He may be surrounded by the most talented group of running backs in the country. Cadillac Williams this, Ronnie Brown that. Even Tre Smith and Brandon Jacobs throw their names in the hat every so often.
Auburn quarterback Jason Campbell shares the spotlight with the talented backfield. But for the most part, he is not even in the spotlight – except when the team falters.
Auburn stumbled out of the block this season and Campbell’s ineffective passing and poor decision making were blamed. Expectations were higher than ever for the preseason sixth-ranked Auburn Tigers and the team was prime for a letdown – and so was Campbell.
Against the University of Southern California, Campbell completed only 12-of-26 passes for 121 yards and one interception. For a guy who completed 62.9 percent of his passes coming into the season (No. 1 in Auburn history), the USC game was more than a letdown.
Campbell’s numbers improved the next weekend against Georgia Tech, although the Tigers were unable to find the end zone for the second straight week. Campbell completed a career-high 20-of-33 passes for 190 yards, but tossed another interception in the contest.
But the 0-2 start for the Tigers was quickly erased by a 45-7 blowout of Southeastern Conference foe Vanderbilt. Campbell completed 12-of-19 passes for 220 yards – only the third 200-yard passing game of his career – with no interceptions, and two touchdowns.
His ability to manage the Tigers’ offense continued to improve on a week-by-week basis. Campbell demonstrated his efficiency against Western Kentucky, completing 12-of-13 passes for 173 yards and a touchdown. A week later, he completed 11-of-18 passes for 157 yards and a touchdown against then-No. 7 Tennessee.
“Jason Campbell has done a fantastic job I think this year of managing their offense,” LSU coach Nick Saban said. “[He is] not making mistakes, doing the things they need him to do to make them a productive offense. They’ve been very productive in their last five games on offense.”
Campbell appears to play best when he plays not-to-lose games. And that is a role, Saban said, he has come to understand.
“I think [Campbell is] very aware of what his job is,” Saban said in Monday’s press conference. “I think he understands their offense extremely well and a does a very, very good job of executing it.”
Expectations have always been high about Campbell, the 6-foot-4, 223-pound junior from Taylorsville, Miss. As a junior at Taylorsville High School, he led the team to a state title. He completed 174-of-291 passes for 2,719 yards and 33 touchdowns.
In his senior campaign, Campbell threw for 2,884 yards and 24 touchdowns. He also rushed for 500 yards and six touchdowns, leading his team to the state semifinals.
Coming out of high school, Campbell was rated the second-best quarterback in the country and the 11th best player by Tom Lemming. He was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Mississippi. Campbell was a two-time All-State team member and District Most Valuable Player. He was even an All-State basketball player as a junior, averaging 22 points, eight assists and 12 rebounds per game.
Saying Campbell has not quite lived up to expectations at Auburn yet may be the understatement of the century. But Campbell has not always been that bad, and Saban said he has seen progress in Campbell’s game throughout his career.
“Last year, he was just starting to play,” Saban said. “He showed some progress, made some plays in the game – whether is was quarterback draws or whatever. This year he’s become a pretty effective passer in what they like for him to do, and does a very good job of implementing their running game as to what you do on defense. [Campbell] understands it well, does a very good job.”
LSU defensive end Marcus Spears said preparing for Campbell, a scrambling quarterback, is a challenge year-in and year-out.
“I think you just have to be smart pass rushers, because he can run too,” Spears said. “He’s a smart guy. I think he makes good decisions. He’s a good passer to me. From what I’ve seen, he can throw the ball to the receivers on the field. It’s very important to affect him.”
But LSU safety Jack Hunt said Campbell is more of a product of the system run by Auburn than he is a good quarterback.
“I think he’s an average quarterback that runs the system well for them,” Hunt said.
Average quarterback or not, expect Campbell to bring his ‘A’ game to Death Valley this weekend.
“I’m pretty sure it’s going to be an opportunity for me to throw the ball a lot,” Campbell said in a press conference Tuesday. “I think the main thing we’ve got to do is stay within ourselves and go out there and execute. I’m pretty sure that we’re going to have to throw the ball to move the sticks. [LSU is] going to put eight or nine in the box and make us throw the ball.”