John Clay’s Sidelines

SEC links for Friday:

• Birmingham News columnist Kevin Scarbinsky asks why couldn’t Auburn get along this way before Tommy Tuberville walked away.

• Mike Herndon of the Mobile Press-Register reports that Auburn has a list of coaching candidates.

• Mark McCarter of the Huntsville Times wonders if it won’t be tough for Auburn to find a coach who wants to compete in the ultra-competitive SEC.

• Press-Register columnist Randy Kennedy wonders how Auburn is going to top Tuberville.

• Chip Towers of the AJC talks to ex-Auburn offensive lineman and current Georgia assistant Rodney Garner, the recruiting whiz, who says he’d love Tigers’ job.

• The Gainesville Sun’s Robbie Andreu recounts how Tim Tebow almost, almost went to Alabama.

• Edward Aschoff of the Sun reports that the status of Percy Harvin remains a question mark.

• On Mike Bianchi’s wildly-popular and cleverly-named Open Mike blog, the Orlando Sentinel columnist talks to a so-called BCS expert who claims that Florida could beat Alabama and still be left out of the BCS title game.

• In the Clarion-Ledger, Kyle Veazey reports that the Mississippi State president claims the opening for the football coach is attracting a lot of attention, which is better than saying no one wants to come to Starkville.

• The State columnist Ron Morris writes that there is little comparison between the SEC and ACC this year. The ACC is better.

• Also in The State, Seth Emerson reports that USC officials are blaming the economy for a downturn in basketball attendance despite the addition of two new coaches.