Inside College Football: Auburn Tigers

Inside College Football: Auburn Tigers — page 3 — Auburn quarterback Cam Newton celebrates with fans after the Tigers defeated Arkansas in October 2010 All I knew was the whistle wasn't blowing and my coach was saying Go Dyer said Three plays later Dyer again got the ball This time he ran 16 yards to the Oregon 1 yard line Only 10 seconds remained in the game Newton was stopped on the next play But then Auburn kicker Wes Byrum drilled a 19 yard field goal as time expired Dyer's running and Byrum's kick gave Auburn a 22-19 victory and the school's first national championship since 1957 The Tigers had produced many great moments from 1958 to 2009. During that time two Tigers won the Heisman Trophy which 6

Inside College Football: Auburn Tigers — page 4 — CAM'S THE MAN Cam Newton played just one season at Auburn But it was one of the greatest seasons in college football history Newton spent his first two years in college as a backup at Florida Then he transferred to Blinn College in Texas He led Blinn to the national junior college championship in 2009. After that he landed at Auburn for the 2010 season Newton took over immediately as the Tigers starting quarterback He threw for 2,854 yards and 30 touchdowns on the season He also ran for 1,473 yards and another 20 touchdowns At the end of the season Newton easily won the Heisman Trophy voting After playing just one season at Auburn Newton left for the National Football League NFL The Carolina Panthers selected him with the first pick of the 2011 draft is given to the best player in college football each year The Tigers also had three undefeated seasons during that time And they had four other seasons in which they lost just once None of those great efforts resulted in a national championship though That is what made 2010 so special for Auburn Newton won the school's third Heisman Trophy And as a team the Tigers finished with a school record 14 wins and zero losses Along the way the Tigers defeated some of the best teams in the country At the end of the season nobody was better than Auburn Perhaps the most thrilling part was that practically nobody saw the season coming Auburn had lost five games in 2009. Although most expected the Tigers to be good in 2010 few expected them to be great Auburn came into the season ranked number 22 in the Associated Press AP Poll The AP Poll is one of two major polls 7

Inside College Football: Auburn Tigers — page 5 — FAIRLEY GREAT in college football It didn't take the Tigers long to prove that their Auburn's 2010 championship preseason ranking was far too low team will always be known for its offense But the Tigers might Auburn won its first three games have had the best defensive player to move up to No. 17 in the rankings in the country that year too The Tigers fourth game was against Defensive tackle Nick Fairley was No. 12 South Carolina Auburn passed a destructive force He finished that test too Then the Tigers defeated with 60 tackles 24 of which were Louisiana Monroe and Kentucky A rout for negative yards Fairley also had over 12th ranked Arkansas and a win 11.5 quarterback sacks He won the Lombardi Award which goes over No. 6 Louisiana State LSU put the to the top lineman or linebacker Tigers in the national title picture Two in the country Fairley was then more wins moved the Tigers to No. 2 in selected 13th overall by the Detroit the rankings Lions in the 2011 NFL Draft The Tigers title path continued with a win against Georgia Then Auburn beat its biggest rival No. 9 Alabama the defending national champion The Tigers faced South Carolina in the Southeastern Conference SEC Championship Game and Newton came up huge again He threw four touchdown passes and ran for two more touchdowns in the 56-17 blowout win The victory sent undefeated Auburn to the BCS title game against Oregon It's not even sunk in Newton said after that win I've just been living the dream 8

Inside College Football: Auburn Tigers — page 6 — 42 Auburn defensive tackle Nick Fairley crushes Oregon's quarterback during the 2011 BCS title game The dream got even better Just like the other 13 games that season the Tigers walked off the field with a win beating Oregon 22–19 Only this time they carried a national championship trophy with them The Tigers became the first team in 20 years to start the season outside of the top 20 and then finish as national champion It was a fairy tale finish to an amazing season 9

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