Auburn has 16 starters returning from an SEC Championship team that made a run to last season’s national championship game and finished 12-2. Yet most of the discussion regarding the Tigers at SEC Football Media Days on Monday was about one of their players not in attendance and the reasons why he wasn’t there.
Nick Marshall is Auburn’s starting quarterback and was supposed to be one of the team’s three featured student representatives on the podium on Monday. But coach Gus Malzahn and Auburn administrators made the decision to keep Marshall at home after he was cited for marijuana possession while driving back to school in central Georgia this past Friday afternoon.
“It is a privilege and a reward to represent Auburn University at SEC Media Days,” Malzahn told reporters who filled the Grand Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Wynfrey Hotel early Monday afternoon. “Last Friday, Nick lost that privilege.”
Malzahn said he has yet to decide Marshall’s punishment or whether he would be allowed in Auburn’s season opener against Arkansas, which is scheduled to kick off the television coverage for the new SEC Network on Aug. 30.
“I’m not to that point yet,” Malzahn said. “We’ll see.”
If Malzahn adheres to Auburn’s written policy on drug and alcohol use by its athletes, Marshall will not miss any playing time. Disciplinary measures are spelled out within 17 pages of policies and procedure posted under the pull-down tab “Docs and Reports” on the team’s website.
On page 10 of that document, it is written that a student-athlete who tests positive for marijuana will have his parents or guardians informed, will be required to attend counseling and evaluation and he’ll be subjected to weekly drug-testing for the next 12 months. And according to item 4 (a), “there will be no loss of playing time (for) penalty level 1.”
“Penalty level 1” assumes Marshall’s arrest for possession is treated as a first positive test and that it’s his first-such disciplinary encounter at Auburn, which no one is saying. As Georgia fans will recall, Marshall began his college career as a cornerback for the Bulldogs in 2011, but was dismissed by coach Mark Richt in the spring of 2012 for his involvement in a dorm-room theft.
The Auburn players left to talk in Marshall’s absence on Monday said there’s no mystery about how the situation will be dealt with.
“We do get tested, by Auburn and the NCAA, and there are consequences,” said defensive tackle Gabe Wright, a senior from Columbus. “… How those consequences are given out, I can tell you we know the rules. Auburn has them and the NCAA has rules. (But) the consequences are ultimately up to my head coach.”
Marshall’s presence on the field will be paramount to the Tigers’ offensive success in 2014, just as it was in 2013. The 6-foot-1, 210-pound senior is listed as a “Heisman Trophy candidate” in press materials being circulated by Auburn on the eve of his second season. As a first-year starter in Malzahn’s hurry-up, no-huddle offense, Marshall averaged 234.2 yards of total offense per game and accounted for 26 touchdowns. He became just the fourth quarterback in SEC history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season (1,068).
That’s what Marshall did after coming to Auburn as a junior college transfer and winning the quarterback’s job in preseason camp. What he might be able to do with a whole year under his belt has the Tigers’ salivating in anticipation.
“Coming into last year, he did not have very long to develop all the things he has had a chance to work on this offseason,” senior center Reese Dismukes said. “I think he has continued to improve each and every day. I think he has improved tremendously both with his leadership and on-the-field ability.”
Wright said Marshall personally apologized to the team as a whole and to the seniors individually.
Marshall’s initial punishment was to be excluded from Monday’s event, which was attended by about 1,200 credentialed media, according to the SEC. Tight end C.J. Uzomah, a senior from Suwanee, was a last-minute fill-in.
“Obviously as a team we were extremely disappointed,” said Uzomah, who caught nine passes for 146 yards and three touchdowns from Marshall last season. “But at the same time, he’s going to learn from this mistake. Coach Malzahn is going to address it and deal with it accordingly. (Marshall is) still our leader. We still have all the confidence in the world and faith in him and we know he’s going to bounce back from this.”
Said Malzahn: “I’m hoping he learns he a lesson. I know he’s remorseful, and that’s a start.”
