By RON HIGGINS, Scripps Howard News Service

LSU football coach Les Miles trudged off the field at halftime last Saturday and stared at the Tiger Stadium north end-zone scoreboard, which read: Troy 24, LSU 3.He heard the boos -- at least from the fans who weren't too cold to voice their opinion.

While the Southeastern Conference Championship Game on Dec. 6 in Atlanta is now set between Alabama and Florida, there's still jockeying for the SEC's nine bowl tie-ins.

Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer, headed for possibly the worst season in his 17-year head-coaching career in Knoxville, agreed to a buyout Monday, according to sources close to the athletic department.The Vols are 3-6 overall, 1-5 in the Southeastern Conference, averaging 9 points per game in SEC play.

Urban Meyer saw it last football season.Nick Saban saw it in 2004.Steve Spurrier didn't see it in 1997, because he was too busy trying to find a dependable quarterback.Les Miles swears he doesn't see it this season.

You never know where the ebb and flow of a Southeastern Conference football season will take you. In the preseason, everyone pointed to this week's Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville as a BCS national championship elimination game. Georgia was a preseason No. 1 in the polls, and Florida got a No. 1 pick in several magazines.

So how many of you had Vanderbilt with one loss and a co-leader of the Southeastern Conference's Eastern Division halfway through the season?Or how many had Tennessee without an SEC victory? Or Alabama as a national championship contender? Or first-year Auburn offensive coordinator Tony Franklin unemployed? Or Ole Miss winning at Florida?

Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer said Wednesday that he had not read comments from Vols' athletic director Mike Hamilton, who on Tuesday told the Knoxville News-Sentinel that he was concerned by the "apathy" of Tennessee fans.

At the end of every football season, a head coach usually has instant recollection of at least five plays that affected his team's season, positive or negative.Florida had one of those plays in its 51-21 blowout of LSU Saturday in Gainesville.

This is why you love Southeastern Conference football.This is why I love SEC football.Ole Miss 31, No. 4 Florida 30.Because right when you think you have everything figured out, you don't. That's precisely what SEC football is all about.

You hear it in Nashville and throughout the Southeastern Conference.No. 21 Vanderbilt is 4-0, and it only needs two more wins to become bowl-eligible.Back in 2005, that type of "Little Engine That Could" thinking got the Commodores a 5-6 record. Not even a win over Tennessee in Knoxville could remove the sting of what could have been after a 4-0 start.