Newton's Law

He's already secured one Class 5A state championship ring and thirsts for a second. And when Carmel High School quarterback Morgan Newton takes the field for the Greyhounds, he does so equipped with a Howitzer arm and a fullback's lower-body strength. And intelligence. Don't leave that out. The kid carries a 3.5 grade-point average. And at an age where most teenagers sometimes travel great lengths to avoid those style-cramping parents, the painfully polite senior Newton bumps into his old man a half-dozen times before the final school bell sounds. Such is life for Newton, a 6-foot-4-inch, 220-pound senior fly in the ointment to defensive schemes designed to stop him. In the 2007 state championship game, the finale of prep finales inside the RCA Dome, Newton ran for 67 yards and threw for 77 more in the Greyhounds' 16-7 victory against Pike. His final season stat line read 1,883 yards through the air and another 743 on the ground. Now bigger, stronger and just plain better, the University of Kentucky signee chatted with VYPE reporter Mike Beas about running into his dad, his collegiate choice and his desire for another state crown. Beas: Your dad (CHS assistant principal Dr. John Newton) sees you during school hours. Is it a stop-and-chat type of relationship in the CHS hallways or more along the lines of a simple head nod? Newton: Dad and I just give the nod. To dad, a nod is the same as saying, "Hi", "Bye" and the whole thing.   Beas: Your dad played college football at Grambling State University. Did he play for the legendary Eddie Robinson? Newton: Yes, sir (laughing). I hear it every day.   Beas: And your mom (Ruby) also attended Grambling. Was she an athlete? Newton: (Laughing) The old wives' tale is that my mom, who is from Louisiana, played basketball (in high school). Thing is, she's the only one who says it. There's really no proof. Mom's press clippings, I guess they were destroyed in the hurricanes down there. They say mom was an athlete and dad was an athlete, so I guess you could say I come from a family of athletes.   Beas: Why not Grambling for you? Newton: Obviously, times have changed and the top-tier black athletes are playing at big-time colleges right now.   Beas: You had 24 college scholarship offers for football, including Indiana and Purdue. Why Kentucky? Newton: For numerous reasons. Obviously we felt comfortable with the coaches, and we wanted to play in the Southeastern Conference. And it's only three hours from my home and I have a chance to play early.   Beas: More than once, I've heard your quarterbacking skills compared to those of former UK signal-caller Andre Woodson, who owns virtually every significant school passing record. Do you think those parallels are being drawn due to Woodson's size (he's 6-5, 230), skin color (both are African-American) or skill set as a quarterback? Newton: I've heard the comparisons, and there are things I do that are similar to Andre. It's a decent comparison, but there are many ways my game is different. I pride myself on having a game that's pretty versatile. Just the combination of running and passing. Everybody wants to be a Tom Brady or Peyton Manning because they're great quarterbacks. Any NFL quarterback is somebody I would look up to. I consider them all role models.   Beas: Your brothers (CHS freshmen Langston and Jordan), since they are twins, do they ever gang up on you? Newton: They try. They haven't been very successful. They've gotten bigger over the years . Just not as strong as I am yet. They're freshmen now, so they have a few years to develop. We'll see.   Beas: You spent all those years growing up in the Pike school system before moving to Carmel prior to your sophomore year. How incredibly bizarre was it to have to square off against so many of the kids you grew up with during the 5A state championship game? Newton: I would say it was very ironic. Almost a storybook ending to the whole moving situation. At first I didn't want to move to Carmel, but I love it up here now.   Beas: How do you and your senior teammates stay hungry for another state title after accomplishing so much as juniors? Carmel might have six state football championships, but only once, in 1980 and '81, have the Hounds ever gone back-to-back. Newton: The only thing better than winning a state championship is to win two state championships. -