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AUBURN, Ala. — After not playing at all during the 2022 season, Cam Newton got to show what he can still do.

Newton, 33, threw in front of scouts at a pro day event Tuesday at Auburn, where he won a Heisman Trophy and a national championship in the 2010 season.

The 2015 NFL Most Valuable Player was invited to throw at Auburn by his younger brother, Caylin — a former quarterback at Howard who finished his collegiate career as a wide receiver at Auburn and William & Mary.

“This was him showing love to me,” Caylin Newton said of his older brother. “He doesn’t owe anybody anything. He has had an amazing journey, an amazing career in the NFL. He has nothing to prove to anybody. … He came to show his ability, show he still has it.

“I think, for him, this was a selfless act. But it was also to show and prove to everybody he’s not sitting around. He’s still got it. Whatever organization wants to get a winning quarterback, his number’s still open and available.”

Cam Newton declined to speak to reporters in Auburn on Tuesday. During the workout, Newton threw more than 30 passes to several NFL hopefuls from Auburn, including wide receiver Shedrick Jackson.

“That was fun,” Jackson said. “That was probably my most favorite part, just learning his lingo, seeing his cadence. He’s got good touch on the ball. … I think he’s still got it.”

In perhaps the biggest highlight of the workout, Newton showcased his trademark scrambling ability in the pocket before throwing a 50-yard pass downfield to his younger brother.

Newton, who has played 11 seasons as a pro, hasn’t attempted a pass in an NFL game since Dec. 26, 2021. He rejoined the Carolina Panthers midway through the 2021 season and went 0-5 as a starting quarterback.

Newton’s last full season in the league came in 2020, when he was a member of the New England Patriots. Newton was a three-time Pro Bowl selection in his first stint with the Panthers, where he won both AP Offensive Rookie of the Year and MVP honors while also leading the team to Super Bowl 50.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 draft made headlines Monday evening when he announced on social media that he would throw at Auburn’s pro day.

“Tell me how these randoms keep getting jobs?” Newton said in a video posted to Twitter. “Don’t worry about it. I’m going to show you. I can’t wait to show you.”

According to his younger brother, Newton has been working hard to get back into the league after a year away.

“What everyone sees on the TV screen, they see his character and they see his confidence,” Caylin Newton said.

“They don’t see the grit. They don’t see how many hours he puts in. So, the media has what they say about who he is. I know who he is. And anywhere he’s been, they know who he is, too.”

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Bama can’t stop Castellanos as FSU stuns Tide

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Bama can't stop Castellanos as FSU stuns Tide

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — New quarterback Tommy Castellanos led a punishing rushing attack for Florida State with 78 yards and a touchdown as the Seminoles stunned No. 8 Alabama 31-17 on Saturday, ending the Crimson Tide’s streak of 23 straight wins in season openers.

Coming off a 2-10 season, Florida State handed a crushing setback to Alabama, which was viewed as a College Football Playoff contender under second-year coach Kalen DeBoer.

Castellanos, a transfer from Boston College, made headlines over the summer after saying legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban wasn’t there to “save” the Tide vs. Florida State in their Week 1 matchup and that he doesn’t “see them stopping me.” He backed up that jab by spearheading FSU’s dominant ground attack while staying efficient through the air, finishing 9 of 14 passing for 152 yards.

Students and fans swarmed the field at Doak Campbell Stadium to celebrate the upset by the Seminoles, who closed as 13 1/2-point underdogs at ESPN BET.

Under new offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn — who spent eight seasons as Auburn’s head coach — Florida State was physical from the start, finishing with 230 rushing yards and averaging 4.7 yards per carry. The Seminoles averaged just 89.9 yards during their disastrous 2024 season.

The Crimson Tide had not dropped a season opener since losing 20-17 to UCLA in 2001 under Dennis Franchione, and this defeat will ratchet up the pressure on DeBoer from the demanding Tuscaloosa faithful. His predecessor, Nick Saban, led Alabama to six national titles.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Manning struggles vs. lofty expectations in debut

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Manning struggles vs. lofty expectations in debut

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning failed to live up to lofty expectations in his starting debut Saturday at Ohio State, but Texas coach Steve Sarkisian called the 14-7 loss just “one chapter” in Manning’s season.

With scouts from more than a dozen NFL teams watching, including the nearby Cleveland Browns, Manning was inconsistent, displaying flashes of promise tempered by mistakes. He completed 17 of 30 passes for 170 yards, 1 touchdown and an interception — an underwhelming day for a player some have already pegged as the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL draft.

He also entered the game as the Heisman Trophy favorite (+650) at ESPN BET Sportsbook.

“For Arch, the expectations were out of control on the outside,” Sarkisian said. “I’d say let’s finish the book before we judge him. That’s one chapter.”

Texas started slowly offensively, struggling to create big plays. Manning was 0-for-5 with an interception on throws of more than 5 yards in the first three quarters. Sarkisian and Manning sat together in the locker room at the half, though, and went over some film and made some adjustments. In the fourth quarter, Manning completed 4 of 7 passes for 105 yards and a touchdown on passes of more than 5 yards.

“They’ve got a good scheme,” Sarkisian said. “They’ve got a very smart secondary, and they made Arch work. I thought at halftime, Arch having a chance to really sit and look at the tape and understand some of the coverages they were playing, I think that helped him into the second half.”

Still, it was too little, too late. Texas had four drives that ended in turnovers on downs, its most since its 2017 season-opening loss to Maryland. The Longhorns failed to score on their two red zone drives, including a fourth-down stop just inches from the goal line that deflated a 15-play, 70-yard drive that ate up 6:54 in the third quarter.

“I felt like hey, we don’t give them a chance to sub to real big people,” Sarkisian said. “We went with the sneak. I think they got under us pretty good and kind of took Arch’s legs out from him. Hindsight’s 20/20. If I could do it all over again, we’d probably sub and they’d put their big guys, we’d put our big guys in and see if we could get in the end zone.”

Manning finished with an off-target percentage of 37%, the worst by a Texas quarterback in a game over the past decade, according to ESPN Research.

“It took us too long to get the ball down the field,” Manning said. “That starts with me. … They’re a good team, but I thought we beat ourselves a lot. That starts with me, and I’ve got to play better for us to win.”

Manning, whose running ability is one of his strongest assets, added 38 yards on 10 carries, with his longest run being a 15-yard burst. The Longhorns outgained Ohio State 166-77 on the ground, and Sarkisian said he’d like to incorporate Manning’s running ability earlier.

“I think when that happened, I felt like he started really playing,” Sarkisian said of Manning’s rushing. “And we saw some real flashes and glimpses of the type of player that he’s going to become here.”

Texas had four new starters on its offensive line, but Manning had ample time to throw. He occasionally executed passes with precision, and other attempts were high, low, or thrown behind his receiver.

“I felt like Arch had good time in the pocket to throw it,” Sarkisian said. “I felt like we were moving the line of scrimmage; we were running the ball. We just didn’t create explosive plays early in the game like we did in the second half of the game. … I think we could have thrown it better than we did, but we didn’t throw it the way we wanted to because of the O-line. I thought the O-line gave us ample protection and opportunities to throw the ball down the field.”

Texas won’t play another Power 4 opponent until Oct. 4 at Florida, and those within the Longhorns’ program agreed that the offensive issues are correctable before the SEC slate begins.

“We had opportunities to score points and we didn’t,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got to make a couple of throws. We’ve got to make a couple catches. We’ve got to make a couple better calls, but those are things that are fixable for us and I feel confident in that.”

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‘Story of the game’: Defense keys Ohio State win

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'Story of the game': Defense keys Ohio State win

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State opened its national title defense by playing dominant defense.

The third-ranked Buckeyes rattled quarterback Arch Manning and stuffed top-ranked Texas four times on fourth down on the way to a 14-7 victory Saturday at the Horseshoe.

Two of those fourth-down stops came inside the Ohio State 10-yard line.

Another came on Texas’ final possession. Manning found tight end Jack Endries on fourth-and-5. But Buckeyes star safety Caleb Downs wrapped Endries up two yards short of the first down to seal the win.

“The story of the game was the defense,” said Ohio State coach Ryan Day. “Those fourth-down stops were big.”

The Buckeyes defeated Texas with a fourth-down stop in last year’s CFP semifinal. Jack Sawyer stripped Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers on fourth-and-goal and scooped up the fumble for the game-clinching touchdown at the Cotton Bowl, propelling Ohio State to the national championship game.

On Saturday, the Buckeyes defense — featuring eight new starters and a new coordinator in Matt Patricia — came up big on fourth down again.

In the first half, Ohio State stopped Manning on a fourth-and-goal quarterback sneak from the 1-yard line.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Texas finally got back inside the Ohio State 10. But cornerback Davison Igbinosun swatted away Manning’s fourth-down attempt in the end zone.

Texas scored a touchdown with 3:28 left to avoid being shut out for the first time in nine years, then got the ball back with just over two minutes remaining with a chance to tie. But after Texas pushed the ball to midfield, the Ohio State defense ended the threat with Downs’ one-on-one tackle of Endries.

“He was unbelievable back there as a field general,” Patricia said of Downs, one of three returning starters along with Igbinosun and linebacker Sonny Styles. “Guys stepped up to the challenge all the way across the board.”

This offseason, Patricia replaced Jim Knowles, who left the Buckeyes following the national championship to become defensive coordinator for rival Penn State. Patricia had won three Super Bowls with New England, including two as the Patriots’ defensive coordinator, but had never coached a college game until Saturday.

According to ESPN Research, Texas’ four turnovers on downs were the most in the game since a 2017 season-opening loss to Maryland.

“I thought the game plan was excellent,” Day said of the defense, “but the buy-in is what’s most important. What matters is the guys and warriors on the field believing in it. … The grittiness of our guys running around, there’s a lot we can build on.”

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