College Sports

TALLADEGA — Funny thing about life in Alabama.

You can try to immerse yourself in a NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway, but you still think about college football.

NASCAR, after all, is more than the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. It's a spread-offense term, and the spread is a sore subject in Auburn today.

The spread amped Auburn fans when NASCAR came to Talladega for the spring race. As of Sunday's Amp Energy 500, the feeling had taken a right turn into Talladega's tri-oval wall.

The transition from "Tailback U" to "Spread Eagle" has gone over like a chain-reaction crash, and it has all but knocked Auburn out of the SEC West Division race.

A race Auburn was picked to win.

Now, Auburn fans that once did Carl Edwards backflips for the spread brood like Tony Stewart on a bad day. And like it was with Stewart around NASCAR's midseason, loud talk of change surrounds Auburn.

If Auburn's season were a race car, then it would be a rolling mass of tape and dinged sheet metal, limping back onto the track. The "08" on the crash-scraped side looks like an "03".

And now to other midseason observations … with no promise to red flag NASCAR puns.

Tide still have inside position to Miami

Alabama has had two yellow caution flags this season, and both followed their best games.

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Slideshow Alabama vs. Kentucky Auburn vs. Vanderbilt Jacksonville State vs. Southeast Missouri State

It didn't cost the Tide against Tulane, which followed the Tide's 34-10 rout of then-No. 9 Clemson.

But for an unforced fumble that bounced to Rolando McClain for a touchdown Saturday, a sub-par showing could have cost Alabama against Kentucky.

A loss to Kentucky following a 41-30 season accelerator at then-No. 3 Georgia would have sent Alabama into its open week feeling like it had lost the draft.

As it stands, Alabama held track position … still No. 2 in the Associated Press poll, No. 4 in the USA Today poll and No 3 in the Harris Interactive poll.

The USA Today and Harris polls factors in the Bowl Championship Series standings.

A team that was predicted to win seven, maybe eight games is running strong at 6-0, 3-0 in SEC play.

Do two sub-par games after two breakthrough victories make reason for alarm?

Probably not, since Alabama's schedule staggers the Tide's toughest opponents. The scariest two-game stretch left on Alabama's schedule involves Ole Miss and Tennessee, and Alabama gets Ole Miss after a break.

Tennessee and Auburn look like drafting partners these days, trying to work back to the lead lap.

AU spinning its wheels

The biggest change Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville hinted at Sunday was using Kodi Burns at quarterback more in the season's second half.

Chris Todd is still the starting quarterback, Tuberville said.

Tony Franklin is still the coordinator. No changes in coaching duties, or at least none were announced.

Auburn might as well try Burns more, because nothing else works, but how much impact can he have?

Of Auburn's five offensive touchdowns in SEC games, all came with Todd in the game. Todd touchdown passes accounted for four, including both scores against Vanderbilt.

Thanks in part to a missed field goal, Burns' action against Tennessee and Vandy produced exactly no points.

The bigger problem seems to be that Franklin has not been allowed to run the Tony Franklin System. Tuberville acknowledged as much last week and blamed a shortage of spread-ready talent.

Wouldn't that have been apparent in preseason? Auburn ran the spread in the early games.

The season-ending injury to receiver Phillip Pierre-Louis hurt. Todd's apparent on-going arm problems hurt, too.

But I see slow buy-in from the head coach and his entrenched position coaches. There's also doubt, which led to old-Auburn looks in the Vandy game.

It led to quotes like this from wide receiver Rod Smith: "I don't know what we are right now — spread, old Auburn offense. I'm just really confused right now. Everybody is confused. Everybody is hurting."

Real progress appears a long way off.

JSU has speedster in Dupree

JSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux and NASCAR driver Kyle Busch have some things in common. Elite teams sent them packing, and they lifted their new teams back to a high level.

Had Perrilloux not had his falling out at LSU, he would have started for defending BCS champion. There's little doubt he would start for Alabama or Auburn.

He'd start for at least 10 out of 12 SEC teams.

But JSU has another playmaker in wide receiver Maurice Dupree, and Perrilloux's talents have helped Dupree to maximize his. The combination has lifted JSU's offense.

Perrilloux and Dupree hooked up for 45- and 41-yard bombs Saturday, the latter for a touchdown. That gives JSU a receiver who can stretch the field and a quarterback who can hit him.

That opens up a lot, including the running game. Perhaps that helped Brandon George, JSU's third-team running back, rush for 114 yards against SEMO.

Throw in Dupree's 182 return yards Saturday, including a 99-yard kickoff return for a score, and JSU clearly has more than Perrilloux to see.

Perrilloux called Dupree his "go-to guy," and it'll be fun to see how far they can slingshot the Gamecocks.