Football news and notes

Today's Starting Lineup:
Auburn football finished its second day of practice on Thursday. Here are some notes from the evening:
I made sure to find Mario Fannin and see what he's doing these days. Somehow, I doubt fans will like this. He's working with the H-backs. The position is a hybrid of tight end and fullback. It has moved around in Gus Mazlahn's offense, but obviously doesn't get the workload the tailback gets. Fannin also worked at catching passes out of the backfield while his fellow H-backs did their up-downs, so perhaps I'm looking too much into the 25 minutes of practice that I was actually allowed to watch. Guess we'll find out on A-Day...
Through two days of practice, Auburn coach Gene Chizik has declined to point out players who have stood out. Assistant coaches, thankfully, have been more helpful. Trooper Taylor singled out Darvin Adams as having an impressive first day. Safeties coach Tommy Thigpen mentioned Drew Cole and Christian Thompson ("CT") as standouts.
Chris Todd still isn't throwing. It's funny to watch him go through the motions, drop back and... not throw. I do think Todd has gotten a raw deal through all of this. He tried to play through a serious shoulder problem that wasn't fixed and that obviously went poorly.
Special teams coach Jay Boulware is an intense guy. At one point in practice, he screamed at his players about wanting to be the best directly before they sprinted to their spots in the punt formation. He was also the drill sergeant in charge of putting John Douglas, Bailey Woods and a walk-on through up-downs while Fannin worked elsewhere.
Tackle Lee Ziemba told reporters that they are learning about Auburn's policies. Some players had to stay after practice to execute "bear crawls." I've never done a bear crawl. I think I would like to keep it that way.
Speaking of Ziemba, dude has beefed up. Using a 5,000-calorie a day diet and strenuous upper-body weight lifting, he has gone from 280 pounds to 308 pounds.
Defensive lineman Zach Clayton is working inside instead of from the end position he played at times last year. Tracy Rocker said the biggest concern about Clayton is that he goes so hard that he gets worn down quickly. That's when he apparently has a tendency to lose technique.

In men's basketball, assistant coach John Cooper was named Tennessee State's head coach late Thursday night.

Around the League:
Little bit going on today.
Kentucky fired Billy Gillispie. Louisville Courier Journal
Billy Donovan has apparently rejected the Wildcats again. Gainesville Sun
Alabama has its coach: Anthony Grant. Ian R. Rapoport

Today's News:
Want to go on the Lee Ziemba, gain-as-much-weight-as possible diet? Do I have the thing for you... Thanks to OA News ace Andrew "Gribbs" Gribble for this.
Note to everyone: If you get into a fight and you've been drinking, don't throw a Molotov cocktail near your own cars. Unless you want this to happen... Yahoo!
T.I. was sentenced one year and one day. CNN
For conscientious drinkers. MSNBC