GLENDALE, Ariz. | Trouble with the NCAA, a Heisman Trophy and finally a national championship would be a busy career for any player. Auburn quarterback Cam Newton lived it in a 2 1/2-month swirl.
It ended with a broad smile.
Newton flashed a grin in the postgame interview room, answered a couple of questions about the Tigers’ stirring 22-19 triumph over Oregon in the BCS National Championship Game, and excused himself to receive some treatment for a sore back.
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There was nothing left for him to say, but one of his teammates wanted to defend the player who had held up dealing with the strains of epic season glory and NCAA dark clouds.
“You know all the things they said about him, he came back and played 10 times harder, ran the ball 10 times harder, threw the ball 10 times more accurate,” said linebacker Josh Bynes. “He was just so resilient. He’s like a perfection description of how we played this year.”
Auburn, pushed to the limit Monday, survived without Newton as a singular force and became the fifth straight national champion from the SEC. Tackle Nick Fairley anchored a rock-solid defense. Running back Michael Dyer became the central figure in the game’s wildest play that set up kicker Wes Byrum, who walked into Auburn lore with his 19-yard field goal as time expired for the winning points.
But as always this season, Newton was the game’s focal point, before, during and after. Would he fall victim to the Heisman curse? Six of the previous eight winners had lost on the stage. Or would he deliver one of his other-worldly performances that made him the runaway Heisman Trophy winner and the primary reason the Tigers, who finished 3-5 last year in Southeastern Conference play, are 14-0 for the first time in school history?
By Newton standards, the performance rates solid but not spectacular by competing 20 of 34 passes for 265 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He rushed for 64 yards and coughed up a critical fumble.
Late in the game, he appeared to be moving slowly. The back became a problem.
“It wasn’t just one hit that made my back go out,” Newton said.
Under that circumstance, Auburn Coach Gene Chizik’s line could be taken figuratively and literally.
“We had his back in everything he does,” Chizik said.
In early November, that meant supporting Newton when the world appeared to be crumbling around him.
That’s when the story smacked Auburn and college football. The NCAA was investigating whether Newton’s father, Cecil, had attempted to sell his son’s signature to Mississippi State for $180,000 while Cam was finishing last year at Blinn Junior College.
A college football season that opened with suspensions to several players for their involvement with an off-season agent-sponsored party now was dealing with this unseemly episode involving its biggest star.
But as Auburn put together a remarkable season, filled with daring comebacks -- none more spirited than the 24-0 deficit erased at rival Alabama in a 28-27 triumph -- Newton wasn’t phased.
“He kept his head up and kept us winning,” Dyer said.
On Monday, Dyer and teammates returned the favor.
Defensively, Auburn grounded the game’s highest flyer. The Ducks had rolled to an undefeated regular-season and Pac-10 championship with the nation’s most prolific offense. Monday, they were pushed to the boundaries by a defensive line that Oregon could not overcome. Fairley completed a goal line stand late in the fourth quarter by stuffing Kenjon Barner from the 1.
LaMichael James, whose 152-yard rushing average entering the game led the nation, found little room to operate. A more physical Tigers defensive front altered Oregon’s approach.
“The matchup with our offensive line against their defensive line was the changing point of the game,” Ducks Coach Chip Kelly said. It changed the game’s approach for Oregon, but Dyer’s run changed the game. The Ducks’ late touchdown and two-point conversion made it 19-19 when Auburn took over with 2:27 remaining.
A field goal would do it, but the Tigers started from their 25. On the drive’s second play, Dyer took Newton’s handful and found a crease for what looked like a 5-yard gain after getting wrapped up by Eddie Pleasant.
But Dyer rolled over Pleasant and neither of Dyer’s knees touched the ground. The only people who seemed to know this were the officials from the Big Ten who didn’t blow a whistle and Tigers wide receiver Darvin Adams, who said, “Go, go, go” to is teammate.
Dyer rumbled about 30 more yards before being pushed out of bounds, and Auburn was now in field-goal range.
A few plays later Dyer appeared to be in the end zone on a 17-yard run, but officials ruled he was down at the 1. Ten seconds remained. Auburn elected to snap it once with Newton stopped for no gain. The Tigers took a timeout and sent Byrum on to kick it from extra point distance.
Fairley and Dyer, who rushed for 143 yards, were named the game’s defensive and offense players of the game, and a bowl individual honor was one piece of hardware that eluded Newton.
No matter. He had experienced just about everything else this season, and most believe he’ll depart for the NFL Draft. Underclassmen have until Friday to declare their intention, and with Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck announcing his return for a senior season, Newton’s position is likely to improve.
He was asked about it afterward and offered the standard, “I have to talk to Coach Chizik and my parents.”
But after all that’s happened in the last couple of months, leaving with a championship and a smile on his face seems like the right ending.
