territory that was thrown directly to him.
Johnson didn't speak with reporters after the game but senior cornerback Simeon Castille defended his teammate.
"He's got six on the year and he's one of our sure-handed guys," Castille said. "If you see him around the ball, you're like, here comes an interception. But you can't catch all of them. It happens. We definitely wish he would've caught it."
-- Tim Gayle
AUBURN
AUBURN -- Tommy Tuberville wants his players to forget about Auburn's weekend loss to Georgia.
The Auburn coach is giving them a rare two-day respite from practice.
The Tigers weren't required to engage in any football-related activity on Sunday. The team will hold a series of film studies today before resuming practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
"We just need to get these guys away from everybody for a few days," Tuberville said. "We've got to come back and bounce back. That's what you've got to do in sports in anything in life. You're going to have down times like this.
"We haven't had many, but this one's obviously one were very disappointed with, as was the Georgia game last year. We bounced back, and this year we've got to bounce back again."
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Line switch: Freshman Ryan Pugh returned to the starting lineup for the first time in a month Saturday, regaining his spot at left tackle.
He eventually was replaced by senior King Dunlap, though struggles weren't to blame.
"Ryan played fairly well. His strength started giving out on him, and (assistant coach Hugh Nall) went with King," Tuberville said. "It was good to get him back out there, get him back in the rotation. It builds a little more depth for us."
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Injury report: Auburn players suffered no significant injuries during their loss to Georgia, which gave Tuberville reason to smile on Sunday.
He said the two players who missed the game, linebacker Craig Stevens (foot) and tailback Tristan Davis (foot), are expected to be ready for Alabama.
Both were in Athens. Neither was cleared to play.
"He's running full speed, straight ahead. He's got to work some soreness out on his cuts," Tuberville said of Davis. "He's starting to look pretty good, but I want him to be 100 percent this time. He's a speed guy. He needs his legs and speed to make it work for him. We're not going to rush him. I think he's got a great chance to be back on the practice field by the end of the week."
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No change: Tuberville said Cox's four-interception performance never put the quarterbacks status in jeopardy at Georgia.
Freshman Kodi Burns, who typically handles a few snaps each game, didn't play against the Bulldogs.
"He wasn't ready for that one, what they were doing on defense and the speed they've got," Tuberville said. "Kodi's more of a speed guy, so he wasn't ready for last night. Then we got into a throwing game and Brandon's the best guy we've got throwing the football, by far. We're trying to give ourselves the best chance to win."
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