Newton is like nobody else in the SEC. He has Terrelle Pryor quickness but he is stronger. He has a Ryan Mallett arm and can throw it 50 plus yards with the flick of his wrist. On third down and less than 6 he exerts tremendous pressure on a defense. If his receiver is not open chances are he's going to get to the first down marker and move the chains. And when Gus Malzahn picks up the tempo of his spread offense with the big fella running it, just trying to keep up will absolutely wear a defense out. South Carolina simply gassed in the fourth quarter because Newton was relentless.
"There are things we can do with Cameron that work well in this offense," said Malzahn. "He obviously has skill. Our challenge is to take advantage of those skills but to also distribute the ball to our other playmakers. What we can't do is become predictable because we have a talented player at the quarterback position."
Newton is surrounded by a veteran offensive line and a ton of playmakers. He is the SEC's No. 4 rusher but two other Auburn backs, Onterio McCalebb and freshman Michael Dyer, are both in the Top 10. Auburn's receiving group is as good as any in the league with the possible exception of Arkansas.
"There are so many guys here who can make plays it's incredible," said Newton. "I am going to get some chances because that is what the quarterback does. But this offense is going to be good because we get a lot of people involved."
Read the whole thing.
In other news, Orson Spencer Swindle Hall Mellencamp at EDSBS channels closet college football fan Christopher Hitchens today, with hysterical results. I'm running out of ways to say that the dude's game is off-the-charts lately.
2 comments:
Being as objective as you can be, do you really agree with him that Auburn's receiving corps is the best in the SEC, except for Arkansas?
I mean, they're good, but do they have anyone like Alshon Jeffrey? And the fall-off from Jeffrey to Gurley isn't that much, IMO. What about LSU, with Tolliver and the others who are waiting, waiting, waiting to be thrown an accurate ball. Maybe Auburn has more depth. I don't know, maybe he's right, I was just surprised by the claim.
No, not really. Darvin Adams isn't too far away from Jeffrey's level, but Auburn hasn't developed the rest of the receiving corps at this point. Auburn might be as good as anybody for running backs who can double as receivers (or maybe not, after seeing Cobb from Kentucky), but pure wideout? Nope, I can't make that claim.
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