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* WORLD SERIES AUBURN FOOTBALL MAGIC CITY CLASSIC YANKEES 3, PHILLIES 1 Teixeira, Matsui help even series Yankees’ Burnett gets first postseason win By RONALD BLUM The Associated Press NEW YORK — Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui shook the New York Yankees from their lumber slumber and sent the World Series to Phila- delphia all tied up. Teixeira and Matsui hit solo hom- ers off familiar foe Pedro Martinez, backing a sharp performance by A.J. Burnett and giving the Yankees a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 2 on Thursday night. A night after getting stopped by Cliff Lee in the opener 6-1, the Yanks bounced back from an early deficit and won in the Series for the first time since taking a 2-1 lead against Florida in 2003. After a day off, Game 3 will be at Philadelphia on Saturday night. Light-hitting Matt Stairs put the Phillies on top with an RBI single in the second. Burnett then used a bit- ing curveball to keep Philadelphia from advancing another runner past second base against him. Teixeira, in an 8-for-44 (.182) postseason slump, tied the score when he led off the fourth with a drive into the Yankees bullpen. See SERIES Page 3C AP Hideki Matsui, right, is greeted by his Yankees teammates after hitting a solo home run Thursday night against the Phillies. By DOUG SEGREST News staff writer When Alabama State linebacker Adrian Hardy learned Anthony Speight would start at quarterback last week, he offered words of encouragement. “I told him if he didn’t do good, his car wouldn’t start,” Hardy said with a grin. OK, the words weren’t that encourag- ing. But the results were. Speight, a junior from Jess Lanier High, made his first start of the season at the position and led the Hornets to a 24-17 victory against Alcorn State. That snapped a three-game losing record for Alabama State (4-3, 1-3 in the SWAC). Speight is expected to get his second straight start Saturday at Legion Field when the Hornets meet archrival Ala- bama A&M (4-3, 1-2) in the State Farm Magic City Classic presented by Coca- Cola at 2:30. Speight got the start against Alcorn be- cause starter Chris Mitchell “is a bit banged up,” Hornets coach Reggie Bar- low said. But make no mistake, Speight brings some impressive traits to the lineup. “You want someone who can protect himself and move around,” Barlow said. “Anthony is a student of the game and a good player — that’s why he was the top quarterback we recruited as a senior.” See CLASSIC Page 3C NEWS STAFF/MARK ALMOND Alabama State’s Anthony Speight is expected to start at quarterback in Saturday’s Magic City Classic. Student of the game Ex-Jess Lanier star Speight knows his Classic history THUMBS UP Vince Young. It’s all about second chances for the 2006 Offensive Rookie of the Year. The QB will return to a starting role for the 0-6 Tennessee Titans this Sunday with a shot at redemption against a Jacksonville defense that has picked him off eight times. THUMBS DOWN Bob Knight. Saying his attendance would be a distraction to the other six inductees, the legendary Indiana basketball coach declined an invite to be at the school’s Hall of Fame induction. Some might say that’s a noble reason not to attend. Others might say it’s a petty grudge. UNLIKELY JOURNEY Bowden didn’t not say he’ll coach UAB W hy do I believe Bobby Bowden will not be the next head football coach at UAB? Lots of reasons. Here’s one: He didn’t say he wouldn’t be. Taking over a program has become a 12-step pro- gram all its own. One of the key steps is denial. Bowden violated what should be one of the cardinal rules of his profession after a Florida State practice this week. He addressed Internet specu- lation. He laughed at it, but still. In this case, he was asked about the informed specu- lation or irresponsible ru- mor — you be the judge — that he might just take his ball after this season and come home. To the town where he was born. To UAB. That notion first surfaced on the Rivals site War- chant.com. Andrew Carter of the Or- lando Sentinel asked Bow- den about it, and here’s what the coach said: “I have heard that. And Tommy’s going with me. Have you heard that?” That’s right. This “story” has Tommy Bowden joining his dad’s UAB staff as head coach-in-waiting. As if Bobby hasn’t had enough problems with that concept at FSU. “I don’t know where it started, there or here or what,” Bowden said. “You know, you hear so many dif- ferent rumors, you get im- mune to them.” A-ha. So he didn’t deny it. I first heard this rumor more than a week ago from an informed source: Terry Bowden. He laughed at it, too. See SCARBINSKY Page 3C NEWS STAFF/HAL YEAGER Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn talks to quarterback Chris Todd after Todd turned the ball over to Arkansas. From high school to the SEC, Malzahn travels improbable path By JON SOLOMON News staff writer G us Malzahn was always a doodler, beginning as a child when he would diagram football plays while watching his be- loved Dallas Cowboys on TV. “He would do all kinds of lat- erals and double passes, any- thing weird that somebody else wasn’t doing,” said Ray Ruh- man, Malzahn’s stepfather. In high school, Malzahn took coaching fifth-graders on a boys club team so seriously that he game-planned in advance. It re- mains a family joke that Mal- zahn was discouraged from be- coming a coach by his Philosophy of Coaching college professor at Henderson State. Malzahn always assumed he would be a coach. But there has been nothing conventional about the offense he designed or the 15-year path in high school football he took to the college game. “We’ve both been in amazement at times that it’s happened the way it did,” said Kristi Malzahn, Gus’s wife. When his struggling Auburn offense faces Ole Miss on Satur- day, Malzahn, 44, will be re- minded of the unlikely journey. The man across the sideline, Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt, opened the door for Malzahn into college — and could have shut it. See MALZAHN Page 4C AP Then-Arkansas head coach Houston Nutt, right, introduces Guz Malzahn as his offensive coordinator before the 2006 season. The Razorback marriage did not end up well for either. Last laugh will belong to Ole Miss’ Nutt, not AU’s Malzahn T here’s nothing better than a little bad blood between coaches to spice up a good rivalry, or a game that isn’t the big deal we thought it would be a few weeks ago. That’s what we have Sat- urday when Houston Nutt brings his 24th-ranked Re- bels (5-2) to Jordan-Hare Stadium to face the Au- burn Tigers (5-3). Auburn’s offense is run by Gus Malzahn, whom Nutt plucked out of the high school ranks to be his offen- sive coordinator at Arkansas in 2006. To cut to the bad blood, think Tony Franklin. When Auburn’s 2008 sea- son turned for the worst un- der Franklin, the offensive guru whom Tommy Tuber- ville brought in, he was canned. When Arkansas’ offense struggled in ’06 with future NFL stars Darren McFad- den, Felix Jones and Peyton Hillis, Nutt pulled the plug on Malzahn’s play-calling and deflated his ego even more when he brought in David Lee to take over the offense the next year. Mal- zahn quickly left for Tulsa. Malzahn and Nutt now get a chance to show the other who was right, or wrong. This week’s picks: OLE MISS AT AUBURN Saturday’s game shapes up as a mismatch despite odds- makers making the free-fall- ing Tigers only a 3 1 / 2-point underdog. Where Auburn has one proven playmaker in running back Ben Tate, Ole Miss has quarterback Je- van Snead, running back Dexter McCluster and wide- outs Shay Hodge and Pat- rick Patterson. The Tigers’ Chris Todd? The Manning Award Watch List QB hasn’t completed half his passes the past two games. See HOLLIS Page 3C
