AUBURN, Ala. » Auburn wasn’t even looking for a quarterback when the Tigers happened upon Cam Newton at a little junior college in Texas.

Tigers assistant coach Curtis Luper made a recruiting trip to little Blinn College in Texas about a year ago looking at wide receiver Dexter Ransom, not a passer.

"We were not even going to take a quarterback," offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said. "Coach Luper went down and said, ‘You’ve got to take a look at this quarterback.’ It just so happened one of our guys was leaving and it opened up a spot. I went down there and checked him out and started doing homework on film and checking out his background. It was probably within a month of signing day when we actually started recruiting him.

"I’d never even heard of him. I didn’t even know who he was."

They didn’t get Ransom; he signed with Arizona. What the Tigers did get was a meteoric rise to national prominence with the Heisman favorite, an SEC championship and a shot at the BCS title in Glendale, Ariz., against Oregon on Jan. 10.

Newton is one of four Heisman finalists, joining Oregon running back LaMichael James, Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore and Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck.

He’s widely regarded as a decisive favorite after a season when neither Southeastern Conference defenses nor an NCAA investigation slowed him down. Newton is also a finalist for the Maxwell Award, which goes to college football’s best player, and the Davey O’Brien Award for the top quarterback.

The 6-foot-6, 250-pound Newton played the final four games amid a barrage of reports that his father was involved in a pay-for-play scheme during his recruiting at Mississippi State, and even academic cheating during his stay at Florida.

The eligibility question, at least, was resolved in a flurry leading up to the SEC title game. The NCAA said Cecil Newton did indeed dangle his son’s services for dollars at Mississippi State, but that neither Newton nor Auburn apparently knew about it.

Newton’s eligibility was restored after a one-day suspension by Auburn, but the NCAA’s ruling has been widely criticized as opening the door for abuse.

In conjunction with the ruling, Auburn announced Cecil Newton’s access to university sports would be limited. Auburn hasn’t released the specifics of those restrictions, but TV cameras repeatedly showed Newton’s mother, Jackie, without her husband in the stands at the SEC championship game in his hometown of Atlanta.

As polarizing as the pay-for-play scandal was off the field, Cam Newton’s on the-field play has been just as mesmerizing.

Newton and Nevada’s Colin Kaepernick joined Tim Tebow this season as the only Football Bowl Subdivision players to have 20 touchdowns both rushing and passing, accounting for 49 TDs.

He was the SEC’s leading rusher with 1,409 yards — easily a league record for quarterbacks — and he also led the nation in pass efficiency, completing 67.1 percent of his passes for 2,589 yards. Newton passed for 28 touchdowns and was intercepted six times while also catching a TD pass.

Newton has mostly deflected questions about the Heisman when he’s allowed to speak to the media at all — which has been seldom since the allegations surfaced.

"I really don’t like to talk about individual awards with me, because without that team, without the coaching staff having faith in me … without those guys I wouldn’t be where I am right now," he said after the SEC championship game. "I’m going to leave that up to the voters, and we just wait and see what happens."

Newton did reflect on his improbable rise: "365 days ago from this date I was at Blinn College, winning a junior college national championship. It’s a wonder what God can do in a person’s life, in such quick fashion."

Coach Gene Chizik didn’t declare his quarterback a shoo-in for the Heisman, but delivers high praise.

"I don’t make these decisions, obviously, but the people that are if they look at the body of work, I don’t know how he can’t be considered very highly and possibly the winner of the Heisman," said Chizik, a former Texas defensive coordinator. "I don’t make that call. In my 25 years of doing this, he is the best player I have been around, and I have been around some great ones. A bunch of them are still playing."