The 2010 Auburn football season went down as one of the greatest seasons in program history. A massive reason for that team's success was the impact of quarterback Cam Newton, who cemented himself in both Auburn and college football history during the historic season.
Of course, there were plenty of talented, memorable players on the roster that season, including Michael Dyer, Philip Lutzenkirchen, Lee Ziemba, Nick Fairley, and others, but Cam Newton lead the drive to the BCS National Championship, the Tigers' first championship in 50 years.
During the 2010 season, former Auburn football head coach Gus Malzahn served under Gene Chizik as the Tigers' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and he recently shared his first impressions of Newton with 247 Sports.
"Obviously he's a very talented guy," Malzahn said. "He was very driven, that's really what stood out to me. And he was really hungry. He was a blessing to coach. He allowed me to coach him hard. He really willed us to win, and it was really a great experience for me to coach a guy like him and watch what he did. I only had him for 11 months, but man, that was some of the best times really in my coaching career."
Newton began his career at Florida then transferred to Blinn College in Texas and arriving in Auburn prior to the 2010 season. In his one year on the Plains, Newton was a complete double threat and racked up 2,854 passing yards and 30 touchdowns in addition to 1,473 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns before going on to win the Heisman Trophy.
"I think he's the best college player to ever play one year," Malzahn said. "I don't know how anybody can argue against it. I mean, look at what he did. We didn't have a lot of NFL players on our team, especially the offense, and he led us to a national championship. I'll say this, I've been coaching for 30-some years, he's the only player that you could feel fear in the defenses out there. And we played real defenses, some of the best out there. You could feel they were scared of him. That should tell it all."
Following the 2010 season, Newton was drafted as the #1 pick by the Carolina Panthers, and in 2012 Malzahn went on to become the Arkansas State football head coach before taking the role at Auburn in 2013.