Interesting Tidbits after Furman

Poll talk, bowl talk, Saban kisses butt talk. In other words, your Monday ‘bits sir.

• Auburn has jumped back into the Coaches’ poll at 25th. They remain unranked in the AP and Harris polls though (both 27th, if you’re wondering). I’ve heard many people ask why the Tigers moved back into the polls after beating a team like Furman. Well, they were around 28th last week, seven ranked teams lost, and three dropped out. So that’s why.
• CollegeFootballNews.com moved the Tigers up a spot, but the love that was there earlier this season isn’t quite as strong right now.
• CBS Sports has the Tigers ranked as well.
• Chris Low bumps Auburn up a spot or so in his Power Rankings, but still has the Tigers ranked below Tennessee. I don’t care how well they have played. They have a worse record AND lost to the Tigers. If two teams are close enough to put them side by side in the rankings, head-to-head should be the deciding factor.
• In bowl-talk, Low puts Auburn in the Cotton Bowl.
• Mark Schlabach puts the Tigers in the Cotton as well, but Bruce Feldman has them in the Capital One Bowl.
• Right now, I would be very happy with the Cotton Bowl. They have moved it to a 1pm CST kickoff rather than the usual 11 am slot, and Auburn would play a decent Oklahoma State team or some other upper Big 12 team. The Capital One Bowl is the higher bowl, but the Tigers would play Iowa or some other boring Big 10 team.
• Auburn still needs a steady punt returner. Word is that Anthony Gulley was catching punts in practice yesterday. You’ll remember that he was the punt returner earlier in the season, but was booted because he couldn’t hang on to the ball. I guess his unexpected two-touchdown performance from Saturday put his name in a positive light for the coaches.
• Memphis has fired their head coach, Tommy West, and some of their fans want Trooper Taylor. Too bad he said this months ago.
• The Auburn-Georgia game will be played this Saturday at 6pm CST as we all knew, but ESPN has decided to put it on ESPN2 to make room for the Alabama-Mississippi State game on ESPN. This marks the second time this season that an Auburn game has been pushed to the “Deuce” for a Mississippi State game. In fact, both of Auburn’s games were/are against teams that would be considered two of their major rivals. The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry has been snubbed for Bama-State. What has this world come to?
• In other news, Nick Saban loves SEC officials. I wonder why. What if LSU intercepted that pass and came back to win the game? Even though they would be wrong, Bama fans and Saban would be all over the SEC, blasting the officials that overturned the call. There would probably be pitchforks and torches outside Mike Slive’s house minutes after the game. Gah, they are so predictable.