(to me)
((that kid))
(((part two)))
it's been a tough pill to swallow all season, auburn only letting alabama celebrate its own national championship for one year, really it has. ever since alabama lost to south carolina, the dread of tonight's moment has been building. at that point in the season, nothing really had changed. alabama could still run the table and still held their destiny in their own hands and still held the hope that they could repeat as sec (and maybe national) champs. but the feeling was never really the same. if nothing else, the south carolina game exposed alabama as not perfect. not anymore. beatable. flawed. lacking...something. maybe it was a killer instinct. maybe it was experience on defense. maybe it was just that the secondary couldn't cover alshon jeffrey. whatever it was, the alabama football season never did feel as special as this alabama fan wanted it to, especially now that my worry that this was julio's last season has proven itself to be true.
what made alabama's "lost" (if you can call a ten win season with a likely final top twelve-ish ranking season a lost season) season so much worse was what was happening with auburn. early on in the year, let's face it, auburn should've lost. in overtime against clemson, auburn's offense was held to only a field goal. on their own possession, clemson's quarterback found a wide open receiver alone in the end zone. game over. no dream season. except that it wasn't, game over that is. the clemson player dropped the ball. the clemson kicker made a field goal to tie the game, sending the teams into a second overtime. except he didn't. an illegal procedure penalty was called during the kick. the clemson kicker missed the second try. auburn wins. no big deal, right? clemson wasn't a great football team. if auburn struggled against clemson like they had struggled earlier against mississippi state, this team, too, was flawed. auburn was going to have a decent to good season, but there didn't seem to be anything special about the team.
except there was.
cam freaking newton turned out to be really special.
south carolina (the first time).
kentucky.
arkansas.
lsu.
and (ugh.) alabama.
five more games that auburn could've lost if not for the special talents of their quarterback. their big, freakishly big, athletic, strong-armed quarterback. five more games that they could've lost, except they didn't.
the momentum built just like it did with alabama last year. the internet chatter became more and more annoying, just like it did with alabama last year.
and then, the game-changer. the pay-for-play story broke. the resulting scandal turned many auburn fans into lunatics and the auburn family bunkered in (ALL IN, mind you) deeper and deeper into their proverbial rendezvous hole, convincing themselves that espn was out to get them, convincing themselves that every sports media outlet was looking to tarnish their season. cam newton could do no wrong. the whole story was a lie, except it was proven that it wasn't.
the defense changed. the story wasn't bullshit anymore, but any person that implied a connection between the now guilty father and his golden boy son was thought to be an idiot. never mind the fact that the choice of where cameron newton would go to school was on record as not being cameron newton's choice. rumor-mongerers, aren't we all?
the football part of cameron newton's game is no longer in question. the human interest stories about his offensive coordinator are cute, but beside the point. michael dyer is a really good freshman running back, but he is merely a small piece of the puzzle. nick fairley is nasty, for sure, but he's anchored a defense that's given up twenty-five points a game. not really that impressive.
this, ladies and gentlemen, is a one man gang. cameron newton is a collegiate force of nature. those that follow this blog know how special i consider the athletes that have worn that tag on HACAM. i don't know what kind of coach chip kelly is. will having 37 days to prepare for a one man team help oregon's chances?
it should, but i don't think it will matter. cam newton is vince young, version 2010. he is better than everyone else. he is "that kid".
i think this will be a wildly entertaining football game. i think oregon is going to score on auburn early. i think cam newton is going to throw an interception in the first half on one of his deep throws that someone on his team has run underneath or someone on the other team has not picked off for the first 13 auburn games. i think that pick will turn into points and momentum and i am going to be surprised if oregon isn't up at the half.
i think people will start to believe that oregon can win, except that they won't. this is
i am interested in what my reaction will be to the eventual outcome. will i be happy for auburn in the same way that i would have been in year's past, especially in those years pre-julio and saban when alabama sucked? i don't know. it'll take watching the game to see where my emotions take me.
i hope the oregon uniforms look incredible in hd. and i hope that espn doesn't try and spread the hyperbole much farther than cameron newton tonight. or at least stop talking about everyone else after the first quarter. kind of like the oscar's does by announcing the winners in the supporting categories at the beginning of the show. yeah, you were great and all, but you weren't nearly as important as the leads.
tonight, the role of cam newton will be played by cam newton. in this movie, that's the only fact that matters.
7 comments:
i always told myself that i was a "good" alabama fan. pulling for auburn in every game other than the iron bowl. that all changed this year. and i think a large part of that had to do with what you said. auburn doing exactly what we did one year ago lessens it somehow.
i totally agree. cam newton will be the winner tonight, not auburn, if the duck doesn't do enough push-ups. and i know i will be disappointed. i am probably just bitter...that is what everyone will think anyway. ;)
Can we just enjoy this night and the fact that it may not happen again in our lifetime without it being all about the controversy? If Mark Ingram had been in Cam Newton's shoes last year, you would feel like I do (probably). I was "All In" before Cam Newton came, and I will be "All In" when he is gone. I shouldn't have read your blog, haha. And, I love you Katie, but Auburn will still be a winner tonight, not just Cam.
Also, off subject, but I'm heartbroken for the people that spent $Ks on tickets to only get stuck because of the snow and ice.
Ok, one more vent! :)
There is no proof that Auburn or Cam did anything wrong. Why are people so sure that is an untrue statement? His dad is an idiot though.
sarah, you should totally enjoy tonight, really. my opinion (remember, i said i was probably bitter ;)) won't change the fact that auburn will be national champions if they hold on to the lead.
agreed, his dad is an idiot. ;)
sarah, to be fair to the point of the portion you reference, two paragraphs (not that any of my stuff has any real structure) of this entire post had to do with the scandal, but that's the point that inspired you to respond. to ignore that part of auburn's season seems unfair to the arc of this whole season's story. my reaction to the story was just that. my reaction, right? that i was called names by otherwise rational people as a result of my reaction was the saddest part about the whole thing. that said, you were always reasonable in every argument you ever made, and i am rooting for a great end to this game for you! thanks for reading, and i'm sorry i got your blood boiling. ;)
I respect that. You didn't make my blood boil. The fact that "Roll Ducks Roll" was trending on twitter did, however. There's being indifferent and then there's flat out pulling for your rivals opposing team that you have nothing invested in.
And, I never thought that you were any of the names you were called. I just wish that for once we (we being the world, not you) could talk about the game tonight without having to bring up the controversy. And, for the record, last year I felt the same way when every time the commentators mentioned Mark Ingram, they always mentioned his dad being in jail. I just hate that side of the it. I just want people to be happy for Auburn and not feel like they don't deserve it :)
Your predictions were pretty good. I thought that after all the hype about cam he was very ordinary tonight and that Michael dyer and the defense were the stars. A necessary changing of the guard due to cam most liekly leaving for the NFL. My opinion is that it is pretty cool that two teams in the same state can win the national title and the heisman in back to back years. That may never happen again. I am just pumped that it happened here in Alabama.
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