UK commitment Newton named Indiana Mr. Football

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — Quarterback Morgan Newton, a University of Kentucky commitment who led Carmel's Greyhounds to three straight Class 5A tournament finals and the championship in 2007, was named Indiana's Mr. Football on Wednesday.

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Newton was a dual threat at Carmel, passing for 1,938 yards and 22 touchdowns and rushing for another 1,664 yards and 26 TDs in his senior season. He also passed for 1,882 yards and 25 touchdowns and ran for 743 yards and 11 TDs the previous year, when he led Carmel to its sixth championship.

The Greyhounds reached the title game again last month and had a 33-19 lead before Center Grove scored three touchdowns in the final six minutes for a 36-33 win.

A two-time Associated Press first-team All-State selection, Newton is the first Mr. Football winner from Carmel but the third for Coach Mo Moriarity, who also coached Bo Barzilauskas and Rex Grossman at Bloomington South. Grossman is now with the NFL's Chicago Bears.

"Even including Rex, I've never had a kid who could just take over a game, whether it's running or throwing, like (Newton) does. He's unbelievable," Moriarity said.

Newton received 34 of the 52 votes from the Indiana Football Coaches Association rating board.

Newton, who plans to study business and play quarterback at Kentucky, is the eldest son of former Grambling fullback John Newton, an assistant principal at Carmel. Newton's mother, Ruby, is an IBM executive. John Newton said Morgan has been a "Mr. Everything" in sports all his life.

Initially, the sport was soccer, but he also excelled at football, baseball and basketball.

"From the time we put him on the field, he was the leading scorer and played great defense," said John Newton, who coached many of his son's youth teams. "You could see that his hand-eye coordination was just unbelievable, and he'd just do whatever he wanted to do."

Morgan Newton said his personal highlight was helping deliver the 2007 championship to his teammates.

"Seeing how excited all the seniors ... were with their families after we won the state championship, you could see what it meant to them," he said.

Even in the defeat last month, Newton played a big part in rallying his teammates.

"I was just trying to take the best attitude possible," he said. "There were a lot of seniors there that probably won't play another football game, and I wanted the underclassmen to see how you're supposed to act."