Bo Nix named Auburn's starting quarterback
True freshman and former 5-star prospect Bo Nix will serve as Auburn's starting quarterback against Oregon, the team announced Tuesday afternoon.
Nix is poised to be the first true freshman to start a season opener since Travis Tidwell in 1946.
The QB battle began as a four-man race in the spring between Nix, redshirt freshman Joey Gatewood, 24-year-old redshirt freshman Cord Sandberg and junior Malik Willis, who backed up 2017-18 starter Jarrett Stidham for two seasons.
Nix and Gatewood pulled away in spring camp, with Malzahn officially narrowing the competition on May 1. Willis entered the transfer portal later in the month before landing with coach Hugh Freeze and Liberty in July.
Sandberg will be the third-string QB moving into the season.
Many saw Gatewood, a former top-100 recruit himself, as the slight favorite heading into fall practices, given his extra year of experience with the team and rare physical tools at 6-foot-5 and 233 pounds with surprising quickness in the open field.
The two split first-team reps evenly for the first few days of fall camp before Nix began to pull ahead marginally. The true freshman was more precise passing and converting his opportunities into touchdowns at scrimmages at a higher rate than Gatewood. At the final practice viewing of the fall on Aug. 12, Nix took the majority of the starting reps. At a stadium practice Aug. 17, Gatewood rarely worked with the first team, sources told AuburnSports.com.
“Both of them are going to help us win this year," running back Shaun Shivers said.
The 6-foot-2 Nix was rated as the No. 1 quarterback nationally in the 2019 class. He passed for over 12,000 yards and 161 total touchdowns in high school — both state records. At both Pinson Valley (Pinson, Ala.) and Scottsboro (Scottsboro, Ala.), Nix was coached by his father, Patrick Nix, who quarterbacked the Tigers from 1992-95.
“He’s all in on Auburn,” offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham said last week of Bo Nix. “He’s all in. He’s been born and raised all in."
Auburn opens its 2019 campaign against the Ducks on Aug. 31 in Cowboys Stadium.
