The Case For Jonathan Wallace

Cam Newton the last winning quarterback at Auburn

The popular ESPN College Game Day segment has inspired this old man to make a case for Jonathan Wallace to be the starting quarterback for the Auburn Tigers throughout the rest of the season. I am not a lawyer, and have only served on one jury, so my actual legal experience is basically squadoosh!

 Evidence exhibit A
 Wallace is the only Auburn quarterback not nursing any injuries. If the coaches are to be believed, Frazier has a bum shoulder, and Moseley has a tired shoulder. When Moseley was brought into his very first action of the season, he limped in from the sideline. He had yet to play a down in 2012, and he limped into the game! 

 Evidence exhibit B
 Jonathan has taken snaps at "key times", a Gene Chizik trademarked phrase, in games on the road, and at home.

 Evidence exhibit C 
 The only two drives that resulted in a touchdown in the same quarter of play for Auburn this entire season, came with Jonathan Wallace at quarterback. 

 Evidence exhibit D 
 Have you listened to this young man in an interview? He has maturity well beyond Freshman status.
Listen as Wallace runs through the questions. 
 


 Summary 
 It's no secret, every year somewhere there is a quarterback that the fans want to see play. Somehow when things aren't going really well, the answer always seems to be "play the backup QB" from the fans. The fans think that the backup will somehow be able to perform better than the guy that won the starting job.

 In this case, the fans are correct, and the coaching staff needs to listen to them. One reason to listen is this seems to be the only topic with the fans that doesn't involve someone packing suitcases. The other reason, is that it took most of these same coaches 5 games into the 2010 season to realize what a special talent Auburn had with Cam Newton. Chizik openly admits that he had to be persuaded by the offensive coaches to even grant Newton a scholarship.

 Finally, Jonathan Wallace performed head and shoulders above what either of the two QB's have. Sure, it was mostly against the backups of the Texas A&M  defense, and The Aggie defensive coordinator may have "called off the dogs", but nonetheless, Wallace did something with this offense, that the other two could not. He put together two scoring drives that resulted in touchdowns,and had ZERO interceptions on the day.

 I rest my case.

WAR EAGLE!