Now that the Gene Chizik Regime has gone up in flames
at Auburn, what better time to resurrect an old debating point: Is Cam
Newton the greatest player in the history of college football?
Technically, that is not the old debating point. At the climax of Newton’s one and only season as a major-college starting quarterback, 2010, the question was raised about whether his was the best season any player had ever had. It was a very reasonable position then.
With
Cam Newton, Gene Chizik went undefeated and won a title. Without
Newton, Chizik lost his job in less than two years. (AP Photo)
Chizik fired | Who else? | Hayes: Hire Bobby Petrino
In hindsight, it’s worth a tweak.
So much worth the tweak, in fact, that it turned what was intended to be only a semi-serious analysis—tongue firmly in cheek, generously padded with robust exaggeration, the kind of tall tale connoisseurs of Deep South pigskin history would eagerly dig into—into a rigorous, detailed commentary.
It’s still funny, though.
Come on—one guy shows up, launches the program into the stratosphere, leaves, and without him said program comes screeching back to earth and shatters in the desert? Is this guy really Superman, after all? Do we have to take the whole yank-open-the-shirt-and-reveal-the-S routine seriously now? We have to look at the slouchy, pouty, closed-eyed, head-tilted interview bit as a sign of otherworldly vision and wisdom? Oh, great.
Maybe Newton isn’t Superman right now, unless he manages the same Lazarus routine with the Carolina Panthers, starting Monday night. But in college, it’s obvious now that whatever breathless superlatives heaped on him then did him no justice.
Construct for yourself the resume of the man who would be anointed Greatest Ever. Would it look anything like this?
— Arrive at a school that had not won a national championship since Eisenhower was president. Become the starter after never starting a college game other than in junior college. Win the national championship.
— Lead a team with two undefeated seasons in the previous five decades to an undefeated season.
— Win the Heisman Trophy.
— Break records for running, passing, total yardage and touchdowns in the SEC while that league is being called the best in the country, by far.
— Give your head coach more wins in that single season (14) than in his previous three seasons combined (13).
— Play your archrivals, the defending national champs, in their stadium, after they had beaten your team in the last two meetings. Beat them with a dramatic second-half comeback.
— Go out on top, as the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. Watch from afar as your school goes 8-5, then 3-9; loses to your archrival by a combined 91-14; and fires that same coach with two years left on his contract.
Not even Tim Tebow did all that.
OK, so one insane, jaw-dropping, off-the-charts season does not an all-time-greatest candidate make. (It’s a safe bet that fans of his rival SEC schools would say that, while routinely referring to him as “Scam” Newton.)
No, it’s the complete and blindingly-fast disintegration of the Auburn program since Newton’s departure that seals the deal.
It’s easy to smirk at Chizik’s 19-19 record at Auburn besides that 2010 season, and the 24-38 career mark that includes the two wretched seasons at Iowa State that “earned” him the bigger gig.
It’s even easier to mock how, in the two years immediately following the greatest season in 53 years, the program not only failed to capitalize but went completely in reverse.
And to point out that in the years leading up to Newton’s fortuitous arrival, Auburn had split with one coach (Tommy Tuberville) after a sharp decline and had picked through a mighty shallow candidate pool—remember how angry some folks were that Turner Gill didn’t get the job? Yes, Turner (5-19 At Kansas) Gill—before snatching Chizik from absolutely no one’s grasp.
Here’s why what’s happening is historic. As colleague Matt Hayes points out, Auburn is going to have a hellacious time attracting top-notch candidates. It’ll have to reach for a rogue coach like Bobby Petrino. It is “the hardest job in America.” So hard that, reportedly, the school will pay Chizik and his staff more than $11 million to go away and make room for someone else.
In short: They were in a skid before Cam. They reached nirvana with Cam. They hit the skids after Cam.
It’s kind of like the Colts going 2-14 without Peyton Manning … if the Colts were still headed for 2-14 again this year.
Or, it’s kind of like Kentucky winning the national basketball title with Anthony Davis, then Davis jumping to the NBA … if Kentucky were to go to the NIT this year, then the CBI next year, then dump John Calipari.
Come to think of it, calling Cam “Superman” might damn him with faint praise. Too human. The guy was a meteor. And it’s not so much the brilliantly-lit flying object. It’s the long streak in the sky left behind.
Not exaggerating or being tongue-in-cheek about that. Or about this: Auburn had better hope it doesn’t have to wait another 53 years for its next great player.
Technically, that is not the old debating point. At the climax of Newton’s one and only season as a major-college starting quarterback, 2010, the question was raised about whether his was the best season any player had ever had. It was a very reasonable position then.
With
Cam Newton, Gene Chizik went undefeated and won a title. Without
Newton, Chizik lost his job in less than two years. (AP Photo)In hindsight, it’s worth a tweak.
So much worth the tweak, in fact, that it turned what was intended to be only a semi-serious analysis—tongue firmly in cheek, generously padded with robust exaggeration, the kind of tall tale connoisseurs of Deep South pigskin history would eagerly dig into—into a rigorous, detailed commentary.
It’s still funny, though.
Come on—one guy shows up, launches the program into the stratosphere, leaves, and without him said program comes screeching back to earth and shatters in the desert? Is this guy really Superman, after all? Do we have to take the whole yank-open-the-shirt-and-reveal-the-S routine seriously now? We have to look at the slouchy, pouty, closed-eyed, head-tilted interview bit as a sign of otherworldly vision and wisdom? Oh, great.
Maybe Newton isn’t Superman right now, unless he manages the same Lazarus routine with the Carolina Panthers, starting Monday night. But in college, it’s obvious now that whatever breathless superlatives heaped on him then did him no justice.
Construct for yourself the resume of the man who would be anointed Greatest Ever. Would it look anything like this?
— Arrive at a school that had not won a national championship since Eisenhower was president. Become the starter after never starting a college game other than in junior college. Win the national championship.
— Lead a team with two undefeated seasons in the previous five decades to an undefeated season.
— Win the Heisman Trophy.
— Break records for running, passing, total yardage and touchdowns in the SEC while that league is being called the best in the country, by far.
— Give your head coach more wins in that single season (14) than in his previous three seasons combined (13).
— Play your archrivals, the defending national champs, in their stadium, after they had beaten your team in the last two meetings. Beat them with a dramatic second-half comeback.
— Go out on top, as the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. Watch from afar as your school goes 8-5, then 3-9; loses to your archrival by a combined 91-14; and fires that same coach with two years left on his contract.
Not even Tim Tebow did all that.
OK, so one insane, jaw-dropping, off-the-charts season does not an all-time-greatest candidate make. (It’s a safe bet that fans of his rival SEC schools would say that, while routinely referring to him as “Scam” Newton.)
No, it’s the complete and blindingly-fast disintegration of the Auburn program since Newton’s departure that seals the deal.
It’s easy to smirk at Chizik’s 19-19 record at Auburn besides that 2010 season, and the 24-38 career mark that includes the two wretched seasons at Iowa State that “earned” him the bigger gig.
It’s even easier to mock how, in the two years immediately following the greatest season in 53 years, the program not only failed to capitalize but went completely in reverse.
And to point out that in the years leading up to Newton’s fortuitous arrival, Auburn had split with one coach (Tommy Tuberville) after a sharp decline and had picked through a mighty shallow candidate pool—remember how angry some folks were that Turner Gill didn’t get the job? Yes, Turner (5-19 At Kansas) Gill—before snatching Chizik from absolutely no one’s grasp.
Here’s why what’s happening is historic. As colleague Matt Hayes points out, Auburn is going to have a hellacious time attracting top-notch candidates. It’ll have to reach for a rogue coach like Bobby Petrino. It is “the hardest job in America.” So hard that, reportedly, the school will pay Chizik and his staff more than $11 million to go away and make room for someone else.
In short: They were in a skid before Cam. They reached nirvana with Cam. They hit the skids after Cam.
It’s kind of like the Colts going 2-14 without Peyton Manning … if the Colts were still headed for 2-14 again this year.
Or, it’s kind of like Kentucky winning the national basketball title with Anthony Davis, then Davis jumping to the NBA … if Kentucky were to go to the NIT this year, then the CBI next year, then dump John Calipari.
Come to think of it, calling Cam “Superman” might damn him with faint praise. Too human. The guy was a meteor. And it’s not so much the brilliantly-lit flying object. It’s the long streak in the sky left behind.
Not exaggerating or being tongue-in-cheek about that. Or about this: Auburn had better hope it doesn’t have to wait another 53 years for its next great player.
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