Rising junior Jeremy Johnson is expected to take over for the departing Nick Marshall under center for Auburn in 2015. However, top JUCO athlete Jason Smith may have other plans.

Smith, who played quarterback at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College this season and signed with Auburn last month, expects a legitimate competition at quarterback this spring.

“[Malzahn] said I was the guy since day one,” Smith told AL.com last summer. “We’ll definitely see when I get here, but nothing’s going to be given to me from here on out, and that’s what I want. I want to work.”

Auburn has only one other quarterback in its 2015 class, Tyler Queen, a native of Kennesaw, Ga. Smith, at 6-foot-1, 180-pounds is similar to Marshall with his size and athleticism. Smith has been projected as an athlete who would eventually become a receiver for the Tigers.

It seems inevitable that Smith would change positions, but the fact that head coach Gus Malzahn reportedly believes he can play quarterback is interesting. Johnson has waited his turn behind Marshall, and the former Mr. Football in the state of Alabama turned heads with his stellar first-half performance in the season-opening win against Arkansas this season.

As a senior at McGill-Toolen in Mobile, Ala., in 2012, Smith threw for more than 1,500 yards and 19 touchdowns while adding nearly 900 yards and another 14 touchdowns on the ground. Smith starred at wideout as a senior in the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Game.

Smith told AL.com last summer he had improved during his first season as Gulf Coast, and had been continuing to learn the craft of playing quarterback.

“Me and my receivers definitely got better with the connections,” Smith said. “It showed in the spring game. I got a lot more knowledge of the game now. Studying film helps a lot, and that’s what I’m doing now at Gulf Coast with my head coach at Gulf Coast.”

It seems unlikely Malzahn would turn to Smith, when he has a quarterback in Johnson who has chemistry with the Tigers’ corps of receivers, knows the playbook and has had two seasons of tutelage from Malzahn and offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee. Though Smith feels he’ll get a shot under center, it is believed that both Johnson and Sean White will enter 2015 as starter and backup.

Still, with Marshall’s exit, the quarterback position is something to watch on the Plains.