Quarterback Cam Newton will lead the Carolina Panthers against the San Francisco 49ers on the opening Sunday of the NFL's 2017 season. He hopes he plays as well as his brother Caylin Newton did in his season-opening game.

Playing quarterback for NCAA FBS member Howard in his first collegiate contest, Caylin Newton completed 15-of-26 passes for 140 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions and ran 21 times for 190 yards and two touchdowns in the Bison's 43-40 victory over Mountain West Conference member UNLV on Saturday. Newton's 4-yard touchdown run with 7:34 left to play provided the deciding points.

With Howard playing as a 45-point underdog, The Associated Press reported the upset was the greatest in college football history, based on point spread, eclipsing Stanford's victory over 40-point favorite Southern Cal in 2007.

"I've got my hands full with trying to follow up a great performance with him," Cam Newton said. "I've just seen all of the notoriety that he's been getting. I've just been seeing a lot of 'Cam Newton's little brother, Cam Newton's little brother.' I just would prefer his name just be Caylin. He deserves that right, and, hopefully, this is not the highest point of his career with him being a true freshman. He's still got a long way to go."

Cam Newton, who won the Heisman Trophy at Auburn in 2010, managed to get a dig in at the Tigers' rival Georgia while talking to reporters about his brother during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

"I was teasing (Carolina Pro Bowl linebacker and former Georgia All-American) Thomas (Davis)," Newton said. "I said, 'Man, listen: Georgia needs a winner, and every Newton I know is a winner. You dig what I'm saying?' So they missed out on yet another one."

Cam Newton played at Westlake High School, and Caylin Newton played at Grady High School. Both schools are in Atlanta. Cam Newton initially went to Florida before eventually getting to Auburn. Caylin Newton wound up at a program that has had one winning season since 2005.

But Newton followed his swipe at the Bulldogs by saying he understood why his brother wasn't as highly recruited as he was. Caylin Newton is listed as 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds on Howard's roster. The Panthers' roster shows Cam Newton at 6-foot-5 and 245.

"I think he's a very undersized quarterback," Newton said. "But yet it doesn't measure the heart that he has, what he brings to the table. He has that 'it' factor that lets or to have guys follow him. That's what you want in your quarterback. To take a program like Howard, to take a program that isn't necessarily known for certain things and change the whole retrospect of what people think, now hearing him talk on the phone and hearing his responses to different things, it's like people, I'm telling him: You're giving people hope. A team that has probably been known for their band, people are going to football games to watch football now, not just to listen to the band play."

Newton said he watched his brother's game via livestream on the ESPN app and "there was a lot of refreshing going on."

"It was exciting for me to see that and hear from him and talk to him prior to the game," Newton said. "I try not to dump so much on him. It's a difference when you're Cam Newton and then it's a difference when you're a big brother. I try to find a fine line and give him a lot of experiences that I've had. But just like being a big brother and just like being a parent, it's trial and error. You can tell your kids everything they're about to go through, but as soon as they go through it, it's like, 'Man, I remember you telling me ...' And, 'Yeah, I told you,' but now here you are in the moment.

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"I'm just so happy for him. When he went through his whole little recruiting process, he was so frustrated. And I knew, I could tell, I could sense it, and for him to have more of an impact at a historically black college where they overlook games like that -- they don't even make it to the newspaper really -- and for him to be on ESPN doing an interview, that's really unheard of. I can only think back to Steve McNair had a bigger splash like that. I'm not trying to compare, I'm just knowing that it's a (testament) to hard work for a person that wasn't highly recruited, he seen his brother grow up and had accolades and had all the stardom coming out of high school. I just told him just be patient, everything works for the greater good. And knowing that everything that you have as your heart's desire is still coming to pass no matter if you're at Idaho Tech or wherever, they're going to find you. You just do your part and everything else will take care of itself -- and it did."