It’s Thursday, and it’s been a while since we’ve had a look around at the newsbits coming out of the beatosphere. Yes, I just made that up. And no, I’m not Jerry. He’s a little busy. But I’ll do my best to pull substitute duty. Hey, it’s not like I haven’t totally copied his type of stuff before. As always, all the reporting is coming from our friendly neighborhood beat writers: Andy Bitter, Jay Tate, Charles Goldberg, and, the new guy, David “Not Andrew Gribble” Morrison. Here we go:
– The word of the day today is ‘redshirt’. As in, ‘The freshmen who haven’t gotten any playing time this far into the season are probably going to redshirt.’ Charles Goldberg has a full list of all the true freshmen who have taken snaps this year, and all of those that haven’t. Those that have played are in for the season, and those that haven’t are probably going to go ahead and take a redshirt. Chizik pretty much said it himself, when asked if he could think of any freshmen who haven’t played yet who might down the road. “Off the top of my head, no.”
– On that same note, Trovon Reed and his injury doesn’t seem to be getting all that much better. It’s possible he could stay out and get a medical redshirt. Chizik didn’t want to go into that, but then again, he never wants to get into anything. Chizik also said that Ladarius Phillips still hasn’t been able to do much at practice. His fate this season may already be sealed. See above “Off the top of my head, no” line.
– Speaking of freshman, there’s been a lot of love going around on the D-line for freshman Jeffrey Whitaker, freshman Corey Lemonier, and redshirt freshman Nosa Eguae. Mike Blanc on Whitaker: “I’ve told him almost after every game I’m impressed with him… In the upcoming years here at Auburn, he’s definitely going to be one of those big-name guys people notice or people are looking to him to make the big play.”
– Also, Whitaker and Lemonier have a bet going as to who will have the most sacks, tackles, and TFLs in their career here at Auburn. No matter who comes out on top of that competition, I think we all win.
– One more quote from the D-line, Whitaker on the upperclassmen on the unit and the unit in general: “I’ve learned a lot. They’re my big brothers. They take care of me when I’m messing up… We’re a close group. This is a close group that we’ve got. It’s closer than people really think. People don’t really know.” I smell some team chemistry brewing.
– Jay Boulware said, in regards to Wes Byrum and his two misses last Saturday, “Wes has been going through a number of other things that nobody knows about.” He didn’t say if those things were mental or physical.
– Cam Newton, when asked about Heisman hype and trying to remain humble, said that Gus Malzahn, and, more surprisingly, Offensive Coordinating First Lady Kristi Malzahn, are always checking in on him and keeping him straight. As he said, “They’re always worrying. But if they weren’t worrying, that’s when I’d start worrying.”
– Speaking of older women of influence in Cam Newton’s life (best segue ever?), in a short article about Cam in the latest Sports Illustrated, proud mom Jackie Newton is quoted as shouting from her seat in Jordan-Hare last Saturday, “Come on, Cammy-Cam! Yes, you can, Cammy-Cam!” The poster has reached a whole new level of influence. If it hasn’t motivated Cam to play quarterback any better, it has at least given Mrs. Newton one more thing to cheer at games. Way to go, Jeremy.
– Directly adjacent to that article in Sports Illustrated is a full page ad for Nissan, proud sponsors of the Heisman Memorial Trophy. Can you guess which past winner is featured on the ad?
– And finally, Zac Etheridge and Rodney Scott are the two finalists for this year’s FWAA Courage Award. No losers here. My vote is with Rodney Scott.
Photo via Van Emst.
Nice bit guys.
Great news about the FWAA award, and I can’t imagine many other situations being competition for that.
My supreme idea for heisman CAMpaign Tshirts must wait until after the LSU game. If he is still putting up these kind of #s by then he deserves to get some serious hype.
If all goes as expected, Whitaker, Nosa and Lemonier are going to rule the SEC. If they can all step in and contribute this early in their careers, there’s really no telling how good they can be. Even if one of them doesn’t work out for some reason, to have two players with that much talent on the D-line completely changes things for the rest of the defense. Now if we can just get some playmakers at DB.