Auburn's Cam Newton Placed on Top of College Football's Pyramid by The Athletic

He might be immortalized in bronze down on campus, but Cam Newton is unquestionably the Auburn Tigers football gold standard for all-time.

Being held in such reverence is not merely a local phenomenon. Newton won a national championship and Heisman Trophy back in 2010, and that reverberates in national circles.

Indeed, Bruce Feldman of The Athletic puts Newton atop the golden pedestal as being the greatest college football player of the 2000s.

"He was college football's Superman," Feldman declared during his listing. "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."

Newton knocking the likes of USC superstar running back Reggie Bush off the top spot is bound to spark controversy, but Feldman remains stoically unbowed.

It's pretty hard to argue against Feldman's critique of what Newton accomplished during his unparalleled and thrilling 2010 campaign.

"The towering 6-5, 250-pound Newton ran through the hardest conference in college football, leading the Tigers to a 14-0 record," Feldman recalled. "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."

Just how far Newton carried his cast of relatively overachieving teammates was indeed a college football fairytale.

Rarely do we find a quarterback who can combine such power and size, while also remaining a huge threat with such a powerful arm. What Newton perhaps lacked in terms of quiet locker room authority, he more than made up for in sheer wow factor.

The evolution of his game throughout that single season in itself was remarkable. In four September games, Newton had more rushing attempts (75) than passes (63). The playbook opened up as the season progressed, culminating with Newton’s four passing touchdowns in the dismantling of South Carolina in the SEC Championship Game. 

The development of Newton as a passer to go with his otherworldly physical talent helped convince the Carolina Panthers to make him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. 

Any list like this is subjective, but it’s hard to argue against Newton’s credentials as the best college player of the last 25 years, even if his stay was brief.