QB battle leader? Gus Malzahn offers praise to Auburn QB Joey Gatewood

The Auburn Tigers have a four-way quarterback battle going on this spring, between Joey Gatewood, Malik Willis, Cord Sandberg and Bo Nix.

Many analysts thought Gatewood looked like the quarterback of the future as he was redshirting last season, and it appears he’s looking good this year.

On Saturday, coach Gus Malzahn praised Gatewood’s approach to the game during a pre-spring practice press conference:

Auburn HC Gus Malzahn on QB Joey Gatewood: "You can tell he's not a freshman anymore… He's competing hard for the starting job. His approach has been completely different than last year, which is to be expected."

— Justin Ferguson (@JFergusonAU) March 23, 2019

Nothing has been settled yet, though, as Malzahn said all four guys are still getting equal reps:

Auburn HC Gus Malzahn: "We're still rotating through four quarterbacks, which is a challenge."

Malzahn said they won't start thinking about any separation until after the first scrimmage next Saturday.

— Justin Ferguson (@JFergusonAU) March 23, 2019

Malzahn likely won’t speak too much about who is the quarterback battle leader until this summer, but it does appear that Gatewood is looking good so far this spring.