Bleacher Report - Articles by Paul Stewart

Auburn Needs Fast Start To Avoid Pitfalls of 2008 Season

Paul Stewart — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:35:50 -0400

The 2009 Auburn Tigers have a unique opportunity to start the season. Whether or not they take advantage of this chance will dictate in a very big way how the season will turn out.

Auburn is the only team in the SEC to be at home the first four weeks of the season, and the chance to start 4-0 has crossed many Auburn fans' minds during the long offseason.

Before we look at what it would mean, let's look at the 2008 team. Off to a 3-0 start, the team came home again in the fourth week of the season, only to lose 26-21 to LSU, signaling the beginning of the end.

The game at Mississippi State should have been the writing on the wall for that team, with Auburn winning by a ridiculous 3-2 score.

The first four opponents of 2009 are Louisiana Tech, Mississippi State, West Virginia, and Ball State. Auburn will most likely be favored in three of these games.

Now that we've reviewed, what exactly would a 4-0 start mean for Auburn? It certainly won't be easy.

Last year, Louisiana Tech defeated Mississippi State in the first game of the season and went on to win eight games during the 2008 campaign.

Mississippi State nearly defeated a hapless Auburn team in Starkville last year, and would certainly love to rain on the parade that will be Coach Gene Chizik's first SEC game. While the talent pool is higher most years at Auburn, nothing is guaranteed in the SEC.

West Virginia is a game that Auburn would absolutely love to win. Last year, the team went to Morgantown and raced out to a 17-3 lead only to fall flat on their face and confirm many fans' worst fears.

Auburn would love to show the Big East and the rest of the country that they are for real with a national audience watching during this game.

Finally, we come to Ball State, a team that received a great deal of attention last year while racing out to a 12-0 start. This team has lost a lot, however, and Auburn will have another chance to dominate in this game.

So there you have it. If Auburn takes care of business in these first four games, they will almost certainly take a national ranking into their first road games of the year at Tennessee and Arkansas.

If Auburn trips early out of the gate, things could quickly spiral out of control in Gene Chizik's first year.

Last year, a tough SEC loss to LSU and a narrow win against Mississippi State laid the foundation for an awful season.

Fortunately, this team does not have to face a quarterback controversy that will linger the entire season.

Chris Todd will have to be the one to guide the ship at Auburn, both through his play on the field and his leadership.

If he plays well, 4-0 is definitely capable from this talent-laden roster.

It is not only necessary, it is vital for the Auburn team to start quick and never let up if they want to quickly bring the program back to national prominence.

This team, and Gene Chizik himself, cannot wait much longer for the Tigers to rise again.

10 Reasons For Auburn Fans To Be Optimistic In 2009

Paul Stewart — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:24:50 -0400

With a team picked to finish 5th in the SEC Western Division this season, there is a lot of doom and gloom surrounding the Auburn Football team from the national media. However, I'm here to tell Auburn fans 10 different reasons they can be optimistic and excited about the inaugural season under Coach Gene Chizik. War Eagle!

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Gene Chizik of Auburn Still Facing Uphill Battle

Paul Stewart — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:14:06 -0400

As we inch slowly through the heat of summer and closer to football season, the Auburn football team under new head coach Gene Chizik is beginning to take shape. While the quarterback situation is still up in the air (surprise, surprise), there are some things we do know about this team.

First of all, the defense should be solid. Football begins and ends with defense at Auburn, and with two respected coaching minds like Chizik and Ted Roof at the helm, this unit should be able to quickly make a name for itself.

With a total defense ranked No. 7 in the SEC last year, there is room to improve. That unit spent a huge amount of time on the field and often suffered from poor field position. However, one can’t argue with the three Thorpe Award winners Chizik has been responsible for.

Players like Antonio Coleman, Josh Bynes, and Walter McFadden will anchor the defense. However, also look for rising stars such as Neiko Thorpe and Spencer Pybus to step up if this team is to succeed.

It is easy to look past special teams, but this is another unit destined to improve under Jay Boulware. Clinton Durst is still a solid punter, and place kicker Wes Byrum should bounce back from a very disappointing and injury-filled 2008 campaign.

All that remains is the offense—the offense that in 2008 destroyed a highly rated and very confident Auburn team.

One head coach later, Auburn has a lot of work still left to do.

Like most people, I believe that the success of this team will come down to the quarterback play. When the play at a position as important as this implodes, we see how quickly a season can go down the drain.

Personally, I love Kodi Burns and want him to succeed. With that being said, I believe that Neil Caudle will be the starter at the beginning of the year. People forget how highly rated Neil was coming out of high school, and if he stays healthy, I believe he gives Auburn the best chance to win.

Consistency at the quarterback position can help this team greatly, and it is obvious that there was zero consistency under Tony Franklin.

Luckily, there is help on the way. Running backs Ben Tate and Onterrio McCalebb should keep the running game going. New receivers DeAngelo Benton and Emory Blake will be expected to contribute immediately. Other youngsters, such as Darvin Adams and Philip Pierre-Louis, will also be counted on to improve the passing game.

This is a lot to ask of young offensive skill players, but in the SEC West, it’s going to be baptism by fire every year.

While I am very hopeful for the 2009 Auburn Tigers, I am taking a wait and see approach right now. However, I have no doubt this coaching staff will succeed at Auburn in the years to come.

It is clear this staff is going to recruit the nation’s best to play at Auburn. Elevating their play to that level? We will see soon enough.

Manny, How Could You?

Paul Stewart — Mon, 18 May 2009 01:53:42 -0400

Everything is there, the numbers, the championships, and the fans.

But on May 7, 2009, Manny Ramirez lost something that is worth more than all of those things. He lost respect.

Looking back, the past year has not been kind to "Man-Ram." He has been accused of quitting on his teammates, endured an offseason where he was painted as a money-hungry malcontent, and finally suspended 50 games under the MLB drug-testing policy.

But throughout it all, many people never lost faith in Manny. He has always been the fun joke of baseball and the class clown of Hall of Fame sluggers. In Cleveland, Boston, and Los Angeles, there were legions of fans willing to swear by the man—no matter what he did.

Unlike sluggers such as Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds, Ramirez remained disconnected from steroid talk throughout his years. His bat was a model of consistency, producing a .315 career average and 533 home runs.

But finally, "Manny Being Manny" is no excuse for what he has done. Initial drug tests, showed a drug called hCG present in Manny's system, which is actually a fertility drug commonly used by women.

Now assuming that Man-Ram isn't looking to get pregnant is a pretty safe bet. From what I've learned, this drug is often used by people coming off a steroid cycle to re-start the human body's natural production of testosterone.

Further tests have indicated the possibility that there were steroids present in his system at the time of the test. The verdict? All signs point to guilty.

Unfortunately for him, he will probably suffer the fate of so many great sluggers before him. The fact that he has had consistent excellence over the course of his career will not matter.

Like the McGwire's, the Palmeiro's, and the Sosa's before him, Manny Ramirez's career will forever have a mental asterisk attached to it. Whether this is fair or not isn't the question. It's just the way it is.

Fortunately for players like Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez, they have time to prove that their careers were not just a drug-induced fluke. With several years left, they can improve their image somewhat before their time to retire.

But more than anything, it is a sad and ugly chapter in Manny's career. For so many years in Boston and Cleveland, he was a "free spirit" in every sense.

While sometimes looking silly in the field, it was the smooth, fluid swing of his bat and the soar of his home runs that truly distinguished him.

Manny has always been known for his smile, his sense of humor, and his passion for the game. It is players like him that really make Major League Baseball a fun sport to watch.

As fans, we can only hope that Manny is able to move past this ugly mark on his career. After all, we want him to be known for the love of the game rather than that of the needle.

Tiger Prowl 2009: How Will it Be Remembered?

Paul Stewart — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:49:17 -0400

When the now famous (or infamous depending on who you root for) "Tiger Prowl" began its roll through the state of Alabama on April 27th, the Auburn fan base took a collective deep breath. Over the course of five days, state and national media were focused solely on Auburn's new recruiting ploy, and it was anyone's guess to how it would turn out.

In a state where the talent has exclusively gone to Tuscaloosa the past two years, the new staff on the Plains knew that they had to quickly make a statement that they meant business in Alabama. And to this Auburn fan, they could not have done anything better than the Tiger Prowl.

But will it work? That really won't be known until Signing Day 2010. Until then, Auburn will still face an uphill battle for the top recruits Alabama has to offer. However, several top prospects have said they were both intrigued and impressed by the limo rolling from school to school over the week.

From Mobile to Auburn to Birmingham, the response from high school recruits, coaches, and administrators has been overwhelmingly positive. As many have pointed out, these are the people who Auburn needs to impress, not the average fan on either side of the state.

Personalities on ESPN have debated the topic, and even Florida coach Urban Meyer got into the act, criticizing the idea of the limo as a recruiting tactic. But hate it or love it, Gene Chizik and his staff accomplished exactly what they wanted when they sent the stretch limo out on the road.

As one recruit suggested, "I like their swagger." Will that translate to top talent wearing the orange and blue? We'll see next February.