Bryan Harsin addresses the plan at quarterback after first spring practice
Head coach Bryan Harsin will have no position group receive more questions over the course of spring practice than the quarterback. After losing Bo Nix to the transfer portal, the Auburn Tigers will have a full-on competition to become the program’s next signal-caller.
All seven quarterbacks on the roster were mentioned by Harsin when asked on Monday after the first spring practice of the year. The head coach said he is not going to announce a starter “as quickly as everybody wants” but explained how they are in the process of evaluating everyone after Day One.
“Probably not as quickly as everybody else wants,” Harsin said. “Everybody wants to know. There’s a lot of other reps that are not team reps that we get to evaluate. Individual drills, your one on ones, routes on air, all those things. We’re looking at every single thing. Everything’s on film. These guys, their life is a documentary right now, we’re going to watch every single thing they’re going to do.
“Through the first scrimmage, these first seven practices, they’re going to split reps. Some guys get a little bit more some days. T.J. (Finley) got more reps today, Dematrius Davis got some reps in there. Holden (Geriner) got some reps, Robby (Ashford) got some reps. Zach Calzada got some reps in there. Trey Lindsey, Sawyer Pate. So there’s some guys in there that are getting reps and some more than others today and that might change in a couple days.”
Three players in the middle of the competition were not on the roster last season, with two coming via the transfer portal and another one being a member of the 2022 recruiting class. Geriner was a four-star prospect according to the On3 Consensus coming out of Savannah, GA, while Ashford transferred from Oregon and Calzada from Texas A&M.
Finley was the starter in the final two games of the season after Nix suffered a season-ending injury. Auburn lost both games against Alabama and Houston in the Birmingham Bowl but the former LSU Tigers transfer played above expectations, especially in the Iron Bowl.
Bryan Harsin explains QB battle strategy
Harsin went on to discuss how Auburn will work through the competition as spring practices go on. He said nothing is going to change immediately but the more reps each quarterback takes, the more separation he hopes to see from someone before the team goes into the summer.
“You might see another guy get a few more reps and we’re going to try to balance that out until we get into the scrimmage,” said Harsin. “Let them play and then we’ll figure it out from there. At that point, some guys will get a little bit more than others but you want to try to be as fair as possible through these 15 practices if guys are competing and doing a good job. If they’re all doing well and they’re all improving then you want to give them as many reps as you can but you also want to see some guys separate at one point.
“It’s not going to happen today but over the course of the next three or four practices, you’re going to see that. And then, we’ll go into that scrimmage, see what they do and we’ll start making decisions after that. But I’ll just say this. At the end of spring, we’re going to evaluate where we are, we’re going to see ‘alright, what did each quarterback do? Who led well? Who executed well? Who prepared well?’ And then that’s going to lead us into summer.”
It seems as if Harsin will not name a starter until the fall, where Auburn will open the 2022 season against an FCS opponent, Mercer, on Sept. 3. The following week San Jose State will come down to the Plains, where the head coach could possibly continue to tinker with who exactly fits in as the quarterback.