re: Sean White for Heisman

USA TODAY

Mastrole, the former Maryland quarterback who is now a private quarterback coach in South Florida, has worked with White since the eighth grade, though because Auburn does not allow its quarterbacks to work with outside coaches in the summer, Mastrole says he is now serves more of a friend and mentor role.

But Mastrole knows White inside and out and said he expects the change will give new life to Auburn's vertical passing game.

"Look, he's only a redshirt freshman, but I think he's totally ready," Mastrole said. "He's a gamer. Sean is going to make a decision, and he's going to go with it. There's not going to be any question marks. If it's a bad throw it's a bad throw, but he's going to unload and there's never going to be a hesitation. He's going to see it and he's going to let it rip.

"In this conference when the speed of the game is so tight you need that from your quarterback and he's able to process and execute at high speeds and hopefully that will hold true come game day."

White, Mastrole said, was not really on Auburn's radar in recruiting until he sent film to Lashlee, which sparked some interest in 2013. Though Auburn essentially ran the zone read that season with Nick Marshall and experienced tremendous success, Mastrole said White is a good fit for the system Malzahn has employed most of his career.

"When they saw him as a staff, they loved the way he threw the football," Mastrole said. "If you've see some of the past quarterbacks Coach Malzahn has had, and Ryan Aplin is a former quarterback of Gus' (at Arkansas State) who is on staff there now had a very successful couple years, I think the intention is to get that ball down the field and get it to Duke Williams or Ricardo Louis and let them attack the field and that'll open things up as a whole."