Auburn fans show support for Cam Newton

AUBURN, Ala. -- By the time Saturday afternoon’s homecoming game rolled around, Auburn fans had nearly 48 hours to digest the allegations against their star quarterback. And judging from the love they showed him, they had arrived at a unified conclusion.

They would deem the whole thing, it seemed, a Cam shaft.

Jordan-Hare Stadium was not the place to be Saturday to thoughtfully consider all sides of the Cam Newton story. On Thursday, ESPN.com reported that a man claiming to represent Newton had solicited money from Mississippi State last year in return for signing with the Bulldogs. The former Westlake High standout, considered the nation’s top junior-college prospects, was shopping for his third school after stops at Florida and Blinn (Texas) College. Mississippi State reportedly turned over information on the solicitation to the SEC and cut off contact with the man. Newton eventually signed with Auburn.

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach found out about the local mood early in the day while doing a pregame report near the stadium. Tigers fans shouted various things in his direction, none of them saluting him for his journalistic initiative.

Any angst over the future of Newton and this most promising season was masked by a breezy 62-24 homecoming victory over Chattanooga.

This was Newton’s answer to the furor Saturday: Playing only the first half against an overmatched FCS (formerly Division I-AA) opponent, he threw for 317 yards and four touchdowns. The SEC’s leading rusher to begin the game, Newton never needed his legs Saturday, netting only 24 yards on eight rushes (he was sacked three times).

He established the parameters of this game early when blocking on a reverse, he stood up a Chattanooga defensive lineman and stopped him cold. At 6-foot-6, 250 pounds, Newton had the lineman by four inches and 20 pounds.

And asked how he felt after the events of the past two days, Newton answered, “I feel 10-0, that’s about it.”

He, like his coach Gene Chizik, said he would not talk about the specifics of the story coming out of Mississippi State. And when asked if he would say anything in his own defense, Newton simply answered, “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

Auburn now faces two games against its two biggest rivals -- Georgia and Alabama. Chizik’s chore will be to try to eliminate all distractions and maintain focus on games that will go far in giving form to the Tigers' national championship potential. He began with Saturday’s postgame, refusing to be drawn into any conversation about the alleged brokering of his star quarterback.

“This is a great kid,” he said, defending Newton’s character. “A phenomenal young man.”

And asked if the perceptions of his own program have been muddied, the coach said, “That’s not the way I see it, not the way our players see it and certainly not the way our fans see it.”

The fans made that known Saturday.

From the moment Newton stepped off the team bus outside Jordan-Hare, he basked in the support of the crowd.

Sean Snow and his family stood at the beginning Tiger Walk -- the team’s traditional stroll among the people on the way to the stadium -- holding signs he had constructed in his Auburn graphics shop. One read, “In Cam We Trust.” The other, “We Stand Behind Cam.”

“I feel like there are evil forces at work here. It’s a non-story,” Snow said.

“They can’t stop him on the field, so they got to try to get in his head,” said Snow's sister-in-law, Leah Scarborough.

Newton brought up the rear of the Tiger Walk, and the cheers rolled loudly in his wake as he passed by. At the end of the walk, Newton broke into a trot entering the stadium, extending his arms and pretending to fly onto the field.

“He’s still been Cam, still a big goofball,” said Auburn receiver Terrell Zachery when asked how his teammate has taken the past couple of days.

Auburn fans facing what could be a lingering distraction during a potentially magical season had gone through many stages by the time Saturday was done.

There was alarm: “My friends started texting me Thursday night that all hell was breaking loose,” said Mike Palmer, a Tigers fan from Milton.

Denial: “It has more to do with Mississippi State than with us here at Auburn,” Snow said.