« on: December 30, 2010, 02:27:41 PM »
AUBURN -- Word is that Auburn's Kodi Burns can do a mean impersonation of Gus Malzahn, and Gene Chizik, too.
"He's really good. It's sickening," assistant coach Trooper Taylor said. "You would think it was Gus if you just close your eyes and listen."
Burns may knock them over with his impersonations of Malzahn, the offensive coordinator and Chizik, the head coach, but his loudest applause still comes from what Chizik calls a selfless act before the2009 season.
That's when the one-time highly rated high school quarterback accepted his move to wide receiver without complaint, agreed to mostly block rather than catches passes and became a team leader even though he doesn't have the stats.
"When he lost that battle last year, he stepped up and told the whole team that he was going to follow whoever would be the starting quarterback and we should, too," offensive lineman Byron Isom said.
"That showed what kind of character Kodi has."
Burns started eight games at quarterback for Auburn in 2007 and 2008 but gave way last year to Chris Todd and was no threat to beat out Cam Newton for 2010.
The irony of that: Burns and Newton played in the same high school all-star game back in the day. Burns has caught 10 of Newton's 246 passes this season. Burns, the occasional Wildcat quarterback, also has thrown a touchdown pass to Newton.
But Burns' move to wide receiver, and occasional Wildcat quarterback, apparently has meant more to the Tigers than just numbers as Auburn continues to move toward the BCS national championship game against Oregon on Jan. 10.
"I felt like that was a turning point for last year's team," Chizik said. "The residual effect from that is people understanding the importance of you being a team guy. I can see that definitely making an impact on everybody who was here last year."
Burns has done his Malzahn and Chizik in front of Malzahn and Chizik.
Malzahn's response?
"He calls me Funny Man, as a joke, being sarcastic," Burns said.
But Taylor, Burns' position coach, said his receiver is "really good. His personality brings a lot to our meeting room. He's fun to be around. He also understands when it's time to work, it's time to work.
"A lot of people don't understand his role. I try to explain it to them: If you look at a rock wall, you see all the big stones, but what most people don't notice is those little stones hold those big stones together. Kodi is one of those little stones that keeps the whole thing together.
"If you're not working like he thinks you should, I don't have to say a thing. He's going to be the first one over there."
Burns has had to work because he moved to a position he had never played.
"But I knew just persevering through all that, that something good was going to happen," Burns said. "I just prayed about it.
"Playing for the SEC championship and now the national championship, whoever would have thought? I know the fans looking back from our sophomore year would say, 'There's no way.' But somehow we did find a way."
Burns had an uneven career as Auburn's quarterback, though he kept his hand in the position with five 1-yard touchdown runs from the Wildcat formation last year. This year, Newton has taken most of the snaps as the Wildcat QB.
It was supposed to be a cleaner ride for Burns.
"I definitely wanted to play quarterback. It's where my heart was at. I loved it, and that's all I knew," he said. "Going through four different offensive coordinators. Coming in my freshman year here, starting a little bit, then also my sophomore year starting and then getting hurt, it was weird how everything happened.
"That's how things happen sometimes. You've just got to eat what you've got and roll with it. I'm playing wide receiver now and trying to make the best of it."
Back in the day, though, Burns and Newton were hotshot high school quarterbacks.
"I can look at it just coming out of high school as one of the probably top 5 quarterbacks, along with Cam Newton. Which is kind of funny," Burns said. "We played in the same All-American game. Coming off that and committing to Auburn, and he was at Florida.
"Look at us now. He went through two different colleges and I went through a position change. A lot of times things don't work out the way you think they are, but you've just got to take the hand that you're dealt."
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