Sean White over John Franklin III a surprise at Auburn, but not a shock

Caught between an incumbent and a newcomer, Sean White wasn’t given much of a shot to win the job.

But that’s exactly what he did, as he’ll start at quarterback Saturday when Auburn hosts No. 2 Clemson at Jordan-Hare Stadium. White won the three-man competition with Jeremy Johnson and John Franklin III.

Johnson entered the 2015 campaign as the starter — he even got some preseason Heisman Trophy hype. However, he didn’t live up to the lofty expectations and lost his spot to White by Week 4. Franklin enrolled after a season of JUCO ball and had a résumé suggesting he could be another Nick Marshall.

Considering coach Gus Malzahn’s frenetically paced system, Franklin’s wheels made him an ideal fit.

Definitely more passer than runner, White’s presence looked to be a bit of a square-peg-round-hole situation. The Tigers have been at their scariest offensively under Malzahn with a more mobile QB.

As fall camp started a few weeks ago, it only seemed like a matter of time before Malzahn announced that Franklin was his guy. Originally a Florida State signee before departing for East Mississippi Community College, he was engineered to be Marshall 2.0. The dye had been cast already on Johnson.

White, on the other hand, just kept showing out at practice despite almost no publicity or fanfare.

“Sean’s got a little mean streak to him,” running back Kerryon Johnson said, according to AL.com. “He’s not going to back down from anybody. He’s a spicy player. He loves competition. I think that’s the thing that people really get out of playing with him. They really get that attitude that you can really feed off of as a team.”

As a freshman in 2015, White (below) hit on 58 percent of his passes with 1 touchdown and 4 interceptions.

Credit: Garrett Reid-USA TODAY Sports

On the ground, which is where Marshall was incredibly effective as the starter from 2013-14, White only picked up 35 yards on 30 attempts. He suffered a knee injury in October that slowed him down.

Nevertheless, White distinguished himself from Johnson with the way he threw the football. With an average of 8.2 yards per attempt — as opposed to Johnson’s 6.7 — White was capable of making more vertical throws. He also proved to be tough as nails in the pocket and gutsy in the heat of battle.

With his knee feeling much better now, he may even be more dynamic when it’s time to break containment.

“He’s got the ability to tuck it and run,” Malzahn told AL.com. “He’s a 4.6 guy. But after he hurt his knee and hurt his foot, he wasn’t the same guy. That limited him on his mobility, but he’s a mobile guy.”

All that said, Malzahn didn’t make his choice based on what White brings to the huddle as a runner.

To put it mildly, Johnson was a major disappointment a season ago. Auburn was preseason Top 10 in a lot of publications based in large part on him taking over as a bigger, badder version of Marshall.

He threw three interceptions in a Week 1 victory over Louisville. He was picked off twice more in a Week 2 narrow escape of Jacksonville State. Following a Week 3 blowout loss to LSU — including yet another INT — Malzahn had seen enough. White wasn’t prolific, but he took better care of the ball.

Unlike last year, when Johnson was firmly the man, now White can start a season knowing he’s No. 1.

“I think it’s more about, especially at quarterback, taking care of the ball and getting what you can get and about being quick,” White told AL.com. “I really don’t believe I got a chance to show that I can run a little bit. I wouldn’t say I’m Nick Marshall, like I said before, but I definitely think I can run better than I showed last year due to being young and being injured.”

so what happened to jf3?

While Franklin started his career at Florida State, he was never a Jimbo Fisher-style quarterback.

Originally a three-star prospect in high school, he came to Tallahassee when future Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 draft pick Jameis Winston was still on the roster. Fisher’s offense is NFL-level.

Franklin, on the other hand, was nothing more than a scout-teamer for the Seminoles. Because he was such a terrific athlete with the ball in his hands, FSU tinkered with him at wide receiver here and there. Coincidentally, even before ending up at Auburn, he reminded the ‘Noles of another Tigers QB.

“John Franklin was an accomplished high school quarterback, but I never really felt like he was an ideal fit for the offense that Jimbo Fisher wanted to run,” Bob Ferrante told Saturday Down South. He covers Florida State for 247Sports. “His biggest contribution really was as a scout-team quarterback. Franklin played the role of Nick Marshall as FSU prepared for Auburn in the BCS title game (in 2013), and the first-team defensive players said Franklin did a very good job of preparing them for what they would see in Marshall.”

With no opportunity to work his way up Fisher’s depth chart, Franklin (below) packed his bags and departed.

Credit: Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports

“Franklin attempted a position change to receiver, but even that seemed half-hearted,” Ferrante said. “He spent some practice time at receiver but was also a quarterback, too, in other practices. He always wanted to play quarterback, and that’s what prompted the decision to go to East Mississippi.”

Because JUCO football doesn’t get a lot of coverage, one might assume Franklin tore it up at EMCC.

That wasn’t the case, though. Franklin didn’t even start for the Lions. That position went to Wyatt Roberts, who just walked on at Mississippi State. Franklin played in nine game, mostly as a backup.

Roberts completed 65.4 percent of his passes, averaged a healthy 9 yards per attempt and assembled a serious TD-to-INT ratio of 23-to-2. Franklin’s numbers paled in comparison: 58.2, 6.7 and 7-to-2. This wasn’t another Cam Newton story. Newton ripped up the JUCO ranks before coming to The Plains.

Marshall, who was far from a gifted passer, was apparently still more of a legit QB than Franklin.

moving on with white

All the way back at Media Days, Malzahn talked about needing to run the ball and run it with pace.

That became more difficult once he excused Jovon Robinson, who was shockingly kicked off the squad on the first day of fall camp for a violation of team rules. The backfield is a bit thin currently.

The ability to run the rock between the tackles should be a strength for the Tigers, as they return their center and both guards from a year ago — guard Alex Kozan is a preseason choice by the media for first-team All-SEC. Auburn’s yards-per-rush average of 4.4 from a year ago simply must improve.

White can help the ground game. He’s just more likely to do so with his arm than his own two legs.

John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South, a member of the FWAA and a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Send him an e-mail, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.