All things Jarrett Stidham (merged threads)

[aubiefifty 16,757]

oanow.com

 

SULONEN: Auburn has a starting quarterback, it's just not being said

Dana Sulonen | Sports Editor dsulonen@oanow.com Follow on Twitter

 

Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham makes a throw in the first half of Auburn's NCAA college football spring game on Saturday, April 8, 2017 in Auburn.

I know Auburn doesn’t want to announce a quarterback in the spring or anytime before fall camp begins.

I know head coach Gus Malzahn and offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey wanted to allow last year’s starter, Sean White, to be able to fairly compete for the job that he earned in 2016. He’s been out all spring recovering from his broken arm suffered in the Sugar Bowl.

But let’s keep it real: After his A-Day performance, it’s clear to everyone who has watched a minute of football that Jarrett Stidham is Auburn’s quarterback.

There should be no question about it.

Even though Malzahn won’t say it. Even though Malzahn basically made a conscious effort to downplay Stidham’s performance on Saturday, praising the first-team offense as a whole instead of Stidham individually. Even though Stidham was the only quarterback to get first-team reps in the first, and only meaningful, half.

“Yeah, we’re still going to do the same plan and give Sean a chance to compete,” Malzahn said.

Yes, Saturday was just a scrimmage and Stidham was wearing the orange no-contact jersey, but it doesn’t take live action to see what he has the potential of doing for Auburn going forward.

“I thought he managed the offense well,” Malzahn said. “I thought that he protected the football, that’s really where it starts. It was good for him to get out there in front of a crowd. He hasn’t been in front of a crowd playing football in a long time, so I think overall it was good for him and it looked like the receivers made some plays, too. I think he’s been successful managing the offense, protecting the football.”

After the first quarter, he was 7 of 8 passing for 92 yards with a long throw of 50 yards, which was thrown to Nate Craig-Myers in stride. He then hit Darius Slayton in the second quarter for a 48-yard gain with Slayton under pressure.

Those were just two examples of what Stidham showed on Saturday in front of 46,331 fans at Jordan-Hare Stadium. He only played in the first half and finished with 267 yards on 16 of 20 passing. The biggest thing to point out in those passing stats is that Auburn had six explosive plays, which are plays for more than 20 yards. Those were the type of plays that were lacking in 2016.

For comparison, Sean White’s longest career throw went for 48 yards. Auburn’s two longest passes of 2016 were of 56 and 55 yards, by Jeremy Johnson and John Franklin III, respectively.

Whenever it will get announced it will be of no surprise. And if Stidham can do what he did on Saturday in the fall, then Auburn is a serious contender in the SEC. How serious? I’ll make my prediction at the end.

Here are some other “sharpie” predictions for the upcoming season after A-Day.

>> Auburn’s defense might be better than last year. And it’s going to be the new guys who will make it take that next step.

Though there will be the returners who will give the foundation — Marlon Davidson seemed to pressure every play at defensive end, linebacker DeShaun Davis led the starters in total tackles and safety Tray Mathews had a pass breakup.

But it’s the new blood that will take this team to a new level. Defensive end Paul James III, the Defensive MVP, led all players with three tackles for loss; defensive lineman Derrick Brown was strong in the middle, making three tackles; and Jeremiah Dinson made his presence felt in the secondary.

What Kevin Steele started to build last year was a solid foundation, proven in the fact that Auburn finished the season ranked seventh in college football in scoring defense.

If the offense can do its share, and take the pressure off the defense from having to win every game, which is pretty much what happened as injuries mounted at the end of the year, then this team is dangerous.

How dangerous? My prediction is a 10-win regular season. Anything less than nine wins in the regular season should be a letdown.

Even though it was just the spring game, and a pretty vanilla playbook, Auburn’s offense showed promise and development already under Lindsey. It was a perfect mix of showing improvement without giving away all the tricks.

>> My last bold take? Daniel Carlson is the starting kicker and will probably be a Lou Groza finalist.

Crazy I know.

[AU64 10,122]

Might not make any difference in a real game but yesterday JS had NO real pressure from the White defense...took all day to make some of his throws which he is not likely to get in most real games.   I liked all I saw but generally this was an exhibition for him....a coming out party to let him show off his arm....which he definitely has.. 

Now it could be that our OL is really good enough to protect the QB and give him all day to find a target....but I'm still in doubt about that.   Just saying that the ease with which he completed his deep passes was very misleading .....didn't have James in his face on every passing down.  I'm cooling my enthusiasm for the offense until it faces Clemson or a serious SEC defense.  JMO.

From here, it does appear that JS will be the starter.    Not saying SW is Stidham's equal but just thinking that a 100% healthy SW is closer than most people think.  But,  I don't think we have ever seen SW at his best.....and we may never get that chance either,  due to his injury-prone nature.

[aubiefifty 16,757]

espn.com

 

Baylor transfer Stidham wows Auburn fans

Greg OstendorfESPN Staff Writer

 

AUBURN, Ala. -- The fans came to Auburn's spring game on Saturday to see new quarterback Jarrett Stidham. They did not leave disappointed.

Stidham, a transfer from Baylor, led the first-team offense throughout the first half and finished 16-of-20 for 267 yards through the air. His lone touchdown came when he recovered a fumble by the running back and ran it in.

The Tigers scored on five of their six drives with three touchdowns when he was in the game.

"I thought he managed the offense well," coach Gus Malzahn said. "I thought that he protected the football. That's really where it starts. It was good for him to get out there in front of a crowd. He hadn't been out in front of a crowd playing football in a long time."

 

QB Jarrett Stidham, a transfer from Baylor, completed five passes of more than 25 yards during Auburn's spring game Saturday. AP Photo/Todd Van Emst

The attendance at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday (46,331) paled in comparison to the number of people who will be on hand when Auburn opens the season, but it was Stidham's first time playing in front of a crowd that large since he was at Baylor in 2015.

"It was a blast," Stidham said. "It's been a while for me, so I had a lot of fun today. At Baylor, I've kind of been around this before -- but not to this extent, obviously. It was just a lot of fun."

Some of Stidham's highlights from the day included a 50-yard bomb to Nate Craig-Myers down the sideline and another deep pass that went to Darius Slayton for 47 yards. In all, Stidham completed five passes of more than 25 yards, and it was clear that he had the best day of any of the quarterbacks competing for the starting job.

Sean White -- last year's starting quarterback -- was held out of Saturday's spring game for precautionary reasons as he recovers from a broken arm suffered in the bowl game.

Malzahn still plans to wait until fall camp to name the starter.

"We're still going to do the same plan and give Sean a chance to compete," Malzahn said.

The only injury of note from the game was running back Kerryon Johnson, who suffered an apparent ankle sprain in the first half. Johnson rushed for 47 yards and a touchdown before the injury, and Malzahn believes Johnson will be fine going forward.

[WarEagle10 77]

I had a dream last night about Jarrett. He stole my Prom date and I didn't even care. I would have offered him my sister........if I had one.

[DAG 33,977]

4 hours ago, AU64 said:

Might not make any difference in a real game but yesterday JS had NO real pressure from the White defense...took all day to make some of his throws which he is not likely to get in most real games.   I liked all I saw but generally this was an exhibition for him....a coming out party to let him show off his arm....which he definitely has.. 

Now it could be that our OL is really good enough to protect the QB and give him all day to find a target....but I'm still in doubt about that.   Just saying that the ease with which he completed his deep passes was very misleading .....didn't have James in his face on every passing down.  I'm cooling my enthusiasm for the offense until it faces Clemson or a serious SEC defense.  JMO.

From here, it does appear that JS will be the starter.    Not saying SW is Stidham's equal but just thinking that a 100% healthy SW is closer than most people think.  But,  I don't think we have ever seen SW at his best.....and we may never get that chance either,  due to his injury-prone nature.

2

You can have all the reservations that you desire, however, JS is the real deal. I don't care if it is 7 on 7, it is clear as day he has a very accurate, cannon of an arm. All of our QBs, even when healthy the previous years did not throw consistent deep balls as we saw in yesterday A day game. That is including the performances from last year A day game. Now, you want to wait until we play an exceptional SEC "defense." That is totally fine. I just hope you know that our offense against the likeness of UGA, Bama and LSU have been nothing to write home about the last couple of years, almost to the point of abysmal. We scored 1 TD COMBINED against all three of those teams last year. If you add Clemson to the mix, it will be 2 TDs combined in 4 games. Both of those TDs being rushing TDs Just think about that. I am going to go out on the limb and say with JS in the pocket, we will be able to score more than 1 TD in three games.

[AU64 10,122]

Agree Dag....but I was referring to the offense....thinking about the OL and how much time he's going to get and how much time the WRs get to shake off the defenders...I don't have questions about his arm......

[IronMan70 3,277]

On target, makes all the throws and effortlessly throws a 50 yard pass. In the post game presser he carries himself like a starting QB. I think we just might have us a QB.

[TigerWar 82]

Should we expect Stidham to win 3 Heisman's or only two?

[Charhair 345]

6 hours ago, AU64 said:

Might not make any difference in a real game but yesterday JS had NO real pressure from the White defense...took all day to make some of his throws which he is not likely to get in most real games.   I liked all I saw but generally this was an exhibition for him....a coming out party to let him show off his arm....which he definitely has.. 

Now it could be that our OL is really good enough to protect the QB and give him all day to find a target....but I'm still in doubt about that.   Just saying that the ease with which he completed his deep passes was very misleading .....didn't have James in his face on every passing down.  I'm cooling my enthusiasm for the offense until it faces Clemson or a serious SEC defense.  JMO.

From here, it does appear that JS will be the starter.    Not saying SW is Stidham's equal but just thinking that a 100% healthy SW is closer than most people think.  But,  I don't think we have ever seen SW at his best.....and we may never get that chance either,  due to his injury-prone nature.

One of the announcers mentioned that JS seemed to have a little hitch on a couple of his throws that could have wound up not working out for him if he'd been facing more pressure. 

I never picked up on it myself, only watching the game once. Someone who has a better eye than me might be able to explain what he was talking about.

[oracle79 3,569]

1 hour ago, TigerWar said:

Should we expect Stidham to win 3 Heisman's or only two?

If he has the kind of year he needs to have for us to win the playoffs, he may only get 1.

[augolf1716 21,106]

2 hours ago, TigerWar said:

Should we expect Stidham to win 3 Heisman's or only two?

lol

[AUIH1 1,515]

3 hours ago, TigerWar said:

Should we expect Stidham to win 3 Heisman's or only two?

He has as much of a chance of doing this as Gus does at winning another coach of the year award or Garner winning the Broyles Award.  I would put my money on Stidham at this point.

 

wde

[kd4au 1,145]

I love Sean but at this point Stidham looks to be the real deal and anyone that thinks he will not be our QB is not seeing the same things I am,he made throws that Sean wishes he had the arm to make.

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

3 hours ago, oracle79 said:

If he has the kind of year he needs to have for us to win the playoffs, he may only get 1.

Sigh,

Guess that'd do