News of the day, 9/4

BREAKING NEWS: QB Steven Ensminger transferring to Louisiana Tech. He leaves today. Ensminger is the son of Auburn assistant coach Steve Ensminger. The younger Ensminger was fourth on the depth chart, but will drop into fifth with the return of Neil Caudle. More below from Tommy Tuberville in "Tuesdays With Tommy".

Hey everyone. Auburn practiced this morning for a couple hours. I imagine the offensive linemen had a tough day. I saw both Lee Ziemba and Andrew McCain walking to lunch. They were not peppy. They looked unusually tired. McCain's gait mimicked that of a 50-year old man. And Ziemba -- he's one of the sunniest kids on the team.

Tuberville held his weekly press conference early this afternoon. My new plan for handling this event is to pass along some of his best quotes in short form. I'm calling this "Tuesdays with Tommy" because it portrays the event properly. It's staged and Tommy really doesn't say much. His mouth gets sanitized in front of a crowd. Tuberville speaks much more candidly in front of smaller groups.

I'm not criticizing him. He's generally quite open with his opinions. These Tuesday things are notoriously laborious. Still, some of the things he says on Tuesday hold some value.

For now, take a moment to savor your daily dose of the HOTTEST Auburn blog on the 'net.

Here is your "Tuesdays with Tommy" segment.

On Steven Ensminger transferring to La. Tech: "I tried to talk him out of it, but this is his decision. It's his life. We hate to see him go."

On the KSU game: "There wasn't a lot of glitter."

On what Auburn learned from the KSU game: "We found a lot of guys who are going to play for four quarters. We found out a lot about who is going to lay it on the line."

On the status of injured players: "I can't say who's going to play and who's not. It'll take another day."

On the success of USF coach Jim Leavitt: "It's going to be hard to get him out of there. There's a lot of potential with the players they can recruit down there."

On USF's offense and its use of quarterback Matt Grothe: "It turns the quarterback into another tailback. It's an explosive offense. It's a lot of one-on-one tackling."

On Brad Lester's situation: It's been in the works for the last few weeks. "I'm out of it. It's out of my hands."

On USF tailback Mike Ford: "We recruited him. He's a guy we all noticed quickly as a 10th and 11th grader."

On what Auburn's offense needs to be better: "That's the million-dollar question. We're so concerned with execution that nobody's ad-libbing."

I didn't think about this until today, but former Auburn quarterback/cornerback Courtney Denson plays at South Florida. He was part of the Tigers' 2003 signing class. He's a wideout now. Auburn was upset when he left during 2004 two-a-days because Denson looked like an outstanding prospect. He just didn't want to play defense. Some of the Auburn kids still keep in touch with him: Pat Lee, Eric Brock and Carl Stewart.