LP: Pat, how has Auburn impressed you and improved over the last few weeks?

Dye: Talent-wise, I think they are in pretty good shape. They got the freshman tailback that’s kind of feeling his way along. He had a better game against South Carolina, and they gave him the ball a lot more. He rushed for more than 100 yards. The offensive line played much better than it did against Clemson.

LP: What’s been the reason for all of the close games?

Dye: Defensively, they’re stopping the run but getting killed with the pass. I like the team, but the thing that stands out to me is they have made every game they have played close with mistakes. They’ve gotten penalties, turned the ball over and stopped themselves. The quarterback is not necessarily the one making the mistakes.

LP: What has changed with this team from last year to this year?

Dye: The one thing that has changed with Auburn is winning games on defense late in the game. They won the Mississippi State, Clemson and South Carolina games all on defense late in the game. That is something that last year, Auburn would have lost all three ballgames, because they couldn’t stop anybody late in the game due to lack of depth. This year they’re playing eight folks up front and the front four on defense is pretty good.

LP: Switching gears, what did you think of Steve Spurrier’s decision to lift quarterback Stephen Garcia and put in freshman Connor Shaw late in the fourth quarter after seeing no action to that point in the game?

Dye: Steve’s always had a tendency to move quarterbacks around and change them up like that. He’s had his own philosophy and you can’t argue with it because he’s been successful. Saturday night, Garcia fumbled twice and the freshman came in and threw two interceptions. They turned it over four times in the fourth quarter.

Vince Dooley: I think Garcia drives Spurrier crazy. He teases him the whole time — I’ve said that before. After he fumbled the ball twice and gotten knocked pretty hard — which is a tribute to Auburn’s defense — I think that’s what frustrated Spurrier.

LP: Can Auburn win the SEC West this year?

Dye: I think that they compete with anybody in the conference — including Alabama — if quit making mistakes. Now I said ‘compete’ with Alabama, I didn’t say they are going to beat them.

LP: Quarterback Cam Newton has made a huge difference for Auburn this year. What are your thoughts on his play so far?

Dye: He’s playing lights out. I haven’t said anything much about him. But he’s 6’6”, 250, and can run fast. And he’s not afraid either. He’s a big Tebow is what he is — and faster. He’s brought them back from the dead in the second half against Clemson and South Carolina.

He knows exactly what NFL head coaches and front office personnel are going through right now as the start of the 2010 NFL draft is just less than a week away. Ross suspects that most teams have all the draft-eligible players rated by now and are getting into mock drafts to prepare for any possible scenarios that could come up starting with Thursday’s first round.

Ross, however, believes teams in the market for a quarterback have a bit more work to do. With the top quarterbacks available in the draft seemingly neck-and-neck on most teams boards, Ross said there are a lot of great things about each quarterback that teams should be looking at.

The two that have caught the coaching legend’s eye, however, are former Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford and former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow.

Tebow has drawn a wide range of criticism for his style of play, and there has been much speculation about his chances for success at the pro level. If Ross was still running an NFL team, however, he wouldn’t hesitate to draft the national championship quarterback.

“I would still be very, very high on a guy like Tebow for his intangibles,” Ross said during a phone interview from his Richmond, Va., home last week. “I know everybody’s talking about his release and that type of thing, but that type of guy, his leadership and his contribution to team and all of those things are factors and did weigh in heavily with us (in San Diego and Detroit).

“Character was a huge factor, and he has all of that. I think, what he doesn’t have now, he’ll develop on his own. I would rate him very high in that area, too.”

Tebow has worked on his throwing motion, which is said by many NFL experts to be so low that it would be easy for defenders to knock the ball out of his hand. During his pro day last month, Tebow put his new throwing motion on display, showing that he has made improvements in that area.

Ross said that what sets Tebow apart and makes him worth a high pick is his commitment to making the necessary changes in his game that will put him in position to be a successful quarterback in the NFL.

“There are some that are contributors. He commits,” Ross said. “There’s a difference. I think he has that commitment, and I think that’s very important.

“I’m a huge fan of his. I really am. There’s been very few that have come along that are like him. Because he’s got a couple of mechanics that need to be corrected, hell, all of them have something, you know? Everybody has something.”

Former University of Georgia head coach Vince Dooley agrees. Dooley had a chance to see Tebow throughout his college career as Georgia and Florida play in one of the most storied college football rivalry games each year.

Dooley also got to watch former Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford — currently with Detroit after being picked No. 1 overall by the Lions in last year’s draft — and offered a contrasting view of the two quarterbacks.

Dooley said Stafford was more prepared for the NFL because of his physical abilities, but Tebow’s intangibles should cause the NFL teams looking for a quarterback to take pause.

“In the case of Tebow, some question his ability to throw the ball and whether he has a strong arm to throw the ball like a prototype, like Stafford. There’s no question about (Tebow’s) intangibles,” Dooley said. “His delivery is questioned, and there are those kinds of questions out there. But that’s why he may be totally passed up by one and then taken by somebody else that really believes in his intangibles and that he can overcome some of the mechanical shortcomings.”

Ross and Dooley said Tebow’s level of first-year production in the NFL relies on several factors.

“He’ll have to get with the right coach and the right team, and I think that it might marry that way,” Dooley said. “Maybe, on paper, some will ask some questions about him being drafted high, but those that really know him will go ahead and do it despite the fact that, on paper, he might not be the model of who is a first-round quarterback draft choice.”

Bradford is another quarterback who caught the eye of Ross, who coached at Maryland, Georgia Tech and Army before retiring in 2006. Ross had a chance to see Bradford play in person while the Oklahoma quarterback was healthy. Bradford, who is said to be the favorite as this draft’s No. 1 overall pick, struggled with a shoulder injury for much of last season.

Ross, however, said Bradford is clearly the best quarterback available in the draft if he’s healthy.

“One of the most accurate passers I’ve ever seen,” Ross said. “If you had to say anything, he was truly a pro-type quarterback. A classic pro. Big, tall, good arm, live arm, had a good degree of mobility, but the thing that really impressed you about him was his accuracy.

“He usually got the ball to the receiver on the run. To me, that was a key factor, to get someone that accurate. All of them are accurate, but this guy was really accurate.”

Asked if he had to rate the quarterbacks as if he was in a position to draft them, Ross with no hesitation named Bradford, then Tebow, then Texas quarterback Colt McCoy. Ross didn’t get much of a chance to see McCoy, but Ross said he got the impression that McCoy is a top-flight competitor.

McCoy was injured early in the national title game against Alabama and wasn’t able to return to the game.