re: Fall Camp Discussion- Bo Nix Named Starting QB

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Nope. More pages of ridicule

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Auburn has held two weeks of practices, with two scrimmages sprinkled in, so far in fall camp. The fall semester begins Monday, and with it, earnest preparation for the Tigers’ season opener against Oregon.

Auburn has yet to settle on a starting quarterback, even with that Week 1 matchup just 16 days away. Although Gus Malzahn has typically named a starter by, on average, Aug. 17 when he has had a fall quarterback competition at Auburn, offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham said Thursday that he wouldn’t say they are significantly closer to naming a starter between Bo Nix and Joey Gatewood.

“I wouldn’t say much closer,” Dillingham said. “I would say more information in terms of what we know, kind of have more data of what each player can do, and both of them can help us win game. So, I wouldn’t say we’re closer. I would just say obviously the more time you practice, the more information you have.”

Getting any of Auburn’s coaches or players to dish on the quarterback competition has been virtually impossible during fall camp.

Malzahn has been coy about it, not wanting to tip his hand, while players have been mum on the subject; even the typically verbose Boobee Whitlow clammed up on Wednesday when asked a question specifically about Nix.

“Them boys are going to be — I like, I like the quarterbacks,” Whitlow said. “I like the quarterbacks.”

So, Thursday’s assistant coaches media day at Auburn provided perhaps the best chance to date to get significant insight into the ongoing battle between Nix and Gatewood from Dillingham, the team’s first-year offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach who has been hands-on with the two freshmen since the spring.

While Dillingham was also careful not to imply separation in the race one way or the other, the young assistant spoke at length about what he has seen from the two starting candidates since the spring, as well as the biggest area each needs to improve upon with the season rapidly approaching.
“They’ve both gotten better,” Dillingham said.

“You can see the growth from spring. What people don’t realize is we can’t watch them throw the football, we can’t do football with them from spring until camp, so watching them learn the offense, get better and come out and execute things from spring until now, they’ve all drastically gotten better.
So, I’ve been pleased with both of them. I think they are both really good players. We’ve been dealing with both. We’ll just kind of see how camp ends.”
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Camp began with Gatewood, the redshirt freshman who appeared in one game last season, holding an apparent slight advantage in the competition. Over the course of the last week, however, the tide has seemingly turned in favor of Nix, the five-star true freshman who enrolled in the spring.

Nix, though he threw three interceptions in the first scrimmage last Thursday, was able to lead the offense on scoring drives — including the lone touchdown drive against the starting defense last week. Then, during Monday’s 40-minute practice viewing window for the media, he was the first quarterback to receive reps in nearly all the drills the media was able to watch.

While a 40-minute window hardly decides a competition that has been ongoing since the spring, it did provide a bit of a glimpse into how things are apparently shaking out.

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Gatewood, at 6-foot-5 and 233 pounds while drawing Cam Newton comparisons, may be more of a physical specimen and better runner than Nix at this point, but Nix appears to be a more polished passer — even for a true freshman. Though, that shouldn’t come as a surprise given his pedigree as the son of former Auburn great Patrick Nix.

Dillingham also noted that Nix’s accuracy has improved considerably since the spring as he has developed a better rapport with the receivers.

“Well, I think when you're a highly rated recruit, and you're born into football, I mean, I wasn't necessarily surprised,” Dillingham said. “I mean, he's grown a lot, even from spring to fall, in terms of when you're an accurate passer, it goes back to the timing with guys.

So, in the spring, he wasn't an overly accurate passer. He was accurate, but he wasn't accurate in scrimmage settings because he wasn't comfortable with the wideouts.

You've seen him this fall, get comfortable with those guys and now that accuracy that you saw, you really get to see showcase this fall as opposed to the spring because he's more comfortable and he understands the speed of the game, which is natural for freshmen.”

Nix continued to trend in the right direction this week, as he was the first quarterback on the field during Wednesday’s scrimmage, when Malzahn said the offense looked considerably better than it had a week prior and showed “flashes” of looking like what an Auburn offense should look like.

Gatewood also rotated in with the first-team offense during the second scrimmage, and both had more success moving the ball downfield against the team’s starting defense.

“We're not there yet, but we're starting to look like it,” Malzahn said. “You see flashes, so, like I said, overall, both those guys did some good things.”

Of course, Malzahn and Dillingham want to see more than just “good things” from the quarterback position. They have been tracking data throughout the offseason and fall camp, measuring how many times the quarterbacks put the ball in jeopardy, how many times they’ve used bad footwork that results in a potential turnover, times the quarterbacks throw in rhythm, how many times passes are on-target, situational awareness and much, much more.

All of that will help inform the staff’s ultimate decision on a starter for the season opener.

“You know, whether Joey runs the ball twice more a game, and we call two more drop backs with Bo, that's not going to make the difference in a season,” Dillingham said.

“For us, we want to see which quarterback can go execute, can go own the ball and can go run the offense. And when bad crap happens, doesn't make a horrible decision. And I think that's the biggest part in this conference is bad things are going to happen. The biggest part for the quarterback is bad things happen.

“Do you naturally make a bad play terrible? Or do you naturally make a bad play just bad? That is playing quarterback. And that's kind of between them both kind of what we're judging.”

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and both of them can help us win games.

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It's like you don't even know Gus.

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It really doesn’t matter who the “starter” is because I think Gus will play them both often.

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