Gus Malzahn knew he had a good quarterback in Cam Newton as the 2010 season started. The transfer from Blinn College had come to the Plains and showed why he was so highly hyped out of high school, signing with Florida before a detour to the Texas junior college.
It wasn't until the fourth game of the season, a matchup against South Carolina in Jordan-Hare Stadium, that Malzahn realized how special Newton was.
"You could tell the first few games that he definitely had something different to him," Malzahn told me via phone this week. "But probably the South Carolina game was the first time when he took off in that eight-yard line or nine-yard line, dove into the end zone, you kind of went, 'Oh wow.