SEC Media Days has begun and thus the first sweet ringing sounds of college football bell tolls. Seemingly every year at SEC Media Days, there is a controversy. Whether it’s Johnny Football and his autograph empire, Tim Tebow’s purity or Cam Newton’s family finances, there’s always a hot button topic for the journos in attendance (what’s likely to exceed the 1,239 media credentials given in 2013).
This year’s hot button topic is the quarterback of the reigning SEC Champion Auburn Tigers getting busted for possessing marijuana in his vehicle. Nick Marshall was issued a citation over the weekend and that caused the Auburn hierarchy to leave him home from SEC Media Days.
“Nick made a mistake and he’ll have to deal with the consequences,” Tigers head coach Gus Malzahn said. “I’m not ready to say what those consequences are at this time, but he will deal with it.”
The dime-bag, errr million dollar question coming out of Gus Malzahn’s press conference was if Auburn did the right thing by leaving Marshall home.
“It is a privilege and a reward to represent Auburn here at the SEC Media Days,” Malzahn said. “Last Friday Nick lost that privilege.
“We have high expectations for our players, but specifically our quarterback, being the face of our program. Up until last Friday, Nick has been a model student, teammate, and citizen. I know he’s regretful and he feels very bad about it.”
Make no mistake, a trip to Hoover, Alabama isn’t exactly Cancun. Even if you do already reside in Auburn. Although this seems like punishment to Marshall, he is probably smiling behind his regret for not having to make the journey.
Was Auburn correct in their “punishment?”
To put it simply, absolutely.
Nick Marshall isn’t quite as media savvy as last year’s act on the center stage, Johnny Manziel. Marshall would either give a fulfilling “no comment” to any questions that don’t have to do with the field of play or he’d simply answer by saying he would answer at a later time. Either way, there’s no reason in prosecuting a young man and making him feel uncomfortable while his head coach and PR people sweat out the 10 minutes while nobody gets anything for their story.
Sure, this isn’t Marshall’s first indiscretion. He allegedly stole money while at Georgia but that isn’t going to change any of his answers. Media members were going to spend their time skewering a young man to get absolutely no benefit out of it. And Auburn knew it.
“Punishing” Nick Marshall and leaving him home was not only the right thing to do for Auburn, it was the only thing they could’ve done.
