Auburn starting QB job up for grabs as spring practice begins
Past results. Playing style. Experience.
None of those things will be deciding who Auburn’s starting quarterback will be in 2016 right now. Jeremy Johnson, Sean White and John Franklin III are each beginning from the same starting line.
Head coach Gus Malzahn made that abundantly clear on Tuesday as the Tigers’ spring practices got under way.
“They’ll have equal reps,” Malzahn told the media. “We’ll give them all a chance to compete.”
Last season, Johnson started seven games while White started six. Neither signal-caller delivered the type of results fans were hoping for as Auburn went 2-6 in SEC play. The team ranked 12th in the SEC with just 173.7 passing yards per game, and it ranked 10th in passing efficiency at 124.5.
Meanwhile, Franklin enrolled in January having transferred from East Mississippi Community College. Some fans are hoping the dual-threat QB can be the answer.
“He had good mat drills with our coaches,” Malzahn said, according to Wesley Sinor of AL.com. “I think he’s a guy who is very eager and has done a good job so far of being a good teammate — getting to know his teammates, so we’ll see what he does.”
Malzahn is considering putting his quarterbacks in the fire right away and seeing how they perform. He told the media on Tuesday that he’s not ruling out the chance of going live at the position this spring.