Auburn fans are just like any other fans.  They cheer for their teams.  They spend money to follow them.  They send us ugly emails and suggest we’re fans of some other SEC team anytime we so much as mention a negative associated with their teams.

They don’t deserve what’s been tossed their way the past couple of years.  Cecil Newton asked — and he’s admitted doing so to NCAA officials — for money from Mississippi State backers in order to have his son sign with the Bulldogs.  Because Cam Newton inked, played, and thrived at Auburn, the Tigers were the target of an NCAA investigation and numerous media probes.  No smoking gun was ever found.  No bag man was ever named. 

Auburn got a black eye for nothing.  (Though the NCAA has now changed its rules as a result.)

Now Tiger fans are going to have to hunker down for yet another string of cloudy days.  Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports revealed yesterday afternoon that suspended Tiger Varez Ward and formerly suspended Tiger Chris Denson were involved in an FBI investigation into point-shaving.

Denson was found to have had no involvement and was allowed to suit up again for Tony Barbee’s squad.  The FBI still has questions for Ward regarding a pair of losses this season — an 18-point loss to Alabama and a three-point loss to Arkansas — and possibly more. 

Auburn officials have clammed up after releasing a short statement:


“Auburn officials were made aware of a rumor regarding an allegation two weeks ago and immediately reported it to the FBI, the NCAA and the SEC.  Because of the nature of the allegation, Auburn is not in a position to make any further comment on the situation.”


Barbee would only reiterate yesterday what the school had already released in its statement.

Yahoo! Sports reports that AU officials were made aware of the rumor when a current Tiger player alerted an assistant coach to his concerns.  Meanwhile, NCAA honchos have said that Auburn will likely face no penalties if it’s found that Ward — acting on his own — did shave points.  The body’s official statement:


“The NCAA takes any allegation of point shaving very seriously because sports wagering threatens two of our core principles — the well-being of student-athletes and the very integrity of intercollegiate sport.  As allegations of point shaving, if proven, are also potential federal crimes the NCAA will defer action until any process with the FBI has concluded.”


As for Ward, Al.com reports:


“Ward has privately confirmed that federal authorities have questioned him about point-shaving allegations in games he played for the Tigers this season.  He has denied those allegations, according to a source familiar with Ward’s version of events.

Ward has said that federal authorities seized his phone through a court order and questioned him with a lie-detector test, according to the source.  Ward was not aware of the current status of the investigation.”


Regarding evidence of point-shaving, Covers.com — a site focused on sports gambling — claims that managers of four different sportsbooks told the site they’d neither seen nor heard anything suspicious regarding Auburn’s program or the games in question.  In fact, AU still covered the 9.5-point spread in its loss to Arkansas.  (Ward only played 19 seconds in that game before leaving with a knee injury.)

In the Alabama loss — in which the Tide was favored by five — Ward scored just three points and turned the ball over six times.

However, directors of three Las Vegas sportsbooks told Al.com that they have not been contacted by the FBI, which is usually a given in a point-shaving case.  One anonymous bookmaker said: “We haven’t heard from them about any Vegas action.  If there is something wrong, if something happens here, they’d absolutely be involved.  There’s been nothing at this time.”

Of course, there’s still the possibility that offshore sportsbooks might have been used.

As a result of all of this, ESPN is now jumping all over the story and you can bet it will be a staple of its 24-hour news cycle.  So as Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News correctly points out: “The words ‘Auburn” and “point shaving” have been linked nationally.”

Such scandals hurt Boston College in the 1970s, Tulane in the ’80s, Arizona State and Northwestern in the ’90s.  Kentucky was given a one-year ban in 1952-53 due to point-shaving.  Then-national power CCNY saw it’s entire program start to crumble as a result of the same investigation that took down UK.

Rest assured rival coaches will use the words “Auburn” and “point-shaving” together when recruiting against the Tigers in the coming months.  All through no fault of Barbee or Auburn. 

By all accounts so far, as soon as the Tiger staff learned of the issue, they sent the info up the chain of command.  Ditto the school which — again by all accounts — quickly turned over the info to the SEC and the NCAA and the FBI.  Following the Newton scandal, AU officials probably had a good idea of how to handle such a fiasco and plenty of motivation to avoid another yet drawn-out investigation filled with innuendos.

Still, it’s Barbee’s program and its fans who will pay the price for this story coming to light in the first place.  Throw any hatred you might have for Tiger fans out the window and put yourself in their shoes.  You’d be asking, “What’d we do to deserve all this?” too.

The long-expected hiring of Willie Martinez at Auburn has finally come to fruition.  The former Georgia defensive coordinator will be reunited with his old boss — the man he replaced at UGA — Brian VanGorder, Auburn announced today.

“This is a great opportunity to be a part of a storied program and tremendous coaching staff here at Auburn,” Martinez said via press release. “I’ve had the pleasure to know Coach (Gene) Chizik and other members of this staff for a long time and I share their energy and passion for the game of football and developing young men.  I’m appreciative of this opportunity and look forward to helping Auburn win championships in the future.”

Martinez has been a secondary coach in the past and AU has an opening at the cornerbacks position, but VanGorder said yesterday that Martinez’s official duties aren’t known yet.  He’s come to Auburn after two years on Oklahoma’s staff.

Say goodbye to the last assistant coach with Tommy Tuberville ties at Auburn.  The school announced yesterday that secondary coach Phillip Lolley would be moving into an administrative role with the program, creating the third coach search Gene Chizik has had to undertake since the end of the regular season.

“We appreciate Coach Lolley and the contribution he has made to the Auburn football program in his various roles over the years,” Chizik said in a press release.  “We look forward to him continuing to help with the program’s success in his new capacity.”

Already being mentioned as a potential replacement is one Willie Martinez.  Martinez served as secondary coach under new defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder at Georgia before succeeding him in that role in 2005.  After being dismissed in Athens, he moved on to Oklahoma for two seasons before being replaced there by Bob Stoops’ brother Mike this offseason.

In addition to Lolley’s successor and VanGorder’s replacement of Ted Roof, Chizik has also hired Scot Loeffler to replace offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn.

Following the introductory press conference of Scot Loeffler yesterday, many pundits began writing the epitaph for Auburn’s spread offense.  After all, the new offensive coordinator said that he wanted to “protect the defense” and that likely means chucking the no-huddle, hurry-up part of Gus Malzahn’s system.  (Makes you wonder if Gene Chizik and Malzahn might not have seen eye-to-eye when the OC had to slow down his offense at the HC’s request last season.)

Auburn also welcomed aboard Jay Prosch, a transferring fullback from Illinois last week.  There certainly wasn’t a traditional fullback in Malzahn’s spread, either.

Further muddying the water, Loefler and Chizik danced around specific questions about Auburn’s new offensive style.  “I like it all,” Loeffler said.  “What we’re going to do here is take our personnel, assess exactly where we are, and we’re going to build a system to get our playmakers the football.”

“Everybody’s going to talk about spread and pro,” Chizik said.  “What they’re called, that’s overrated.  It’s real simple on offense right now.  Create the offense, and have the flexibility to get your best players the football.”

A slower pace.  A fullback.  Both coaches refusing to say the spread would be back.  All have been taken as clear signs that the days of Malzahn’s influence are at an end.

But remember that one thing still lives on from the Malzahn era — a roster specifically recruited for the spread offense.  If Auburn wants to go from spread to pro-style on a dime, the Tigers could be looking at some of the same issues faced by Florida’s new regime in 2011.  Ask Will Muschamp how easy the Gators’ transition was.

We find it far more likely that Loeffler — a man with experience in both spread and pro-style systems will simply start the move from spread to pro-style.  That may be a multi-year project depending on how quickly Auburn can begin to recruit to Loeffler and Chizik’s desired system.

So what do we think you’ll see on the Plains this fall?  Listen to what receiver prospect JaQuay Williams said last week that Chizik told him:


“He said it’s going to be a little bit o the same.  Four receivers.  Three receivers.  It’s be more a little pro-style.  It’s going to be good.”


That sounds reasonable.  The Tigers have recruited the skill positions hard.  If Loeffler can coach up one of Auburn’s quarterbacks — Clint Moseley, Kiehl Frazier or newcomer Zeke Pike — it makes sense that AU would still try to spread teams out across the field.  They also lost their best offensive weapon in running back Michael Dyer.

With Dyer off to Malzahn’s Arkansas State squad, Onterio McCalebb is the Tigers’ leading returning rusher.  But McCalebb has most often been used on sweeps as AU’s speedy “Mr. Outside.”  Could he become a traditional, workhorse, SEC back?  Good question.  See: Jeff Demps at Florida.

Florida-transfer Mike Blakely (close to Dyer’s 5’9, 210 frame) and Alabama-transfer Corey Grant are options as well, but current commitment Jovon Robinson might be the closest thing to a prototypical, pro-style back at 6’0, 215.

Suffice to say, Loeffler might not have the personnel to run a tried-and-true pro-style offense.  For that reason we anticipate Auburn will continue to spread teams out (think NFL Saints and NFL Patriots rather than Malzahn’s or Oregon’s spread) and will continue to utilize the occasional sweep or end-around to take advantage of talents like McCalebb’s.

We do agree with most others that it sounds like the hurry-up is going bye-bye.

But to suggest a wholesale system change in Year One?  That would be inviting the same kind of troubles that Muschamp and Charlie Weis experienced last season.  To see those issues first-hand, Chizik would only need go dig out the game tape from Auburn’s 17-6 win over the Gators last season.

There were two games on the SEC slate last night and in case you missed ‘em…


LSU 65, Auburn 58 in OT

In a see-saw battle between two of the SEC’s three sets of Tigers (already counting Missouri on that one), LSU outscored Auburn 9 to 2 in overtime to notch a 65-58 win in Baton Rouge.  The win pushes LSU back to 2-2 in the SEC and drops AU to 1-3.

Trent Johnson’s team finished the game on a 27-12 run including an 18-10 spurt that tied the game in regulation.

Frankie Sullivan led Auburn with 19 points.  LSU was led in scoring by freshman Anthony Hickey’s 18-point effort.  All 18 of his points came off the bench.


Kentucky 86, Arkansas 63

Arkansas’ Mike Anderson said before yesterday’s game that his team was going to run.  They ran into a buzzsaw.  The buzzsaw’s name was Anthony Davis.

The freakish UK freshman scored a career-high 27 points but he also blocked seven shots on the night.  With 12 more SEC games to play, Davis snapped Kentucky’s single-season blocked shots record with his 84th of the year. 

As for the game itself, well, it never was much of a contest.  Anderson learned that you don’t take a team into Rupp Arena and challenge the uber-athletic Wildcats to a race.  Arkansas fell behind 8-0 to start the game and trailed by 16 at the half.  For the night, the Hogs shot just 40.4% from the floor while the Cats blistered the nets with 57.1% shooting.

LSU fullback JC Copeland has fired a shot toward the Auburn football program that you can bet has fans of the Plainsmen riled up today.  The 280-pound bruiser remembers his Tigers 45-10 win over AU’s Tigers for the hits he didn’t have to dole out:


“The most memorable game I’ve had this year, I’ve got to say, was Auburn, because after the first couple of hits, everybody (on AU’s defense) was just backing up.  They didn’t want to hit at all. … Before I got to them, they just fell down and just laid on the ground.

I actually said, ‘C’mon man, you’re better than that.  C’mon, hit me.  That was like the only game I went home and had no nicks and bruises at all.”


Yikes. 

Makes you wonder if Georgia’s Mark Richt was referring to Auburn’s D when he said pre-SEC title game: “I’ve seen people just start jumping out of the way of this guy, literally.”

One thing you can be sure of is this… you can bet that Gene Chizik will post Copeland’s comments all over Auburn’s football complex in the week running up to next year’s LSU game.

Auburn’s T’Sharvan Bell has a long, hard road back to the playing field.  The defensive back injured his left knee in the Tigers’ lopsided loss to Georgia back in November and he arrived for AU’s media session yesterday on crutches.  He explained the injury and the rehab:


“I tore my ACL, my MCL, my posterior medial oblique.  I think I did a good job with it… of just tearing everything. …

(Rehab is) going good.  The first week or so, I’d say it was probably the easiest.  Ever since then, it’s been getting harder, but it’s not anything I can’t handle.”


At least the kid sounds like he’s got a good attitude about the rehab process.  There is no timetable for his recovery.

Bell will be a senior next season.

Auburn safety Demetruce McNeal can tell a big difference in practice since head coach Gene Chizik — a former D-coordinator his own self — has taken over for Ted Roof’s old unit during bowl practice:


“It has been so much up-tempo with him.  You can see the big difference between him and Coach Roof.  Roof was kind of calm and tried to set things down.  Coach Chizik comes in the meeting room and everybody just stops.  I can tell a big difference now from the linebackers from when Roof was here.”


Chizik is running the defense as AU prepares for Virginia in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.  He’s also searching for two new coordinators… one of whom apparently won’t be Florida State’s Mark Stoops.

Fresh off a 45-7 beatdown at Georgia — that could have actually been worse had Mark Richt not taken his foot off the gas — the Auburn Tigers are now facing a new problem in their secondary.  Junior cornerback T’Sharvan Bell is out for the season after suffering a major knee injury on Saturday.

Defensive coordinator Ted Roof says Bell will be sorely missed by a unit that’s already had its share of struggles.

“(Bell) means a lot to our defense, not just the way he plays, but the things he provides us off the field.  I really have a lot of respect for him, and how much he’s grown.  I’m really proud of him and love him and it’s just ad that that happened.

Who will replace Bell in Auburn’s secondary is anyone’s guess.  According to The Opelika-Auburn News, at least four players’ names — Ryan White, Jonathon Mincy, Jermaine Whitehead and Robenson Therezie — have been kicked around as possible fill-ins.

The Plainsmen already rank dead last in the SEC in pass defense, allowing 216 yards per game through the air.

So that’s it.  It’s done.  Complete.  Finished.  Over. 

The NCAA’s 13-month investigation into the Auburn football program and specifically its recruitment of Cam Newton has been closed — this time officially, Gene Chizik — with no finding of wrongdoing:


“The NCAA enforcement staff is committed to a fair and thorough investigative process.  As such, any allegations of major rules violations must meet a burden of proof, which is a higher standard than rampant public speculation online and in the media.  The allegations must be based on credible and persuasive information and includes a good-faith belief that the Committee on Infractions could make a finding.

As with any case, should the enforcement staff become aware of additional credible information, it will review the information to determine whether further investigation is warranted.”


That last line will send anti-Auburners back to the messageboards to hurl more accusations, but the fact of the matter is that’s just boilerplate NCAA legalese. 

There was no hard proof that anyone at AU paid anything to Newton or his father, Cecil.  Some will no doubt say that their favorite program was penalized despite a lack of hard evidence, that the burden of proof was never met.  But the NCAA also said in its statement that there was not even “credible and persuasive information” suggesting Auburn was guilty of paying the Newtons.  This after 13-months and dozens of interviews.

No proof.  No credible, persuasive information.

Danny Sheridan’s bag man?  Just talk radio hooey until the man gives up a name, something he can do without the threat of a lawsuit (despite his claims).

Scott Moore’s tapes?  Oh, how many times have we been told, “You just wait, they’re coming!”  Well, unless he finds a place to play them, they can be filed under H for hokum.

Those FBI wiretaps that would tie everything together in a nice, neat package?  Messageboard hogwash.

Our thoughts on this subject — from beginning to end — can be summed up in a couple of posts:


1.  On November 19th, 2010 we posted a column titled: “Isn’t It Possible That Auburn Never Paid The Newtons A Thing?”  In it we took on the role of Henry Fonda from “12 Angry Men.”  It would be a position we tried to keep throughout the entire Auburn/Newton saga.  In our view, all the talk, accusations and appearances shouldn’t mean a thing unless someone could provide some evidence, some tangible proof of wrongdoing. 

2.  On February 25, 2011 we posted a column called: “It’s Time For Bond And Moore To Put Up Or Shut Up On The Newton Saga.”  Like so many others who’d claimed to have information in the case, Moore — an Alabama fan and then-radio host — went from talkshow to talkshow across the South saying he’d heard and had access to evidence in the Newton case.  Former Mississippi State player John Bond allegedly had audio tapes proving that Newton the Younger knew that Newton the Elder was shopping him to State.  But Moore and Bond never produced the tapes.  Sheridan would do basically the same thing with his bagman claims earlier this fall.


In the end, it looks like there was a lot of smoke around the Auburn program and the Newtons, but no fire.  At least no major fire.

Even the comments of the “HBO Four” failed to yield fruit… mainly because three of the four would talk only to HBO and not to the NCAA, which discredits them more than a little.

That said, do we at MrSEC.com believe there were hundred-dollar handshakes going on at AU?  Yes.  But we’re also 100% sure you could go on any SEC campus and find athletes getting some form of under the table payment from someone.  That happens everywhere and there’s no way to clean it all up.

We also believe the SEC and the NCAA should have suspended Newton as soon as his father admitted to asking for cash from MSU.  That violated a rule on the books and both parties had to find a loophole — that they later admitted needed to be closed — to allow Newton to play in the SEC Championship Game and the BCS Championship Game.

Going forward, that rule should state that once a player or family member asks for cash — period — that player is dunzo.

But once that hurdle was cleared, the “Auburn cheated thing” was just a sideshow.  Carnival barkers barked, people willingly climbed aboard a rickety ride, but there was nothing to be gained from buying a ticket on the Newton Violations Tilt-A-Whirl.

Despite that fact, we’re still quite happy that Newton decided to take his game to the NFL a year early.  Had he stayed for his senior season, the Auburn football team and the SEC would have been dealing with more negative press every single time he stepped onto a field this fall.

In summary: Newton’s father broke an obvious rule and the player should have been punished for that… as would have been the case had his father accepted any money.  But Newton continued to play.  He was arguably the greatest player in SEC history during his one season as a starting quarterback.  He and Auburn have now been cleared of illegal activity.  Thank God and Greyhound he’s gone.


Other headlines on Newton today:


1.  The player himself wasn’t surprised by the NCAA’s ruling.

2.  There will likely always be rumors and questions about Newton’s recruitment.

3.  This writer says the ruling shows the NCAA’s vulnerabilities.

4.  Gene Chizik is happy for his school to finally be in the clear.

5.  This writer says Auburn is vindicated.

6.  This wasn’t going to go away until the NCAA publicly stated the investigation was closed.

7.  MSU’s Bond says he doesn’t know or care what went on at Auburn.

8.  This piece — which we linked you to yesterday — is the closest we’ve ever come to simply saying “Ditto” to another writer’s work.