SEC West notebook

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Posted 5:43AM on Thursday, November 4, 2004

ALABAMA: At 5-3, Alabama gets its second shot at bowl eligibility Saturday night against Mississippi State. The Tide hasn't been to a bowl the past two seasons thanks to NCAA sanctions and wouldn't have been eligible with a losing record last year anyway. ``The biggest thing that we talk to our team about is just getting that sixth win,'' coach Mike Shula said. ``These guys have worked hard, played hard, played some close games. Five-and-three doesn't show well enough the way they've worked.'' Alabama came up just short in its first bid for win No. 6, losing 17-13 at Tennessee two weeks ago, before an open date. The Tide will likely be an underdog in its final two games, at LSU and against Auburn. But guard Evan Mathis said the team is hoping a sixth win is just the starting point. ARKANSAS: Arkansas quarterback Matt Jones will take the field Saturday against South Carolina, Razorback coach Houston Nutt said. ``He's good to go,'' Nutt said, after the Razorbacks' off-day last Saturday allowed Jones an extended opportunity to recuperate and rehabilitate. Jones first suffered a groin injury in the Auburn game on Oct. 16 and, against Georgia on Oct. 23 he strained his hamstring and aggravated the groin injury. Jones returned to practice on a limited basis Sunday. He said Monday he was feeling fine. ``I've been getting treatment all last week and again this week,'' he said. ``It's coming along and I think I'm going to be all right.'' AUBURN: Defensive coordinator Gene Chizik is tired of seeing opposing teams' receivers burn his cornerbacks on one side of the field. And he's searching for a potential replacement to Carlos Rogers' counterparts. Montae Pitts and Kevin Hobbs have mostly filled that position. ``I'm looking hard at Zach Gilbert and Patrick Lee and whatever we've got to do,'' Chizik said. ``That corner position is letting down the whole football team. That's what I told them (Tuesday). I certainly made it clear that position is wide open.'' Mississippi burned the Tigers for two long passes and Chizik said such letdowns are ``a huge concern.'' ``We're just not playing real good in the secondary right now, that's the bottom line,'' he said. It's especially an issue because the Tigers' next opponent after the open date is David Greene and Georgia. Chizik said the second cornerback spot will remain up for grabs into next week's practice. ``Right now, I don't have any confidence with any other corner we've got in the house other than one,'' he said. ``We've got to find a way to get it done.'' LSU: For the second time in four weeks, LSU has an open date Saturday. The 17th-ranked Tigers (6-2) do not play again until they host Alabama on Nov. 13. LSU was sluggish following its previous open date, edging Troy State 24-20 on Oct. 23 at Tiger Stadium. Last Saturday, the Tigers rebounded with a 24-7 victory over Vanderbilt at Tiger Stadium. Coach Nick Saban said LSU will handle its bye week differently this time. ``I don't think that we savored the momentum coming out of the Florida game very well with the bye week,'' Saban said, referring to the Tigers' 24-21 victory at Florida on Oct. 9 that preceded the first open date." LSU's schedule is unusual with the two open dates so close together, but the Tigers chose to make that switch before the season when they moved a scheduled game with Mississippi State from Oct. 16 to Sept. 25. MISSISSIPPI: The Rebels enter their second idle Saturday in three weeks with one mission in mind: Win three straight games, or stay home for the holidays for the first time since 2001. Ole Miss must beat Arkansas (Nov. 13), LSU (Nov. 20) and Mississippi State (Nov. 27) just to qualify for a third straight bowl game. ``You don't feel very good when you're 3-5,'' coach David Cutcliffe said. ``We have to win our three remaining games ... but the 'one-game-at-a-time' attitude hasn't changed.'' Still, even though they're in serious danger of finishing in the SEC's lower division, Cutcliffe said the Rebels aren't panicking. ``Panic is not the right word, but we want to have a sense of urgency,'' he said. ``We all know that our backs are against the wall. We have to stay focused on each opponent and try to play the best we can each Saturday.'' The Rebels haven't won since beating South Carolina on Oct. 9, losing two straight. They were off the week before last week's 35-14 loss to third-ranked Auburn. MISSISSIPPI STATE: At least coach Sylvester Croom now knows what punishment Mississippi State received. The Bulldogs were placed on four years probation, were stripped of eight scholarships and some expense-paid recruiting visits over the next two seasons, and are ineligible for the postseason this year because of recruiting violations before Croom arrived. ``The worst thing you can get caught up in is the uncertainty,'' Croom said. ``The cloud around the program was worse than the penalty.'' The NCAA's infractions committee found that two former assistants and several boosters committed recruiting violations between 1998-2002. The school had limited itself to 83 scholarships in the 2005-06 academic year as part of a self-imposed penalty down from the NCAA maximum of 85. The Bulldogs won't cap Croom's first season in a bowl game they're one loss from failing to qualify for one anyway but now the first-year coach can sell his program to recruits.