1. No wonder Auburn junior Kiehl Frazier asked to step out of the quarterback fight and move to safety: He doesn’t understand how a quarterback is supposed to act. When told midway through August practice that two other quarterbacks are going to get most of the reps, a quarterback is supposed to pack and his bags and transfer. Instead, Frazier chose to transfer to the other side of the ball. It turns out he loves Auburn more than he loved being a quarterback. Sounds like he made the right decision.
2. Rich Rodriguez wasn’t a mentor to his former wide receivers coach Butch Jones so much as a good friend. Their teenaged sons remain close even though Jones is at Tennessee and Rodriguez is at Arizona. But when Jones said Tuesday of his Vols, “I think this football team has to learn how to enjoy being uncomfortable,” he echoed one of Rodriguez’s favorite sentiments. Coaching minds do think alike, especially after they work together for 80 hours a week.
3. Virginia Tech is at least a year away from being the kind of team that won at least 10 games annually from 2004 to 2011. The key to the Hokies’ resurgence? Coach Frank Beamer brought his son Shane onto his staff two years ago. As my colleague Chris Low explained on the ESPNU College Football Podcast on Tuesday, Shane served as recruiting coordinator at South Carolina when the Gamecocks began to sign the best talent in their state, including All-American defensive end Jadeveon Clowney.
