The Auburn coaches are doing their best to play it close to the vest on this quarterback race.

But it’s becoming obvious that Cameron Newton is the guy. All four of the quarterbacks have performed well this spring, but Newton has the most athletic ability, the most upside and gives the Tigers a dimension at the position they didn’t have a year ago.

There’s a reason Auburn brought Newton in from the junior college ranks, and he’s done nothing to disappoint.

Both on and off the field.

His attitude has been refreshing, and it’s a big reason he’s endeared himself so to his teammates.

“He had a lot of pressure on him coming in here,” Auburn senior linebacker Josh Bynes said. “A lot of people expected him to do this, to do that, to be the savior of the offense and be this great quarterback. But he just goes out there and does his thing and doesn’t show it if he is feeling any pressure.

“He’s competing every day and lets things happen, and you don’t see that arrogance or cockiness about him where he’s like, ‘OK, I’m going to be the quarterback.’ This team doesn’t have that arrogance anywhere, and he fits right in.

“He’s level-headed. He’s focused, and he takes this opportunity he has to heart.”

Newton counts his blessings every day that he’s getting a second chance at Auburn after starting his career at Florida and then leaving the program after he ran into trouble off the field.

He doesn’t shy away from what happened at Florida when he was arrested and charged with stealing another student’s laptop computer in November 2008. Those charges were eventually dropped when Newton completed a pretrial diversion program for first-time offenders.

Newton says he bought the laptop from somebody else after his room flooded at Florida. He later panicked when police came to investigate and threw the laptop out the window.

“I was wrong in not taking what I really needed to my parents,” Newton said. “If I had asked my parents for a laptop, they would have found a way to get me a laptop.

“I didn’t know it was stolen, but me buying a computer that was worth more than $1,000 and me paying the price I bought it for was a red flag.

“I knew something wasn’t right, and that’s on me.”

The whole experience humbled the 6-6, 242-pound Newton, who was initially suspended from Florida’s team, but says he left the program on his own accord.

He spent last season at Blinn College in Brenham, Texas, and while he put up big numbers, admits he was miserable in the beginning and wondered if he was going to make it.

“My first couple of months in junior college, I was in my shell,” Newton said. “I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I had everything at Florida, and I blew it. My father always says that one day you can be on top of the world and the next day the world can be on top of you.

“I mean, I was living. I was at Florida, behind Tim Tebow, the great Tim Tebow, and learning from him. And the next thing you know, I’m in Brenham, Texas where you had to bring your own water to practice every day.

“But looking back, you learn to thank God for everything.”

Auburn coach Gene Chizik said the Tigers didn’t have to spend much time checking into Newton’s background before they were convinced he deserved a second chance.

“We always feel good about the research we do on our guys,” Chizik said. “That doesn’t mean you don’t miss once in a while. But in my face-to-face conversations with Cameron, in my conversations with his parents, my conversations with his junior college coach and my conversations with the players after he visited here, there was no question in my mind that he was somebody we felt would fit in well here at Auburn.

“Everybody makes mistakes. You talk to Cameron, and he’s going to man up and tell you he made a mistake. But he’s absolutely the kind of guy we want here at Auburn.”

And as fate would have it, Newton says Auburn was always near and dear to his heart when he was going through the recruiting process the first time.

Hailing from nearby Atlanta, he made several trips to Jordan-Hare Stadium during his high school years and was blown away by the atmosphere on game days.

“Coming out of high school, I stayed at Auburn. It was one of my favorite schools,” Newton said. “It’s funny how things go around and you get the opportunity you wanted all along.”