We’ll go strictly with football in this one, gang.

First up is right guard Brandon Holland, who will start and play the first quarter in place of Sergio Render, who coach Frank Beamer disciplined for an undisclosed infraction.

“It’s a chance for me to show [the coaches] and show the team and show everybody else that I can play,” said Holland, a sophomore. “I think that’s the main thing that’s really just holding me back, me being too inconsistent. I’m looking forward to changing that on Saturday and showing everybody that I can play.

“My main thing is playing too high. When I play lower [with bent knees], it makes me a better football player. It gives me more power coming off the ball. If I stay low, I think I won’t have a problem with anything.”

What happens when he plays high? 

“I just don’t get enough push that I need to, as much push as coach wants me to, to move the play vertical and have the play push vertical.”

As for the line’s overall struggles, Holland said, “Everything that happens up front is on our shoulders, and we take full responsibility for that. It’s up to us to create those holes and create those cracks for [tailback] Branden [Ore] to run in.”

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Next is sophomore whip linebacker Cam Martin, who is one of three new starters on defense, along with rover Kam Chancellor and defensive end Orion Martin, Cam’s older brother. I had a story earlier this week on Chancellor’s struggles, but Cam Martin also sputtered earlier this season. He said he is coming along now, and he said a lot of his early season problems stemmed from his positioning on the field.

“Where I’m playing, you see all the action inside [toward the inside of the field from where he’s positioned] and you want to go in there and stick your head in and make a play, make a tackle,” he said. “Then as soon as you do that, they [the ball carrier] bounce right outside of you. So it’s just basically like coach said: You’ve got to keep your leverage and just control what you control. If you’re out there and you have outside leverage, you need to keep outside leverage and not worry about what’s going on inside. You have 10 other guys on the field that are supposed to be taking care of their assignments.”

He further explained the concept of outside leverage, which is basically when he is in good position to make a tackle on the outside edge of the play. 

“If somebody’s coming to block you and you’re outside, but you see the running back cutting in, you can’t just stick your head in because he can easily cut outside of you, and it go from being a 1-yard gain to being a 40-yard gain,” he said. “I think that’s what me and lot of the other guys on defense fell into in the LSU game and earlier during the year.

“I’m still not perfect. But I’m focusing more on doing my individual assignment. If all 11 of us do our individual assignments, we’re going to be a really good defense.”

I asked him how he focuses on keeping his leverage and not straying into a teammate’s gap. 

“I think it’s just you’ve got to keep disciplined,” he said. “A lot of the guys, including myself, we just lost discipline [at LSU]. We wanted to stick our heads in and make plays. Things are going bad, and a lot of us felt like if we make a play, then we can turn things around. That’s where we messed up. We fell into that trap, and a lot of us didn’t do our assignments and turned a lot of small gains into a lot of big gains.”

I thought the last thing Martin said when I chatted with him Tuesday was perhaps the most interesting.

“You just have to maintain your discipline, remember what you were coached and not try to be a playmaker all the time,” he said. “Sometimes, just doing your job and not making a tackle is better than putting your team at risk and going in there and making a tackle. Because you’re not always going to make the tackle. Sometimes, you’re going to miss and they’re going to get outside and go for a long one.”

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That’s all for now, gang. Will probably have more for you tomorrow. As always, feel free to pass along any thoughts, feelings or general missives in the comment space on this page. Later.