Here's a trailer for the long-awaited Boise State documentary. It's supposed to be released next month.

Click here.

Last installment from the SEC media days ...

HOOVER, Ala. -- Les Miles didn't exactly apologize for trashing USC and the Pac-10 earlier this summer.

The LSU coach cited preseason No. 1 USC's conference schedule that includes so-called weaklings UCLA and Cal. The Bears likely will start the season in the top 15. The Bruins won 10 games as recently as 2005 and have 20 starters returning.

"I certainly didn't mean to demean the great Pac-10 Conference in any way," Miles told a small group of reporters Friday as the media days concluded. "I still firmly stand behind the fact that it may be easier to come from that part of the world to the national championship than for an SEC team."

Before they left here, the media picked LSU to win the league. The Tigers likely will begin the season in the top five in the two major polls.

"I know that any team that comes out of that conference is going to be a great team," Miles said. "At some point in time someone would think that would be an advantage to be in the Pac-10 and not have a championship game."

Here are Miles' original comments made on a New Orleans radio station:

"I can tell you this, that (USC has) a much easier road to travel," Miles was quoted as saying in the Baton Rouge Advocate. "They're going to play real knockdown drag-outs with UCLA and Washington, Cal-Berkley, Stanford -- some real juggernauts -- and they're going to end up, it would be my guess, in some position so if they win a game or two, that they'll end up in the title (game). I would like that path for us.

"I think the SEC provides much stiffer competition."

• Only in the SEC is it a big deal that there are no players on both covers of the Alabama media guide. Nick Saban said he had no input into that decision. The $4 Million Man is featured on the front cover in his Belichick-like practice "pajamas." The back cover shows Saban pointing to the four points of his mission statement. By the way, don't believe for a second that Saban had nothing to do with at least approving the guide.

• Saban reminded us that "I actually took a pay cut," to come to Alabama. What a guy.

• Vanderbilt receiver Earl Bennett apparently doesn't let the school's 25-year bowl drought bother him. "The BCS is on our minds right now."

• Finally a shout out to Scott Cain of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette who is leaving the profession to go into the private sector. Scott is a friend and a gentleman who has covered Arkansas for years. The Hogs will have it a little easier without Scott's writing and reporting skills to keep them in line. The profession will miss him. Good luck, buddy,

Here's a story I wrote on Saban basically having his life saved by friend Lenny Lemoine from November 2003.

Transcript of my one-on-one interview with Saban on Thursday:

"There's a tremendous amount of attention (at Alabama), more so almost than anyplace I've been. Because there's so much more interest and passion, because of that there's this thirst for information and, to me, there is a lot of misinformation. There's a lot of unnecessary reaction. Sometimes even overreaction.

On watching tape at home:

"I get up at 2 or 3 in the morning when everybody is still sleeping. I'm watching opponents. I've got to call (video technician) Doug at 6 o'clock in the morning. "Doug, I'm on step two here and this thing is going haywire.' "

On his relationship with the media:

"As much as I get criticized for not being available, I feel like I'm one of the guys. I'm always going to talk to the people and have an appreciation for the fans. They are an important part of this."

On his style:

"People think that it's natural to be the best you can be. But really the human condition is to survive, be average. That's why you have students who make an A on the mid-term and take it easy and get a C on the next test and have a B average."

On the college game:

"I've always felt comfortable because I think you affect people at this age level. The first thing people say (about the NFL) is, 'I don't know how you deal with those players.' That was never an issue with me.

"The system in pro sports right now is very challenging to ever build any kind of team dynamic. You can't keep the team together. Salary caps are everywhere. The money thing is where the agents control a lot of things. They're interested in their client. Sometimes that's not in conjunction was what's best for the team."

On the hiring process with Alabama:

"With five games to go or whatever, I said, 'Look guys I'm not interested. It's not fair to our team. I can't even consider it right now.'"

"I got pressed into saying that (wasn't going to take the Alabama job). At the time I said it, it was the truth. I wasn't interested in it, I wasn't thinking about it. It wasn't on my radar screen.

My wife and I, at the end of every year, we kind of sit down and say, 'What do you think?' This is the gospel truth, when I was driving home on the Monday after the last game, my wife said, 'Are you going to talk to these guys?' I honestly did even know that was on the radar screen.

"Everybody discusses what their future options might be. I think in general Terry and I had discussed the fact that we had more fun in college. We had a greater affect, impact on people and the program. than maybe what we did in pro ball."

"I'm driving on U.S. 1 and she says, 'Are you going to talk to these people?' I said, 'I don't think so. I'm tired from the season.' She said, 'Let's talk about it when you get home.' We decided that maybe we should talk to them. College football is not something we totally wanted to take off the radar screen."

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- After five days on the road, even the most discriminating sportswriter can make fashion missteps.

In other words, try showing up at 7 a.m. at the Alabama football complex dressed in Auburn colors. I didn't realize it until I got there Thursday morning to speak to Nick Saban.

The plan was to ride with Saban from T-town to Birmingham for his SEC media days appearance. Seventy-minutes of quality time, peace and quiet, just me, the coach and driver Cedric Burns cruising in Saban's Mercedes.

Then I realized the night before that all I had clean was a burnt orange polo shirt and navy slacks. Auburn's colors. By the time I realized it, it was too late.

It was kind of neat beating Saban to the office. When he walked in, the coach greeted me cordially and quickly looked up and down like, "Who is this clown?"

Or was it just me?

Anyway, it didn't make any difference. Saban was cool with it, or at least didn't mention it. Nick insisted I sit in the front seat of the Mercedes while he sat in the back. The coach was great speaking about everything from his last days at Miami -- when he said he wouldn't be the 'Bama coach -- to the state of his defense. (It's not good, at least not Saban good. Yet.)

That's what is called a tease. For the full Monty, check out my Saban story on the site.

Elsewhere at the SEC media days:

• Can you guess which SEC coach makes homemade chewing tobacco out of ground roast wrapped in coffee filters, chasing it with a case of Red Bull? I'm not telling.

• More on commissioner Mike Slive, who turned 67 on Thursday: "When I talk to our coaches I try to use a metaphor. The SEC is like a big aircraft carrier, it was the preeminent aircraft carrier, then other aircraft carriers were manufactured that had funny names like the ACC and the Big 12. There was a lot of competition."

• Quoting: "We thought we'd done something special by beating Clemson, then Kentucky beat them, too." -- South Carolina's Steve Spurrier, always twisting the knife.

• "I'm baaack." -- Kentucky's Rich Brooks, who last year at this event was a dead man walking. After an 8-5 season, he has an extension, raise and a future.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- It's taken a few months but it's fairly clear how the Rich Rodriguez-to-Alabama thing went down. This is relevant because we are now in the belly of the beast at the SEC media days.

The guy who eventually got the job, will make his appearance at the Wynfrey Hotel on Thursday. Only Princess Diana will have had a bigger entrance.

Meanwhile, West Virginia booster and Arizona Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick recently spoke to SportsLine.com.

Remember that the story broke in early December that Rodriguez had "agreed in principle" to an Alabama deal. Two days later Rich Rod was standing in front of his team saying he was staying.

What happened?

At the time, Rodriguez was in Jacksonville for a Gator Bowl event after having spoken to Alabama officials. He then picked up the phone and called Kendrick in Arizona.

"He said, 'I really don't want to leave,' Kendrick said. "I told him he needed to be specific about what he needed. He put some things on paper and faxed them to me the next morning. The university president and I put together a plan. Literally, later that day there was a deal."

At that point, Rodriguez was, at best, the fourth-highest paid coach in the Big East, way below what he deserved considering his contributions to the program.

It wasn't really about salary, although Rodriguez did get an extension. He wanted an academic center and raises for his assistants. Sources said there was a feeling that the school administration had been dragging its feet after promising Rodriguez those upgrades.

"Emotionally, if Rich was not tied to the university, this probably couldn't end the way it did," Kendrick said. "Rich and his wife really are really are Mountaineer people. In universities like that one, in a small state, there's a pride that goes with being a Mountaineer."

Read between the lines and here's how it probably went down:

Rodriguez was getting frustrated about the promises made to him about the upgrades. When Alabama came calling it provided him with the leverage for getting those upgrades.

It appears that Rodriguez' representative, after speaking to Alabama, may have leaked the "agreed in principle" news to get West Virginia off the dime. It certainly got the attention of Kendrick, a major, major player at the school.

If West Virginia didn't respond properly, Rodriguez had a $2 million-per-year job with all kinds of perks at Alabama. But I think he really did want to stay in Morgantown. I can't picture his lovely wife Rita going through the meat grinder in Tuscaloosa.

Rodriguez continues to deny he had any kind of agreement with Alabama. If nothing else, Team Rodriguez played the situation perfectly. He got his extension, his academic center and raises for his assistants without much damage.

Oh, and Alabama got its man too. Nick, something. ...

-- Get ready for dueling quarterbacks in Miami. Coach Randy Shannon said at the ACC media days he would not be against both Kirby Freeman and Kyle Wright. Neither has distinguished himself so far, so why not? ...

-- It's a drag growing old. Halfway through his 90-minute session with the media at the ACC media days, Bobby Bowden got up from a crowded table said something about a balky prostate and dashed to the bathroom. ...

-- The SEC media days begin Wednesday afternoon and continue through Friday. A record 800-plus media members have signed up.

If you want to lose your lunch read this police report regarding former Minnesota player Dominic Jones. Jones was charged in the sexual assault of a female student. He was kicked off the team by coach Tim Brewer earlier this week.

NEWPORT, R.I. -- I've never eaten anything that looked up at me from the plate.

Welcome to Newport, where you're only as good as your next lobster trap.

That's another way to describe the monster reception put on by the Big East at their media days this week. Out at Fort Adams State Park, which overlooks Narragansett Bay, we unofficially kicked off the 2007 season.

Good food, good company, good weather. I felt like putting on an ascot, climbing in a sailboat and ... running aground because I don't know anything about sailing.

So it's only mid-July. The Big East seems to always start the season with the first of the major-conference media days.

At least Larry the Lobster didn't fight back. He was delicious. ...

Heard in Newport ...

• West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez denied (again) there was ever an "agreement in principle" to coach at Alabama.

• Steve Slaton and Patrick White join a long line of Heisman "twins" -- teammates who seem to go into the season on equal footing for the hardware.

They are competitive, showing reporters their scores in a cell phone game called "Jawbreaker." They also go at it in Pop-A-Shot at the football complex. If you have to ask what Pop-A-Shot is, you've never had a beer at the corner tavern.

• There is talk that Rick Trickett was disparaging Rodriguez before he left to coach the offensive line at Florida State. Trickett, a former Marine, is the high-strung type anyway. Word is that he was telling other Mountaineer assistants that Rodriguez wouldn't take them to Alabama.

• Rodriguez on mega-recruit running back Noel Devine:

"Here's a kid who's an orphan at age 11. You can see he's a guy that isn't hung up on the bling-bling. When he came on his official visit. I took him in my car. We have a little mini bus to take the other (recruits). After about five minutes, he says, 'Coach you got other guys here, I don't want to seem like I'm better than everybody else, I'll take the bus with them.'

"He didn't want to gain favor, but he did gain favor (with the other players).

"Noel was determined to qualify (academically) and show he could do it. I like the guys who think they have something to prove. The best players in any sport are those guys."

• Rutgers Greg Schiano on the new rule that pushes the kickoff back to the 30:

"(Bill) Parcells always used to say that for every 100 yards of offense, it's six points. I don't know if that's exactly right. We look at net, our kickoff return vs. their kickoff return. If you do that in every special team and you're plus-100 yards net, that's a pretty big deal."

Rutgers was involved in only two such games last year. It was a minus-142 net kickoff return yards against Louisville (win, by three points) and plus-136 vs. Cincinnati (loss).

• Nineteen of the 22 players in the Rutgers two-deep are from the New York-New Jersey area. That doesn't include, of course, Eric Foster, the potential All-American from Homestead, Fla.

• The cracks in the Big 12 are larger than we think. It's been determined that Kevin Weiberg left as commissioner because he couldn't take the day-to-day bickering between factions in the league.

Weiberg is visibly more relaxed these days, a sign that he is less uptight after trying to break up too many Nebraska-Texas fights.

• Because of those warring factions in the Big 12, I'm told it will be hard to find a candidate everyone is happy with. Associate commissioner Dan Beebe is the interim. Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky is making a big push. Don't forget the Mountain West's Craig Thompson, who might be the perfect compromise candidate. Elsewhere in the college football world. ...

• No matter where you come down on the Oklahoma penalties last week, this much is true:

The school did itself no favors by appealing some of the sanctions. It went before the committee on infractions earlier this year already on probation in men's basketball and men's gymnastics. It's hard to argue vigilance in the Rhett Bomar/J.D. Quinn case with two other programs in NCAA jail.

Oklahoma president David Boren grandstanded, saying he would appeal a "failure to monitor" tag and the school having to vacate its eight 2005 victories.

The penalties were mostly superficial and meant to embarrass more than anything else. By dragging out an appeal, Boren isn't letting the embarrassment dissipate.

In his appeal I know he won't be mentioning SMU or Arizona State. Those are the schools Oklahoma is tied with for the most major infractions cases in history (eight).

• So new/old Ohio State president Gordon Gee has "zero tolerance" for those who do not abide by the rules. That statement will be tested often at the nation's largest athletic department.

There's too much attention, too much temptation at Ohio State. That doesn't make it much different than Texas, USC, Michigan, etc. The difference is, those schools' presidents didn't put themselves out there like Gee did.

You've got to love him, though. Gee speaks out, speaks intelligently and has mucho credibility. As I wrote earlier this summer, the Vanderbilt thing seems to be working out. No athletic department and an SEC baseball title and NCAA tournaments for men's and women's basketball.

I know Doyel wrote about Gee, but I want to add a 17-year-old story: I covered a game in Columbus in which USC beat the Buckeyes 35-26 in 1990. The game was called by lightning. Except the game wasn't entirely called by the officials. They gave the trailing team (Ohio State) the option of waiting out the rain and lightning or just calling it a day.

John Cooper elected to end the game even though his team was down by only nine midway through the fourth quarter. I passed Gee on the stairs. I'll never forget a frustrated Gee muttering something under his breath about the decision. The guy is a fan, no doubt.

• By June 2008, the SEC will be without a program on probation for the first time in more than 25 years.

Commissioner Mike Slive set the goal four years ago of having the league be probation-free by 2008. It looks like it might happen if the crazed coaches, fans and administrators can keep their noses clean until June 11. That's when Mississippi State football will be off probation.

• The Dodd Over America Tour continues Sunday when I fly out to the ACC media days in Pinehurst, N.C. And, yes, golf will be played.

This just in: The new starting quarterback at Notre Dame is going to be junior Evan Sharpley.

It being July and this being a blog, take that with a grain of saltwater, if you're laying on a beach somewhere. But I talked to Zach Frazer's dad on Friday following up on the quarterback's transfer to Connecticut on Sunday.

Frazer's future was pretty well mapped out when Charlie Weis narrowed the quarterback race to Sharpley, freshman Jimmy Clausen and sophomore Demetrius Jones. The Frazers left on good terms with Charlie Weis but Zach's father David came away with some revealing observations.

"From what we know Sharpley is going to be the guy," David Frazer told me from his office in Harrisburg, Pa. "Jones will be put in for a few trick plays. Clausen won't play this year."

Wow. That lends credence to an unsubstantiated blog that surfaced earlier this summer. It stated that Clausen had surgery on his throwing elbow. No one has confirmed the surgery or Clausen's playing status.

But that would make sense. If Clausen is still healing from surgery it would be wise to sit him out.

"The way Charlie described it, he doesn't think he has the passing game this year," David Frazer said. "He wants somebody to throw it five yards (downfield). They're going to run it more.

"I think the problem is they thought they were going to get (five-star receiving recruit) Arrelious Benn. With (Jeff) Samardzija and Rhema McKnight gone, they really don't have go-to receiver types."

Benn going to Illinois was painful enough for Weis. But Clausen's father (Jimmy Sr.) said shortly thereafter that his son had played his entire senior year in high school with a sore arm. Surgery wouldn't be a surprise but we might not know until August when practice starts, if then.

It was a certainty that Notre Dame would be breaking in a new quarterback after the departure of Brady Quinn. Sharpley, from Marshall, Mich., did not play in 2005. He threw two passes last season. Jones did not play in 2006.

Zach Frazer was highly recruited out of Mechanicsburg, Pa. UConn's Randy Edsall, a central Pennsylvania native, came after him two years ago but knew that he was probably out of his league.

Now Edsall, armed with a new contract, gets a franchise quarterback on the rebound. Frazer, a sophomore, will have to sit out the 2007 season and have three years of eligibility remaining.

"The reason he went to UConn is that the Big East is up and coming," David Frazer said. "You have West Virginia, Rutgers and Louisville. They're all going to lose all their strengths (after this season). That gives the UConns and Cincinnatis a chance." ...

I'm trying to figure out Les Miles. The LSU coach speaks out of context so often I'm beginning to wonder if that stovetop hat he insists on wearing is trapping too much heat around his dome.

I still remember his red-in-the-face defense of JaMarcus Russell after last season's victory at Tennessee. No one in the room was thinking about attacking Russell after he had thrown three touchdowns, the last a game-winner with nine seconds left at Neyland.

Anyway, sometimes Les speaks his mind, no matter what is on it. In the middle of a slow, lazy summer he lit passions from California to Louisiana recently with his rant against USC on a New Orleans radio station:

"I can tell you this, that (USC has) a much easier road to travel," Miles is quoted as saying in the Baton Rouge Advocate. "They're going to play real knockdown drag-outs with UCLA and Washington, Cal-Berkley, Stanford -- some real juggernauts -- and they're going to end up, it would be my guess, in some position so if they win a game or two, that they'll end up in the title (game).

"I would like that path for us. "I think the SEC provides much stiffer competition."

A much easier road? I'll give him the SEC-is-superior posture. Year in, year out, it is the best league in college football. In fact, going in 2007 this might be as good as the conference has been.

But the Pac-10 ain't trash. UCLA won 10 games two seasons ago and returns 20 starters this season. Cal is considered a top 15 program this year and has been turned completely around by Jeff Tedford.

In fact, Les, Pete Carroll is 4-0 against the SEC, including combined victories over Arkansas the past two seasons by 120-31. USC is 17-10-1 overall against the SEC and hasn't lost to an SEC school since 1985.

The Pac-10 is 8-6 against the SEC since 2000. This year USC plays Idaho, at Nebraska and at Notre Dame in non-conference games. LSU plays Virginia Tech, Middle Tennessee, Tulane and Louisiana Tech. I'll take USC in the bravery department.

And don't talk to me about that rough SEC schedule. The Pac-10 is the only major conference that plays a true round robin. This year LSU doesn't play Tennessee or Georgia. It does, however, play Mississippi and Mississippi State every year. Besides, we're talking about USC. The school whose magic number is seven. That's the latest count on both Heismans and national championships at Troy. If this is somehow about LSU having to share the 2003 national championship with USC, then get over yourself, Les. You weren't around. If this is about the SEC having to play a conference championship game, then if you don't like it, change conferences.

If this has something to do with losing New Orleans (and Louisiana native son) Joe McKnight to USC then recruit harder. As McKnight's high school pointed out, you thought nothing of taking Louisiana talent to Oklahoma, Les, when you were at Oklahoma State. Now all the sudden the state's best players are conscripted to go to LSU?

Miles is a coach who uttered one of the most biting comments in Big 12 history. Before the Oklahoma game in 2003, Miles said the Sooners were "the best team in college football -- we are told."

Sufficiently enraged, Oklahoma could barely restrain themselves. The Sooners beat Oklahoma State 52-9.

Miles needs to have a serious talk with his internal monologue. It's great for us (the media) when he speaks out but things tend to even out on the field. Dropping an f-bomb while talking about Alabama this offseason at a public speaking event ("f------ Alabama") already has Nick Saban sharpening his swords. ...

Now for something completely different: Miles is also seen as the likely successor to Lloyd Carr at Michigan. I'll buy that but why are Carr detractors in Louisiana giving him grudging credit for going 22-4 with Nick Saban's players?

A good coach, a good coach is a good coach. The alternative for Miles would be to lose with Saban's players. The Tigers are a top five pick and projected to win the SEC. There is nothing wrong with that in both Louisiana and Michigan ...

At this moment the suspicious death of former Florida player Avery Atkins looks like suicide. Atkins was found dead in the garage of his aunt's home on Thursday.

You can bet this is eating up Urban Meyer inside. If a player is worth saving, Meyer goes the extra mile, sometimes beyond, to give his guys another chance. Atkins, though, was beyond help. He was kicked off the team following his freshman season 2005 after a domestic battery charge surfaced in the offseason. Atkins had been projected to start cornerback in 2006.

He re-enrolled at Florida in the spring, paying his own way, but wasn't allowed to rejoin the team. Since May he had been arrested three times for felony battery; cocaine and drug paraphernalia possession and carrying a concealed weapon; possession of crack cocaine. ...

Leftovers from Thursday's All American Football League story ...

Marcus Katz, financial backer of the AAFL and diehard Georgia fan:

"I'm a Georgia fan. You have a bunch of friends in college football wishing it was the season again. I couldn't help but notice that all the players we came to love, disappeared. Why couldn't they play in Athens in the spring?

"This is something I thought about for years and years and years. What kind of person would it take that would be respected enough for schools to even listen? It turns out he lived right up the street (de facto AAFL commissioner Cedric Dempsey, former NCAA executive director, lives near Katz).

On TV: We wouldn't turn down a TV contract. The people that care about watching Florida play live mostly in Florida. We could make deals with local cable channels. We would do the same thing in each area. If we ever got popular enough in other cities that (TV contract) might be possible.

On the league: I think there's enough money to give the fans a fair shot to decide if they want to like it. Sometimes things aren't just black and white. I fully expect that we're going to sell every ticket in Florida in every game. I looked at the research. Octagon is our sports research firm. It's too good to be true.

"The board of directors hasn't really gotten to the point where they're going to pay quarterbacks more and punters less. ...

"Even high school football is fun if you care who wins. It looks like we're going to play at Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Florida State, Mississippi, Texas, Michigan, Purdue, North Carolina State. Of those 10 we'll do eight.

On tryouts that started this week in Orlando:"These are kids that have never practiced together ... I've got my fingers crossed as the beginning of something instead of a finished product.

"Maybe we do that in 50 cities with open tryouts. Look for the handful of players that didn't even play college ball. ...

"I wanted to get (actor Matthew McConaughey) involved with our Texas team. His agent said,' When you get a schedule, give us a call.' "