AUBURN | After Bo Nix and Joey Gatewood battled to a virtual draw in the spring, it would come down to fall camp to decide Auburn’s starting quarterback.
Nix was named the starter Tuesday, 11 days before the opener. But it was actually in the summer, working on his own and with Auburn’s receivers, that Nix laid the groundwork for his ascension.
“He's not your normal freshman. I'd say that's fair to say,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. “I know the fact that came in in the spring helped; the fact that he got quality reps in the spring really helped. He worked extremely hard over the summer -- you can really tell that.
“You can tell he's been coached well in high school and has a good feel for the game. Of course he's a coaches son, too. You can kind of tell that.”
Nix, who will be the first true freshman to start an opening game at Auburn since Travis Tidwell in 1946, used those days out on the practice fields in June and July to work out the timing with his receivers.
He also spent a lot of down time delving deep into Auburn’s playbook.
“As far as from spring to fall camp, I got a lot better as far as understanding the playbook and knowing what was going on at practice and different things like that, knowing how Gus Malzahn called plays and all that stuff,” Nix said.
“But, realistically, I just learned my receivers better, and throughout this summer, I was able to throw to them more and more and understand timing and the way they ran and caught the ball. Everyone is different, every receiver is unique, so just time helping me throughout spring practice and to fall camp.”
Of course, Nix was well drilled on what it takes to be a college quarterback well before he moved to Auburn. His father, Patrick Nix, was a quarterback at AU in the mid-90’s and has been a college offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach before taking over as head coach at Pinson Valley High School where Bo Nix led the Indians to back-to-back Class 6A state championships.
Nix sees a lot of similarities in Auburn’s offense to the one he ran at Pinson Valley.
“Obviously, the verbiage and stuff is different,” Nix said. “But a while back my dad kind of looked at Coach Malzahn’s offense because it was so successful in 2013 and so forth, and he started taking some plays from it just like every other offense did from the spread. Most of the time each offense, if you’re a spread offense you run similar things. You may tweak it just a little bit differently, but the overall concept is most of the time the same.”
Malzahn also cited Nix’s attention to detail and consistency moving the offense as two more reasons he won the starting position. Gatewood is considered the better runner, but Malzahn insists Nix is a threat on the ground too.
“He can run. He can really run,” Malzahn said. “Joey can really run too. That’s the good thing about it, both of them are true dual-threat guys and add a different component when you’ve got a plus-one run. I feel like both those guys can do it. Bo’s shown he can extend plays and I think he’s a lot faster than a lot of people give him credit for.”
True freshmen quarterbacks have had success at Georgia, Alabama and Clemson in recent season. Malzahn said it’s important to have a good team around freshmen quarterbacks. It’s also important to be patient, knowing they’re going to make some mistakes.
“You don't want to be thinking that you're going to pull the rope on him. You go with a guy and let him play,” Malzahn said. “Especially as freshmen, it wouldn't have mattered which one — you've got to be patient. And like I've said, we've got to be really good around them. I think the good thing is putting them in good positions. I think that's the No. 1 thing, trying not to put them in tough positions.”
No. 16 Auburn plays No. 11 Oregon Aug. 31 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Kickoff on ABC is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT.
