• At least somebody's backing him up. The Birmingham News' Kevin Scarbinsky thinks Tommy Tuberville sounds like a beaten man after Auburn's loss at Ole Miss, the Tigers' fourth in a row, and third straight since dumping offensive coordinator Tony Franklin:

"What happens at the end of the year happens, and there's nothing anybody can do about it," Tuberville said.

Well, technically, athletic director Jay Jacobs can do something about it, if he's so inclined, although he'd have to answer to cornerback Walter McFadden, who emphatically backed Tuberville from the deck of the sinking ship. The coach, meanwhile, caught the end of Texas Tech's win over Texas, and couldn't help but notice the difference between the Raiders' completely in-sync spread and his own: Kodi Burns threw a very Tech-like 43 passes for 319 yards, for a very Brandon Cox-like three interceptions and no touchdowns.

• Talkin' 'bout practice. Speaking of Texas Tech's passing game, Graham Harrell told ABCSPN he and Michael Crabtree practiced the death-defying route into double coverage that won the biggest game in Raider history "all the time," and defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill can vouch for that:

"They work on that throw to the back shoulder all the time. Matter of fact, this summer I saw Graham (Harrell) and Crab work on it while I was doing the StairMaster (that overlooks the Tech practice fields) for an hour - for an hour - just an out cut, fade, either fade over the top or fade throw back (shoulder). I don’t know how many routes they ran, but that’s a lot of routes."

Here's the really probing question: Ruffin McNeill spends an hour on a StairMaster?

• No hard feelings. Just wait till next year. Payback? Running it up? Padding the stats? No, no, no. Urban Meyer called those late timeouts with a huge lead against Georgia just to, you know, give Emmanuel Moody a little work:

"What was the deal?," Meyer said, repeating the question. "Moody was running the ball real hard and I wanted to get him a couple of more carries. He deserved it."

The Florida media laughed in scoff.

"It seemed like you might have been trying to rub it in there," one reporter said.

"No," Meyer replied. "Just trying to win the game."

Mark Richt can't argue with that, although he was a little sick about how the afternoon went down, overall. Matt Stafford wasn't feeling too good, either.

• When Hackett's around, Garcia goes down, one way or another. Wilbur Hackett Jr., former Kentucky captain and Umpire of Infamy after taking down Stephen Garcia three weeks ago in the most-watched Web clip of the year, was back in Columbia for the Gamecocks' win over Tennessee. Referee and quarterback shared a laugh before the game, which Garcia eloquently recollected for The State:

"Before the game, he was like, 'Hey what’s up man,'" Garcia said. "I said, 'Sorry about all that crazy stuff that happened.' He’s like, 'Hey it’s over now.' So we're cool about it."

Then Garcia was all like, "Oh no, I totally hyperextended my knee chasing Eric Berry after an interception." Steve Spurrier thinks his quarterback will be OK, but the ever-vigilant Chris Smelley is warming up extra hard, just in case.

Quickly ... California's Kevin Riley got up woozy and left the game after a hit against Oregon and still has to undergo tests to determine if his fragile brain is okay for USC. ... Tennessee offensive lineman Ramon Foster has started 22 straight games but is questionable against Wyoming with a concussion, and Vol running back Montario Hardesty is banded up, again. ... Colorado freshman running back Rodney Stewart is out until a bowl game, at the earliest, if the Buffs can even get into one. ... Pete Carroll finds humor in everything, even USC dropping two spots in the BCS following its third shutout win in four games. ... Hey Pitt may have a winner in this Bostick kid. (LeSean McCoy's a nice bonus, too). ... And Bill Stewart does his best Don Rickles while imploring pollsters to leave streaking West Virginia out of the top-25, where all its troubles began in September: "We were ranked all right -- we were rank."