gus will name starting qb before Oregon game

[aubiefifty 16,803]

Gus Malzahn: ‘Of course’ Auburn will name starting quarterback before Oregon game

Posted May 8, 6:26 PM

6-8 minutes

Auburn Football

Josh Bean | jbean@al.com

Auburn quarterback Joey Gatewood (1) warms up before the 2019 Auburn A-Day at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

Gus Malzahn plays things close to the orange vest, but the Auburn coach doesn’t seem intent on keeping one thing in particular a secret ahead of the Tigers’ season opener in August.

With the quarterback competition narrowed down to two — redshirt freshman Joey Gatewood and true freshman Bo Nix — heading into the summer, Malzahn fully intends to name a starter during fall camp and ahead of the season opener against Oregon in Arlington, Texas.

“Of course, in fall camp, we’ll name a guy before our first game,” Malzahn said Wednesday during a radio interview on WJOX at the Regions Tradition golf tournament. “The thing about it is both of them are very talented and both of them are eager.”

Malzahn wanting to have a starter in place before the opener against the Ducks on Aug. 31 makes sense, of course. Doing so will allow Malzahn and offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham to install a gameplan curated to that quarterback’s strengths. It will also give Oregon an opportunity to prepare for that specific quarterback, which one would surmise would give Malzahn reason to keep the starting job shrouded in mystery before the start of the season.

That hasn’t been Malzahn’s modus operandi during his tenure at Auburn, though.

 

When has Gus Malzahn, Auburn named starting quarterbacks for season openers since 2006?

Auburn's three-way quarterback battle has reached the latest point on the calendar for coach Gus Malzahn to decide on a starting signal caller in his 11 years coaching college football.

In each of his first six seasons as Auburn’s head coach, Malzahn has had a starting quarterback in place no later than nine days ahead of the team’s season opener. The longest-lasting quarterback competition of Malzahn’s entire coaching career came in 2016, when Sean White beat out Jeremy Johnson and John Franklin III for the starting job on Aug. 25 — a little more than a week before Auburn opened the season at home against Clemson on Sept. 3.

In 2017, Jarrett Stidham officially earned the starting job on Aug. 14 after 10 practices and two scrimmages during fall camp. In 2015, Johnson was named the starter on April 20 after the conclusion of spring practices. In 2013, Nick Marshall established himself as the Tigers’ starter after 18 fall practices.

The only real exception during Malzahn’s tenure was in 2014, when Johnson was anointed the starter for the season opener five days before the Tigers played Arkansas — though that was due to a season-opening suspension to Marshall, the incumbent at the position. Even then, Malzahn admitted afterward that Johnson knew he would start that game for “a while” before the official announcement.

This time around, Malzahn and Dillingham will have to decide between two players who have never started a game at this level and have just one game’s worth of college experience between them. Gatewood appeared in the Music City Bowl against Purdue in mop-up time, which marked his only gametime during a redshirt season. Nix, meanwhile, just enrolled in the spring after winning back-to-back Class 6A state championships at Pinson Valley and earning the Alabama Mr. Football award as a senior.

 

Analyzing Auburn QBs Joey Gatewood, Bo Nix, Malik Willis after spring practice

Analyzing Auburn's quarterback situation heading into the summer.

Those two were declared 1 and 1A in the quarterback race by Malzahn last week, when junior Malik Willis — who had been Stidham’s primary backup each of the last two seasons — and redshirt freshman Cord Sandberg were formally eliminated from the competition.

“It’s extremely hard to rotate four guys and all that, so we just really wanted to narrow it down,” Malzahn said. “It just so happened that about halfway through spring, those two guys really started to separate themselves. They both are very athletic. They both got great arms. Probably the biggest thing that stood out to me was that they were desperate. They were to win the job, and their teammates knew it. So, I’m really excited; really excited about both those guys and going into summer.”

The Oregon game will mark the first time since Malzahn’s first season that he will start a freshman — either redshirt or true — at quarterback. Johnson had a spot start against Western Carolina that season due to an injury to Marshall. Outside of that instance, however, Malzahn has not historically entrusted a freshman to start at the most important position on the field.

On Wednesday, however, Malzahn remarked at how different freshman quarterbacks are nowadays.

“It’s really something,” Malzahn said. “They’re more polished than ever before in the way they’re coached…. Bo, of course, his dad (Patrick Nix) was a great player (at Auburn), great coach. Then Joey Gatewood, we started recruiting Joey, I think, when he was in eighth or ninth grade, so he was a guy we knew had a chance to really be special. Both those guys — and I’ll tell you this: They’re both really athletic. I think that’s big, obviously, in our league. Things break down about half the time, so you got to have guys who can create and make good decisions.”

While Malzahn plans to have a starter named ahead of the Oregon game, though, that doesn’t mean the Tigers will stick with just the one quarterback against the Ducks or any other opponents this fall. Last month, Dillingham did not rule out the possibility of the Tigers using multiple quarterbacks if they felt that gave the team the best chance to succeed.

“I can see a variation of scenarios from that standpoint,” Dillingham said. “Hopefully people separate themselves, but at the same time we’re going to play the best people who we feel it’s necessary to win football games. If that’s 17 quarterbacks, I don’t care. If 17 quarterbacks give us the best chance to win, and playing six different Wildcat guys, it doesn’t matter to me. We’re going to put the players back there who we feel is necessary to win football games.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

[DAG 33,990]

a minute before it no doubt lol

[Win4AU 4,052]

Like right around the team runs out for the first snap?

[McLoofus 35,182]

I trust the players will know sooner than that.

Assuming that is true, I am with Gus on this one. Presumably these are two pretty different QBs to prepare for. 

[I_M4_AU 7,852]

1 hour ago, aubiefifty said:

“I can see a variation of scenarios from that standpoint,” Dillingham said. “Hopefully people separate themselves, but at the same time we’re going to play the best people who we feel it’s necessary to win football games. If that’s 17 quarterbacks, I don’t care. If 17 quarterbacks give us the best chance to win, and playing six different Wildcat guys, it doesn’t matter to me. We’re going to put the players back there who we feel is necessary to win football games.”

OMG, say it isn’t so.

[GTNupe11 2,034]

2 hours ago, I_M4_AU said:

OMG, say it isn’t so.

Guess the whirly bird is coming back.

[WarDamnEagleWDE 12,737]

It's going to be Gatewood. The offense seems to be Joey's, ie the O people flow to him. A leader.

[wde1968 262]

He's been named he started A-Day.

[cole256 17,084]

4 hours ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

It's going to be Gatewood. The offense seems to be Joey's, ie the O people flow to him. A leader.

 

On 11/27/2016 at 11:05 PM, cole256 said:

I worry how good he'll be but if we can hold on to him gatewood is a fantastic leader. He's the type of guy other people will follow him to a school to play with him

Just saying I've been trying to tell everybody this for years now

[AU64 10,122]

4 hours ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

It's going to be Gatewood. The offense seems to be Joey's, ie the O people flow to him. A leader.

I'm fine with that and as for leadership, I'm thinking that a year on campus and working with the team, even as a redshirt is an big advantage. I still see both of them playing ...not alternating but situational perhaps.... 

[aujeff11 6,243]

17 minutes ago, cole256 said:

 

Just saying I've been trying to tell everybody this for years now

We are the haves while the rest are the have nots. 

-P

[Mike4AU 1,739]

I think Joey will start, but Bo will also play. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

14 hours ago, AU64 said:

I'm fine with that and as for leadership, I'm thinking that a year on campus and working with the team, even as a redshirt is an big advantage. I still see both of them playing ...not alternating but situational perhaps.... 

He was pretty well known for being that naturally charismatic leader type during the recruiting process. He committed early, guys flocked to him at camps, he helped us recruit, etc. I think most of us were optimistic that we'd hear exactly what we're hearing now. Everyone was surprised that he, uh, struggled with the freshman year adjustment. And he's one of very few to get that label and then make a full recovery. Very, very glad to hear that he has. 

 

[AUGoo 2,664]

AWWWWW.

You're not fooling me this time!

I'ver heard this before!

[AUGoo 2,664]

On 5/9/2019 at 12:00 PM, GTNupe11 said:

Guess the whirly bird is coming back.

What did we calling it when Cox was back there spinning around?

Call it the Jumpin' Joiner this time? The Whirley Whitlow? Spinning Spud?

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,673]

Joey is either super star boom or not really much of anything IMO. A guy with that type of talent never seems to be in the medium 

[Auburn2Eugene 2,317]

14 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Joey is either super star boom or not really much of anything IMO. A guy with that type of talent never seems to be in the medium 

Well if he has already beat out two on the roster, and its looking like he will beat out Nix, I hope that means he is the superstar. Because if he isn't, that sure isnt saying much about the QB room we have recruited. 

Personally though ive been TeamGatewood all along. So its pretty easy to see what side of that fence im on...

[gr82be 14,433]

On 5/11/2019 at 9:31 AM, AUGoo said:

What did we calling it when Cox was back there spinning around?

A disaster.

On 5/11/2019 at 9:31 AM, AUGoo said:

Call it the Jumpin' Joiner this time? The Whirley Whitlow? Spinning Spud?

Call it "Field Goal team get ready".

[AlaskanFAN 1,666]

1st QB to get Gus’s clipboard and bring it back to him will be the starting QB for the Oregon game. 1) Location if clip board is unknown to participants. 2) Winner to be announced prior to .......

[auburn4ever 1,266]

It's my feeling that Joey Gatewood will be Auburn's starter and Bo Nix will be the Tigers solid backup.

[alexava 6,973]

I’m still predicting Bo. 

[aujeff11 6,243]

3 hours ago, AlaskanFAN said:

1st QB to get Gus’s clipboard and bring it back to him will be the starting QB for the Oregon game. 1) Location if clip board is unknown to participants. 2) Winner to be announced prior to .......

They could always duel. Two starters is too crowded am I right? 

Maybe do some fencing? I think Nix would be little more nimble but Gatewood would have reach. Probably have to think Nix would be left standing. What about a cage wrestling match? Nix would need to have a stout chair to hit Gatewood with. 

[johnnyAU 3,633]

To save time, I'll go ahead and name Gatewood the starter now.  You are welcome.

 

[bigbird 60,540]

7 minutes ago, johnnyAU said:

To save time, I'll go ahead and name Gatewood the starter now.  You are welcome.

 

 

5 hours ago, creed said:

99% if the posters on here are full of crap...lol.

[johnnyAU 3,633]

99%? That number seems a bit low to me.