FMC: Cam Newton of the Auburn Tigers

If you haven’t watched a lot of college football, break out a Thesaurus, look up “great” and just start reading. Then, pull up his stats , get cracking on YouTube and let that new-found litany of adjectives fly.

Newton was electrifying in the SEC Championship Game, single-handedly dismantling the South Carolina Gamecocks and leaving Steve Spurrier doing his famous head-shake.

His next on-field challenge will be in the BCS Championship Game against the Oregon Ducks, a game that is expected to produce offensive fireworks (I saw the over/under at 75).

Whatever your feeling/suspicions/intuition about the pay-to-play scenario that has been played out in the blogosphere, stand back for a moment and appreciate what Newton brought to the field as a premiere passing/running quarterback, a worthy follow-up to the greatness that was Tim Tebow at Florida.

I understand why some voters for the Heisman Trophy and whatever other awards are being bandied about would choose to go down another path following the Reggie Bush scandal. I understand that there are still questions to be answered and that the ruling does set a potentially dangerous precedent.

But, I’ll also submit this from the court system. Not the opinion one. That other one.

What if Newton really didn’t know?

I’m not naive and generally take everything with a touch of skepticism, but what if? We may find out more about the situation later and erase some of the accolades and start wagging fingers. We may not.

Newton’s still a beast who just gave us football fans once of the greatest individual seasons ever. Period.