• The Snake is an innocent man. A stunning legal development Wednesday out of Alabama:

ROBERTSDALE, Ala. (AP) — Former Alabama and NFL quarterback Ken Stabler has been found not guilty of drunken driving charges in south Alabama.
[...]
After more than three hours of testimony, acting Municipal Judge James Sweet issued his verdict.

"I just don't think the city has met its burden of proof," Sweet said.

The officer in the case said Stabler's "speech was a little bit slurred and I could detect a strong odor of alcohol," and, in the understatement of Roll Bama Roll, Stabler has long been a notorious drinker. This was his third DUI arrest, and he's attributed with the eternal 'Bama lament, "All I wanna do is drive around in my truck and drink Jack Daniels ... and [ex-wives] just don't understand." All told, you might have though just being Ken Stabler was burden of proof in itself. But hey, God bless America. Newly validated, The Snake should be be back in the Tide broadcast booth soon.

• You can't deny what the people want to be true. There was indeed a University of Tennessee plane in Raleigh Sunday, and give us a break with this "U.S.-Japan conference" nonsense. That's awfully close to the new stomping grounds of longtime Vol offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe, who's on the verge of matching Ted Roof's entire four-year win total at Duke in his first year. Why else would a UT plane cross state lines?

Cutcliffe called those rumors "completely silly," but does this sound like a denial?:

“I don’t think anything is going to happen to Coach Fulmer,” Cutclife said of his close friend and former boss. “I’m not even going to speculate on that. He’s such a good friend it would hurt me even to speculate.”

Just like Fulmer was good friends with Johnny Majors and it pained him to take over the job in the middle of the season in 1991, right, coach? Yeah. We read you. Loud and clear.

Meanwhile, back in quasi-reality, desperate measures against Alabama could finally lead to long-rumored shotgun appearance by safety Eric Berry, who played quarterback in high school, has practiced some with UT quarterbacks and said Wednesday he might show up on offense for the first time against the Tide. What Berry brings that the incumbent shotgun scramble specialist, Gerald Jones, doesn't, I don't know, but certainly this is very exciting.

• Just let the man do his job. It's good to see after all these decades that likely JoePa successor Tom Bradley still has the utmost respect for his ailing boss:

With Paterno away from the sideline, Bradley has taken the lead role among the assistants, dealing with officials and penalties and calling timeouts. He also took the lead when Paterno missed time with a broken leg two years ago.
[...]
“He’s right there on the headset,” Bradley said. “The only difference is that when he’s on the field and he wants to get you, he’s right there. When he’s in the box and he’s yelling, you can always pretend you didn’t here [sic] what he said. ‘Hey coach you’re breaking up.’"

This is why there's no hurry for the legend to step aside. They just need to get those darn headsets working!

Quickly ... West Virginia has no idea what to expect from Auburn's offense tonight in Morgantown. . . . Stalking Colt McCoy's girlfriend with Deadspin, and Colt says he'll be back for his senior year at Texas, if that was actually in question. . . . USC's Damien Williams is playing against Arizona, no matter what doctors, coaches or anyone else says. Plus a quick look at the motley collection of quarterbacks that have lined up across from the Trojans in the first six games. . . . A knee injury gave Tyson Lee has an easy out, but Mississippi State's quarterback took full responsibility for the killer interceptions against Tennessee. . . . Mike Ditka has a few ideas for making the game safer at Pitt's practice. . . . And say what you will about Cincinnati QB Tony Pike, but even Brett Favre never played with a broken arm.