It’s official: Cam Newton has signed with Auburn. The BIG TIME athlete Curtis Luper promised didn’t quite arrive in time for Christmas, but hey, the tree’s still up. I’m not complaining.
OK, so before I hand out the party hats and kazoos, we need to mention the downside here. Yes, there’s downside, because even if you take Newton’s “I never stole anything” claims at face value, don’t expect the rest of the college football world to. He’s a kid who got arrested on charges of grand theft and obstruction-of-justice and subsequently got tossed from a Florida program that’s not exactly known for its hangin’-judge qualities. If he lands in hot water again at Auburn, all Chizik talk about character and family and doing things the Auburn way will sound like an awful lot of hot air. Chizik can always win his way back into (generally) good standing even if the Newton gamble turns sour, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t wagered a good amount of his good guy-capital on Newton’s good behavior.
That said: this looks for all the world like a gamble you have to make. Newton was a top-ranked stud coming out of high school, he played for all the world like a top-ranked stud at Florida–he would be the Gators’ starter this coming fall if not for, you know, the whole arrest thing–and has continued to play like a top-ranked stud at national-championship-winning Blinn. At least, I think that throwing for 2,833 yards, rushing for 655, and accounting for 38 touchdowns (22 passing, 16 rushing, while throwing just 5 picks) qualifies. Disagree if you like.
And as much as I would love to see Neil Caudle finally get the chance he’s waited for for so long to be Auburn’s quarterback, the truth is that to this point he has not been a stud. Chris Todd has been better this season than I ever dreamed he’d be, but has he been as good as I would like Auburn’s quarterbacks to be? Against top-flight competition, not quite. And Caudle lost his job to Todd in nine practices last fall. (Not to mention that he couldn’t beat out Burns.) If Auburn’s coaches aren’t totally convinced Caudle can cut it, they’d be fools not to go after a recruit like Newton. (As for Rollison and Moseley, the former got himself suspended within five months of arriving on campus and the latter was always going to need a couple years of seasoning. I don’t think there’s any legitimate complaining on their end.)
And so now Newton is on board, and as long as he can be reasonably accurate with his passing (60.7 percent completion rate at Blinn), it’s impossible to imagine a QB better suited to the Malzahn offense. A rocket arm for the copious downfield throws, 4.5 speed for the zone read and straight options, 6-6, 247-pound size for Wildcatesque red zone poundings. We’ve already seen what Malzahn’s offense can do with a quarterback who could be accurate in spurts but also habitually hung deep balls too high and short, who wasn’t remotely a threat on the zone read or the option, who couldn’t do much to make things happen when things broke down, and who didn’t even take any reps in the offense until fall practice. What on earth will it do with a quarterback who can do every one of those things and will be available in the spring?
Not to mention that Newton will have the benefit in 2010 of the country’s most experienced offensive line, the backfield firm of McCalebb, Fannin, and Dyer, LLC, and one of the league’s most productive receiving tandems returning intact with one of the league’s strongest (if not the strongest) classes at wideout. Caudle could still possibly beat him out (yes), but even if Newton’s the choice and there’s some SEC-level rust to knock off, the rest of the offense will give him plenty of slack.
I’m so glad 2010 starts tomorrow. Because I’ve never been more excited about what it holds for Auburn.
Photo via. Like you couldn’t tell.
I think the fact that Mullen (who really knows this kid) was after him to come to MSU says quite a bit. Newton, from everything I read, comes from a really good family and it seems at least possible that what happened at UF with the laptop deal was a real anomaly. I don’t think Chizik, with Caudle, Rollison and Moseley (and Trotter and maybe, just maybe Kodi too for that matter) prepared to compete for the QB position would have signed Newton had he or the staff thought that the kid didn’t really deserve a shot or would otherwise be trouble.
Dunno who starts next year, but we have more talent top to bottom at QB this coming year than I can ever remember at AU. Oughta be fun!
Its also not absolutely clear that he was kicked off Florida’s team. He was suspended, but I thought I read somewhere that he actually chose to leave the program. I’ll trust your journalistic instincts to get to the bottom of that one.
Things to help with the salivating: Never having a ball batted down at the line of scrimmage; making the corner blitz a little less scary; not just slowing down a defensive end while blocking on the reverse, but actually standing him up.
And somewhere in Tampa tonight, Moseley takes a deep swig of Southern Comfort and tells himself “strong safety’s no SO bad, it’s like the quarterback of the defense”
SW-al, I’d have to somewhat disagree with that. Moseley would still have two years after Newton is finished, and it’s like Jerry said… he was always going to need some seasoning. Now, if Rollison comes back to the team and becomes what we hoped he would be (which is hopefully what we’re getting in Newton), then you might be right. But I’m not counting Moseley’s future at QB out just yet.
And a very Happy New Year to all of you! This was definitely a nice New Years gift to find out Newton had committed. Jerry, have fun getting up early in the morning to watch the game. At least you’re not in Pacific time now like you would have been earlier in the football season. I spent five months at Ft Huachuca in 2005 and hated the noon games because of getting up early on my day off to watch them. On the other hand, I remember watching the fantastic finish to the 2005 Georgia game at about 8:00pm local time and being able to go out and party my @$$ off afterwards to celebrate the victory. So it wasn’t all bad.
“The BIG TIME athlete Curtis Luper promised didn’t quite arrive in time for Christmas, but hey, the tree’s still up. I’m not complaining.”
Great line!
I was under the impression that Newton left because he’s fallen behind Brantley on Florida’s depth chart and not the whole stealing laptop things.
On a risk reward level this is a no brainer. None of Auburn’s QBs look like future NFL talent and now we’ve got one who does. So yeah, awesome.
Pretty glad Mike Leach isn’t our coach about now…
JB
i think cam newton is the best
I like the tigers they are the best team and they are also the champs if it wasn’t for covidence in you’ll selfs you’ll wouldn’t be so good and I think I know wat team you are goin to be on in the NFL if u want to know give me a message at [email protected]
So it was written, so it was.