The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Georgia

The Good

Cam: Put yourself in Cam’s shoes. You’re the center of a very nasty and highly public investigation that if proven true could shake the world of college football to it’s very core. Your family is being dragged through the mud and people all over the country are calling you a thief and a cheat. Do you think you could come out and play a huge rivalry game with a potential birth in the National Championship game at stake? Well not only did Cam play, he excelled. As soon as he stepped foot on that field, he was excited and ready to go. You could tell he was mad during the game. There were a couple of “unnecessary” face swats that passed for stiff arms. I think he was pissed and he wanted to run people over. He lasered passes between UGA defenders and brought Auburn one step closer to the promised land. I was feeling pretty depressed about the whole thing on Friday. It was hard to get excited about a game that could very well be vacated in a few months. I can honestly say that I am now just enjoying the ride and if we happen to go down, they will have to pry a national title from our cold, dead hands.

Lutz: Two great TD catches including one in traffic. I have no doubt that Cam Newton can throw a ball that leaves bruises on the hands. Lutz made it look easy when he caught that pass while being surrounded by defenders. When other receivers were dropping easy catches, Lutz was making the plays that needed to be made. It’s been a few years since tight ends were a factor at Auburn but he is quickly becoming a great option for Cam.

Onterrio: 3 TDs. While he never tore off a long run, he did manage to make the most of his attempts in the red zone. UGA loads up the box at the goal line thinking that Newton is going to plow ahead. All he has to do is hand it off to Onterrio and he just takes it around the outside and barely makes it to the pylon. Only someone with his speed can get there.

Third Down Conversions: This stat goes a long way in determining how a game goes. 9-14 does it every time.

Punting: 42.5 average including a 50 yarder. We have been rough on the punters this year but they performed liked they actually knew what they were doing. They were only called on twice, but Shoemaker earned his keep this week.

Red zone scoring: 6 of 6. And all of those were touchdowns. I remember the days when Auburn had a whole lot of trouble scoring in the red zone. We were settling for field goals or throwing interceptions. When you get down there, you have to score. And last night, Auburn was perfect.

Beating UGA: 4 years is too long.

The Bad

Blake’s drop: The normally sure handed Blake lets one go through his hands and creates an INT. Not only does this give UGA excellent field position, but it also messes up Cam’s stats. It was a perfect throw that hit him right in the hands. He made up for it later in the game by catching everything else that came his way. Give Cam some credit too for shaking it off and still looking Emory’s way.

Mario’s TD drop: Wow. This would have been an easy 6. While Mario fumbles a lot, he is usually a very sure handed receiver. In fact, the majority of his big play highlights in his career are great catches. I think it is obvious that all of this fumblities has gotten to him. Athletes tend to rely on instinct and muscle memory. He has been catching those passes since middle school. It didn’t hurt Auburn. But man, that’s tough to watch.

Personal fouls: We shot ourselves in the foot in the first half. Three personal fouls that gave UGA free yards. Nick Fairly had a horrible roughing the passer call that negated a defensive stop on third down.

Defense against A.J. Green: Well we just gave him some more clips for his NFL Draft highlight film. Poor Demond is going to be shown from now on getting beat by 3 yards on those two TD plays. On one play, he acted like he had safety help over the middle so you can put that all on him. The other had a small push off but it wasn’t called. Green is just hard to guard. Whatever.

The Ugly

Fight at the end: So this was a lame way to end a game. Blanc and Goggans get ejected for throwing punches and have to sit out the first half against Bama. The UGA blogs are making quite the show today of how they think Fairly had a bunch of dirty hits (and they blissfully ignore their own chop block against Fairly that started this whole thing). Three UGA players went after Fairly and started choking him while he was on the ground. They don’t call an ejection for this. I don’t blame Auburn players at all for sticking up for him. If UGA is so classless as to try and do a 5 against 1 to retaliate for our DT being blocked into their QB than that’s their deal. I only wish they hadn’t thrown punches. They are back ups and it won’t hurt us that much I suspect, but it still doesn’t look good. Auburn is better than that.

Overly Specific Predictions - Week 11: Georgia

 

(The Birmingham News/Hal Yeager)

Welcome to Overly Specific Predictions. During this segment I will look ahead to Auburn's upcoming game and throw out five predictions as to what we will see both on and off the field. These aren't your usual predictions; they will be needlessly specific and random. They will probably be horribly and ridiculously wrong, but that's the beauty of the Internet: no repercussions.

What? There's a game today? The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry has been sullied by the Cam Newton controversy. Will Cam play? The answer to this question could change the entire dynamic of the game. I really have no idea what that answer is. These predictions are going to be tough, but here we go.

Prediction I
Cam Newton will....not play. I just think that Cecil Newton's late night revelation last night is too damning. I think Chizik will have no choice but to sit Cam. Damn the torpedoes. All in baby!

Prediction II
Without Cam, the running game will take a hit take off. Auburn will get 185 304 yards on the ground.


Prediction III
Mike Dyer, Kodi Burns and Demond Washington will all score touchdowns.

Prediction IV
Auburn's quarterback (whoever it may be) will tear off a 50+ yard run.

Prediction V
Nick Fairly will be credited with 5 Tackles for Loss including 2 sacks. He will also force 1 fumble.

Final Score
Auburn 38
Georgia 35

Look for the predictions recap on Monday evening!

Let it Ride

Is the End Near for Auburn?

Is that the band I hear playing “Nearer My God to Thee”? If not, they might as well be playing “Living on a Prayer” because as of this moment, it seems that is all Auburn is hanging by. Some Auburn folks are rearranging the deck chairs but the fact is that Kenny Rogers back tracked on his story and MSU alums are coming out of the woodwork to confirm that Cecil Newton just screwed us over.

I think at this point we must concede that Cecil Newton was trying to shop Cam around to Mississippi State. There are too many people putting their careers and reputations on the line to confirm this. MSU Alum Bill Bell confirmed that not only was Cecil seeking money, but that Bell spoke with the NCAA earlier in the week. It seems like they might just have enough now to declare him ineligible and to tank Auburn’s amazing season. At this point in time, all I have to cling to is the blind hope that they will not find anything in the form of hard evidence that incriminates Cecil. That seems to be about the only chance of saving our season. The bigger question lies in what happens to Auburn if the doomsday device goes off?

First off, there is nothing out there that says Auburn paid Newton to come play here. Anyone who says that is just trying to make a very thin connection between allegations. Cecil wanted Mississippi State to pay and so Auburn must have out bid them. It's still a possible scenario, but I think it's also possible that Newton came to Auburn simply because he was pissed at Mississippi State for turning them in. Until we start hearing about the Bill Bell of Auburn, I will continue to think we are in the clear. This would have a huge impact on what kind of penalties the NCAA levies at Auburn. If we can still maintain deniability, then we might lose the season, but we wouldn’t lose the next ten years trying to rebuild the program. If they find out that Auburn paid Cam and that everyone in the entire Athletic Department was lying, well….yeah.

This story broke a week ago today and it has morphed from a far-fetched rumor being denied by all involved to a very likely scenario that might just end up blowing up in Auburn’s face. I think I speak for all Auburn people when I say that I hope we didn’t cheat. I hope we didn’t pay Cam to come play for us. A part of me hopes that if we did cheat, then hopefully we were at least good enough at it to hide our tracks. However, the other part of me thinks that if we did do something this egregious and broke the most basic rule of college football then we deserve everything that is coming our way and then some.

Regardless, this has turned from a season of fun and excitement to one of horror, shock, and downright depression. When Cam Newton takes the field on Saturday, I think we might just be looking at a dead man walking.

What the Hell is Going On?

In the span of one day, the FBI has gotten involved in the Cam Newton case and ESPN's Joe Schad is breaking yet another piece of the puzzle. I have been defending Cam from the get-go, but this is some pretty weird stuff.

This new article basically says that two Mississippi State recruiters talked with Cecil and Cam Newton where they claimed that money was definitely requested by saying they wanted "more than a scholarship". Unless these phone conversations were recorded, I don't think they mean much of anything. Would you really clamp down on Cam because of two alleged conversations that the Newton's will most likely deny? The real scary part is that these might have been recorded. Wouldn't that just be the ultimate trump card to all of this? People are running around like their heads are chopped off and all this time there might have been a solid piece of evidence that would open the flood gates.

To be clear, this is a very similar approach to the other article. Two unnamed sources that we are supposed to take at their word. While I refuse to just accept that these two guys are telling the truth because ESPN thinks they are, I do find it hard to believe that they would flat out make all of this up. I also have to admit that this latest Joe Schad article has me quite worried. We are a long way from Thayer Evans.

There are several points that are being made that seem to help Auburn out. The NCAA has known about this for almost a year and they never ruled Newton out. There has never been so much as a letter from the NCAA to Auburn. Should the world come to an end and this rumor turns out to be true, I think that fact will help Auburn avoid a harsher sentence. Also, despite the allegations of requests for money, Mississippi State kept right on recruiting Cam Newton until the very end. That also strikes me as odd.

The key thing I took away from this article is that for the first time in all of this, ESPN is basically saying that Auburn is now connected. The fact that Cam Newton is reported to have said "The money was just too good (at Auburn)" now means that it is officially on. Up until now it was just an allegation of this one Miss. St alum calling the school and asking for money, but now Auburn is officially right in the thick of it (not that we weren't before..it's just official now).

I choose to still stand by Cam on this. I mean at this point if it turns out he's guilty than we are going to have quite a few other issues to deal with so I just hope for all of this to turn out well. Make no mistake though, if these allegations turn out to be true, I will lead the charge to burn them all at the stake.

Thayer Evans Takes the Gloves off in Newton Smear Campaign

Apparently, Georgia's linebackers aren't the only people targeting Cam Newton this week. Fox Sports columnist Thayer Evans pulls off the hat trick by writing his third consecutive Cam Newton bashing article.

His first article set the tone nicely with his delicately titled "Don't Vote Newton for Heisman." It looks like the Orlando Sentinel douche isn't the only one who is calling this case closed before anything resembling facts come to light. Not satisfied with the thousands of page views from angry Auburn fans, he set out to write article number 2 proclaiming that Auburn fans were in a state of denial because they didn't stay until the end of a homecoming blow out vs a D2 team. He again reiterates that because the allegation of shenanigans has been made, all should avoid Newton like the plaque.

Now we get to his dandy of an article where he digs into the back of his contact book and pulls out an anonymous source which details Newton's problems with cheating at Florida. The hits keep on coming right? According to the article, Newton transferred to Blinn not because Tim Tebow was staying for his senior year, but because he was about to get expelled for cheating.

I'm sure he no doubt realized that he would incur the wrath of the hordes of angry Auburn faithful (I'm sure he was banking on it), but this is getting ridiculous. I will not post links to any of his articles because this piece of shit has gotten enough advertising dollars off of his ignorance and head hunting journalism. I'm sure he'll try to make it an even four when he posts his "Cam Newton Rapes Kittens" article coming out later this week.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Chattanooga

The Good:

Cam Newton: A tough week for sure for Cam but he rebounds nicely and continues producing Heisman worthy numbers. That asshole from the Orlando Sentinel aside, it seems like most voters are taking a “If he is eligible, than it’s all good” approach. He scores 5 touchdowns and doesn’t get player of the week. I guess they had to give it to one of the fat kids in gym class this week.

Mario Fannin: Sure it was junk time against a terrible team, but Mario showed flashes of brilliance in his limited action. He only had 8 rushes, but he averaged 12 yards a carry and ran for two impressive touchdown runs. It makes me sad because I think all Auburn fans expected him to rush for those kind of yards against real teams when it really mattered. Still, it shows a lot about him that he’s doing whatever it takes to earn back the trust of the coaching staff.

Terrell Zachery: Great game. He has had quiet year in comparison to 2008. Games like this show that he is still a great down field option. His speed will allow him to be a threat to break off a huge play at any moment.

Neil Caudle’s 35 yard run: So that was unexpected. Well, maybe not too unexpected. He tore a long one off last year and this play was no different. He really has more speed than anyone gives him credit for. I really hate it for him that he can only get in during the junk time of junk time, but I’ve never heard him complain once. He’s ok in my book.

The Bad:

Punting: This is becoming a serious problem. It’s a good thing our offense is so good or else both these guys would be losing a lot of games for us. These are scholarship athletes and they are averaging 36.89 yards a punt. We are ranked 96^th in the nation just behind North freaking Texas. We have definitely been spoiled over the last few years with great punters including Duval, Bliss, and Durst, but this has got to improve.

Second team defense: I don’t think it’s any surprise that the back ups to a poor defense are even worse. If this is the future of the team than I am officially saying this is a now or never year to get a National Title. They gave up two incredibly long (and easy) drives to the Mocs and it was not pretty to watch. I guess the only place they can go is up.

The Ugly:

Clark’s shank punt: It’s not often that your humble Auburn blogger can claim to out perform the athletes on the team, but I at least got off a 25 yarder in the park after the game.

Darvin’s drop: He claimed he lost it in the sun and I will choose to believe him because I refuse to accept the fact that Darvin Adams lets a touchdown pass bounce off his facemask unless there are other worldly factors at play.

Missed extra point: BYRUM!!

Carr dropping the punt: Yeah he got it back, but now he’s thrown the job wide open. Let me state this here and now: I DO NOT like Darvin Adams returning punts. That is just begging for him to get hurt on a special teams play that doesn’t matter. Carr needs to step up and lock down on that job because if Darvin gets hurt fielding a punt, I blame Carr.

Mississippi State: The Narcs of the West?

Message boards are blowing up, talk shows are teeing off, and all eyes have suddenly focused a cold, unsavory stare upon the Plains. Did Mississippi State blow the lid off one of the most ground shaking stories to hit college athletics? On the interwebs, we are now forced to endure the unending stream of clichés including the lovable “where there’s smoke there’s fire”, and the oh so witty “if Auburn paid 200,000 then they got a deal.” Let’s try and take a step back and see if we can approach this Newton thing with a fresh point of view.

The first thing I question is the timing of it all. Why did Bond choose to release this information now? He reported this to the NCAA over a year ago! Why are they just now choosing to release it to a New York Times/ESPN story? From what I can gather, one explanation puts it that the Birmingham News and Clarion Ledger were going to break the story first. The only difference is that their story was going to paint Mississippi State not as the white knight whistle blowers, but as a school that had a rouge alumnus and former player going around asking for money. State had first dibs on the deal of the decade when they got the offer for 180,000. They reported this to the NCAA alright, but only after their counter offer of $80,000 and a free t-shirt was turned down. Whatever the reason, the release of the information has created some disturbing links to Cecil Newton. It also raises several questions that have to be answered in order for me to change my vote to guilty.

The first and most obvious question is where did Cecil Newton get the money to renovate his church? It must have taken a good chunk of change to bring his church back from the brink of demolition. There are some red flags waving that might take this in a bad direction for Auburn. One rumor is that Newton hired a sports agent as a contractor for the project. This is documented in the town hall minutes when Newton appeared before the city council. If this turns out to be true, it would only lead to more questions. It is entirely possible that Newton received legitimate donations from people and organizations who actually had a vested interest in saving this church from destruction. Until it can be proven otherwise, I will assume this is true.

The other question that must be answered is what exactly Newton’s relationship with Kenny Rogers is. Was this just a guy offering to use his influence to help them get him to Miss. State? Did he ever contact Auburn or anyone related to Auburn? This Rogers guy is looking more shady every minute this story develops and if it is discovered that Auburn did have contact with him, then it would turn this situation into a very hairy one for Auburn.

According to the blogsosphere and several reporters, we shouldn’t even be having this discussion. Auburn and Cam Newton are guilty as accused. I like Everyday Should Be Saturday, but Spencer Hall’s soap box was a little too tall for me today. Kirk Herbstreit is on the radio predicting doom and gloom for Auburn and, at the very least, all this attention is really sucking the excitement out of a great season. It has been speculated that Cam’s Heisman race is over. There are some douchebags out there who have written him off, but most voters have taken a wait and see approach. I’m glad there are still some rational people out there.

Say it Ain't So Cam

Nothing puts a damper on your undefeated, championship style season like your QB being accused of taking a whole lot of Benjamins to come play ball. This is one of those totally out of left field stories that has everyone running around trying to figure out what's what.

My first thought upon reading all of these articles was simple; I find it hard to believe that someone at Auburn would be so incredibly stupid as to exchange two hundred thousand dollars for a player to come to school here. I hope and pray that I have not given Auburn too much credit. How does stuff like that even go down these days? I'm picturing a beat up Dodge LeBarron driving over a bridge and hunking a brief case full of cash. Regardless of the logistics of it, it's hard to believe. It's also hard to dismiss.

ESPN is not Deadspin. If they are reporting something then it most likely has legs. Where those legs lead is sort of the whole point now. Chiz just came out and said "Cameron Newton is eligible at Auburn University. Period." Yeah...until they find a bunch of crumpled up hundreds oozing out of his mattress. I think it's too early to tell where this is going. All I know is that it has my heart rate up.

The feel around Auburn seems to one of surprise, but also of quiet confidence. This would make me feel better if not for the fact that I'm sure this is how SMU fans felt before they got the sledge hammer to the face. What sucks is that, regardless of the truth of all this, it will only serve as a big distraction. This will probably not factor into the Chatanooga game, but what about UGA? UA? We'll keep our ear to the door and make sure we're near the front of the line with photoshop pictures of the next development.

Predictions Recap - Week 9

Checking in on my predictions for the Ole Miss game:

Prediction I
Auburn won't have much trouble running the ball, but Gus Malzahn will try to flex the passing game's muscle a bit more this week than we've seen recently. Auburn will gain 350 yards on the ground and 200 through the air.

Mostly Right
Ole Miss had a plan to shut down Newton's running ability, and were mostly successful, but Malzahn was ready for this defense and let the passing game loose from the very first snap. I wasn't expecting that much focus on passing that early in the game, but it was great to see some variation to balance out three straight weeks of nothing but Newton runs. Luckily, for my prediction, the focus shifted to the run game as the game got out of hand in the second half and McCalebb and Dyer piled on the rushing yards. The final stat line for Auburn was 343 yards rushing and 229 yards passing. I was off by 36 combined yards. I'm gonna call that close enough.

Prediction II
Zac Etheridge won't get a chance to make a solo tackle on Rodney Scott, but he will be seen helping him up after a play, which will delight the commentators and both fan bases.

Wrong
This was not nearly as big of a story line as I thought it would be. In fact, it wasn't even mentioned until the 4th quarter when the game was mostly decided and the commentators were getting desperate for something to talk about. I guess it helps that Rodney Scott was barely in the game. I only saw him once, on special teams, when he decided to deftly avoid tackling Demond Washington on the kick off return in favor of blowing up Onterio McCalebb. I'm sure you all saw it, since Bob Davie made it his mission to make sure everyone saw how stupid of a play it was. I'm sure Scott was just doing what he was coached to do, but I'm not so sure that included standing over McCalebb and taunting him while Washington was scoring a touchdown.

Prediction III
Cam Newton will be responsible for 1 turnover. Jeremiah Masoli will be responsible for 3.

Wrong
I'm not sure who got official credit for Auburn's fumble, but it appeared to be Newton's fault. It looked like he took too long trying to decide whether to hand it off or keep it, and then tried to give it away after McCalebb was too far away to receive it. Maybe McCalebb got too fast of a start, throwing off the timing of the play, or maybe he just never got a good grip on the ball. But, for the sake of my prediction. I'm going to call it a Newton fumble, so that I get that part of the prediction right. Masoli was only responsible for 1 turnover, which came in the form of an interception. There was another near interception in the 4th quarter, which would have made my prediction close. I was hoping that our defensive pressure would cause Masoli to be more erratic and mistake prone.

Prediction IV
Ole Miss will score a touchdown late in the 4th quarter, but the game will already be out of reach by that point.

Right
Ole Miss scored the last touchdown of the game with 1:53 left on the clock and a 27 point deficit. I'd say I nailed this one.

Prediction V
Someone in the crowd will be wearing a Cam Newton / Superman mashup Halloween costume. I'm guessing a simple Cam jersey with a cape, but I really want to see Clark Kent with a #2 poking out from beneath the button down shirt.

Right
ESPN2 showed a shot of a guy out on the Grove wearing a Superman costume with CAM written on the front. Not the cleverest take on the idea, but it's enough to fulfill my prediction. Cam's mother could also be seen wearing a Superman S on her shirt. That was a nice sight, and I was fully prepared to validate my prediction on that alone.

Final Score
Auburn 42
Ole Miss 31

Close
Actual Final Score:
Auburn 51
Ole Miss 31

I nailed the Ole Miss side of the scoreboard, but I shorted Auburn 9 points. I expected Auburn to score, but I didn't think it would be quite as easy as it was. I'll take Auburn scoring too many points any day of the week.

Results
Two rights, one mostly right and fairly close on the final score. I'd say that's a pretty successful outing for this week. Next week will be tougher. It's always hard to predict what will happen, or even who will play in a cupcake game.