There have been plenty of exceptional football players to pass through the Auburn football program, but arguably none have been more decorated than former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton.
Though he spent just one year in orange and blue, Newton led the Tigers to their first National Championship since 1957, defeating the Oregon Ducks in Scottsdale, Arizona, in the 2010 BCS National Championship game. He won the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Award and the Davey O'Brien Award, and he was named AP College Football Player of the Year.
Newton went on to be the first pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, going to the Carolina Panthers. He spent nine seasons with the Panthers and led them to the 2015 Super Bowl. That year, he was named NFL MVP and NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
With all of Newton's accomplishments in his single year with Auburn football, he was recently named as the No. 1 best player in college football by The Athletic's Bruce Feldman:
"He was college football’s Superman," wrote Feldman. "He spent only one year at Auburn, transferring from Blinn College in Texas after starting his career at Florida, but it was the most remarkable single season by a major college quarterback in the history of the sport — enough to put him atop this list.
"The towering 6-5, 250-pound Newton ran through the hardest conference in college football, leading the Tigers to a 14-0 record. The most remarkable detail of Newton’s dominance that year was he led Gene Chizik’s Auburn squad — ranked No. 23 in the preseason — to a perfect record and did it shouldering a load unlike any other national champion QB we’ve ever seen. He didn’t have a single skill player drafted. Only tackles Brandon Mosley (fourth round) and Lee Ziemba (seventh round) were picked on the O-line. The entire starting defense had only two players drafted."