LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -Now that Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson has climbed back into the Heisman Trophy race by leading the Wildcats to a win over LSU, coach Rich Brooks knows there’s only one way for his quarterback to stay there.
“Promotion ends up on the field in his numbers and our winning,” Brooks said. “If we continue to beat the people we’re beating, Andre Woodson is right at the first discussion in every Heisman ballot, and he should be. So we just have to keep going.”
After a disappointing performance on Oct. 4 at South Carolina, Woodson responded in Kentucky’s 43-37 triple-overtime victory over LSU last Saturday. Woodson threw for 250 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winner to Steve Johnson as the Wildcats beat a No. 1 team for the first time in 43 years.
Woodson will be in the spotlight again on Saturday when the eighth-ranked Wildcats (6-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) host No. 14 Florida (4-2, 2-2).
“Andre Woodson was not in the conversation when we started the year,” Brooks said. “He’s in every conversation now, as he deserves to be.”
Brooks said the practice of schools sending out promotional material to help a player’s chance to win the award has been made unnecessary by advances in technology.
“I think the old days of sending out mailers in September and August and everything to promote a guy for the Heisman when nobody could pick up on the internet and see things and watch highlights on ESPN and get the talking heads doing all of their updates every week, those days are gone,” Brooks said. “The Heisman is decided by what you do every week on the field these days.”
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MEMORIES: Alabama coach Nick Saban has vivid memories from the last time one of his teams played Tennessee. It was the 2001 SEC championship game, when Saban’s LSU Tigers had to play most of the game with backup quarterback Matt Mauck.
Mostly he remembers his own “stupid, stupid decision” to go for it on fourth-and-inches from the LSU 22 in the first half. Rohan Davey, who later left with bruised ribs, fumbled the snap on a quarterback sneak and the play went for no gain.
“The rest of the quarter I was kind of shocked,” Saban said. “I thought I had done a horrible thing, made a horrible coaching error. Just absolutely gave a team an opportunity by making a stupid, stupid decision.”
Then, the LSU defense stiffened up and the 21st-ranked Tigers beat the second-ranked Vols 31-20, upsetting the national championship picture.
“The seniors came up to me after the game. I thought I’d made the dumbest coaching decision and was ready to apologize to the team for it even though we’d won the game,” he said. “Before I did it, they came up me and said, ‘Coach, we didn’t think we could win this game. When you went for it on fourth-and-inches in the second quarter, that made us think that you thought we could beat them.’
“Sometimes what seems like a really dumb thing – which it still was dumb – turns out to be pretty good.”
The Tide plays No. 20 Tennessee on Saturday.
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NO SITTING OUT: Arkansas receiver Marcus Monk appears unlikely to redshirt.
Arkansas coach Houston Nutt said Tuesday that Monk will attempt to play in this weekend’s game at Mississippi. The 6-foot-6 senior injured his knee in August and didn’t play a down until a brief appearance in last weekend’s loss to Auburn.
“(Marcus) really wants to play,” Nutt said. “He doesn’t want to redshirt, he wants to play. So he’s going to do everything he can do to be on the field Saturday and that’s the way he’s approaching it.”
Nutt said after Monk’s brief appearance against Auburn that he could still redshirt according to the rules.
Monk, the Razorbacks’ career leader in touchdown catches, caught 50 passes for 962 yards and 11 touchdowns last season.
The Razorbacks’ passing game has struggled this year, in part because of injuries to Monk, tight end Ben Cleveland and receiver Crosby Tuck. Arkansas is 11th in the Southeastern Conference with 162 yards passing per game.
Nutt said earlier in the week he’d like Monk to play – but was concerned about how healthy the receiver would be if he decided to come back.
“What you don’t want to get into – you just don’t want one game out of the deal, or two games,” Nutt said Monday. “For the second half of the season, you’d like to think we could get the majority of that.”
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HERO ROBBED: Georgia kicker Brandon Coutu made the game-winning field goal at Vanderbilt on Saturday and returned home to fine burglars had broken into his Athens home, taking his personal computer, TV and other items.
Among the items taken were gifts given to players from the SEC championship game and bowl trips.
On Tuesday, Coutu said he had “no expectation” of having any of the items replaced.
“I think it was just a typical break-in,” Coutu said. “I don’t know if they knew whose house it was. I don’t think they were expecting to get this much publicity out of it.”
Coutu said he and his father, Ron Coutu, who owns the house, decided to make the break-in public in hopes that news coverage and the investigation by Athens-Clarke County police might help prevent future break-ins.
Coutu, a senior sociology major, is having to replace some of his schoolwork stored on the hard drive of his computer. Otherwise, he said, “Everything is as normal as it can be.”
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HONORS: Kentucky QB Andre Woodson was the SEC offensive player of the week after throwing three touchdowns passes and leading the Wildcats to a 43-37 triple-overtime victory over LSU.
Auburn linebacker Tray Blackmon, playing his first game since spraining his ankle in the opening week of the season, was the defensive player of the week. He made nine tackles and the Tigers beat Arkansas 9-7.
Alabama returner Javier Arenas was the special teams player of the week for taking two punts back for 71 yards in a 27-24 victory over Ole Miss. He also had 93 yards on four punt returns.
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