Al.com Features a Blogger's Take on Cam Newton

[AUChizad]

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/09/blogger_roundtable_cam_newton_1.html

In this edition, Jerry Hinnen of War Blog Eagle breaks down Cam Newton's Auburn debut and some disappointing outings for other SEC teams.

Auburn question: Cam Newton impressed anyone who watched him in Auburn's debut, or saw a box score, or the highlights. Was Newton's AU debut in fact the best thing since Bo Jackson sliced bread for the first time? What does he bring to Auburn in terms of strategy and hyperbole? Will his tears cure Tim Tebow's cancer? If Newton, Chuck Norris and Tebow were locked in a cage with a 12-foot grizzly bear, who would kill the bear first?

Come now, there's no need for such ridiculous exaggeration when it comes to Newton. Let's just stick to the facts: he is an indestructible warrior angel of retribution sent from the football gods atop his glorious moped chariot to destroy our gridiron enemies and force them to kneel before his flaming orange-and-blue sword of divine football justice. That's it. There's no need to start with the Uncle Verne-style slobbering, thanks.

But if you're asking what Newton brings to Auburn in terms of strategy, you saw it Saturday: a quarterback who can run all the running plays Gus Malzahn wants his offense to run. The read option, the quarterback lead draw, the speed option ... they're all there.

It's an exaggeration to call Auburn an "option team" at this point, but if the game plane against Arkansas St. is any indication, Malzahn wants to establish the zone read with Newton as his running game's foundation--much as it was for Rodriguez and White at West Virginia, for Meyer/Mullen and Tebow at Florida--and then build out from there.

Everything Dr. Gustav wants in the playbook is now in the playbook. So I think that's a pretty big freaking impact, strategically speaking, even aside from the fact that Newton is, you know, an avatar of the divine.

SEC question: SEC teams from out of state struggled on Saturday. Evaluate the stock drops of LSU (almost losing to UNC's second team), Florida (No. 4 team in the country can't snap the ball), and Ole Miss (first SEC loss to an OVC school since 1907). Which stock fell the most? Will the prices rebound, or were legitimate flaws exposed that will come back to haunt these teams?

First of all, if you thought LSU's stock dropped Saturday, you had it rated too highly to begin with. As I've written a few times back at my place, when they were pulling things together for their performance-of-the-year against Auburn, the Purple Tigers spent all last year getting hopelessly outgained and surviving on special teams heroics and game-swinging defensive plays.

You don't finish dead last in the SEC in total offense and still win 9 games without a lot of lucky bounces and special teams lightning-strikes. So of course LSU beat UNC by the skin of their teeth, having been outgained by 130 yards or so and building their lead in large part to a series of long punt returns; that's the way they always beat halfway-decent teams these days.

But Ole Miss's and Florida's profiles both took legitimate knocks, and I don't think either is going to be a-OK when all is said and done. The most underrated part of the Rebels' (relative) success a year ago was an experienced, effective secondary that often forced opponents to run the ball past the likes of Jerrell Powe, Kentrell Lockett, and Patrick Trahan to get anywhere.

Three of those starters have since graduated, and clearly--if a true freshman at an FCS team is carving the secondary apart with the game on the line--suitable replacements have yet to be found. (If Coty Blanchard and the Jax State wideouts can do what they did, the mind reels at what Ryan Mallett and Co. could accomplish.)

For Florida, it's an old problem rather than a new one: they can't throw the ball downfield. The Gator offense sputtered at times in 2009 because Riley Cooper was the only thing even resembling a deep threat, Tebow was never exactly rocket-armed anyway, and good defenses like 'LSU's or 'Bama's were able to successfully shorten the field.

Brantley's arm was supposed to solve that problem, but after Week 1, it's worse than ever: Brantley threw 25 times for only 113 yards, a miserable average of 4.5 yards an attempt that would have been even more miserable without the lucky carom on the Gators' final 25-yard touchdown. And that was against Miami of Ohio! The snap issue is a fluke that will be fixed; the inability to stretch the field is an ongoing problem that could prove fatal against better competition.