Cam Newton to start for Panthers on Friday

CHARLOTTE -- Rookie quarterback Cam Newton will start Friday's exhibition game at Miami, although Panthers coach Ron Rivera has not committed to making the No. 1 overall pick the regular season Week 1 starter.

Newton came in for Jimmy Clausen and played the second and third quarters last week in a 20-10 win against the New York Giants.

The two will flip-flop roles Friday, when Clausen also will work with the first-team offense.

Rivera plans to name his regular-season starter before next week's third exhibition game at Cincinnati.

"We're doing like we did last week where Cam came in and played with that group in the second quarter," Rivera said Wednesday.

"We want to make sure everybody gets an opportunity to play. We think it's important to keep that competition going."

But Rivera insisted the competition is still open.

"If people want to read into (the decision to start Newton), that's fine. But just know we have a plan and we're sticking to it as we go through the process," Rivera said.

"As I said, sometime next week we'd like to have a real good feel for what we're going to do as we go into the regular season."

Newton, the Heisman Trophy winner who won a national title in his only season at Auburn, completed 8 of 19 passes for 134 yards against the Giants, with no touchdowns and no intereceptions.

Clausen, who was 1-9 as a rookie starter last season, had a disastrous start last week, throwing an interception on the first series that Michael Boley returned for a touchdown.

But Clausen settled down to complete 4 of 7 throws for 69 yards and a touchdown.

Camp breaks: Rivera said his first training camp as a head coach was hectic, but productive.

The Panthers had three weeks to install new offensive and defensive systems following the 4 1/2-month lockout.