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Cam Newton opens up on his 'rebelliousness' with Urban Meyer at Florida

IMG_6598by: Nick Kosko08/03/25nickkosko59
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Cam Newton recently opened up about the “rebelliousness” factor during his short time at Florida. The former Heisman Trophy winner repping Auburn played for Urban Meyer in Gainesville once upon a time.

Newton respects Meyer to this day, so there are no hard feelings. But there were a lot of emotions as Newton left the Gators and ended up elsewhere in the SEC.

Newton went out to prove his doubters wrong once he got to Auburn. And he nearly did it against Florida on a big stage.

“When I left Florida, I left on my own terms, but it wasn’t the best terms with the coach, and even for Urban, who I have the utmost respect for, and his success that he’s had, he didn’t think that I was a quarterback,” Newton told Johnny Manziel. “It was so much rebelliousness in how I wanted to prove, like, ‘Yo, I’m going to prove. I gotta prove. I gotta prove.’ And I channeled that energy to making me the best player that I possibly can rather than sometimes people just take that so personal where it’s now counterproductive to your overall development. 

“And I did not allow that to happen. I just wanted the opportunity. I just wanted the platform so that I could showcase what I was capable of doing. And it still came down to, you know, my teammates performing as well as myself, you know, performing as well too. And I’m just glad that it did, and we were so close to playing Florida for the SEC championship. I’m glad that we didn’t because it would have been too much emotion.”

Rather than Florida, Newton and Auburn beat South Carolina, badly, in the SEC Championship Game 56-17. A month later, Newton led Auburn to a BCS National Championship win over Oregon, 22-19.

Newton played just one season at Auburn following his time at Florida (2007-08). In 14 games, he certainly proved he could play quarterback. He had 2,854 yards, 30 touchdowns, seven interceptions, a 66.1% completion percentage, 1,473 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns.

We’ll never know what Newton would’ve done at Florida had he been given the keys to the kingdom like at Auburn. But as the former No. 1 overall pick mentioned, he respects Meyer to this day and everything happens for a reason.