GAME WEEK GAME WEEK GAME WEEK GAME WEEK GAME WEEK GAME WEEK GAME WEEK!
[takes deep breath]
GAME WEEK GAME WEEK GAME WEEK GAME WEEK GAME WEEK GAME WEEK!
We’re celebrating with a quickie look over the coaches’ comments from yesterday and a smattering of links. Don’t forget to visit the beat guys who made this series possible: Andy Bitter, Jay Tate, Andrew Gribble, Charles Goldberg. Onwards:
— Not that it’s surprising at all that Josh Bynes would follow up “eight ain’t it” by setting “SEC championship or bust” as the team’s official goal, but it’s still nice to know that kind of confidence is there.
— Oh man, so Reed’s most recent injury absence for a different injury than the first one? On the one hand, it’s good news that it’s not the first one just getting filed under “nagging,” but on the other, two separate knocks in one fall camp a year after an injury-truncated senior season of high school … this is not so much going to earn Reed the “durable” tag.
Reed is saying he’s still going to play against Arkansas St. (though I’ll personally be fine if he takes the evening off, barring a tie game in the third), and of course there’s an excellent chance this is just one of those things and that labeling Reed “brittle” or whatever at this stage is undiluted paranoia. But we’re still technically in the offseason until Saturday at 6, and what is the offseason for if not undiluted paranoia?
— Reading Antoine Carter’s “mystery box” comments, you get the feeling that Newton’s probably not quite in the role of unquestioned pillar of team leadership just yet; if you don’t know what you’re getting from a guy, emotionally, do you feel like you can really rely on him from a leadership standpoint?
But you know what? Quarterback or not, that shouldn’t be his role anyway. A leader, yes, but the leader shouldn’t be the guy who’s been on campus for 10 months. Ziemba’s been here three years. Pugh’s been here three years. Fannin four. There’s Kodi “Man Stuff” Burns over there in the slot, for crying out loud. And that’s just the offense!
The point is that I’m not sure I’m buying the “Newton = born leader” talk just yet. But I don’t see why Auburn should have to in the first place.
— So … the coaches consider Aairon Savage and Zac Etheridge both versatile enough to play either safety position but have Mike McNeil slotted in at free safety exclusively? If you needed any more evidence that Savage and Etheridge are going to be the first choice pairing if both are healthy–besides the fact that Ted Roof just never seems to be all that enthused about McNeil and, again, hasn’t said a word about him in weeks–there you go. Can’t see Chizik and Roof throwing away the element of “which safety is which?” in their defensive scheming voluntarily, can you?
— I thought about writing an “5 Questions We Still Don’t Have Answered” post this week, but will probably pass since I don’t really have anything new to say about the punting battle, and I’m not sure I could go past 3 anyway.
But I know what No. 1 with a bullet would be: who the hell’s going to start at defensive tackle? We know Zach Clayton, Nick Fairley, and Mike Blanc are all in the mix, and now we know that all three of them have been cross-trained to play either the noseguard (i.e. the one-tech position) or the tackle (i.e. the three-tech). And we know, unsurprisingly, that Jeff Whitaker is working exclusively at the one-tech–the position he was born to play–and Kenneth Carter exclusively the three-tech.
But who’s starting? Who’s the first guy off the bench? Would Whitaker be the first guy if we need to get the first-string nose a breather, or one of the other three veterans? We don’t know. Or at least, I don’t think we do. And I’m betting we don’t find out until Saturday.
— SPOILER ALERT: I’ve sent off my response to al.com’s blogger roundtable, and my answer to the first question posed was “cornerback,” for reasons that will appear over there in time and that I’ll get into further here at WBE later in the week. But hearing both Chizik and Roof rave about T’Sharvan Bell’s work in the offseason is mighty encouraging. I’m not convinced just yet that Thorpe/Washington is going to be an upgrade over McFadden/Thorpe. But if Bell lives up to this kind of praise, I don’t have any doubts that he’ll be a big, big improvement at nickelback over Washington learning the ropes as he goes.
— Dude, a 31-point spread? Uh, look, I’m (almost) as optimistic about this Auburn team as the next guy, but the Red Wolves aren’t that cruddy. I don’t see much in the beaten-Texas A&M-took-Iowa-to-the-wire track record that makes me think things are going to be quite that easy. But I guess I can hope.
— Of course Burns’s “man stuff” and “I wanted one … in fifth grade” quotes about Scootin’ Newton are funny, but for my money, the unintentional comedy of Gene Chizik squarely, straightforwardly assessing the injury risk of our starting quarterback riding a moped around campus is much, much funnier still. Yeah, this going to be a good year.
Photo by Van Emst.
http://wareagleextra.blogspot.com/2010/08/late-night-notes-different-feeling-for.html
You need to attribute/link that Man Stuff quote!
nearly every beat writer wrote about ‘man stuff’.’ Not sure its all that necessary to link everyone’s quote on every comment Jerry mentions.
Man, beer_m, the fact that I link every writer who I use for info at the start of every one of these posts isn’t enough? Plus, if only one of them mentions something–like Tate did with the tackle info–I try to make sure a I link that particular post. But I think in this case, as bharris says, they all mentioned the “man stuff” quote. Or at the very least each of Gribble, Bitter, and Tate did.
Jerry..lots of scuttlebutt on Mark Murphy’s paid site that Darvin may be out the 1st 6 games…have you heard anything?
Jbird – what was it Jerry said about “undiluted paranoia”?
Kick-ass quote from Mr. Bell:
‘They say: Don’t take anything personally. Them telling me that I’m not being a physical football player — I took it personally.” And now? “They don’t tell me that anymore.”‘
Nope! Inline links baby. Dew eet!
And holy God I hope that Darvin’s not out 6 friggen games, WTF?
No, Jbird, I haven’t, but I’m almost always sitting at the geeky kids’ table when it comes to these things. That would, obviously, be a major blow … is the HOT RUMOR injury or off-field stuff?
Jason C , moderator on the site, just posted that he checked and there is nothing to it.
Que bueno.
I would rather Newton NOT drive a moped around. With idiot college kids driving and texting and iPod’ing all over campus, Newton’s not exactly in control of his own destiny out on the open road.
Seriously, let’s get the guy a driver if he doesn’t want to walk.
Moped…………less walk
As someone who drives around campus, its not that bad as you would think. With the amount of cops trollin’ campus its close to impossible to get away with speeding. Trust me- I would know.
A dude on a bike hit my car one time at the light in front of the conference center. I had a green light and started pulling out from campus and he just plowed into the side and rolled over my hood. Then he got up and asked me if I was OK. Maybe he was drunk.
LOL.
Victory is mine….Something I said in the comments the other day made it into the a post.