College football rivalries can do amazing things to people.

They can turn the sane stark-raving mad. They can divide houses, offices and classrooms. They often lead to excessive use of the word "class," as fans relentlessly extoll the class of their scholar-athletes while decrying the lack of same in the opponents.

They can even make a man talk funny.

Boss of the Belt

New Mexico State coach Tony Samuel is one of the hot names for a job upgrade, but that doesn't mean he's the only Sun Belt Conference coach who should be appearing on bigger radar screens these days. Someone should take notice of Darrell Dickey, too. If ever a coach can look good with a 19-37 career record, this is the guy. In its two-year existence, this is Dickey's football league. His North Texas Mean Green now have won both conference titles and will be making a return trip to the New Orleans Bowl, where a win over a Conference USA school would be the equivalent of the lunar landing for the fledgling Sun Belt. Dickey's team has won 10 straight Sun Belt games over two years. The seasons have followed identical paths: very slow starts against very tough competition, followed by a downhill roll through the Belt. Dickey's overall record in that time is just 11-12, but look who the guy has had to play so North Texas can pay the light bill at Fouts Field: Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, TCU twice and Texas Tech. Despite the suicidal scheduling, North Texas has been almost blowout proof. Its worst loss in two years was a four-touchdown job against Texas Tech, whereas virtually everyone else in the league was beaten worse at least once. Great defense will keep you from being embarrassed, and North Texas plays great defense. The Mean Green rank ninth in the nation in total defense, and until finally being creased for 27 points in the showdown game with New Mexico State last week, the unit hadn't given up an offensive score the previous three weeks. Of course, the North Texas offense showed up just in time to pull that one out, scoring 17 fourth-quarter points in a 38-27 comeback victory. Losing starting quarterback Scott Hall for the season in the opener against Texas was not the disaster it turned out to be. The Mean Green got just enough out of backup Adam Smith this year for a return trip to New Orleans -- a feat that makes Dickey the boss of the Belt. -- Pat Forde

Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill resolutely refuses to refer to the other Southeastern Conference school in the state by its preferred pet name, Ole Miss. It was, is and shall be "Mississippi" to Jackie, until he speaks no more.

When he was at Vanderbilt, Gerry DiNardo used to avoid both the word "Tennessee" and the color orange. This was a practice he likely learned as an assistant to Bill McCartney at Colorado, where McCartney outlawed the color red and declared war upon Nebraska.

And then there's Alabama coach Dennis Franchione. Seems he has a speech defect where the word "Auburn" is involved. Can't quite bring himself to say it, often substituting a euphemism: That School Down The Road.

(While hardly a term of respect, it's still kinder than "That Cow College," as The Bear His Own Self once famously referred to Auburn.)

"That's just one of those things that's been made too much of," Franchione said Wednesday, shifting into downplay mode. "I pretty much just talk about Alabama ... I've said it before."

But he wouldn't say "it" then, and certainly won't utter "it" this week. This is Iron Bowl Week.

A strong candidate for America's most passionate, obsessive football rivalry carries additional payload this year. Auburn is still striving to win the Western Division; Alabama (9-2, 6-1 in SEC play) is trying to ruin that and cement its image as the best team doing nothing this bowl season.

Actually, there's more involved in Tuscaloosa. Alabama is seeking the exclamation point on the phrase that's been spewing from lips across the South in recent weeks, as the overpowering Crimson Tide victories have piled up: " 'Bama's back" could become " 'Bama's back!"

All it will take to complete the journey is a second consecutive rout of That School Down The Road -- by no means an easy task, but have you seen Alabama recently?

The Tide leads the SEC in total offense. The Tide leads the SEC in total defense. The Tide has whipped five straight SEC opponents by an average margin of 24.4 points. By acclamation, the Tide has the best offensive and defensive lines in the league.

The Tide went into Fayetteville and pounded Arkansas 30-12. The Tide went into Knoxville and pounded Tennessee 34-14. The Tide went into Baton Rouge last week and pounded 12th-ranked LSU 31-0. Three of the rowdiest locales in the nation, snuffed.

LSU coach Nick Saban declared Alabama the best defensive team in the nation. And that was before the Tide shut out his Tigers.

Alabama's only slips were a closer-than-the-score 10-point September loss to Oklahoma, and a two-point October gut-buster to then-undefeated Georgia. In summation, the Tide has gotten awfully good while toiling away in probation purgatory.

Egregious cheating and the resulting penalties have brought much pain and suffering to Alabama: no bowl games this year or next, plus scholarship cuts and other indignities. But they haven't kept the program from coalescing around the nasal-voiced Kansan coach who now looks like the man with a road map back to the glory days.

You can trace the embrace of Franchione to last year's Iron Bowl. After a wobbly start, the Crimson Tide began putting it together late in the year and then smashed Auburn on its own home field, 31-7, with a punishing display of rushing offense.

"They got us pretty good last year," Auburn's Tommy Tuberville allowed.

That immediately made Fran The Man, and also immediately put Tuberville in a stressful spot. Auburn wound up losing its bowl game and Tuberville wound up firing assistants in the offseason. Alabama wound up winning its bowl game, Franchione wound up keeping his team together even after sanctions were announced, and wound up being offered a stunning, 10-year, $15-million contract (which remains unsigned, by the way).

The fallout from that day might be why Franchione said, "Having been through one, I see and feel the depth of it more than I did last year at this time."

That depth of feeling is the one thing that could work against Alabama Saturday. Auburn (7-4, 4-3) enters as a significant underdog, but in reality the Tigers are only two plays away from beating both Florida and Georgia and owning the same record as the Tide.

"It's been a pretty disappointing year for us, because we could've obviously had a much better record if a couple of things had happened differently," Tuberville said.

At 1-6 personally against Alabama, Tuberville is in danger of becoming Auburn's answer to Bill Curry -- the guy who can't beat the hated rival. But he's warming to the underdog role this week.

"A lot of people have counted us out for Saturday's game," Tuberville said, "but we will be there ready to play."

The Tigers don't have much hope of making Dennis Franchione say "Auburn." But they'd love to make him say "uncle" on Saturday. Really.

Around the SEC

Alabama
Sensitivity to the cheater label that the NCAA Infractions Committee hung on the Crimson Tide is immense, and apparently not limited to the fans. Franchione accosted LSU's Saban after the game last Saturday and reportedly ripped him for allegedly calling 'Bama cheaters after the miracle win at Kentucky. Saban vigorously denied the Internet report, which now reportedly is an admitted fabrication. But even if Saban didn't say it, the NCAA has, in so many words. The crime and punishment -- which could potentially get worse, given the recent testimony of former Memphis high school coach Lynn Lang -- are in the books. Time for Alabama and its fans to quit blaming everyone else and accept the fact that it deserved what it got.

Arkansas
The Razorbacks have been the least predictable and least understandable team in the league this year, the most recent evidence being their grim 24-17 survival against 3-8 Louisiana-Lafayette last week. Nevertheless, they're still not out of the Western Division race. If the Hogs can win at Mississippi State and then beat LSU in Little Rock Nov. 29, they'd be 5-3 in the league and on their way to Atlanta to play Georgia. Head-to-head wins would break any potential ties with either Tigers, LSU or Auburn. The probability of beating Mississippi State and LSU with everything potentially on the line? Arkansas has won three straight against State, and is 13-0 in Little Rock under Houston Nutt, including a pair of wins over LSU. ... Quarterback Matt Jones was at his multifaceted best against the Ragin' Cajuns, running for a game-high 129 yards (including a 62-yard touchdown run) and throwing for 118 yards and two TDs. In just 18 career games, Jones has run for 1,164 yards, thrown for 1,472 and accounted for 26 touchdowns.

Auburn
The Tigers -- and by extension Florida -- can only wonder what might have been had they been able to grind out a couple more first downs in the second half last week against Georgia. After taking a 21-10 lead with less than 21 minutes remaining against the Bulldogs last week, Auburn went three-and-out six straight possessions on their way to a 24-21 loss. With running back Ronnie Brown hobbling after hurting his right ankle, Auburn's less-than-multifaceted offense could not make the plays to move the chains and drain the clock. As a result, Georgia scored with winning touchdown with 1:25 left.

Florida
Rex Grossman's Heisman Trophy campaign disintegrated a long time ago, but he's quietly put together a that's-more-like-it end to the season. After starting off with 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in a 4-3 start, Grossman has thrown eight TDs and just two picks in the last four games - all Florida wins. ... Grossman and the Gators can use this off week to find someone else to throw to, now that leading receiver Pat Perez is out for the year with a broken leg. Perez had 58 catches for 591 yards before injuring the leg against South Carolina last week.

Georgia
Terrence Edwards is the leading receiver in Bulldogs history. Sophomore Fred Gibson has the school single-game receiving record. Damien Gary and Reggie Brown have had big games in silver britches as well. But now a receiving corps that has been riddled with injuries proved it can go five-deep in the hero dept. Junior Michael Johnson, who missed a year because of academic ineligibility, is the Wideout of the Moment after his leaping 19-yard touchdown pass against Auburn delivered the Dogs to their first-ever SEC championship game. "He comes out and makes one of the best catches in Georgia history," said the thrower on the play, David Greene. ... Say this for Mark Richt: He's never scared to gamble. With the entire season on the line Richt called winning play, 70 X Takeoff, despite the fact that it hadn't been used by the Dogs in a game since last year. And they hadn't practiced it at all during the week leading up to the game.

Kentucky
This began as the Year of the Quarterback in the SEC, but the prime-time guys have all slipped: Casey Clausen due to injury, Rex Grossman and Eli Manning due to excessive interceptions and fewer-than-expected victories. As a result, the SEC Player of the Year race probably boils down to Georgia's Greene and a running back nobody was talking about: Kentucky's Artose Pinner. His 224 yards and four touchdowns against Vanderbilt last week gives him an SEC-leading 1,363 rushing yards, plus 34 receptions and 15 total TDs. He's been the most reliable player on the league's most surprising team, carrying it 272 high-impact times without once asking to come out of a game. "Never patted the helmet all year," Pinner said after the Vandy game. ... Or maybe the best Kentucky candidate for Player of the Year is the amazing Derek Abney. He's now in the NCAA record books with his sixth kick-return touchdown of the season, the latest being a 95-yard kickoff return against Vandy. The Commodores apparently were at such a loss for how to slow down Abney that when he dropped one of his receiving gloves near their sideline after one play, a Vandy assistant coach walked onto the field and took it. Abney approached the sidelines and asked for it back but was ignored, so he threw the other glove at the coach and said, "Just take them both."

LSU
The Tigers sandwiched a pair of horrible offensive performances around the miracle bomb to beat Kentucky. Before that game was a seven-point output in a 24-point home loss to Auburn. After it was a shutout 31-point home loss to Alabama that featured the Tigers throwing for all of 65 yards. Quarterback Marcus Randall struggled badly enough (6 of 17 for 39 yards) that coach Nick Saban went with Rick Clausen (yes, younger brother of Casey) near the end. He went 3 of 6 for 26 yards. Nevertheless, Saban says he's staying with Randall despite what the coach called a "raised anxiety level" when things go wrong on the field. "We've struggled at the quarterback position ever since (Mauck) got hurt," Saban said. "We've had a lot of inconsistency and instability. ... I don't care who you're playing, you've got to make some plays in the passing game to be successful." ... The shutout broke a school-record streak of 72 consecutive games putting points on the board. ... Potential welcome news for an overburdened and unproductive offense: running back LaBrandon Toefield, who saw his first action in weeks against Alabama, will probably increase his workload this week against Ole Miss.

Mississippi
Ole Miss leads the SEC in passing offense at 269.9 yards per game (the lowest league-leading average since 1989, i.e., pre-Spurrier). Saturday it faces the league's No. 1 pass defense in LSU, a unit that should be anxious to atone for last week (routed by Alabama) and last year (Eli Manning sliced up the Tigers in the fourth quarter of an upset win by the Rebels). ... The Rebels' defensive problems have been hashed and rehashed, but here's one more sign that they still have a long way to go when it comes to stopping the other guys: Opponents have scored on 26 out of 30 trips inside the Red Zone, including 20 touchdowns. LSU's offense ranks second in the SEC in Red Zone productivity, with 24 scores in 28 trips inside the 20. That's what you'd call a bad combination from the Rebs' perspective. ... Latest example of the overblown mystique of LSU's Tiger Stadium: Ole Miss has won three straight there.

Mississippi State
The last thing you ever thought the Bulldogs would be is defenseless, but it's come to that. Joe Lee Dunn's defense has given up a minimum of 28 points in all six SEC games -- all losses, not coincidentally. Last time State gave up 28 or more in every SEC game: never in its 69-year league membership. It still has two games to stop that ugly streak, against Arkansas (averaging 30.6 points per game) and Ole Miss (averaging 28.7). ... Best way to keep those games close would be holding onto the football. The Bulldogs lead the SEC with 33 turnovers.

South Carolina
Although the team generated just seven points, Dondrial Pinkins will remain the starting quarterback this week for the season-ender at arch rival Clemson. Pinkins got his first start last week at Florida -- talk about your baptism of fire, starts in The Swamp and Death Valley -- throwing for 74 yards and rushing for 84. Corey Jenkins, who had started all year, carried the ball three times and did not attempt a pass. South Carolina has not scored more than two touchdowns in a game since an Oct. 5 win over Mississippi State. ... Despite a four-game losing streak, Carolina still has a shot at a bowl bid by beating Clemson. Even at 6-6 the Gamecocks might be attractive to some bowls - the Music City is said to be especially interested -- because their fans have traveled in huge numbers the past two years. ... Count Lou Holtz among those less than thrilled by the impact of the Internet. On Wednesday Holtz decried the anonymity of the medium and raised the question of schools disseminating anonymous information and criticism about their rivals. "Let's say somebody at Georgia wants Ron Zook out," Holtz said. "What's to stop them from contributing to a web site to hurt the opponent? Who's doing it, and what's their purpose?"

Tennessee
With the notoriously paranoid and controlling lot known as football coaches embracing the opportunity to keep injury information from the media, it's hard to say how Tennessee quarterback Casey Clausen is recovering from the foot sprain that kept him out last week against Mississippi State. Coach Phil Fulmer says he expects Clausen to play Saturday at Vanderbilt - but he said that before Clausen sat out the Georgia game, too. Clausen didn't paint a rosy picture for the Nashville Tennessean this week: "I can't step in and throw. I'm not 100 percent, but I haven't been 100 percent since who knows how long." ... With Clausen out, Peyton Manning's alma mater completed three passes last week and attempted nine.

Vanderbilt
A quietly excellent college career will end Saturday in Nashville. Receiver Dan Stricker is currently sixth in the SEC in career receiving yards and ninth in career receptions. Stricker's numbers would likely have been considerably higher had he not spent his senior year in first-year coach Bobby Johnson's option-oriented offense. ... Befitting Vandy's lousy luck, Tennessee comes to town at the precise time the Commodores' tailback position is decimated by injuries. Two players broke legs earlier this year, and fill-in freshman Kwane Doster's surprising season has probably been ended by a high ankle sprain against Kentucky. Doster's backup, Matthew Tant, is fighting back spasms but is expected to play. Walk-on Jason Bourque, all of 5 feet 7, was the only tailback who practiced Monday, prompting Vandy to move cornerback Lorenzo Parker to running back for this game. Parker had started the previous two games at corner. ... There may well be more Big Orange fans than Vandy backers at this Vandy home game Saturday. The game is being held in Adelphia Coliseum, and Tennessee fans are sure to gobble up the extra seats, which doesn't thrill 'Dores coach Bobby Johnson. "The ideal situation is to have the game on our campus and fill the stadium with our people," he said, acknowledging that wins will generate demand.

Around the Sun Belt
At Arkansas State, the death march is over and the program appears alive and well. After playing 13 straight weeks the scorecard reads 6-7, a major improvement in the first year under coach Steve Roberts. The Indians rode the legs of running back Danny Smith in a final-game victory over Idaho, with Smith piling up a school-record 206 yards on a school-record 40 carries to finish the year with a Sun Belt-record 1,390 rushing yards. ... Idaho must make some difficult decisions regarding the future of coach Tom Cable, whose three-year record now stands at 8-25 (just 3-19 the past two seasons). The Vandals might have a shot at surprising what figures to be a deflated New Mexico State team in Moscow Saturday, the season finale for both teams. ... Louisiana-Lafayette gave a great effort last week at Arkansas, losing by seven and forcing the Razorbacks to come up with a late interception to seal the win. The Ragin' Cajuns close at home against rival Louisiana-Monroe, a team UL-L has beaten the last two years by a combined eight points. ... On Wednesday, Louisiana-Monroe made interim coach Mike Collins its permanent head coach -- or at permanent as you can get in that profession. Collins, a former player at the school and son of successful former UL-M coach Pat Collins, did an admirable job stepping in Sept. 18 when head coach Bobby Keasler resigned after an 0-3 start. Collins went 2-5, his smartest move being the elevation of true freshman Steven Jyles to starting quarterback. Jyles is in the school's single-season top 10 for completions, passing yards, total offense and touchdown passes. ... Middle Tennessee State got quarterback Andrico Hines back after missing a game and parts of others with a groin injury, and he wasted no time riddling Louisiana-Monroe's defense. Hines started off 10 for 10 for 160 yards and three touchdowns. ... New Mexico State must try to regroup from a crushing loss that likely cost the Aggies their first bowl trip in 42 years - longest bowl-less streak in Division I-A. The Aggies lost two fourth-quarter fumbles -- and the lead -- at North Texas. Sophomore quarterback Buck Pierce also threw his first interception as a collegian, breaking a streak of 134 straight passes without a pick. ... North Texas visits Middle Tennessee in what league envisioned would be the showdown game when it was scheduled. Injuries and underachievement ruined the Blue Raiders' season, but the Mean Green must guard against letting down to a team that clearly would like to avenge last year's loss, which kept Middle out of a bowl game.

Pat Forde covers college football for the Louisville Courier-Journal.