Auburn quarterback Newton glad to be back in SEC

By Ray Glier

For the AJC

Auburn quarterback Cam Newton said the buses that carried him to his junior college football games last fall were so old he was convinced the Temptations or Elvis rode on them in their heyday 50 years ago. The wheels of those buses bumped along Highway 290 carrying the Blinn College football team to its games where the scenery, Newton said, was a bunch of livestock.

It was part of his wrenching year away from major college football after transferring from the University of Florida. He described his JUCO experience alternately as healing and then purgatory. He's thankful for the experience and thankful it is over.

“Definitely not like playing for the Gators,” said Newton, who was a star quarterback for Westlake High School in 2006 and attended Florida in 2007 and 2008. “No fancy hotels, no airplanes. No police escorts for the bus at away games. Our bus was a step above the school bus.

“People ask me what junior college I went to and I tell them and you get a lot of ‘Where’s Brenham, Texas?’ I will tell you where it is. It is between Austin and Houston on Highway 290. It is straight road with livestock to look at.”

Newton, 21, said he transferred from Florida following the 2008 season when it was apparent coach Urban Meyer was not going to live up to his vow to use a two-quarterback system. After what Tim Tebow accomplished as the Gators’ starter, who could blame Meyer?

But who could blame Newton for finding the Gainesville exit door?

Newton said he did not transfer because he was arrested for possessing a stolen laptop. Newton said he bought the laptop off the street, after detectives came looking for him, he tossed it out a window.

“I panicked like a deer in the head lights, it was one of the worst things I could have done,” Newton said of throwing the laptop out the window. “I didn’t steal it and I didn’t get kicked out of Florida. I finished the semester, then I transferred."

Newton completed a pre-trial diversion program and the charges were dropped.

“I would have been at Florida to this day if Tim Tebow went to the NFL after his junior year. I finished the fall semester, then left,” Newton said.

After helping Blinn win a junior college national championship in 2009, Newton picked Auburn over Mississippi State. He arrived in January for classes and was named the starting quarterback in the spring.

“I grew as a person,” Newton said of his experience at Blinn. “A lot of things I took for granted at Florida, and it was my reality check. I couldn’t have planned it better. I’ll keep some memories from Blinn College.”

Newton is in charge of the Auburn slot machine offense, which can spin out the most outlandish plays or play roughneck football with runs off tackle. Either would suit Newton’s style. He can flip the ball to a back coming the other way, toss it downfield, or take off himself.

Newton running the football is going to be a dilemma for a defense because of his size, 6-6, 250. He will be one of the biggest players on the field and you wonder if he really needed the orange “no hits” jersey Auburn quarterbacks wear in practice.

“There were a couple of practices where the defense was having an excellent practice and I wanted to rip that orange thing off and get after them,” Newton said.

Newton threw for 2,833 yards and 22 touchdowns for Blinn. He also rushed for 655 yards and 16 touchdowns, but he swears he is not a Tebow-like dynamo ready to run.

Newton played in six games for the Gators -- five as a freshman and one as a sophomore before being injured and taking a red-shirt in 2008. It wasn’t many games, but he watched how Tebow handled himself.

“Every high profile athlete has to break that stereotype that he wants something given to him, he’s this and that, and he’s not going to do this with the team, he’s going to do things on his own,” Newton said. “That’s not me. I am trying to be the least distraction as possible.

“I know some people were asking, ‘Does he think he is just going to get the position? Is he going to work like everybody else?’ I went over and beyond to get everybody’s respect. I would do the extra things, like coming in on Saturdays. I want to do everything on the field, and everything extra.”

Gene Chizik, the Auburn coach, named Newton the quarterback in the spring after a quarterback derby, of sorts. His skills were obvious, but Chizik said there were intangibles to match with the big arm.

“It’s a good thing that he’s had a little bit of experience in this league, just traveling around and being in different stadiums, seeing it, knowing it,” Chizik said. “The fact he went to a junior college, led that team to a national championship, that was big. I think that’s all kind of in the recipe of getting Cameron ready to play in this league consistently.”