Newton: "The offense I ran at Auburn was NOT 'simple'.

[BizEagle]

The Auburn offense was so simplistic that Steve Spurrier, Monty Kiffen, Les Miles, Bobby Petrino, Houston Nutt, Nick Saban and Chip Kelly could not find a way to stop it. Keep in mind that Auburn was one very small break away from beating Alabama in 2009 with the not very athletic Chris Todd at QB. Auburn led almost the entire 2009 Iron Bowl but was so depleted with injuries on defense that they wore down at the end of Q4 and Bama barely squeaked out a last minute win and then went on to win the BCS NC.

Seriously, to liken Cam Newton to Jemarcus Russell or Vince Young (except for his physical ability) is absurd. Cam Newton is a hard worker, he is very very focused, he's not a doper (obviously a big problem with Russell), Cam comes from an NFL football family, he is very smart, he loves playing the game and he has an infectious upbeat positive attitude that rubs off on his team mates. Also keep in mind that in 3 consecutive years Cam Newton learned Urban Meyer's offense at UF, the Blinn College offense and Gus Malzahn's offense at AU. The guy is football smart, without a doubt.

Also, he will have Lee Ziemba protecting him at Carolina - that was a good pick up for an offensive lineman. Big Lee is a very good run blocker too. He was voted the best blocking lineman in the SEC and set a record for 54 consecutive starts (he's durable)

[bleys]

Anyone who follows college football knows Gus Malzahn's offenses are not simple.

props to rayzor for this link.. skip to 44 and he says this same thing..

http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/?podcast_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.podtrac.com%2Fpts%2Fredirect.mp3%2Fnyc.podcast.play.it%2Fmedia%2Fd0%2Fd0%2Fd0%2FdX%2FdJ%2Fd2%2Fd4%2FXJ24_3.MP3&podcast_name=Bustin+Loose+with+Frank+and+Moose&podcast_artist=Jay+Weezie&station_id=61&audio_link=true&config_file=config.xml&dcid=CBS.CHARLOTTE

[rayzor]

quick little paraphrase of what the coach said in describing the offense, language (shich will help those wondering about why plays are called they way they are), and newton's responsibilities...

simply put, every offense has its own language, whether its colors or numbers or names of cars, etc. purpose of the language is to give players a quick explanation from the coaches what they expect the players to do on any given play. for auburn, by design they used numbers because it was a quick way to get the play out to them which was needed because of the pace of the offense. players would look at the board and see several numbers up there. some numbers meant something, others didn't (for misdirection- also add that they used colors to let the players know which number to look at).

QB was given the freedom to make his own calls from the line depending on what he saw (and it did happen) and he was also given a last second chance to look back to the sidelines for any last second changes coaches made because of what the coaches saw the defense was giving them (dude would have to process everything really quickly and let the rest of the players know about the changes).

said that newton did make reads, that it's a 3 progression read.

he said the biggest myth about newton's performance was that he didn't have to make any reads, that he just had the one WR to throw it to on any play. he had to go through progressions and always had the high, low, and checkdown option (just like in the pros).

he also said that the only thing that newton didn't do on a regular basis that is done in the pros is take snaps from under center and even then it happened occasionally.

routes and running plays they did were all ones that are used heavily in the pros.

he seemed frustrated several times about being pigeon holed as "just a spread offense" and challenged "experts" to come in and explain to him what a spread offense really is. more had to do with the spread offense being such a big tent description of what is going on.

[BizEagle]

Most of the drivel about Auburn's offense comes from competitive SEC coaches who are trying to dissuade players from signing with Auburn. Nick Saban's staff uses that propaganda continuously. They tell HS players HS coaches and news media that UAT's pro style offense and defense plus their relationships with NFL scouts makes their program the best to play for if you ever want an NFL career. Then they try to tag Auburn and Florida with terms like "high school systems". It is pre rehearsed spin that their staff and PR machine pushes out to HS players, high school coaches and media 24/7.

[rayzor]

props to rayzor for this link.. skip to 44 and he says this same thing..

http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/?podcast_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.podtrac.com%2Fpts%2Fredirect.mp3%2Fnyc.podcast.play.it%2Fmedia%2Fd0%2Fd0%2Fd0%2FdX%2FdJ%2Fd2%2Fd4%2FXJ24_3.MP3&podcast_name=Bustin+Loose+with+Frank+and+Moose&podcast_artist=Jay+Weezie&station_id=61&audio_link=true&config_file=config.xml&dcid=CBS.CHARLOTTE

actually, jambalayah! (or however you spell it) was the one that introduced the link earlier.

[bleys]

well then him too! :)