Less than two years ago, Auburn coach Gene Chizik was struggling through a 2-10 season at Iowa State in which his only wins came against South Dakota State and Kent State. Auburn quarterback Cam Newton was at Florida, being redshirted as the third-string QB behind Tim Tebow and John Brantley. Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn was at Tulsa, having more success in coordinating one of that season's best offenses, but was still at a Conference USA school after a seemingly meteoric one-year rise from high school coach to nationally-known college assistant at Arkansas.
All three have come together to give tradition-rich Auburn a golden chance to win its first undisputed national championship.
When Chizik was hired, many were outraged that Turner Gill was not. A sizeable portion of those alleged the Auburn administration of being racist for not hiring the black Gill, coming off of an excellent season at undermanned Buffalo. Now, with Gill's Kansas team getting eviscerated on a regular basis, and Auburn 8-0 for the first time in six years, no one would doubt that the right decision was made in retrospect.
Later in that 2008 season, Newton was arrested for stealing a laptop and eventually left Florida after charges were dropped. If Urban Meyer did not try to talk Newton into staying, it was by far the worst call of Meyer's tenure in Gainesville. Goodness knows that players have stayed at Florida for allegedly doing much worse. Added to Malzahn's previous tenure in the SEC, and one would not have to search long to see where added motivation could come into play with the leaders of these 2010 Tigers.
In Auburn's win over previously unbeaten LSU Saturday, their quarterback went 10-of-16 for 86 yards, a pedestrian day by the air and below Newton's average for the year. Newton more than made up for it on the ground, rushing for 217 yards and 2 touchdowns against a team that was only allowing 86 yards rushing per game before Saturday. Auburn totaled an incredible 440 on the ground Saturday, laying waste to an LSU defense that was the backbone of its 7-0 start.
Eight games into his career as a starter, new superlatives for Newton's play are already becoming hard to find. It seems unbelievable to think that Newton was not even on a Division I roster a year ago, but at Blinn College in Brenham, Texas. Newton did lead his team to the JUCO national championship, and was widely regarded as the best player in that level. The JUCO title and best player accolades now look as if they were mere foreshadowing for what was to come this year.
The Heisman Trophy is often not given out to the true most outstanding player in college football, as the award prescribes it to be, but rather to the most outstanding player on a top team. Newton looks like he may fit both categories.
It's convenient to compare Newton to the person he desperately wanted to succeed at Florida, Tebow. Both are phenomenal runners and excellent leaders. However, if Tebow was the fullback playing at quarterback, then Newton is the shifty running back who plays quarterback. Newton, at least 10 times a game, will run straight ahead on a read option, powerfully barreling forward at Tebow used to do at Florida. For Newton, once the initial contact is made, and the 6-6 player looks like someone might have a chance at tackling him, he can then pickup speed, accelerate and slice through defenses in a way that Tebow's brute force did not allow for.
No better play exemplified this than the signature play of Saturday's contest, a first down with about 11 minutes left in the third quarter in a 10-10 game Auburn just over midfield. Newton faked a handoff on the read, went straight ahead and had a path paved for him by his underrated offensive line. Newton hit the hole like a top pro running back, and immediately had gained about 10 yards. If the play were to have stopped there, it would have been a solid gain that Newton makes look easy several times a game.
He then cut to the right after getting past his blockers with such amazing lateral quickness that it made one LSU player hopelessly lunge for him and come up with nary a grab of the jersey. Newton broke a tackle and then cut back inside, made another man miss, and then was off to the races. The only LSU Tiger with a hope can catching Newton at that point was All-American corner Patrick Peterson, who caught the QB coming from a beneficial tackling angle, but was unable to bring down the charging gazelle that was Newton.
The run broke Pat Sullivan's long-standing school record of 26 combined touchdowns in a single season and helped to break the SEC record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a single season. Two single season records that had each stood for more than 40 years were broken in just eight games by Newton.
Newton was far from the only Auburn player to step up Saturday. Michael Dyer somehow quietly ran for 100 yards on 15 carries, and Onterio McCaleb had the 70-yard game-winning touchdown with five minutes left. On Auburn's slightly maligned defense, defensive lineman Nick Fairley had 2.5 sacks and caused an amazing amount of havoc for LSU QB Jarrett Lee on the Bayou Bengals' last drive.
Even though the game was not over until the last couple minutes, and the score tied until a little before that, it was a more lopsided contest than the score implies. LSU was out-gained by more than two-to-one, scored one of its touchdowns on a trick play. Only three LSU drives had any real meat to them, its other two scoring drives and the opening LSU series of the game ended by an interception. For the second half, with the exception of that Jordan Jefferson to Spencer Ware to Ruben Randle double pass, LSU was well and truly bottled up in the final two quarters.
The question that underlies any big win by an undefeated team at this point of the season is, "Can they stay undefeated?" Auburn has four games remaining. The first three come at Ole Miss, and home games with Chattanooga and Georgia. All three should be wins to get the Tigers to 11-0, before what is shaping up as one of the most important Iron Bowl showdowns in years.
Unlike the last two years, the SEC Championship Game will not be a de-facto national semifinal game. The Eastern Division is already guaranteed to have a two-loss champion. It seems likely that the East champion will have three conference losses. With the East so bad, that national semifinal game may take place in the Iron Bowl, if 10-1 Alabama is to face 11-0 Auburn at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama still has to play at LSU, so winning out until the regular season finale doesn't look like as much of a sure bet as it does with Auburn.
In the first BCS standings, Auburn was ranked behind three other undefeated teams, which can't give fans on the Plains good memories of 2004 when a 13-0 Auburn was left out of that year's title game. With the SEC having won four straight national titles and credibility with the pollsters, a potentially undefeated Auburn should have nothing to worry about if it keeps winning.
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