Stacy Revere/Getty
Steve Spurrier thought Cam Newton would be great at another position.
Coming off the best season of his career, Cam Newton now sits atop the NFL world.
Former University of South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier is blown away with Newton's play as a quarterback in the NFL, but he wasn't always positive that it was Newton's position.
Spurrier, who coached against Cam's Auburn teams, said he met Cam and his father nearly a decade ago and had a funky piece of advice for Cam, according to Buddy Martin of Gridiron Now.
Spurrier was impressed with Cam's size, already 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, and told Cam, "If you can't make it at quarterback, you could be a heck of a tight end."
While tight end was clearly never Newton's calling, imagining a player with his size and athleticism running routes is a scary thought - almost Rob Gronkowski-esque.
Instead, Newton tore up Spurrier's South Carolina teams, including a 56-17 romping in the 2010 SEC Championship game, and is now tearing the NFL up en route to his first Super Bowl appearance.
"Fantastic athlete. He's the quarterback of the future," Spurrier said of Newton's play now. "Every team in America would like to have somebody who is big and strong and can run like him. It really puts a lot of pressure on the defenses. So he's the prototype quarterback now."
Luckily for the NFL, Cam did make it as a quarterback and didn't follow Spurrier's suggestion.