On Saturday, Auburn will officially retire Cam Newton's No. 2 jersey for good, 15 years after he led the Tigers to a national title with one of the greatest individual seasons in college football history.
ESPN recently looked at some of the most unlikely national champions of the past 75 years, and Newton's version of the Tigers was on that list.
"After more than a half-century without a real title*, Auburn finally achieved another one with one of the most lightning-in-a-bottle seasons in college football history. The Tigers had gone just 13-12 in their two previous seasons, and they would go 11-14 over the next two, but in between they played 14 games with Cam Newton at quarterback and won all of them, seven by just one score. It was one of the more clutch runs we'll ever see; teams on these types of runs usually falter well before the national title game, but Newton's Tigers did not.
(* Yes, Auburn claims four titles from between 1957 and 2010, but that doesn't mean I have to acknowledge them as legitimate.)"
Newton didn't come out of nowhere in 2010, but it seemed like he did. After being kicked off the team at Florida, he played a season at Blinn College, where he led the Buccaneers to the 2009 NJCAA national title. Highly sought after, Newton decided on Auburn, immediately winning the quarterback job.
All he did next was lead Auburn to a 14-0 record by throwing for 2,854 yards and 30 touchdowns while also rushing for 1,473 yards and 20 scores. Newton won the Heisman Trophy by an overwhelming majority and then helped Auburn defeat Oregon, 22-19, in the 2010 BCS National Championship Game.
The 1957 Auburn Tigers were also included on the list of unlikely national champions.
"Auburn had established a nice rhythm of seven- or eight-win seasons and Gator Bowl appearances under Ralph "Shug" Jordan, but the Tigers were less than a decade removed from an 0-10 campaign in 1950, and they were banned from the postseason for NCAA violations. Even still, in 1957, they allowed just 28 points all season, setting the tone with a 7-0 shutout of No. 8 Tennessee in the season opener. And with everyone else near the top of the polls losing, they wrapped up the No. 1 ranking in the AP poll with a 40-0 pummeling of a dismal Alabama team. (In a way, the joke was on the Tigers: Bama responded by hiring Bear Bryant.)"