wow … lot to chew on

1. True, McElroy is a game manager and a heckuva good one. I confess there’s been plenty of times when i wished we had a game manager half as good as McElroy… and not discounting Steven’s really good games (e.g., this year against UGA, So. Miss), but this weekend is the first time I wouldn’t have traded Steven for McElroy (and that’s not to sleight S.G. - I am a huge fan of his heart and his arm, but this was the first time we saw the Steven Garcia as 5 star QB that we’d all been waiting for). And to McElroy’s credit, he threw for 315, two TD and no INT (despite getting plastered and pressured) so I dont know if its entirely fair to say he’s afraid to air it out, especially since - until this game - Saban was content with bread-and-butter running plays to Richardson and Ingram in the standard I back set, or running the wildcat. I wonder if McElroy is actually stunted as a throwing QB by Saban’s system.

2. Cam Newton is a special player. Auburn has produced some real studs over the years (including a couple stolen right out of SC!) at RB and QB, and Cam Newton may be the best of the bunch. Under Gus Malzan’s offense, they’ve won some great games on his legs and he is a legit Heisman contender. Newton’s seen some adversity and responded well — the Clemson and South Carolina games, the Kentucky game. But McElroy and the Tide have been tested too … at Auburn last year, the SEC championship game, the BCS title game, at Arkansas. USC beat ’em fair and square, but Bama bounces back from defeats and Aubie has flirted with defeat enough this season to make it likely theyll taste it sooner or later - who knows how Newton will respond? Last year, Auburn skidded even harder than we did at the end of the regular season …

3. I agree Bama should beat LSU but I dont know I’d take the Tide in a heartbeat. This year Bama visits the Bayou Bengals. It’s at night. Those two teams have been locked in death embrace rivalry for eons. LSU has amazing talent. I think Bama will coast against Ole Miss (10.16), Tennessee (10.23) and Miss State (11.13), but they’ll be sorely tested at a night game at LSU (11.6). Bama does have a bye week before traveling to Baton Rouge, though … I still think its another nail-biter though.

4. As to whether Newton gives Auburn has an advantage over Bama, I’d point out that the Iron Bowl is going to be in Tuscaloosa. The other advantage is Saban. Finally, Auburn hosts Arkansas and LSU back-to-back on 10.16 and 10.23 and I don’t know why but I think the Plainsmen will only go 1-1 in those two games … so my hunch is that the SEC West will be on the line in Bryant-Denny, and I gotta go with Big Al and Saban at home.

Of course, my opinions are worthless .. I thought Bama’d run all over us, and we kept their two thoroughbreds locked in their starting gates. And it is absolutely awesome to be wrong like that.

They’ll lose eventually, probably more than once.