Posts Tagged ‘Tigers’

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.

Smith, Reed, and Kitchens make H-Back Stacked!

One scan down Auburn’s newly minted depth chart reveals just how diverse an H-Back in Gus Malzahn’s offense needs to be.

On the first team is Eric Smith, a player who sure looks like a bruising running back, but can also catch passes in tight coverage. Behind him is freshman Shaun Kitchens, a linebacker-turned-wide-receiver who will now be asked to play his third position in as many seasons. On the third team, but by no means an afterthought, is highly touted freshman Trovon Reed, a speedy wide receiver who can also return punts and just might be Auburn’s Wildcat triggerman this season.

“They’re all kind of different in their own right, but at that position when they’re in the game, they could all be at very different places,” coach Gene Chizik said. “And I think that’s where it gets interesting.”

As he struggled to find real playing time in 2009, T’Sharvan Bell heard it from just about every coach at Auburn’s practices.

He wasn’t physical enough.

“I took it personally,” Bell said. “I didn’t want anybody thinking I was soft out on the field.”
That all changed during a routine passing drill in camp this month. Wide receiver Emory Blake found out the hard way.

“It was just kind of me and him,” Bell said. “He was headed toward the end zone. I kind of laid out and hit him. Coach said it was a great play.”

So what about all that talk about toughness?

“They don’t tell me that anymore,” he said.

Those coaches are talking to Bell more these days. Gene Chizik said Sunday that Bell, a redshirt sophomore, has so many roles that he might as well be penciled in as a starter for Saturday’s season opener against Arkansas State.

Trotter selected #2

For those who have caught the last few Auburn practices, the news Gene Chizik shared Thursday wasn’t a big surprise.

A.J. Greene, Auburn’s new season-opening right tackle, and Barrett Trotter, the Tigers’ backup quarterback, had assumed their duties unofficially days before Chizik made the formal announcement.

But for those who last checked in a year ago, when Trotter was shelved with a torn ACL and Greene just wasn’t playing, the comeback stories for both players might be simply unfathomable.

Even Chizik had to admit he was pleasantly surprised by the turnarounds from both players, especially a long-forgotten player such as Greene.

“I don’t think there’s any question that he’s one of the most improved on our team,” Chizik said.

During the spring, Chizik said he wasn’t even sure whether Greene was ever going to play before his career came to an end.

Yet another award will be shipped out of USC’s trophy room, but it won’t be coming to Auburn.

The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) ruled Thursday to strip USC of its 2004 National Championship and requested that the school return its Grantland Rice Trophy.

The group did not, however, anoint a new 2004 national champion, instead leaving that spot in the record books completely vacant, a first for the 56-year-old organization.

“We were looking for a consensus opinion,” FWAA president Tim Griffin said. “I guess that didn’t come.”

The organization held a teleconference last week to discuss what action it should take against the Trojans. The group comprised 20 members, past and present, who had a combined 300 years of experience covering college football, Griffin said.

The Auburn basketball schedule is out. At least the SEC portion of it, anyway.

The Tigers, which have yet to officially confirm the entire 2010-2011 schedule, will open the conference season against LSU at home on Jan. 8.

All 16 of the Tigers’ SEC games will be on some kind of television. Only two of Auburn’s games will be aired on ESPN/ESPN2, while the rest will either air on Fox Sports Net, ESPNU, CSS or SEC Network affiliates.

The rest of Auburn’s schedule has yet to be finalized, but some games have been announced by opponents on those school’s websites.

Auburn will likely open the brand new Auburn Arena against UNC-Asheville on Nov. 12.

Auburn will serve as the host to the “Global Sports Hoops Showcase,” which will run from Nov. 19-21. The four-team tournament will pit the Tigers against Samford, Campbell and Middle Tennessee State.

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.

Gus Malzahn only knew one way to describe his 290-pound true freshman running back’s style of carrying the football.

“Big,” the offensive coordinator said of Ladarious Phillips. “Very heavy.”

Saturday, Malzahn and the rest of the Auburn team got to see a healthy dose of the freshman from Handley High.

“That’s probably the most reps he’s had,” Malzahn said. “He was dead tired by the end of it … He’s 290 pounds. He doesn’t look like a running back. He looks like a pulling guard.”

That’s what Saturday’s “half scrimmage” was all about, coaches said, narrowing down who’s in and who’s out.

“Again, just trying to make some final decisions on who we think will help and who can’t,” Chizik said. “It was a half scrimmage, so a lot of the players that are freshmen and young guys that we just needed to really continue to evaluate got a chance to play a lot, which was good to see them.”

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.”