Tag: Nick Fairley (Page 3 of 3)

      Mel Kiper releases first 2011 NFL Mock Draft, has Fairley going No. 1

      January 19, 2011 /

      For Steeler, Jet, Bear and Packer fans, the 2011 NFL Draft doesn’t exist.

      For the rest of us, it’s the only thing that exists.

      ESPN’s Mel Kiper has released his first mock draft for 2011 and at least for the time being, he sees Auburn defensive tackle Nick Fairley coming off the board to the Panthers at No. 1.

      The No. 1 overall player on the Big Board, and one who can pay immediate dividends. Fairley isn’t just a safe pick because of his excellent burst, violent hand action and ability to effectively penetrate and be a constant nuisance against both the run and pass; he also has the chance to be a dominant player regardless of system. Detroit and Tampa Bay drafted the top defensive tackles at Nos. 2 and 3 last year. Carolina should start earlier in 2011. A slight mean streak in a DT isn’t the worst trait. Even Ndamukong Suh showed a bit of one this season.

      Kiper has LSU cornerback Patrick Peterson going to the Broncos at No. 2, Alabama defensive end Marcell Dareus going to the Bills at No. 3, Clemson defensive end Da’Quan Bowers going to the Bengals at No. 4 and Missouri quarterback Blaine Gabbert going to the Cardinals at No. 5.

      Regular readers know that I’m a draft nut and I will surely release several mock drafts before April 28 rolls around. I need to compile my notes from the bowl season, however, so I’m not ready to break out my mock 1.0 at this time.

      That said, with the way Fairley dominated the BCS title game this year, I can definitely see the Panthers taking him at No. 1. (Don’t forget that new head coach Ron Rivera has a background in defense, so if he’s given his say on draft day, he may want to go with the best defender on the board.)

      If you believe the reports, Carolina was set to take Stanford’s Andrew Luck with the top overall pick but now that he’s decided to return to school, who goes No. 1 will be discussed ad nauseum for the next three and a half months.

      College Football, External Sports, NFL, NFL Draft

      Newton to enter NFL draft – is he a first rounder?

      January 14, 2011 /
      Auburn Tigers quarterback Cam Newton enjoys his teams 22-19 victory over the Oregon Ducks in the NCAA BCS National Championship college football game in Glendale, Arizona, January 10, 2011. REUTERS/Mike Blake (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)

      Let the months of speculation begin.

      Auburn quarterback Cam Newton has announced that he will forego his senior season and enter the 2011 NFL Draft. The Heisman Trophy winner finished his junior season with 2,854 passing yards, a 66.1 percent completion rate and 30 passing touchdowns to go with 1,473 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns.

      Oh, and he also led the Tigers to a national championship victory over Oregon.

      Now comes the fun and nauseating part: Where will he fall in the draft? Is he a clear-cut first round pick? Is he a top 10 pick? Is he even projected to be a quarterback at the next level?

      Most people would undoubtedly answer “yes” to that last question, although some pundits believe Newton will have to make the transition to tight end in the NFL. He certainly has the arm strength and size to be a great quarterback, but can he succeed in a pro-style offense? Can he be a leader? Can he read a defense? Does he have the accuracy to make all of the throws in a NFL offense? How is his football IQ?

      It only took one man to believe that Tim Tebow was capable of developing into a starting quarterback for a team to select him in the first round. Granted, that man (Josh McDaniels) is now searching for work, but that’s more because he managed to trade away his two best offensive players (Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall) in two years and gave away Peyton Hillis for a third-string quarterback in Brady Quinn. Only some people criticize him for trading away draft picks in order to select Tebow…

      Getting back to Newton, he’s going to wow scouts with his athleticism in pre-draft workouts but he’ll have to convince a team that he has the intelligence and work ethic needed to become a quarterback in the NFL. Because if he can’t, then he’s going to fall in the draft and he may be forced to switch positions in order to make it at the next level.

      In other Auburn-related news, defensive tackle Nick Fairley is expected to announce Friday that he too is foregoing his senior year and entering the draft. If that’s the case, there’s no question that he’s a top 5 pick.

      College Football, External Sports, NFL, NFL Draft

      Dyer’s fourth quarter run saves Newton, propels Auburn to national title victory

      January 11, 2011 /
      Auburn Tigers quarterback Cam Newton holds the championship trophy after the Tigers defeated the Oregon Ducks in the NCAA BCS National Championship college football game in Glendale, Arizona, January 10, 2011. REUTERS/Mike Blake (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)

      Here are five quick-hit thoughts about Auburn’s wild 22-19 win over Oregon in the 2011 BCS National Championship Game.

      1. In the end, it was a freshman and not a Heisman winner who won it for Auburn.
      Cam Newton played a great game. He completed 20-of-34 pass attempts for 265 yards with two touchdowns and one interception while also rushing for 65 yards on 22 carries. But he didn’t put together one of those special performances that Auburn fans were accustomed to seeing all year. His fourth quarter fumble set up LaMichael James’ touchdown run and Darron Thomas’ wild 2-point conversion pass to Jeff Maehl, which tied the game at 19-19 with 2:33 remaining. But in the end, Michael Dyer’s “controversial” 37-yard run set the Tigers up for Wes Byrum’s 19-yard game-winning field goal. I put “controversial” in quotation marks because it wasn’t really controversial, per se. He definitely wasn’t down and the refs never blew the whistle, but I’ve seen officials stop plays when a player’s forward momentum was less stopped than that. Still, credit Dyer for having the wherewithal to keep his knees off the ground when he was being tackled and the Auburn sideline for instinctively telling him to keep running when they saw he wasn’t down. The Tigers’ Heisman-winning quarterback played well but Dyer and Auburn’s defense were the main reasons the Tigers won their second national championship in school history. Seeing as how Dyer is only a freshman, Auburn’s backfield is set for the next couple of seasons.

      2. Ted Roof defensive game plan was tremendous.
      Roof will certainly sleep easy tonight. He had six weeks to figure out how to slow down Oregon’s explosive offense and that’s exactly what he did. This was an offense that led the nation in points per game (47.5) and was fifth in rushing yards per contest (290.1). Yet the Tigers held the Ducks to 19 points and 81 total rushing yards. That’s amazing. For weeks pundits debated whether or not Auburn’s defense would rise to the challenge and yet Roof’s squad made it look easy for most of the game. Even when the Ducks scored late to tie it at 19-all, Auburn didn’t make it easy for them around the goal line. And that drive was set up when Casey Matthews punched the ball out of Newton’s hands to give Oregon the ball at the 40-yard line, so Roof’s squad was put in a bad spot. What an incredible effort.

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      College Football, External Sports

      BCS National Championship Preview: Oregon vs. Auburn

      December 29, 2010 /

      2011 BCS Bowl Previews: BCS National Championship | Fiesta Bowl | Rose Bowl | Orange Bowl | Sugar Bowl

      Date: Monday, January 10, 2011
      Time: 8:30PM ET
      TV: ESPN

      Why Watch: You mean, besides the fact that it’s the biggest college football game of the year and that the NCAA will get to crown a mythical national champion? With the way both of these offenses can light up a scoreboard, fans should get the shootout they expect. This matchup features two of the nation’s best players in Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton and Heisman finalist LaMichael James. If the game comes down to defense, Oregon ranks 14th in the nation in scoring and Auburn is 54th. But as teams like South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss and Georgia found out this season, Newton often saves his best for the fourth quarter. This should be quite a game and one that lives up to its hype.

      Game Facts: The Tigers are 20-13-2 overall in bowl games, which ranks them as one of the best programs in the nation when it comes to postseason play. They rank 16th in all-time bowl appearances with 35, are 13th all-time in bowl wins at 20, and are tied for 22nd in all-time bowl win percentage at .600. They’ve won three straight bowl games and six out of their last seven, which includes a wild 38-35 win over Northwestern in last year’s Outback Bowl. During Mike Bellotti’s tenure as head coach between 1995 and 2008, the Ducks went to bowl games every year except the ’96 and ’04 seasons. In 2010, Oregon fell to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, which dropped them to 1-4 all-time in Rose bowl appearances.

      Key Player: Craig Stevens, Auburn.
      We know that Nick Fairley can get the job done in the middle, and that Auburn can be very tough to run on because of his stout play. But Oregon attacks you on the edges and Stevens, an outside linebacker, will play a huge role in trying to stop the Ducks’ potent offense. If he can keep contain, Oregon might be in for a long day. But if he can’t, LaMichael James and Kenjon Barner will spend a lot of time running through the Auburn secondary.

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      College Football, External Sports

      Auburn mounts epic comeback to save national title hopes

      November 26, 2010 /
      AUBURN, AL - NOVEMBER 13: Quarterback Cameron Newton of the Auburn Tigers celebrates after a touchdown against the Georgia Bulldogs at Jordan-Hare Stadium on November 13, 2010 in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

      Admit it, when Alabama went up 21-0 in the first quarter today against Auburn, you thought it was over. You thought that all of the experts were right, and the Tide were stronger than an Auburn team that was nothing more than a great quarterback.

      I know that’s how I felt. But then Cam Newton and Auburn mounted the biggest comeback in the history of the Iron Bowl, and the biggest comeback in school history to pick up a thrilling 28-27 win over the Tide. The win keeps Auburn undefeated, and could possibly be impressive enough that voters choose to move the Tide to No. 1, ahead of Oregon.

      It probably also cements the Heisman for Newton, who was near flawless in the second half and finished with three touchdowns through the air and another on the ground. He wasn’t nearly as effective running the ball as he had been in past games, but that doesn’t matter. He already had Heisman stats, now he has a definitive Heisman moment. It will take an NCAA ineligibility ruling in the next two weeks to derail his Heisman campaign, because in order for him to lose it on the field at this point, the Tigers will have to lose to South Carolina and Newton will have to throw seven interceptions, lose three fumbles and slaughter a puppy at midfield.

      As good as Newton was, though, the Auburn defense deserves a ton of credit for the way it played. The Tigers allowed just three points in the second half, and that came after a fumble on a punt return that set Alabama up in field goal range. Nick Fairley may be a prick, but he’s damn good, and led quite a charge in the final 30 minutes of the game.

      Of course, I should probably mention Alabama helping Auburn out a little bit, too. The Tide choked pretty hard in this one, committing poorly-timed penalties and turning the ball over in the redzone twice. There was also Mark Barron’s “should I go for the pick or the hit” indecision on Newton’s second TD pass to open the third quarter that gave Auburn immediate hope.

      I don’t say that to take away from Auburn’s win, I just feel it needs to be addressed.

      But as big as this win was for Auburn, it was equally devastating for Boise State and TCU. The two non-AQs had to be ecstatic watching the first half of this one, only to be denied the best remaining opportunity they had to get into the championship game. Now they need Oregon to lose to either Arizona or Oregon State (in Corvallis, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility) or Auburn to lose to South Carolina.

      I don’t see any of that happening. Then again, I didn’t see Auburn coming back, either.

      College Football, External Sports

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