Auburn quarterback Cam Newton had a good day Wednesday: not only was his eligibility restored by the NCAA, but he was named one of three finalists for the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award.Newton has piled up the award nominations this year after accounting for 43 touchdowns and becoming the first SEC player to throw for 2,000 yards and run for 1,000 in the same season.
He is a finalist for the Maxwell and Davey O’Brien Awards and is considered by most to be the Heisman Trophy frontrunner.
Oregon running back LaMichael James and Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck joined Newton as Walter Camp finalists.
The recipient is voted on by Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors. The winner will be announced Dec. 9 during the 6 p.m. edition of SportsCenter.
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Bad night for additional notes and quotes. We only got head coach Gene Chizik. No assistants, who were all at a Super 6 banquet. But be sure to join tomorrow's live chat at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT. I'm sure there will be plenty to talk about.
- In case you missed Chizik's quote about Newton from tonight, here it is: "I'm glad to get all that behind us," Chizik said, "because we're focused on one thing — and that's winning the game in Atlanta."
- Chizik was asked if he'll sleep any better tonight after the Newton ruling by the NCAA. He sidestepped the question: "I sleep good pretty much every night."
- Quick practice note: the Tigers went for two hours in shells Wednesday.
- I mentioned this yesterday, but Auburn has 12 players from the Atlanta area on the roster. Here they are: running back Mario Fannin (Hampton), receivers Darvin Adams (Kennesaw), Antonio Goodwin (Atlanta) and Shaun Kitchens (College Park), linebacker Jessel Curry (Buford), offensive linemen Andre Harris (Lovejoy) and Byron Isom (Jonesboro), tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen (Marietta), defensive backs Neiko Thorpe (Tucker), Demetruce McNeal (College Park) and Jonathon Mincy (Decatur) and Newton (College Park).
- Chizik realizes the importance of the city in recruiting. “There have been so many great players that have come out of the state of Georgia who have played here,” he said. “Atlanta is so close. Being able to get to Atlanta is every team’s goal in this league every year, knowing that that is a huge recruiting base for what you’re trying to do.”
- Auburn will play host to the Super 6, the Alabama High School football championships, today and tomorrow at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The event, which features title games for all six of the state’s classifications, was held at Legion Field in Birmingham for 13 years before an agreement was reached last year to alternate it between Tuscaloosa and Auburn through 2014.
- On hosting the event, Chizik said: “It's awesome. I think it's great for Alabama high school football. It's great to have those guys on campus. I think it's great for the kids. I think they're excited being here. Just the atmosphere of playing over at Jordan-Hare is going to be really neat for guys to experience. There's a lot of guys who play high school football who will never have a chance to go on after their high school years are over, so I think it's really a great idea. I think it's something that is good for everybody. It's good for the universities. It's good for the kids. It's good for high schools. I just think it's a no-lose situation. We're extremely excited to have all these coaches and players here."
- Auburn has five 2011 commits playing in the Super 6: Hoover WR Jaylon Denson, Spanish Fort OL Reese Dismukes, Leeds CB Jonathan Rose, Leroy WR Sammie Coates and Sweetwater LB Chris Landrum.
- One other award nomination: junior walk-on linebacker Ashton Richardson was nominated for the fourth annual College Football Rudy Award. Here's the award's description from the Auburn release: "Student-athletes who demonstrate exemplary character, courage, contribution and commitment as members of their collegiate football teams. These same traits were immortalized in the film 'Rudy' in which Notre Dame’s Daniel 'Rudy' Ruettiger carved his name into college football lore."
- Richardson, a walk-on from New Orleans, La., has played in five games this season and 18 games during his career. He had nine tackles last season, including three tackles for loss, one of which was a quarterback sack. He also has a 3.93 GPA in pre-veterinary medicine.
7 comments:
Go Briarwood Lions!
I think there should be a special award for Cody Burns. Coming out of high school as a projected star QB and finding out that he just could not do it in the SEC and then playing wildcat, wide receiver, blocking back, etc. and doing it with all that emotion, he should be given some sort of award. Way to go, Cody! Go Big Blue!!! Beat SC!!! WAR EAGLE!!!
Agreed, domaucan1...Kodi is the man. His two catches during Auburn's first scoring drive really turned things around for us offensively in the Iron Bowl.
Andy- Cam is from Atlanta. Just didn't see his name in your list:)
in the players that you listed from the Atlanta area you forgot freshman dl Jeffrey Whitaker from Stone Mountain GA.
Cam's on there. Very last one, from College Park.
I went with where guys played high school ball. Whitaker went to Warner Robins, which is south of Macon, so I didn't include him.
Agree about Kodi, he was HUGE in the Bama game. We had nothing at all going and he came through in a big, big way.
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