All QB's at A-day

[aubiefifty 16,733]

seccountry.com

 

What Auburn football wants from Jarrett Stidham, young QBs at A-Day

Justin Ferguson Auburn Beat Reporter

AUBURN, Ala. — Everything will be new for Auburn football’s quarterback situation on Saturday at the annual A-Day spring game.

With returning starter Sean White sitting out, first-year offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey will be in charge of three competing quarterbacks — Jarrett Stidham, Malik Willis and Woody Barrett — who have never taken a single snap at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“These guys are new to doing this,” Lindsey said Thursday. “For us, I think it’s important to evaluate all three of those guys. … It’s going to be fun watching these three guys in their first taste of a game atmosphere, so to speak. I’m looking forward to seeing all three of them.”

MORE: Auburn offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey recaps Day 13 of spring

While Lindsey admitted Saturday’s A-Day game will stick to a base offense, he wants the Tigers to air it out some. In its first two scrimmages of the spring, Auburn ran 60 percent running plays and 40 percent passing plays, per coach Gus Malzahn.

“We’re going to throw the ball, for sure,” Lindsey said. “I don’t know relative to how many times and all that. You know how these games are. … For me, we’ve been thinking through the things that we’ve been good at and trying to execute. I think we’ll throw it some, for sure.”

Auburn offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey (Benjamin Wolk/SEC Country)

More importantly, Lindsey wants to see how his three new quarterbacks react to playing inside Jordan-Hare Stadium with a live crowd for the first time.

Stidham hasn’t played in a college game since the 2015 season at Baylor. Barrett redshirted last season for the Tigers, and Willis is fresh out of high school football.

Getting into that game day groove will be important, as A-Day is the only time Auburn football will do that until the start of the regular season in September.

“I think the biggest thing for the quarterbacks from my standpoint will be playing in front of a crowd and going through the kind of pre-game routine of the timing and everything that goes along with it,” Lindsey said. “I think it’s a good practice run at that. There’ll be a little more juice about them playing in front of a crowd.”

MORE: How Auburn QBs performed in the Tigers’ last 15 A-Day spring games

Lindsey said he won’t focus on getting Stidham, Willis and Barrett an exact number of passing attempts because he’ll call plays for both the first- and second-team offenses.

“That’s kind of hard in this setting to do that,” Lindsey said. “We’re just going to try to run our base offense and hopefully get a few balls down the field. We definitely want to do that. But at the same time, I’m interested in our quarterbacks just executing.

“If they’ll do that and their eyes are in the right place and their fundamentals are good, and hopefully we’ll throw it and catch it, but at the end of the day I just want to make sure that they’re dialed in and they’re where they’re supposed to be.”

[aubiefifty 16,733]

Will Auburn quarterbacks take any live reps on A-Day?

James Crepea | jcrepea@al.com

Expect to see a orange jerseys in Auburn's backfield on A-Day.

Auburn's three healthy scholarship quarterbacks will not be taking any contact on A-Day.

Offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey said the plan is for Jarrett Stidham, Woody Barrett and Malik Willis not to see any live reps on Saturday (1 p.m. CT, SEC Network).

"No, probably not," Lindsey said. "These guys are new to doing this. For us, I think it's important to evaluate all three of those guys. ... It's going to be fun watching these three guys in their first taste of a game atmosphere, so to speak. I'm looking forward to seeing all three of them."

No word yet on whether walk-on Devin Adams will take live reps late in the game to give some of the first and second-team defenders a chance to show what they can do in the scenario.

After 13 spring practices, there is not an exact number of reps in mind for Stidham, though Lindsey acknowledged it could be on the high end.

"I don't know yet," Lindsey said. "Just going to have to wait and see how it goes. He's gotten a lot of reps. But Jarrett is a guy who's missed a year and sat out, so he needs a lot of reps."

 

Auburn quarterback Sean White no longer on pitch count

Sean White has been limited this spring while recovering from a broken right forearm. The Auburn quarterback will not participate in A-Day on Saturday.

 

As is typically the case in spring games, the base offense will be somewhat basic. Lindsey does want the quarterbacks to air it out a bit though in what will be the first game-like outing on the Plains for each of them.

"I think the biggest thing for the quarterbacks from my standpoint will be playing in front of a crowd and going through the kind of pregame routine of the timing and everything that goes along with it," Lindsey said. "I think it's a good practice run at that. There'll be a little more juice about them playing in front of a crowd.

"But at the end of the day, we've got to really try to focus on the things that we've already done and really get our guys to see who can execute our base plays that we've been running and who leads our team, who affects the other 10 guys the best. That's really what I'm looking for."

[LKEEL75 2,566]

It seems to me that they would go live for a series or two.  JS has not been hit in a LONG time.  They need to see what he is going to do when he is under real pressure.  Otherwise we could end up where we were a few years ago when JJ looked like a world beater and turned out to be a nervous nelly.  I know you don't want to get anyone hurt, but if he is going to get hurt within a couple of series in A-day game then he is probably not making through the season.  Obviously excluding the freak accident kind of thing.

I know many will disagree with me here, but that is just my thought.