Posts Tagged ‘Football’

Get ready Auburn Fans the Cam Newton show is starting this Saturday.

In about 597 ways, give or take, Cameron Newton has been asked if he’s prepared to lead Auburn as its starting quarterback since he arrived on campus in January.

He was asked, perhaps, for the final time Tuesday, four days before he will take the field before 87,000 fans Saturday against Arkansas State — roughly 174 times the amount that watched him in his Blinn (Texas) Community College debut last season.

Newton replied with the same confidence and same grateful attitude he’s had since Auburn snagged him away from Mississippi State in the New Year’s Eve coup of a commitment. He then was asked if he was sick of answering questions and just wanted to play football.

His answer to that particular query came as a surprise.

The way Barrett Trotter sees it, the demotion to scout team comes with a promotion.

The only thing that beats not playing is, well, playing.

“If you’re going to be third or fourth on offense, and you’re standing around not doing anything and watching everyone else get reps and throw, I’d much rather be on scout team over there slinging the ball around and having fun,” Trotter said. “That’s what you’re going to be up against in the upcoming years, so it can’t do anything but help you.”

A number of Auburn’s players learned Tuesday that their season would officially begin on the scout team. For obvious reasons, the news was tough to swallow, but the assignment came with a new jersey, a new position for some and a door that has yet to close on their immediate future playing time.

Even the fast paced Malzahn needs some help.

The pressure to win in the SEC permeates every facet of its respective football programs.

From the round-the-clock recruiting all the way to how landscapers cut the grass on game days, there isn’t a decision made that doesn’t at least consider how it will affect the team’s ability to win more games and win them now.

At Auburn, nowhere is it displayed more than by the homegrown flavor of offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn’s duo of right-hand assistants both of whom have known him since the birth of his fast-paced, no-huddle spread offense.

In graduate assistant Rhett Lashlee, Malzahn has the second player who ever quarterbacked the offense he runs today. In offensive quality control assistant Elijah Drinkwitz, Malzahn has the first brave soul who had to fill his shoes as the offensive coordinator at Springdale (Ark.) High after he infamously joined Houston Nutt at Arkansas.

Kodi hauls in a pass from Cameron Newton, he also caught 2 TD passes and was one of the bright spots in Tuesdays practice.

The score was a lopsided 82-25, but there wasn’t an Auburn player or coach to be found Tuesday night that felt like celebrating as if the victory meant something.

This is the year of “eight ain’t it” and “good to great,” after all.

With 17 days remaining until the season opener against Arkansas State, Auburn’s players seemingly all agreed that they were not satisfied with what the team has accomplished after two weeks of camp. Coaches acknowledged the positives, but couldn’t avoid the areas that troubled them, weaknesses they’ve spotted that likely kept them in their offices well after the Tigers’ third scrimmage in six days.

“We’ve got to get better in a hurry. In a hurry,” defensive coordinator Ted Roof said. “The good news is they’re all correctable and we’ll get that corrected.”

The Bull has a hurt hoof.

Eltoro Freeman walked slowly out of Auburn’s James H. Watson Fieldhouse on Thursday morning while his teammates sprinted to their spots for early practice stretching.

In a broad sense, this was a familiar scene for Freeman, who has been plagued by injuries and other various issues since he arrived at Auburn last spring. For this particular camp, one in which the fiery Freeman has attacked his second chance to start at outside linebacker with renewed passion, this marked the first humbling setback.

Freeman has a case of turf toe on his right foot that will keep him off the field for the next couple days of practice. It’s “nothing catastrophic,” coach Gene Chizik said, but it certainly doesn’t help

Freeman’s chances of fending off Daren Bates and a number of stellar freshmen at his position.

“He’s got to get back quick,” Chizik said.

Trotter still fighting for the top QB spot

There are worse things in life than fighting for the backup quarterback job.

That’s the mindset Barrett Trotter has brought into his third fall camp at Auburn, the third consecutive camp in which Trotter is on the outside looking in at the starting position.

“You’re going to work hard, no matter if you’re first, second or third,” Trotter said. “So for me, it really doesn’t change anything.”

An Al Borges recruit, Trotter didn’t play during his first season at Auburn, though former coach Tommy Tuberville flirted with the idea momentarily while Kodi Burns and Chris Todd failed to bring much efficiency to the position.

With a wide open competition set for his redshirt freshman season, and an entirely new staff evaluating the talent on hand, Trotter had as good of a shot as anyone to seize the starting job.

Cameron Newton just held court with reporters for a good 17 minutes.

It was intriguing, insightful and entertaining.

Here are some of the highlights.

(Expectations?)
My No. 1 expectation is to get everyone’s trust on my team. I’m not going to put too much on me. I just want them to have, at the end of spring, to have my coaches and teammates trust me at any point in the game.

(Your competition?)
It’s not nothing. Sometimes, I even forget we’re competing. Neil is such a good guy. We stay next door to each other. He’s a good guy to be around—an up-tempo guy. You never see him with a frown on his face. When I have a question, he’s probably the first person to answer. The competing on the field is not like everyone’s expecting to be the one. We’re still a team every day.

The weather feels like mid-January in Lee County today, but spring football is a little more than 36 hours away.

The temperatures will follow suit, as they’ll hover around the 60’s when Auburn opens camp Wednesday at 9 a.m.

Mornings, you say? Yes, Auburn will get its business done early for all 15 of its spring practices.

A-Day, thankfully, is still set for the afternoon. It will be an April 17, 1 p.m. kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The game will be broadcast live on ESPNU and Mike Bellotti, the former Oregon football coach and athletic director, will be making his ESPN debut for the game.

Here’s the rest of the spring schedule.

(Photo credit: Todd Van Emst)

It’s always fun getting a chance to catch up with Auburn’s recruiting czar Curtis Luper.

Namely because there might not be a person in Lee County with more knowledge/opinions about the NBA than Luper.

I like that, considering I’m a diehard Cleveland Cavaliers fan and follow the Association with passion. I don’t like that Luper thinks the Lakers will repeat this season because he said that last year and, well, he was right.

I talked with Luper on the record for about 15 minutes this afternoon with the heavy focus on Auburn’s upcoming recruiting ventures, including the returns of Tiger Prowl and Big Cat Weekend. Here’s a sneak peek of the Q&A, which will run in tomorrow’s Opelika-Auburn News.

(Why do Big Cat again?)
“Coach Chiz wants to make those events annual so if it warrants it being an annual event, we think it did so we’re going to do it again.“

Auburn’s A-Day game is going global.

The Worldwide Leader, ESPN, will be picking up a live feed of Auburn’s A-Day game and will broadcast it to the masses on ESPNU.

The game is set for Saturday, April 17, with a 1 p.m. kickoff.

This announcement comes one day after ESPN declared it would televise National Champion Alabama’s spring game. The games are set for the same day, with Alabama’s kicking off one hour later.

Perhaps this will force Gene Chizik to go by a normal scoring system. Last year’s, which rewarded points to the offense and defense for just about everything, probably wouldn’t be TV-friendly.