News of the day, 12/29

BREAKING NEWS: Auburn forward Korvotney Barber transported to East Alabama Regional Medical Center for x-rays on left wrist (non-shooting hand). He was injured during the first half of Auburn's game against Towson ...

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Hey everyone. Another day in the big city. The big news from ATL today is that Clemson offensive coordinator Rob Spence, who interviewed for the job Al Borges earned in 2004, has removed his name from consideration for the top assistant's job at Tennessee. It was a big deal to the CU peeps.

Auburn was far less news-worthy, which isn't a bad thing, though there was some funny stuff going down. Let's get into it.

I'm writing this while listening to an American Top 40 show from 7/13/85. I'm at No. 13 right now: Night Ranger's "Sentimental Street." Awesome song. Down on Sentimental Street and the avenues, take a good hard look -- there ain't nothing ever new...

We're tougher than Sly Croom. We're the HOTTEST Auburn blog on the 'net.

The main attraction today was Tony Franklin, who hasn't given many interviews since arriving at Auburn three weeks ago. I got a kick out of his discussions about Clemson assistant Vic Koenning, who left Troy University a couple years before Franklin arrived in 2006. They obviously know a lot of the same people.

Even though he's told me that he hasn't talked to them, I know he has. I'm sure he's gotten some information and I know he's gotten film. The good thing is that he has to prepare for both (Auburn's old offense and the one Franklin is installing). Common sense-wise he realizes that it would be highly unlikely that you could go in and install a new offense in nine days. He knows he might see something we might have done and at the same time he has to prepare for the other. I think that's probably a good thing for us.

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I'm at No. 10 now. It's Cyndi Lauper's "The Goonies R Good Enough." Awesome. I just bought "The Goonies" for my daughter, which is such a weird thing for me. I was geeked for that movie in 1985. So geeked. Josh Brolin: From Bran in The Goonies to "No Country For Old Men." Quite a journey.

UPDATE: Brolin said in a recent interview that a Goonies sequel is a go and is expected to involve the original cast. He added that Meryl Streep, of all people, is going to be part of it. If Richard Donner, Steven Spielberg and Chris Columbus are involved concurrently, you know, I have faith that said sequel could be a legitimate enterprise.
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My favorite television reporter, Mike Raita of ABC 33/40 in Birmingham, asked DT Josh Thompson today if everyone's description of Muschamp as "intense" was simply a diplomatic way of saying he's crazy or insane or goofy. Here's what happened after that:

THOMPSON: Those could be synonyms for that, yes.

(widespread laughter ensues)

MUSCHAMP: That's a big word for a Statesboro guy. I'm proud.

(more widespread laughter)

THOMPSON: Being intense is a good thing, I feel like.

Franklin opened with this humorous comment: "I guess I could talk about several of the players, but I don't know hardly any of their names. I'm probably the only guy ever at a press conference to have a roster of our team. I know some of their numbers, though."

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Back to AT40. I just heard back-to-back commercials for the Pontiac Fiero and Dr Pepper. The beverage spot featured vocals by "Difford and Tilbrook." I'm not familiar with their work and that's OK. Now on to No. 7: Whitney Houston's "You Give Good Love." That was her first hit.
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Though I believe recent signee Chris Todd will be Auburn's quarterback next season, here's what Franklin said about Kodi Burns today:

I think a player like Kodi will embrace the offense. It's an offense that, if the quarterback can run, it's a huge bonus. You get one extra player, basically, when the quarterback can run. Since he has the ability to do so, I would think it's something he should flourish in.

Lemme sneak this one in. Huntsville Times ace Phillip Marshall recently published a Q-and-A with Tommy Tuberville. Part of that interview dealt with recruiting and some Alabama people are up in arms about it.

Here's the allegedly upsetting quote: "I don't worry about what Alabama does or Georgia or anybody else," Tuberville said. "I have no clue who they have committed. I can't control what they're doing. We work hard at recruiting. We've got good recruiters. We know who we want to recruit. Some we're going to get and some we're not going to get, but we're going to do it the right way and not end up on probation in a few years. We don't recruit at all costs."

Really? That's something to get upset about? That wasn't a shot at Alabama and, frankly, I can't see how Alabama is even involved.

Also: People, look, they all push the limits to some degree. I think it all depends on how important a particular player is to a team's immediate needs. It's not relative to the school; it's relative to the particular kid. I'm so tired of hearing about how Alabama/Auburn/LSU/Tennessee is dirtier than, say, Vanderbilt. They're all trying to get ahead. Anyone in the SEC complaining about "dirty recruiting" -- Nick Saban's rant today doesn't constitute as complaining, for the record -- is, at best, being duplicitous.

UPDATE: Here is a transcript of what Saban said today when asked about negative recruiting:

"There is a lot of negative recruiting out there about a lot of things. That's not our way that we like to handle our business and the way we go about it. We have a great institution. Alabama is a special place. We have special people. We have special tradition. Academically, we've had a tremendous amount of success with players graduating. It's a quality education institution. We have a lot of positive things to sell. We have a great stadium and a great atmosphere to play in. We're going to improve the size of the stadium probably some time in the near future so it's going to be an even better place to play in the future. We play in a great conference. We have tremendous competition and parity. We have so many positives things to sell in recruiting. I honestly don't know much about anyone eles's program that I should be qualified to be talking about it. We don't. Now, do we have to deal with some of those things?

Who you are is more important than anything else. that what we continue to sell in terms of who we are as a program and who we are as people and how we try to go about what we do so we can have success.

There is somewhat of a track record that shows it can be successful. That's what we going to try to continue to build on. I think there will be enough people out there that want to be a part of that and we'll be able to attract the kind of character, quality type people who want to get an education and be good football players and a championships so that we don't have to resort to any other tactics relative to what any other schools may do."

Photo credit: Todd Van Emst/Auburn University