SZVETITZ COLUMN: Don’t give up on Newton just yet
Cam Newton makes his debut at the 2010 Auburn A day game.
The first time Cameron Newton dropped back to pass, he was sacked.
Not the start he –— or any of the 63, 217 fans in Jordan-Hare Stadium — wanted to see.
Maybe he isn’t made of steel.
Well, it wasn’t officially a sack. I mean, Antoine Carter never really touched him, let alone brought him to the ground. Maybe, Newton could have spun out of it, tucked the ball and flew into the end zone.
Maybe.
Or, maybe he would have been dropped to the Pat Dye Field turf like a 6-foot-6 sack of potatoes.
Maybe.
Who knows?
Reading too much into what would have happened on that play would be like trying to figure out a fortune cookie. It’s silly.
And, really, who cares?
It’s a spring game. Not even a spring game, a spring scrimmage. OK, a glorified one, but still a practice, nonetheless.
One out of 15 practices that we got to see. A handful of hundreds of actual reps and thousands (if not millions, knowing offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn) mental reps Newton and the rest of the quarterbacks have taken this spring that we haven’t been able to scrutinize.
What Newton showed — or didn’t show — Saturday during A-Day doesn’t mean much. At all.
He, just like Neil Caudle, Barrett Trotter and Clint Moseley, are measured and taped daily. Not just in a two-hour scrimmage.
They don’t live in a vacuum.
“When we evaluate a guy, whether he’s really going to help our football team or not, obviously today is one day in 15,” head coach Gene Chizik said. “It’s not one day in one day.”
But, of course, it won’t stop you — or I — from analyzing every drop Newton made. Sure, he could have looked better. Just three completions on eight attempts for 80 yards and that one sack.
Not exactly setting the world on fire. And he knows it.
“I did all right,” Newton said. “I feel like I could always do better.”
And I’m sure you do, too.
But for all the hype he’s been getting from his YouTube clips, I halfway expected him to pick up Lee Ziemba and carry him onto the field during pregame introductions. Then save Aubie from the tree on Toomer’s Corner.
I was expecting something more like this stat line — 17-for-21, 199 yards and a touchdown. Or even 7-for-9, 154 yards and two scores. But those weren’t Newton’s numbers. They were Caudle’s and Trotter’s, respectively.
Maybe those guys should be Nos. 1 and 2. Heck, if we’re just going off a spring game, than maybe Newton should be behind Moseley, too.
Maybe not.
“I wouldn’t read anything into anything,” Malzahn said.
Again, it’s spring. And we’ve only seen a glimpse. Just one day, one scrimmage, one practice, one snapshot.
Truth is, we don’t know much. But the coaches do. And they’re not telling. Not yet. And maybe not until two-a-days.
Not until they’re “110-percent sure,” Malzahn said.
But we do know one thing. Newton knows he’s got the talent to win the job, regardless of what he showed Saturday. And regardless if the coaches were limiting the playbook when he was under center.
“The only thing holding me back is that I have this orange jersey on,” he said.
Another downfall of spring practice.
MIKE SZVETITZ is sports editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. He may be reached at mszvetitz@oanow.com or 737-2513.
0 Comments
You can be the first one to leave a comment.