AUBURN | The race is just getting started but Joey Gatewood has a nice jump out of the gates.
The redshirt freshman has impressed during Auburn’s first four practices of the spring. He’s competing along with junior Malik Willis, redshirt freshman Cord Sandberg and true freshman Bo Nix to replace Jarrett Stidham as the starting quarterback.
“First of all, you can tell he’s not a freshman anymore,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said after Saturday’s practice at Jordan-Hare Stadium. “I’d say all the guys, Malik included too, when you have a high-profile guy established like Jarrett and he moves on, I think a lot of times it gives people new life.
“You’ve seen that with Joey. He’s competing hard for the starting job. His approach has been completely different than it was last year, which is to be expected, especially being a freshman.”
On Saturday, Gatewood, Nix and Willis all got reps with the first-team offense during 11-on-11 work while Sandberg was mainly with the twos. But Malzahn said the competition remains wide open with any of the four still in contention.
“We’re still rotating four quarterbacks,” he said. “Anytime you do that it’s a challenge. But we are starting to get some information. Really won’t start thinking about orders and all that until we have a scrimmage next Saturday.”
Which one of the four eventually wins the job will play a part in what Auburn’s offense looks like this fall. Gatewood and Willis certainly have the dual-threat ability the Tigers haven’t really featured at the position since Cam Newton in 2010 and Nick Marshall in 2013-14.
“From a talent standpoint, I think all four of the guys care capable of running the offense,” he said. “Now, I’m not ready to say at what level and all that, but I think all four after one week, you can tell has some skills to be successful running the offense.
“They’re all a little bit different, which I think is a good thing. Once we narrow it down and actually pick a guy, we’ll build it around his strengths.”
Because the competition is so wide open, Malzahn is considering letting the quarterbacks go live during next Saturday’s scrimmage, which would allow the defense to tackle them to the ground.
That would also allow Gatewood and Willis to unleash their full capabilities.
“I just want to make sure that up front, specifically with our twos, that we're sound enough and in a good enough spot to do that,” Malzahn said. “So it's still a possibility. It could be next week or the week after.”
Auburn’s spring practice will continue Monday. The A-Day game is April 13 at 3 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.
