The voice on the other end of the phone wanted to know if Brad Franchione wanted a quarterback. Sure, the Blinn College coach replied, figuring the conversation was going nowhere.
His quarterback, Terrance Cain, had just graduated, and moved on to the University of Utah. The junior college needed a replacement. But this wasn’t just any replacement.
“Cam Newton?” Franchione said aloud, so his assistant coach, Keith Browning, who knew recruiting like most know their family ancestry, could hear.
“Keith started nodding his head, like, ‘You better be interested in this one, coach.’ ”
Before his ascension to the top of the NFL, before he led the Panthers to the Super Bowl with an MVP-caliber season, before he was a Heisman Trophy-winning national-champion quarterback at Auburn, Newton sat in a restaurant in tiny Brenham, Texas, with his father Cecil, trying to convince a junior college coach he was worth the risk. It was December 2008.
It was a gamble, and Newton — once a five-star quarterback out of Atlanta, who signed with Florida, but left after two years following his arrest on a charge of stealing another student’s computer — merely was looking for a second chance.
“One of the things we talked about at dinner was, this is the end of the road,” Franchione recalled in a phone interview this week. “You don’t play much college football anywhere else [if you mess up].”
“I don’t know what I wanted to get out of Blinn,” Newton recalled this week. “I just wanted the opportunity.”
Cecil wanted some assurances from Franchione before making a decision to send his son to Blinn. He wanted his son to be shielded from the media, he wanted him to be a part of a winner, and most important of all, he wanted Cam to develop as a pocket passer after limited playing time at Florida.
“As a [former] defensive coordinator, I guaranteed I’d show him as many coverages as I could,” said Franchione, the son of former Texas A&M and Alabama coach Dennis Franchione.
Newton lived up to his once-lofty potential at Blinn, leading the school to a national championship, making a good team great. He threw for 2,833 yards with 22 touchdowns and rushed for 655 yards, in a memorable 2009 season that set him on his path to stardom. He stayed out of trouble and graduated on time, thrilling the 500 or so fans who attended home games.
“I was just amazed a JUCO like Blinn was able to get a talent of that caliber,” recalled Ed Pothul, the sports director at local radio station KWHI 1280. “He made it look easy. He kind of glided down the field.”
Most remember what he did off the field rather than on it, the same happy-go-lucky superstar who took the NFL by storm. He didn’t act like a once highly rated recruit who was toiling in junior college. If anything, he seemed grateful.
“To me, he always seemed like one of the guys out there,” said Jeff Tilley, Blinn’s marketing and communications director who served as the athletic department’s sports information director at the time.
Pothul recalled one play in which Newton ran for 30 yards, and nearly ran him over. As he jogged back to the huddle, Newton smacked him on the back playfully, smiling broadly.
“It wasn’t an arrogant laugh. It was an I’m-having-fun laugh,” Pothul said. “He was just having fun playing the game again.”
Newton was Blinn’s hardest worker, the first at practice and the last to leave. Past quarterbacks often had arranged to throw with receivers in the offseason after weight-lifting sessions. Newton took it a step further, incorporating the defense in the workouts. He led through his competitive fire. Newton wasn’t a rah-rah guy. Newton and Franchione, who ran the defense, often talked trash to each other, in a friendly manner.
“He breaks the mold on leadership,” Franchione said. “He would step in the huddle and tell his teammates, ‘We’re going to get after these guys.’ He appealed to their competitive spirit.”
Newton developed a close bond with Franchione and his family, often playing videos games with his children. After games, a few of the kids often ended up on top of his shoulders. He couldn’t give them footballs after touchdowns — as he does now — because there wouldn’t have been any left for the games. When he left Texas for Auburn, Franchione still remembers the hug he shared with his kids. They root for him to this day.
“My daughter [Isabella] is the biggest Cam fan there is,” Newton’s former coach said.
Newton’s impact at Blinn College remains strong. His wide receiver at Blinn, Chad Froechtenicht, remains one of his best friends. He recently returned there to shoot an Under Armour commercial, which made sense because he has become free advertisement for the school. The year after Newton graduated, Boston College transfer Jesse Tuggle came to Blinn. The next year, Joe Montana visited with his son, Nick, a University of Washington transfer.
When prospective players visit Blinn, current coach Keith Thomas will talk about Newton’s experience. he plays a video for them, beginning with his highlights.
“When I say, ‘Cam was sitting in the same chair you’re sitting in, going through the same thing,’ it opens their mind,” Thomas said.
Tilley expected the story would fade away once Newton left for Auburn. Or won the Heisman Trophy and national championship. When he reached the NFL, he was sure it would go away. But it never has.
“I can safely say he put Blinn on the map, on a national level, overnight,” Tilley said. “That’s exposure we could never dream of paying for with our advertising dollars. I’ve said this before, it sounds hokey and cheesy, Cam is basically the gift that keeps on giving to Blinn College.”
Newton still remembers that year fondly, remembers winning a national championship and everything that came with it. It had felt like an eternity since he had such a prominent role — Newton had last taken snaps regularly in high school — and Blinn restored his swagger.
“That gave me the confidence that I needed,” he said this week, “that I still carry to this day.”
Additional reporting by Steve Serby