It was scrimmage time for Auburn football once again on Saturday, and if we didn’t learn quite as much as we did the first go-round,there’s still a few developments worth commenting on.
Reporting from the scene (or, unfortunately, from somewhere nearby) were Andy Bitter (one two), Charles Goldberg (one two), Jay Tate (one), Bryan Matthews (one two), Evan Woodbery (one), and Andrew Gribble (one two). Straight information is theirs, commentary is mine.
Like so:
— The quarterback race is over. It’s become all-but-impossible to find anyone with any kind of informed opinion on the matter who believes that anyone but Newton will be Auburn’s starting QB this fall. Phillip Marshall, Matthews, assorted insiders and message boarders … it’s unanimous. Sometimes the consensus opinion is off, but rarely is an opinion this consensus that off. Newton’s the man.
And if you need to know why, please put the 2 of “Malzahn came away form the scrimmage more annoyed by the quarterbacks’ mistakes than pleased with their successes” and the 2 of “Neil Caudle said he made Demond Washington’s highlight film” together. With all due respect to Barrett Trotter and Clint Moseley–by all accounts both having good springs and serious starting candidates down the road–the only true potential competitor for Newton this season was Caudle. And if he’s still throwing picks every scrimmage, forcing Malzahn to pull his hair out, and generally not cutting it, then there’s not really any competition here.
Like I said: it’s over.
— This just in: Auburn’s offense is going to be good this year. Like, they’re going to rate it R and make it extremely popular with 17-year-olds on Friday nights, because it’s going to be freaking terrifying.
Exhibit A is, of course, Newton, who’s scoring on draws even when all the defenders have to do is touch him. Exhibit B is Mario Fannin, who we all knew all along wasn’t going to give away his last best opportunity to be the starting Auburn running back, and sure enough appears to making the most of it.
But it’s Exhibit C–the receivers–that have me really excited. Last year we had Darvin Adams and Terrell Zachery and bupkis. This year Emory Blake is drawing raves from Chizik, DeAngelo Benton is consistently popping up in the “who had a good day” column, and even aside from those two (and Q-Carr, Kodi, eventually Trovon Reed, etc.) Adams appears ready to take things to the next level after slithering his way for a big TD. Assuming the line lives up to its billing and Newton’s able to get the ball to these guys, will there be any holes left in the offense to fill?
— It’s been kind of a tale of two corners this spring, hasn’t it? One one hand, you’ve got Neiko Thorpe, who’s been about as invisible the past few weeks as it’s possible for a multi-year starter to be. If Thorpe’s ready for a bounceback season, we sure haven’t heard much about it.
But on the other, you’ve got Demond Washington. Washington had P-Marsh predicting an All-SEC season even before spring began, has since shown up in recaps all over the place, and kind of capped things with a pair of interceptions on Saturday. The plan for replacing Walt McFadden was originally for Thorpe to take the next step and become the team’s No. 1 lockdown corner, but maybe Washington will take care of things himself. (Or, hey, best-case scenario: they both rise to that McFadden level. I could live with that.)
— The beat writers (Tate in particular, it seems) were steamed–and not without reason–that the AUfficial Auburn Twitter feed was relaying information mid-scrimmage while the media was kept juuuuuuuust outside the stadium. To not be able to do one’s job and then discover the program that’s keeping you from doing it is doing the job for you has to sting.
But that said … even speaking as an ex-journo, I don’t see it as that big a deal. Should reporters be allowed to watch the scrimmages and practice? Yeah, I think they should. Do I understand the effort to keep them out? Not entirely, no. But I’m assuming the motivation behind that decision–as Chizik explained last spring–isn’t to keep hidden the information the Auburn Twitter feed was releasing; we’ll all find out who scored, who threw picks, who got sacks, etc. eventually. What Chizik and Co. want to prevent (I’m assuming) are the subjective critiques that the media can provide with access. It’s one thing for us all to know via Twitter that Neil Caudle threw an interception; it’s another for a beat hack to say (as they might) that Caudle looked terrible at the scrimmage and was in danger of losing the backup’s role to an impressive-looking Trotter. The AU Twitter feed’s never going to give us that second approach, so I think we can excuse the Powers That Be on charges of hypocrisy in this particular instance.
Again: I really don’t think any beat writer would bother saying anything so nasty after practice that college football players couldn’t handle it. They ought to have access. But it’s also Gene Chizik’s team, and if he’s worried that outside commentary could affect the way his team practices, he’s within his rights.
Photo by Leffie Dailey.
“Ought” sure is a strong word, Jerry. The journalistic sense of entitlement of some reporters knows no bounds, it seems. 🙂
What I’ve discovered, in near a year and a half now of journalistic “black out” of the Auburn program, is that my passion for Auburn football hasn’t diminished one little bit. The only difference I see between “then” and “now” is the whining of those who now have to actually work a little harder to get and write a story instead of (like Donut Tate) picking up a meme from the Auburn message boards, watching a couple of plays in a practice/scrimmage that fits that meme, and then writing an article about it.
Boo hoo hoo! Poor Jay!
I can’t remember hearing the constant whining out of professionals like Andy Bitter, Phillip Marshall, Charles Goldberg, et.al. who seem to think that being assigned to the Auburn beat is a privilege instead of a burden. If poor, burdened Jay Tate (who has made it clear in the past that he has no real attachment or desire in covering Auburn sports) doesn’t want to get off his rotund rear end and walk that beat a little for a story, maybe he ought to try getting a job out in the real world and see how he likes that.
If there is a low-man on the totem pole of Auburn beat writers, its whiney Jay Tate. He’s more motivated in creating a cult around his own personality on the internet than working hard on the Auburn beat with fairness and accuracy.
“If there is a low-man on the totem pole of Auburn beat writers, its whiney Jay Tate. He’s more motivated in creating a cult around his own personality on the internet than working hard on the Auburn beat with fairness and accuracy.”
-you took the words right out of my mouth.
For the record, P-Marsh may not be “whining” about it, but he’s made no secret of the fact that he doesn’t like it or understand it, either. I do think Tate calling the Tweeting “lame, duplicitous, weak, and wrong” or whatever it was was over-the-top, but I really don’t blame him for being frustrated.
There’s some serious hatin’ going on for Jay G. Tate over here. You guys should focus that hateful energy toward something more positive. That way, instead of making your ulcer get worse, or you pit stains get bigger, you could actually contribute to your very tiny circle of acquaintances.
Good luck!
Thanks for dropping in Ja… errr… Buzzy! Have another donut!
Personally, I’ve never ridden much into the motivations of the beat reporters. But I’ve always found Tate to be one of the earliest updated whenever something new comes out.
But to be fare to him, and as Jerry noted, the brown out has to be frustrating especially since many of the hacks (Tate included) have been on furlough a time or two in the past year. If they aren’t allowed to cover anything, then they could find themselves totally out of the beat biz.
Then we’d all have to start paying Phillip Marshal… or at the very least chip in for Jerry’s subscription to be ‘paraphrased’ on WBE.
Wow did I write that? I need to stop free basing on Mondays.
That’s “never READ much into”
Sheesh…
You also wrote “to be FARE to him” as well, Alex. 🙂
Obviously I type faster than I think. This can’t be good.